Phonological strategies and peer scaffolding in digital literacy game-playing sessions in a Finnish pre-primary class

Abstract

This study explored what kinds of phonological strategies are used by children and how they scaffold each other while they solve tasks in a digital literacy game. The theoretical basis of this study lies in Vygotsky's thoughts on the role of social interaction in learning and in the concept of peer scaffolding. The data included eight videotaped game-playing sessions conducted in small groups in a Finnish pre-primary class with six-year-old children. The analysis was carried out in two phases. Based on a qualitative content analysis of peer-scaffolding episodes (N = 363), it was found that the Finnish-speaking children used several types of phonological strategies, such as the syllabification of words, phonological processing and the production of letter names in solving word- and syllable-level game tasks. Furthermore, a microgenetic analysis of the episodes showed that the six-year-olds displayed emerging peer-scaffolding patterns, such as initiation, responding, modelling and expanding. The results illustrate the pedagogical potential of digital literacy games in the context of social interaction and peer scaffolding.