Resumo

GUEVARA BENITEZ, YOLANDA et al. LINGUISTIC SKILLS OF CHILDREN FROM A LOW SOCIOECONOMIC LEVEL AT THE BEGINNING OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2007, vol.10, n.2, pp.9-17. ISSN 0123-9155.

The purpose of this study was to assess the linguistic skills of children from a low socioeconomic background who were beginning their elementary education. A total of 262 first-grade students with an average age of 5.7 years old and who were enrolled in 8 groups of public schools from Mexico State, participated in this project. The instrument used was the Precurrent Skills for Reading Assessment (PSRA) by Vega (1991), and was administered individually to each student at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. The statistical analysis using SPSS showed a mean score of 77 (SD=14), which corresponds to 57% of the total PSRA score. These results may indicate that first grade students have an unsatisfactory level of linguistic behaviour. Slight differences in the students’ performances were observed. A slightly better performance was shown by those first grade students who were 6 years old at the beginning of the school year and who had previously received pre-school education. The implications of the poor linguistic level shown by the participants are discussed, and some alternatives based on the behavioural research, are proposed.

Palavras-chave : linguistic skills; preschool education; learning readiness; elementary education; low sociocultural stratum.

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