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6ha,p f~r 2 DWUO~J £9~ 3n;{ [.~ 2021 SustU,-i, Hr.il t / e~ UU-1 r/h, fJ l/4h /J s The foundations Language, homes and communities are the foundations of literacy 23 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
24 CHAPTER 2 Oral language 'I'm being haive!' (Two-year-old boy when his mother told him to behave) 'Why don't you get some expensive money?' (Three-year-old when told by her mother that she could get a small toy but that the ones asked for were too expensive) 'Daddy, did your hair slip?' (Three-year-old to his bald, but long-bearded father) Learning language-learning through language-learning about language Being able to hear language, perceive differences in meaning and articulate language is crucially important for learning to read and write. Language is at the top of the agenda for early childhood. One of the great-est discoveries for a very young child is the recognition that verbal signs have meaning. Oral language then becomes the key to communicating, learning and thinking. Oral language is one of the Big Six components of the literacy program as identified by Konza (2016). There are three fundamental aspects: children need to learn lan-guage, learn through language and learn about language (Halliday 2004a). Children learn language in speech-rich communities, and most children effortlessly acquire the spoken language of the community. Children learn through language in interactions with others: at first directing their language to an adult and later internalising it to become thinking (Vygotsky 1978). Speech, internalised as thinking, plays an essential role in the organisation of higher psychological functions such as planning, memorising and regulating behaviour. Children learn about language when they explore how language works in activities such as dramatic play, stories, and exploring nature and the environment in the years before school and in later schooling. Oral language is the base for building literacy. Snow et al. (1998) write that a child's language development is one of the most important precon-ditions for literacy. Being able to hear language, perceive differences in meaning and articulate language is crucially important for learning to read and write. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Oral language provides the base and foundation for written language because it is the beginning of using language as a symbol for meaning. In fact, as Vukelich, Christie and Enz (2002) write: Oral language involves first-order symbolism, with spoken words represent-ing meaning. Written language, on the other hand, involves second-order symbolism that builds on the first-order symbolism of oral language. Printed symbols represent spoken words that, in turn, represent meaning (p. 2). While oral language is the foundation for written language, the two modes are different. Oral language relies on the context, the here and now objects to make meaning; for example, pointing to an apple, a child may say, 'Look at this one'. Written language, however, is removed from context; it is decontextualised and the writer has to provide additional information for the reader-for example, 'Look at this red apple'. Language is a symbol system Language is made up of sounds '(phonemes), words and word order (syntax), and meaning (semantics). Languag~whether it be English, Chinese, French or Spanish-is any system of symbols that is used to communicate meaning. These symbols can also consist of sounds, finger movements and print (Vukelich et al. 2002). Because this book is about language and literacy-speaking, listen-ing, reading and writing-language refers to oral language, which is com-municating through speaking and listening, and literacy refers to reading and writing, which is communicating through print and multimedia. Language is made up of sounds (phonemes), words and word order (syntax), and meaning (semantics). Pragmatics is the social use of lan-guage, which has to do with selecting language to suit a particular pur-pose, and vocabulary or lexicon is knowledge of words and word mean-ings. Discourse is a larger framework and concerns how all components of language are used in particular social contexts; for example, children may have a school discourse and a home discourse. From birth onwards, infants and toddlers experiment with sounds, words and word order, and by the time they are 3 or 4 years old they have a large vocabulary of words. Figure 2.1 Key definitions of the components of language Phonology refers to the way sounds of a language operate. Syntax refers to the rules for how words work in phrases, clauses and sentences. Semantics refers to the ways that language conveys meaning. Pragmatics refers to the ways the members of the speech community achieve their goals using language. Vocabulary refers to stored information about the meanings and pronunciation of words. (Based on Emmitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff & Pollock 2010; Snow et al. 1998) 25 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
