Language, literacy and early childhood education

Source: Language, literacy and early childhood education

Reference: Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2014).

Questions / Key vocabulary/ ideas Notes

(ensure to include page numbers and surnames & dates for quotes)

Vocabulary cline: a sequence of words, showing the gradation of meanings between a word and its antonym

PAGE 556.

Deciding which words to teach

When deciding which words to teach in class, consider…

 The importance of the word to the theme/topic(s) that the children are currently working on

 What words the children already know

 Whether or not the word will significantly affect the comprehension of a text to be read

 The level of interest the children might have for the word

 The frequency or utility of the word in the English language

 The degree to which the learning of the word will help children learn other words.

It is not a good use of classroom time to…

– Teach children exotic or rare words (that they are not likely to hear or see again)

– Teach vocabulary words they can otherwise infer the meaning of through context

Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2002) have proposed that there are three tiers of words:

1. Tier 1: high-frequency, everyday words (e.g. ‘chair’, ‘run’, ‘shop’)

2. Tier 2: more sophisticated, sometimes abstract words that are not often used every day but may pop up in stories (e.g. ‘wicked’ or ‘drowsy’, ‘fortunate’, ‘sorrow’)

3. Tier 3: subject-specific words that would not typically be used in the early years (e.g. ‘osmosis’, ‘ion’, ‘geosyncline’)

Research suggests that educators should focus on teaching tier 2 words

 Note: it is still important to help young children and those for whom English is not the first language or dialect build their stock of tier 1 words

 Word lists such as Fry’s word lists (Fry et al., 2000) may be useful as they show which words appear most frequently in written English

Suggestions to engage children in learning vocabulary:

 Have children choose words to be learnt (to ensure interest and motivation)

 Ask children to listen out for new or interesting words when you read to them

 Get children to draw pictures or use ICT (photos, movie clips, animations) to illustrate new words

PAGE 557.

Word study

When studying words and their meanings, there are several categories that should be included:

 Compound words

 Synonyms and antonyms

 Root words and affixes

 Words with multiple meanings

Note: it is essential for educators to use and teach terminology (metalanguage) such as ‘synonym’, ‘compound words’, ‘prefixes’, and so on, otherwise it is difficult for children to think about and discuss their own learning

Compound words: words that are composed of two smaller words (e.g. ‘news’ + ‘paper’ = ‘newspaper’)

 Professional teaching ideas for compound words:

o Have children brainstorm compound words and then talk about the word parts

o Point out and discuss compound words in shared reading

o Play games such as compound word bingo

o Make compound words by joining two small words (e.g. draw lines, put two cards together, use Interactive Whiteboard)

o Have a compound word hunt (in texts)

PAGE 558.

Synonyms: words with almost the same meaning as another (e.g. ‘large’/‘big’).

 Meanings are not quite identical

 Children need to come to understand that there are shades of meaning, and that the context will influence the choice of words

o Educators and children can put synonyms into a sentence frame and then discuss the slight differences in meaning and whether or not the sentence context is appropriate

 Words often have connotations that children need to understand (e.g. describing someone as a ‘snake’)

 By about age 8, most children should be able to use a children’s thesaurus or word processing software (such as Microsoft Word) to find synonyms

 Synonym webs are useful to help children explore and think about synonyms and their usage.

o Synonym web: a word web used to help children think of synonyms

Antonym: a word that has an opposite meaning to another word (e.g. ‘little’/‘large’)

 Many words do not have direct antonyms

Vocabulary cline: a sequence of words, showing the gradation of meanings between a word and its antonym (e.g. the words ‘sizzling’ > ‘freezing’ could be used)

Reading 2-

Genderlect: the collective stylistic characteristics of men and women

PAGE 376.

Gender Differences (in Language) the early elementary school years, the language of boys and girls begins to reflect the gender differences of older children and adults

 These differences can be noted in vocabulary useand conversational style

 Despite the emergent equality between sexes in our society, some differences still exist. Even so, remember…

o Males and females have more similarities than differences in their language use

o Context and topic have a greater influence on conversational style than gender

 Other differences may be physiological

o E.g. The production of some phonemes (/f, θ , s, ʃ ) most likely reflect vocal tract variation between men and women

These differences decrease for adults as they age

 Remember, any communicative act must be interpreted in light of…

o Context

o Conversational style of the participants

o Interaction of these styles

o Cultural background

PAGE 377.

