Otto, Chapter 6: Language Development of Preschoolers (150-77) Otto, Chapter 7: Enhancing Language Development in Preschoolers (178-208)

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Otto, Chapter 6 Language Development of
Preschoolers (150-77) Otto, Chapter 7
Enhancing Language Development in Preschoolers
(178-208)

• Teaching Language Arts (EDU-105)
• Shannon Phillips

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Preschool Children Defined

• Private language between children and adults
  (home and caregiver) until
• 3 years old
• Exploratory and standardized language
• Sounds and patterns of sounds
• Language Sequence meaning
• Word endings
• Social context
• Oral versus written language

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Home Environment

• Critical features of caregiver/parental teaching
  behavior warmth, responsiveness, patience, and
  an appropriate degree of structure and control
  (Otto, 2002, pp. 151-2)
• Scaffolding and Zone of Proximal Development
  (assistance based on what child can accomplish
  alone or with adult)
• Languageparents words guide

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Home Environment

• Actionsgestures support and assist
• Problem-solving, routines, conversations
  (mealtime talk) (p. 152 and 202)
• Linguistic scaffolding Questioning, expansion,
  extension
• Inner speech
• Storybook sharing experiences Receptive and
  productive vocabulary and emergent literacy
  skills
• Factors that increase frequency, age, number of
  books, how much child asks to read, library trips

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Look for Books and Activities that Relate to
Community or Daily Experiences

• Grocery store
• Cooking and setting the table
• Doctors office
• Riding a bus or train
• Going to the library
• Washing clothes (laundromat)
• Park
• Backyard

• Pool party
• Nature center
• ___________________
• _______ Other
• _______ Activities?
• Language and cognitive development improve!

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Classroom Environment

• Preschool sets stage for academic registers.
• Think about the dynamics
• No more undivided attention ( teacherchild )
• Working with others
• Conversational turn-taking
• Rules
• Social awareness of others
• Time on task and time in the day
• Materials/activities provided
• Teacher tolerance?

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Quote of the Chapter

• Teachers who have specific language-related
  goals and theoretically-based perspectives of
  language acquisition appear to have a positive
  impact on the type of linguistic interactions
  occurring in the classroom (Otto, 2002, p. 155).
• What does that mean in relation to your
  activities, units, lessons, and interactions with
  the children?
• How will you create a positive classroom
  experience that defines language interactions?

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Levels of Language Knowledge (Otto, 2002, pp.
11-3)

• Sound play vary prosodic features, rhyming

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Phonetic Knowledge

• Pronounce many phonemes
• Figure 6.1 (p. 156) and Appendix (p. 177)
• Variation in pronunciation becomes regular with
  interaction at school
• Transition from the linguistic and into
  metalinguistic level
• 3 years Rhyme and alliteration can
  respondorally (p. 157)
• Notice written language and associate letters
  with sounds
• Attempts at reading (names, common
  objectsfunctional print)
• Read pictures and drawing they and others have
  created, books, signs, pictures
• Phonetics Segmenting wordssound-symbol
  relationship

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Semantic Knowledge

• Vocabulary expands and refines
• More complex concepts and schemata
• Expressive vocabulary Approximately 800-1000
  words
• Cultural environment, direct and vicarious
  experiences increase conceptual knowledge
• Books introduce new vocabulary
• Ready for symbolic and figurative language (p.
  160)
• Vocabulary Assimilation (new concept) and
  accommodation (schema change as new concepts are
  introduced)

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Semantic Knowledge

• Overextensions (same label/word for referents
  that appear similar) and underextensions
  (word/label does not apply outside of their
  environment--restricted) occur
• Going to the zoo, nature centers, different malls
  or stores, museums, bookstores, and places where
  they will find similar items in different places
  encourages accurate labeling
• Create meaningful, supportive contexts

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Enhancing Semantic Knowledge

• How can you enhance semantic knowledge?
• If you could create your dream preschool library,
  what would you include?
• What are the best books you can think of for
  preschoolers?
• (Hennings, 2002, p. 491)

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How Will You Enhance Semantic Knowledge

• in the home and at school?

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Syntactic Knowledge

• Extended speech (monologue)
• Noun and verb phrase complexity increases
  (subject-verb-object)
• Conjunctions and, because
• Negation develops no, dont (contractions), not
• Interrogative sentences (questions) plus
  inflection firstlater into question form
• Comprehend passive sentencesstill use active

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Morphemic Knowledge

• Toddlers present progressive, regular plural, in
  and on
• Preschoolers (2-4 years)
• regular past tense
• irregular past tense
• Possessives
• regular third person noun-verb agreement
• irregular third person noun-verb agreement

• Irregular words and regular words (experiment)
• Overgeneralization
• Past tense
• Possession
• Plural
• Comparison
• Contractions
• Learn by experimentationnot imitation

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Pragmatic Knowledge

• Communication loop is short one to three turns
  per topic (p. 164)
• Use of language
• Permission
• Rules
• Expressive emotions
• Judge
• Jokes and teasing

• Metalinguistic knowledge
• Tailor speech to the listener talk to infant in
  short sentences and older siblings using prosodic
  features
• Prosodic features and intonation
• Social register knowledge of how to speak in
  certain situations (p. 165-6)
• Cultural differences?

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Pragmatic Knowledge

• Dialogue to monologue Oral and written
• Focus
• Need context for oral monologue
• Precision in wording for written monologue
• Whole-body talking

• Roles of Written Language Interaction
• Observer (Toddler)
• Questioner (Preschooler)
• Explorer/Experimenter (Preschooler) (p. 168)

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Pragmatic Knowledge

• Storybooks (Figure 6.4 and p. 172)
• Left-right, top-down
• Front-to-back
• Upside-up
• Words have meaning Pictures enhance
• Accuracy in literal and prosodic storyline
• Begin labeling (identifying elements) to
  strategy-based reading (anticipating storyline
  and events) (p. 171)

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Methods

• Questioning (Wait Time)
• Clarification questions
• Recitation questions
• Information questions
• Then-and-there questions
• Linguistic Scaffolding
• Repetition

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Guidelines for Mediation

• Determine childs level of prior knowledge or
  performance
• Observe responses to activity and to tutorial
  dialogue
• Question and comment to lead

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Guidelines for Conflict Resolution

• Active listening
• Identify the nature of the conflict
• Alternatives or possible compromises
• Acknowledge emotional states while keeping
  positive and balanced approach
• Model keywords and phrases for resolving conflict
• Cultural differences

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General Guidelines for Conversations

• Be an active listener
• Always establish and maintain eye contact
• Observe non-verbal responses
• Clarify when you cannot understand by using
  questioning and repetition
• Focus on childs interests
• Avoid appearing impatient
• Use expansion to model more complex language

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Exploratory Activities

• Unstructured, open-ended activities
• Language-enhancing goals for each activity
• Blocks and manipulatives
• Drama corner
• Book center
• Listening center
• Writing center
• Learning center
• Art center
• Computer-based media
• Outdoor activities

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Teacher-Guided Activities

• Large- and small-group activities
• Length and frequency determined by childrens
  attention spans
• Language-enhancing goals for each activity
• Show/Share-and-tell
• Storybook reading
• Storytelling
• Poetry and song
• Routines