26 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Phonology Phonology is the sound structure of speech and includes intonation, stress and timing, as well as its articulatory units, including words, syllables and phonemes. Intonation involves stress, pitch and juncture. Pitch refers to how high or low a voice is when producing a sound, stress refers to how loud or soft it is, and juncture refers to the pauses or connections between words, phrases and sentences (Morrow 2005). The sounds of language are called phonemes, and there are 44 pho-nemes in the English language (or 45 with the schwa sound). The word cat has three phonemes and so does the word sheep because in written language letters are used in various combinations to represent sounds: 'sh' is one sound and 'ee' is one sound. Phonemic awareness is the insight that every spoken word can be thought of as a sequence of phonemes. Phonemic awareness is important for understanding the alphabetic principle-the idea that sounds are represented by letters. Syntax Syntax is the grammar or the rules by which words are organised into sentences. Grammar also includes morphology, which is the use of gram-matical markers that indicate number, tense, person, gender and case; for example, cat, cats; prince, princess; jump, jumped. Syntax refers to the ways words, phrases and clauses are structured in sentences. In English, the order of the words in sentences is important; for example, 'the dog bit the boy' has a very different meaning from 'the boy bit the dog'. Some basic sentence patterns are: • subject -verb: 'The baby cried.' • subject -verb -object: 'The baby drank milk.' • subject -verb -indirect object -direct object: 'The baby gave Freda the bottle.' Words and word order are important for expressing ideas and under-standing what other people say. Children -experiment with word order in simple sentences like 'Give me' and 'Me give', playing with the order of words and meanings. The grammar of young children's beginning sen-tences 'Give me' and 'Me give' are shortened versions of standard grammar, which would sound like this: 'Give it to me' and 'I'll give it to you'. Syntax is recognisable, and we can tell if a sentence is grammatically acceptable, even when using meaningless nonsense words like the following: Bix was plux zopt. 'Morp when you are zopt,' said Tjbe. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Semantics Semantics is concerned with meaning. Richgels (2004) provides an exam-ple of the meaning of semantics when using the word love. He writes that most of us can define the word love, but a full accounting of its meaning must include how it means different things in different contexts. My brother George loves his wife. My brother George loves his country. My brother George loves to garden. My brother George loves science fiction. My brother George loves getting out of doing the laundry. The word loves in the verb position restricts the words we can use in the subject position; for example, My brother George works in all of the propo-sitions, My sister Mary works in some but not all, and My dog Fido works in none. Language communicates meaning through content words-like dog and cat-that carry meaning in themselves. Meaning is conveyed in function words which have no meaning in themselves but which indicate relationships between other words in a sentence. Function words can be prepositions such as of, to and in; conjunctions such as and, but and because; and determiners which mark nouns so that when there is a deter-miner a noun follows, for example, the, a and few. Semantics or meaning is achieved by the choice of words, word order, and the tone and stress placed on words. In spoken language, facial expressions and gestures affect how meanings are communicated. Pragmatics Pragmatics is the social communicative side of language. This is often taken for granted until teachers work with children with autism spec-trum disorder, where pragmatic skills may not be developed. Pragmatics involves turn-taking, maintaining topic relevance, understanding ges-tures, tone of voice and judging what kind of language form or genre to use in different social situations-for example, to facilitate interactions with others (Let's go shopping), to express opinions and feelings (This makes me feel great), to provide information (That's a digital watch), to use imagina-tive language (I'm a movie star), to express needs and wants (I want that bag), to regulate others (Stop that!), or to inquire (How much is this?). The ability to comprehend and produce communication is referred to as pragmatic competence, and it often includes one's knowledge about the social distance, social status between the speakers involved, and cultural knowledge such as politeness. 'Z1 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Children combine all aspects of language-phonology, semantics, grammar, pragmatics and vocabulary-to communicate meanings. Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Vocabulary Vocabulary or lexicon is knowledge of words and word meanings. Vocabulary acquisition is one of the key components of oral language development and it also plays an important role in early literacy. In gen-eral, receptive vocabulary is larger than productive or expressive vocabu-lary; we can understand more words through listening and reading than we use in speech or writing (Pearson, Hiebert & Kamil 2007). Pronunciation of words and knowledge about word use is important because it affects children's comprehension of spoken and written lan-guage. For an emergent reader to get meaning from text, most of the words represented by the text must be in the reader's oral vocabulary. If the reader can recognise most of the words in the text, they can use con-text clues to figure out the meaning of a few unfamiliar words. A writer's choice of words is affected by their oral language vocabu-lary. Children who have rich oral language experiences at home before school tend to become early readers (Dickenson & Tabors 2001). By the time children enter school, a conservative estimate is that children who speak English know 4000-5000 word families in oral language (Nation & Waring 1997). Children combine all aspects of language-phonology, semantics, gram-mar, pragmatics and vocabulary-to communicate meanings. Acquisition of each one facilitates mastery of the others. Children actively construct language to communicate and they will often create amusing comments as they try to work out how the phonology, grammar, semantics, pragmatics and vocabulary work in language. The fol-lowing comments show how children interpret language and concepts. • 'Daddy picked them up and looked underneath. I think it's printed on the bottom' -3-year-old when his mother asked how his father knew the genders of four new baby kittens • 'They didn't see it -it was all cutted o//!'-2-year-old when his mother asked how his grandparents liked his new haircut. Language begins at birth, and continues throughout schooling and over a lifetime. The development of spoken language Beginning-birth to one At about 3 months, babies will turn their heads towards voices and show that they recognise their parents' voices by stopping crying when the parents are speaking. They indicate contentment and amusement by smiling, and repeat sounds (e.g. cooing). At 4 to 7 months, babies notice new sounds such as the telephone. They respond to 'no' and to changes in tone of voice, and pay attention to music. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
The mother replied, 1t's rabbit, not wabbit.' 'I know it's wabbit, 'said the toddler. Oral language Early sound discrimination skills are beginning to emerge. Sounds have a more speech-like babble to them (e.g. baba, mama). When playing alone or with parents, babies make gurgling sounds, and tell you by sound or ges-ture when they want something. By 6 months of age, long before they are ready to talk, babies start to organise speech into the phonemic categories of their own language, and they stop responding to sound distinctions that are not useful in their language comi:p.unity (Berk 2009). At 8 months to 1 year, infants are beginning to recognise their name and can turn their heads or look up when you say their name. They lis-ten when spoken to, and are beginning to recognise common words (e.g. cup, juice and bottle), and to respond to requests like 'Come here'. Infants imitate speech sounds, and utter their first words, usually things that are meaningful to them such as Mummy, Daddy, biscuit, milk, bottle, bye-bye and no. They more frequently use speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention. Babbling has repeated consonants and vowel sounds such as mama mama. One to two By the first year, children's babbling reflects the sounds and the intona-tion patterns of their native language. Comprehension of words emerges before the ability to produce words, and this occurs at around the time of the child's first birthday. Children begin to participate more actively in listening to simple stories, songs and rhymes. They can follow simple commands and can point to a few body parts, and to pictures of things in a book when an adult names them. Children begin to use telegraphic speech from 12 months on-usually noun and verb with no content words: 'Daddy home', 'Get milk', 'Bottle fall'. Some one-to two-word questions such as 'liVhat that?' are used. Children are beginning to put two words together-for example, 'More juice' and 'Get up'. They use many different consonant sounds at the beginning of words. By 18 months, most children can pronounce most of the English phonemes and use nine to 20 words. Two to three Between 2 and 3 years of age, three-word sentences appear. In English, they conform to a relatively fixed word order: subject-verb-object. At the same time, a grammatical explosion takes place as children add grammat-ical morphemes-small markers that change the meaning of sentences, as in 'John's dog' and 'He is eating'. Children may hear words but not be able to pronounce them. For example, a mother I know asked, 'Can you see the rabbit?' and the child answered, 'See wabbit'. The mother replied, 'It's rab-bit, not wabbit.' 'I know it's wabbit,' said the toddler. 29 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
