We investigate important aspects and questions of the teaching and development of writing in primary and secondary school, as well as at university level. Our theoretical frame refers to the two main perspectives in writing research, the cognitive and the social-constructivist. The cognitive approach emphasizes the complexity of writing as a basically solitary enterprise, whereas the social-constructivist approach underlines the social and cultural dimensions of writing as closely related to other literate practices in classroom activities. We are interested in the development of composition skills in various genres, in particular narrative, expository, and argumentative texts. We are also interested in writing disorders as writing texts is a demanding task, sensitive to a variety of linguistic and communicative developmental problems. The label “expressive writing disorders” identifies a variety of writing problems: the inability to a) form letters (dysgraphia), b) write words spontaneously or under dictation, and c) translate and organize thoughts into words and texts. We investigate the development of writing skills in novice Italian writers and the emergence of writing difficulties and disorders in this scholastic population.
Selected publications
Arfé, B., & Dockrell, J. (2023). Difficulties in Acquiring and Developing Writing Skills. In A. G. Spinillo & C. Sotomayor (Eds.), Development of Writing Skills in Children in Diverse Cultural Contexts. Springer. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-031-29286-6
Arfé, B., Zancato, T. (2022). Language-specific effects in response to spelling intervention in Italian and in English as an additional language. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 55(2), 99-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194211001757
Arfé, B., Festa, F., Ronconi, L., Spicciarelli, G. (2021). Oral sentence generation training to improve fifth and 10th graders’ writing. Reading and Writing, 34, 1851–1883. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10114-5
Arfé, B., & Danzak, R. L. (2020). The influence of first language spelling and response inhibition skills on English-as-an-additional-language spelling. Cognitive Development, 56, Article 100952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100952
Arfé, B., Corato, F., Pizzocaro, E., & Merella, A. (2020). The effects of script and orthographic complexity on the handwriting and spelling performance of children with dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 53(2), 96-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219419892845
Dockrell, J., & Arfé, B. (2020). What does the research say about research/evidence-based (core) writing instruction in general education classrooms? In M. Dunn (Ed.), Writing Instruction and Intervention for Struggling Writers: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (pp.16-43). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Dockrell, J., Connelly, V., Arfé, B. (2019). Struggling writers in elementary school: capturing drivers of performance. Learning and Instruction, 60, 75-84. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.11.009
Arfé, B., Cona, E., Merella, A. (2018). Implicit training of spelling skills in Italian children with dyslexia. Topics in Language Disorders, 38, 299-315. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000163
Torrance, M., Nottbush, G., Alves, R., Arfé, B., et al. (2018). Timed picture naming in 14 European languages. Behavior Research Methods, 50, 744–758. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0902-x
Scaltritti, M., Arfé, B., Torrance, M., & Peressotti, F. (2016). Typing pictures: Linguistic processing cascades into finger movements. Cognition, 156, 16–29.
Arfé, B., Dockrell, J.E., & De Bernardi, B. (2016). The effect of language specific factors on early written composition: the role of spelling, oral language and text generation skills in a shallow orthography. Reading and Writing, 29, 501-527. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9617-5
Danzak, R. L., & Arfe´, B. (2016). Globally minded text production: Bilingual, expository writing of Italian adolescents learning English. Topics in Language Disorders, 36(1), 35-51.