Vocabulary Use

Lexical differences between men and women are generally quantitative rather than qualitative. In general…

 Women use less swearing and coarse language in conversation

 Women tend to use more polite words (e.g. please, thank you, good-bye)

 Women use a wider range of descriptive words (e.g. adorable, charming, sweet, lovely, divine)

 Women use a fuller range of colour terms

 Women tend to use expressions, such as “oh dear”, “goodness”, and “gracious me”

o Men tend to use expletives like “damn it”

o Note: In emergency situations in which an active, assertive response is needed, interjections, such as “oh dear” are rare even for women

Conversational Style

American English-speaking men and women may possess the same language, but they use and understand it in very different ways. In general…

 Men talk more in public and less at home

 Women tend to be more indirect, to seek consensus, and to listen carefully

o Men tend to lecture

 Women see their role as conversation facilitators

o Men see their role as information providers

 Women face their conversational partners, giving vocal or verbal feedback and often finishing the listener’s thought

o Men often do not face their partners (instead looking around the room and making only fleeting eye contact).

 (In terms of body posture) young teen males are more distant/ don’t face each other

o Girls sit closer and may touch during the conversation

Much of this difference stems from the different expectations of men and women in conversation. In general, men…

 See conversations as an opportunity for debate or competition (and thus act combative)

 Listen silently, giving little vocal feedback

 View conversations as events in which talk maintains status and independence

o May dismiss the topic to “score” (in conversation)

 Change topic often and rarely involve personal issues or feelings

 Tend to be more verbose than women

 Interrupt to suggest alternative views, to argue, to introduce new topics, or to complete the speaker’s sentence

 May feel no need to talk at home because there are no other men to whom they must prove themselves

In general, women…

 See conversations as a way to share (intimacy is built through talking)

 View the topics discussed as not important as the closeness and sharing of feelings and emotions

 Share/explore topics thoroughly

 Have more focused, less diffuse topics than boys/men

 Have less difficulty finding something to talk about

 Change topics less frequently

 See their role as an agreeable and supportive one

 Try to avoid anger and disagreement where possible

 Maintain more eye contact and smile more often than men

 Interrupt to clarify and support the speaker

 Relinquish their conversational turns more readily than men

 Ask more questions (thus indirectly introducing topics into the conversation)

 May feel secure within the home and feel that they are free to talk without offending or being seen as combative

PAGE 378.

(Conversational Style continued)

 In a conversational context, the longest speaking time occurs when men speak with other men

o Women’s conversations with men or with other women are shorter

 In general, adult listeners of either sex are more likely to interrupt a female speaker than a male

 In male– female conversations, only about 36% of female introduced topics become the focus of conversation

o In contrast, 96% of male introduced topics are sustained

Development

These differences may reflect how children are raised. Parental speech to children of different sexes varies:

 (As early as 2 years of age) daughters are imitated more by their mothers and talked to longer than are sons

 Fathers use more imperatives and more insulting terms, such as “butthead”, with their sons and address their daughters as “honey” and “sweetie”

 Fathers use the diminutive form (adding a suffix to denote smallness or affection) more frequently with daughters

 Fathers interrupt daughters more often than sons

 Note: The overall effects of these parental behaviours are not known

Preschool boys seem more aware of the differences between male and female adults than girls do. In general, preschool boys…

 Tend to choose conversational topics regarding space, quantity, physical movement, self, and value judgments

 Begin to talk about sports as young as 4

In general, preschool girls…

 Talk more about “traditional” female roles

 Begin to talk about school as young as 4

In general, boys in early childhood…

 Base their relationships less on talking and more on doing

 Tend to have larger and more hierarchical groups

 Use actions and talking in the struggle to avoid subordination.

 View the listener role as one of passivity and submissiveness (i.e. talker role = assertive)

In general, girls in early childhood…

 Usually play in pairs, sharing the play, talking, and telling “secrets.”