30 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Roger Brown and colleagues (1986) suggested that the clearest indica-tion of language development was the increasing length of sentences used by children. The method of measuring length was to count the individual morphemes (units of meaning) used in utterances produced by the child. There were five stages of development, and beyond stage five the sen-tences became more structurally complex, so it was not just a matter of adding more units. Figure 2.2 Brown's developmental stages as mean length of utterance (MLU) Stage 2 3 4 5 MLU 1.75 2.25 2.75 3.50 4.00 Brown and his colleagues intensively studied the language of three children-Adam, Eve and Sarah-and also suggested that there was a regular order in which children acquire grammar. Figure 2.3 shows the general order or early use of grammar. Figure 2.3 First appearance of grammatical morphemes Morpheme The present progressive Prepositions The plural marking of nouns The irregular past tense Possessives Uncontracted be as a main verb Articles The regular past tense Third person singular verbs Third person irregular verbs Uncontractible be as auxiliary Contractible copula (linking verb) Contractible be as auxiliary Example -ing 'in', 'on' 'cat-cats', 'dog-dogs' 'went' (from 'go') 'Mummy's nose' 'Where is it?' 'a', 'the' 'walked' (from 'walk') 'she goes' 'has he?', 'does she?' 'is he?', 'were they?' 'that's' 'they're running away', 'he's sitting down' Source: Emmitt et al. 2010 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Three to four Most children at 3 to 4 years of age have a large vocabulary and use more and more complex sentence structures. They can use plurals and regular verbs but often over-generalise plurals and verb inflections. For exam-ple, they may say, 'sheeps', 'mouses' and 'childs' as they over-generalise the rule of adding 's' to form a plural. Similarly, they may say, 'sleeped', 'corned' and 'runned' for the past tense of these irregular verbs. Children might talk to themselves as they complete tasks and it seems as if they are trying to articulate their actions (Morrow 2005). A 4-year-old boy was noticed by Morrow talking to himself, saying, 'I'm making a nice picture. I'm making colours all over. I'm painting, pit, pat, pit, pat. I'm going back and forth and up and down. Now I'm jumping as I paint.' As he talked and painted, he did exactly what he said, words and actions coinciding. Four to five Children continue to learn new vocabulary and more complex sentence structures. At age 5 they may have a vocabulary of between 2500 and 5000 or so words. Some have difficulty pronouncing sounds /1/, /r/ and /sh/ at the end of words. If they do not have a word for a particular situ-ation they may create their own. They talk a lot and use words to control situations. 31 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
32 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Figure 2.4 Language development 0-4 years Age 2 months 3 months 7 months 10 months 11 months 14 months 16 months 22 months 23 months 26 months 29 months 34 months 37 months 47 months Five to eight Language skill Makes sounds in response to stimulus Makes cooing sounds Makes sounds such as giving a 'raspberry' Single syllable babbling ('ma', 'pa', 'ba', 'da') Multiple syllable babbling ('mama', 'dada', 'baba') Uses 'mama' and 'dada' (or similar sounds) to call parents Uses some words besides 'mama' and 'dada' Has a vocabulary of four to six words Can express some wants Can be understood by parents about half the time Can form two-word sentences Has a SO-word vocabulary Uses 'me', 'you', 'my' Uses prepositions Can carry on a conversation Can identify and use 'cup', 'spoon' Can be understood by strangers about three-quarters of the time Can be understood by strangers most of the time Source: Vukelich et al. 2002 The language of school-aged children continues to develop throughout their schooling. As teachers know, each child's oral language development will be unique, as it grows out of their experiences in homes and communi-ties and will have been fashioned for particular purposes with particular individuals. Each child will also have their own language style and ways of expressing meaning in different situations. Children's semantic, syntactic and phonological knowledge, and their understanding about language-or metalinguistic knowledge--continues to develop. Their semantic knowledge grows in school experiences as they add new vocabulary and word meanings. For example, a child may know the word dogs, and will add poodles, dalmatians and retrievers to extend this concept. Similarly, words to descrjbe feelings, size, numbers, shapes, colours and parts of objects, and verbs and actions are added to children's meaning systems. Syntactic growth continues. Contrary to the idea that children master all the basic syntactic structures in their native language by age 6, many are still acquiring this knowledge at age 9 and older. This has implications for teaching and learning, as children's listening comprehension may be at risk if instructions and explanations are given in complex syntax. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Chomsky (1972) studied the acquisition of syntax in children aged 5 to 10 years and found there was considerable variation. She tested children's comprehension of the following syntactic structures: 1 John is easy to see. 2 John promised Bill to go. 3 John asked Bill what to do. 4 He knew that John was going to win the race. The syntactic structure in example 4 is acquired by most children at age 5.6 years. The syntax in example 3 is still not acquired by some chil-dren even at age 10. The syntax in examples 1 and 2 is acquired between the ages of 5.6 and 9, and is known by most children over 9 years. From ages 5 to 8, children use longer and more complex sentences with more adjectival clauses. Conditional dependent clauses occur beginning with if and because. Children aged 5 to 8 years increasingly use verbs in present and past tense. Factors that affect language acquisition The years before school are important, and the most critical period of all for language development is within the first 36 months of a child's life (Vukelich et al. 2002). There are several factors that may affect language acquisition in the preschool years. Gender differences Do girls learn to speak earlier and faster than boys? Do girls talk more than boys? Is it inherently within girls' nature to talk more? Are girls set up and wired to talk more than boys? These questions are raised continu-ally in preschools and schools. It is commonly known that people tend to 'coo and cuddle' and talk and have face-to-face interactions with girl babies more than boy babies. People tend to jiggle and bounce boy babies and to communicate verbally with girls. Does this mean that girls are socialised to talk and boys are socialised to be active and action oriented? It is not clear whether boys are wired or programmed differently to girls. Is it nature or nurture, or possibly a combination of both? The most important question has to do with stereotyping boys and girls, because all girls are not the same, nor are all boys the same. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
34 Children who speak one or more languages at home and learn English at preschool and school will become bilingual or multilingual. Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Different socioeconomic groups Research studies have documented some of the differences in language acquisition and level of language proficiency between low and middle socioeconomic groups. Hart and Risley (1995) estimate that by age 4, children from professional families have had a cumulative total of 50 million words addressed to them, whereas children from very low-income families have been exposed to 13 million words. The children in the high-income group had more than three times the exposure to words and this is a tremendous advantage. Most mothers apparently spend a lot of time cuddling and holding young children, but research shows that middle-income mothers are more likely to imitate their children's language attempts (such as 'Ma ma', 'Me give') and this may stimulate children's brains to attempt even more language. These mothers spend a lot of time verbalising and responding to their children's oral language, as well praising their infants' and toddlers' attempts at speech. More research is needed to explore how and why these differences occur. Cultural and linguistic diversity In some cultures, children's early attempts at vocalising are ignored, and when children are carried around a lot, mothers may pay more attention to physical movement than to vocalisation. In some cultures, children are picked up quickly the moment they make a sound, whereas other cultures encourage the child to express their needs through spoken language. Children who speak one or more languages at home and learn English at preschool and school will become bilingual or multilingual. Learning English as an additional language takes place in much the same way as learning English as a first language: • Children are active language learners and problem solvers. • They need explicit teaching of skills and strategies. • Learning needs to be connected to children's worlds. • Teachers need to analyse and reflect on what teaching strategies are effective. Some children learn English by memorising phrases or short sentences-'Can I have a drink?', 'Can I have a ... '-then they begin to construct sentences creatively, using new vocabulary and new syntax. (See Chapter 19 for more on the developmental stages of children learning English as an additional language.) Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Medical problems A common childhood problem is 'otitis media'-an inflammation and build-up of fluid in the middle ear-which, if left unchecked, can cause hearing loss with resulting speech distortion and language delay in the preschool years. Some of the following features may indicate that a child has otitis media: unclear speech, use of gestures rather than speech, irritability, tugging at ears, fever, earaches, turning up the radio or television, fre-quent requests for direction and repetition of information. Language disorder and delay Some children have physical or neurological language disorders. Physical language disorders include articulation difficulties involving the palate, tongue or the mouth. Neurological disorders may relate to processing and interpreting sounds. When children are learning to speak, they may experience temporary problems in development such as stuttering or speaking too quickly or too slowly. Articulation can be affected when children lose their teeth and have difficulty producing the /fl, Ith/, Iv/ and Isl sounds. The /r/ sound can also be difficult to pronounce as it demands coordination of the tongue and mouth. If a child has pronunciation difficulties over a period of time, then a speech therapist will be needed to diagnose and suggest programs to help remedy the problem. Summary of the development of language The age at which children say their first words varies considerably from child to child. Developmental guidelines provide a guide, but they are not perfect. Many guidelines have been developed with English-speaking children from middle-income families in modern industrial cities, and the notion of 'universal norm' must be interpreted carefully. However, developmental guidelines are useful if parents think their children may be delayed, and if this is the case then intervention may be useful. Functions of language in preschool and school Children learning language is important prior to school and in the early years of school. Learning about language and how language is used for many different functions or purposes is also important. Linguists working from a systemic functional linguistic viewpoint see language as semiotic, or a sign system that carries meaning. In systemic functional linguistics, children's language development is a process by which children 'learn how to mean' (Halliday 1975). Language communicates 35 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
36 I Function Instrumental Regulatory lnteractional Personal Heuristic Imaginative Informative Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching meaning for many different functions-to tell someone what you want, to give information, to think, to be imaginative and to entertain. Halliday's systemic functional linguistic work (1973; 1975; 1985) is useful for under-standing the many functions of children's talk in different contexts. In systemic functional linguistics, activities such as storytelling, news talks, debates, interviews, meetings and reading information books have their own terminology, discourse and genres. For example, when a teacher describes the parts of a caterpillar, this entails scientific descriptive language which provides information, and when a teacher tells a story or narrative, this involves characters, dialogue and imaginative made-up worlds. Teachers can observe the many different functions children use in oral language. The language functions can also be used in programming for a variety of oral language activities. For example, Halliday's seven speech functions are shown in Figure 2.5, with examples added. Figure 2.5 Halliday's seven speech functions for very young children Example Explanation 'Can I have the cup?' 'I want': language as a means of getting and satisfying personal needs 'I want to go home now.' 'Do as I tell you': controlling the behaviour, feelings or attitudes of others 'You want to play?' 'Me and you': getting along with others, establishing relative status. Also, 'me against you': establishing separateness 'I can draw.' 'Here I come': language to tell about themselves, awareness of self, pride 'How does this work?' 'Tell me why': learning new things and testing knowledge 'You be the princess.' 'Let's pretend': creating new worlds, making up stories, poems '1'11 tell you about the 'I've got something to tell you' communicating information, descriptions, caterpillar.' expressing propositions Halliday's seven speech functions were originally created to describe the language used by very, young children. Other researchers have classi-fied the functions of older children's language in terms of self-maintaining, directing, predicting, reporting, reasoning, projecting and imagining (Tough 1976, 1979). As children grow and develop, the functions of language expand to include ways of expressing ideas (ideational function), ways to interact with others (interpersonal function) and ways to construct text in various modes (textual function) (Derewianka & Jones 2016). In systemic functional linguistics, both the language and the social situation work together as a two-way process. The language itself carries information about the situation in which it occurs, and the situation, in turn, shapes the language used. For example, the following interaction shows how language and situation work together. