Bilingüismo y alfabetización: Un estudio con niños/as qom bilingües que asisten a primer grado

Statistics indicate a high percentage of illiteracy among the Qom population in the province of Chaco, Argentina. This population is bilingual, with children being exposed early to both the Qom and Spanish languages. The objective of this research is to examine Qom/Spanish bilingualism and its relationship with the literacy process in a group of bilingual Qom children who are in the first grade of primary school in Pampa del Indio, Chaco. The study focuses on phonological-lexical processing skills. It aims to analyze the status of phonological representations of words in both Qom and Spanish and to examine the potential impact of these status on the development of phonological awareness, a metalinguistic skill that is crucial to the literacy process. To achieve this, tests were developed and administered in both languages to assess phonological-lexical processing, the development of phonological awareness, and the accuracy of the written forms of words in Qom and Spanish. The results demonstrated: a) a very good performance by children in the assessed processing skills; b) differences in the status of phonological representations of words in Qom among the various participants; and c) the fact that the identified differences, within the context of appropriate pedagogical intervention, did not adversely affect the development of phonological awareness, the learning of phoneme-grapheme correspondences, or the development of an analytical writing strategy in either language.