 Share problems and concerns (met with agreement and understanding by the participants)

 Spend considerable time talking, reflecting, and sharing

 Use more inclusive language (e.g. “let’s” and “we”)

In the competitive environment of preadolescence and adolescence, both girls and boys posture and counter-posture, using verbal aggression such as practical jokes, put-downs, and insults.

 The sense of competition is one in which speech is used by both sexes to hold attention, to assert dominance, and to bully.

 Genderlect is well established by mid-adolescence

PAGE 379.

Conclusion

The communication behaviours of men and women may reflect the traditional status of women within our society.

 Words associated with masculinity are judged to be better or more positive than those associated with femininity

 Women demonstrate non-linguistic behaviours (e.g. increased eye contact) which could also suggest that they hold a less dominant position within conversations.

 The freedom to interrupt and the sustaining of male-introduced topics reflect a higher relative status for males

 Women’s use of “feminine” exclamations, such as “oh dear” suggests a lack of power or a lack of conviction in the importance of the message.

 In Africa, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, South America, Jewish and Arab cultures, and Eastern Europe, women interrupt men far more frequently than in the majority U.S. culture.

Cultures, such as Thai, Japanese, Hawaiian, and Antiguan, exhibit a cultural style of overlapping speech that is cooperative rather than interruptive.

Reading 3-

 Despite emergent equality between men and women in our current society, language differences between the genders still exists; manifesting themselves in both vocabulary use and conversational style.

 In terms of vocabulary use, women typically use less swearing and coarse language in conversation, tend to use more polite words (e.g. please, thank you, good-bye), use a wider range of descriptive words (e.g. adorable, charming, sweet, lovely, divine), use a fuller range of colour terms, and tend to use expressions, such as “oh dear”, “goodness”, and “gracious me”.

 In terms of conversational style, men typically see conversations as an opportunity for debate or competition, listen silently and giving little vocal feedback when being spoken to, view conversations as events in which talk maintains status and independence, change topic often and rarely involve

reading 3—

Topic: Oral Language: Perspectives and Phases

Source: Chapter 3 – Oral Language: Perspective and Phases (p.g. 53(half) – 57)

Reference: Fellowes & Oakley: Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education (2014)

Questions / Key vocabulary/ ideas Notes

(ensure to include page numbers and surnames & dates for quotes)

Telegraphic sentences: speech in which only two or three content words are used to represent a whole sentence— function words are omitted, for example: ‘Teddy gone!’ PAGE 53. & 54.

Phases, Stages, and Milestones of Oral Language Development

 There is a common developmental pathway (or sequence of learning) that all children follow

 Even so, language learning and development is not identical for all children

o The developmental ‘inner clock’ varies from child to child and there are important environmental factors at play (i.e. biological + environmental determinants)

o Cultural expectations about child language development and parent interaction with children have an impact in children’s language use and learning

 If children are exposed to more than one language and are learning both simultaneously, milestones will not necessarily be reached in both languages at the same time

Overview of the five phases of language development

 Five identified phases provide educators with a useful framework for planning and assessment

o NOTE: These should be used as guidelines only taking into consideration children’s individual and cultural differences

STAGE 1 (Pre-Linguistic)

Newborns (0-4 weeks)

 Receptive language:

o Newborns (or neonates) listen to the sounds around them

o They are soon able to distinguish language sounds from other sounds

o They ‘startle’ at unexpected noises and respond to new sounds by becoming very still

o In order to develop effectively as listeners, babies need to hear a variety of sounds, be spoken to a great deal by parents/carers, require eye-contact, and to see the speaker’s face

 Expressive language:

o Crying is the main means of expressing needs and emotions

o From 2-4 weeks they make a range of noises (some indicate their difference between discomfort or pleasure)

o Communication may not always be intentional (e.g. gurgling, cooing)

PAGE 55.

(2 – 3 Months)

 Receptive language:

o They turn towards the source of a voice and smile at speakers

o They enjoy listening to familiar voices such as the mother’s and father’s (especially if comforting tones are used)

o They quieten and pay particular attention to new voices

o They may pay more attention to ‘infant-directed speech’

o By two months, they begin to respond differently to sounds of own language (vs. a foreign language)

 Expressive language:

o They smile at familiar people when they see them

o They smile and gurgle when spoken to

o They develop different ways of crying for different purposes

(4 – 6 Months)

 Receptive Language:

o They can distinguish own language from a foreign one

o They begin to respond to the word “No!”

