ABSTRACT
Numanggang is a language in Papua New Guinea with approximately 2,300 speakers. It is written in elementary school classrooms today despite language policies that have tended to exclude Indigenous languages from instruction. The purpose of this study is to observe and analyze the Numanggang emergent writing process among young children as Numanggang teachers provide writing instruction. The case study approach used to observe six children in one rural school, Elementary Preparatory and Elementary Grades 1 and 2 classes (children ages 6 to 13 years), included classroom observations, interviews with teachers, field notes, and student writing samples. A review of MacKenzie’s (2014) summary of early writing theories is discussed in relation to Numanggang early writing processes. The data collected include children’s drawing, mock and invented letters, letter strings, invented spelling, phonetic spelling, and conventional writing in Numanggang. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible transfer of writing skills from Numanggang to English and a description of bridging practices between the languages. This case study may provide insight for further development of materials and instructional approaches to develop the writing abilities of children in their vernacular language and of professional development in early writing strategies for Numanggang teachers as well as other early grade teachers in Papua New Guinea.
