Abstract of

A Semiotic Analysis of Young Children's Symbol Making in a Classroom Computer Center

Linda D. Labbo

Using semiotic analysis, the author investigated the production and use of young children's symbol making on the computer in a kindergarten classroom. The following questions were addressed: What types of computer-generated symbols do kindergartners use? What do the symbols mean to the children? How do the children assign meaning to symbols within the cultural context of the computer center? How do kindergartners learn to use the various media tools available in a word and art processing program to produce symbols? Data for the ethnographic study included field notes, videoand audiotapes of whole-class computer activities and children's computer center activities, interviews with children and the teacher about their computer-related activities, and printouts of children's work on the computer. A semiotic analysis of data led the author to use the metaphor of screenland to describe children's stances toward their work. From this perspective, children viewed the computer as a land to be entered for various purposes that included playing in screenland, creating art in screenland, and writing in screenland. These stances were shaped by children's emerging understanding of the purposes and forms of language, arts, and multimedia and influenced the types of symbols they generated. Furthermore, findings suggest that as these children emerged as users of symbols they also learned how to discover and express meaning. Support is given for a continued expansion of the definition of young children's literacy and literacy development to include multiple modes.

Abstract from Labbo, L.D. (1996). A Semiotic Analysis of Young Children's Symbol Making in a Classroom Computer Center. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(4), 356–385. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.31.4.2