Abstract
The 2022 PISA results show a high level of functional illiteracy among Romanian students: 42% of Romanian students did not reach the second level in literacy tests. (OECD, 2023) Studies identified in the literature indicate the great importance that emergent literacy skills have on the future acquisitions that students achieve in the educational process, especially for students with low socio-economic status. For a teacher, to facilitate the development of these competences, it is necessary to apply appropriate methods and strategies adapted to the particularities of the pupils. Given these considerations, we set out in this study to investigate the impact of an intervention aimed at emergent literacy on first grade students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. The research carried out is a quantitative quasi-experiment. The research sample consisted of 15 first graders from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, some of them bilingual and not enrolled in kindergarten. For data collection, a literacy assessment booklet was used as a literacy assessment instrument, used as a pre-test and post-test. In between the two tests there were didactic activities in which the researchers worked with each participant, on an individualized basis, on all the essential aspects related to emergent literacy. The findings of this study show that the pupils who participated in the remedial activities aimed at emergent literacy showed, at the end of the intervention, an improvement in literacy competence on all the dimensions targeted by the research instrument.
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