Though it is not known to be recognition of the intonation or the word

o They respond to the speaker’s voice and facial expression

o They begin to take more interest in everyday sounds, enjoying them as well as toys that make noise/music

 Expressive Language:

o They become verbally responsive to the language they hear

o They begin to experiment with the sounds that they can make with their mouth and voice, and to mimic speakers

o They use various sounds in an attempt to communicate

Babbling becomes very prominent in this age range, and often consists of a consonant and a vowel (e.g. ma-ma)

PAGE 56.

(7 – 11 Months)

 Receptive Language:

o They become responsive when spoken to, and pay attention when called by name

o Games like ‘peek-a-boo’ engage them

o They recognise the names of common objects and will sometimes respond (by looking, pointing or touching) to simple requests (e.g. “where’s the doggie?”)

o They can respond to simple questions, such as, ‘More?’

They usually have a receptive vocabulary of a few words

 Expressive Language:

o They begin to take on conventions of listening and speaking (e.g. with turntaking and eye contact etc.)

o By approximately nine months, they begin to understand and use goal-orientated language/ body language (e.g. indicating they want more food, or to be picked up etc.)

o They shout to gain attention

o Their babbling becomes more complex, and includes more consonants as well as long and short vowels

o They imitate deliberately

o They should have said their first words

o They will sometimes utter a string of nonsense words that sound like real speech in intonation

o Towards the age of one, some children will start to use holophrastic speech

PAGE 57.

STAGE 2 (Linguistic Speech)

 One word utterances

(12 – 24 Months)

 Receptive language:

o Oral language capabilities grow very rapidly

o They continue to learn conventions (e.g. turntaking etc.)

o Their comprehension of words and syntactic structures increases dramatically

E.g. they can point to pictures in books when they are named

o They can understand simple instructions and can respond to simple commands (e.g. “Roll the ball.”)

o At 18 months, children have a receptive vocabulary of around 100– 300 words

This receptive vocabulary is much larger than their expressive vocabulary

o They enjoy stories and rhymes, with the repetition of favourites

 Expressive language:

o They use holophrases which are extensively nouns

o By 18 months, they will typically be able to use 5– 50 words, will imitate others, and attempt to sing

o Towards the age of two, they begin to speak in ‘telegraphic’ sentences of two words, and sometimes three words.

E.g. “More milk?”

o Their pronunciation becomes clearer

STAGE 3 (Linguistic Speech)

 Making words into phrases

(24 – 26 Months)

 Receptive language:

o They particularly enjoy listening to rhymes and stories

o They comprehend commands that are composed of two steps (e.g. “Get the teddy and put it in the box.”)

o They begin to understand contrasting concepts such as “opposites” (e.g. hot/cold)

o They will be able to respond to simple one-step instructions

 Expressive language:

o Throughout this phase, expressive vocabulary expands at a rapid rate

At two, they are usually able to say approximately 50– 200 words

At three, they should have an expressive vocabulary of 200– 1000 words

o They often use telegraphic speech

o Their sentences are simple and usually have a subject and a verb

o They ask a lot of questions and can briefly tell about a drawing they have done

o They use a lot of self-talk

o By the age of three, many children can engage in short conversations in which they take turns to listen and speak

personal issues or feelings, tend to be more verbose than women, interrupt to suggest alternative views, to argue, to introduce new topics, or to complete the speaker’s sentence.

 Typically women see conversations as a way to share, view the topics discussed as not important as the closeness and sharing of feelings and emotions, explore topics more thoroughly, have more focused, less diffuse topics than boys/men, have less difficulty finding something to talk about, change topics less frequently, see their role as an agreeable and supportive one in conversation, try to avoid anger and disagreement where possible, maintain more eye contact and smile more often than men, interrupt to clarify and support the speaker, relinquish their conversational turns more readily than men, and ask more questions.