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Person 1: We go now! Person 2: When I've finished my work. In the example, both the language used and the situation carry meaning. We understand that Person 1 is probably a child trying to regulate or control Person 2. Person 2 is an adult busy working. Systemic functional linguistics explores the field, the tenor and the mode of language in the social context. • Field is the subject matter (the child wants to go somewhere while the busy adult refuses). • Tenor is who is involved and how they relate to each other (a young child and parent). • Mode is the spoken language used (it may be written language or gestures). As another example, think of an email invitation to an end-of-year party. The field is the subject matter-a party, the tenor is the relation-ship between people-friends, and the mode is the electronic email. In preschool and school, the different discipline areas have their own terminology, discourses and genres (Askeland & Maager 2010). Even the grammar is different in a narrative and science text. For example, in narrative, 'Once upon a time' is past tense in a story, while in science, present tense is used in a book on caterpillars: 'Some scientists think caterpillars can probably ... ' Askeland and Maager (2010) write that all subject areas or learning areas have their own terminology, and children are fascinated with learn-ing and classifying words. Classifying words is important in the world of science, society, technology and other subject areas. For example, we clas-sify words when we talk about flowers: we talk about daisies, buttercups and roses. When we talk about insects, we talk about blowflies, mosquitoes and ladybirds. In science and other learning areas, we describe things and the rea-sons why things are as they are. This is known as causality and there are many words for causality (because of, therefore, the reason for, as a result of, etc). Other features of the various subject area discourses are contrasts and alternatives, and this occurs in words and phrases such as this but not that, the opposite of, however, instead of, either this or that, on the other hand, etc. Another interesting feature in the discourse of science and other learning areas is modality. Modality is the space between 'yes' and 'no' or positive and negative. Modality is shown in modal verbs such as can, may, must, will, shall and by modal expressions that show probability, usuality, obligation and inclination such as perhaps, most likely, possibly, probably, certainly, usually, always, sometimes, supposed to, allowed to, willing to. 37 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
38 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Young children need time to develop modality. Askeland and Maager write: For young children, things either are, or they are not. Only later will they be able to explore the various kinds of indeterminacy in between. In subject-oriented dialogues in kindergarten, children can be trained to see how this indeterminacy can be realised. When a child goes into subject-oriented discourses later, it is important to know about linguistic realisa-tions for modality and also to know that there are nuances in relation to the representation of a fact. (2010, p. 80) Young children understand much about the nuances of language, and this can be observed in dramatic play when they take on roles such as: 'You be the baby and talk like a baby: 1'll be the teacher and you do what I tell you' and 'You can just be the Dad'. Once children understand that language itself can be explored and this idea is taken on board, then all kinds of language can be investigated; language itself can be treated as an 'object of contemplation', not just a tool for communication. Oral language genres or text types Building on the work of Halliday (1975; 1985), several spoken and written language genres or text types were developed (Derewienka 1990, 2011). The spoken language genres explore language at the text level with a text framework and language features. Oral language texts can be used by teachers when planning language activities. Children can create their own recounts, narratives, reports, exposi-tions or arguments and so on. Each genre has a particular purpose and particular language features: 1 Recount: To retell or recount events, usually in chronological order 2 Narrative: To entertain, to tell a story 3 Procedure: To give instruction or directions on the way to do things 4 Explanation: To explain phenomena or how something works 5 Report: To classify, describe and then provide information on something 6 Exposition or argument: To argue or persuade to a point of view. There are many oral language text types, such as interviews, jokes, play scripts, advertisements, small-group work and meetings. In oral language activities, children can recount or retell a trip or an excursion. They can tell narrative stories using a framework of orienta-tion, problem and resolution. They might use the procedure text type to describe how to make pancakes or how to construct a model. They may explain how something works, such as a battery. They may report to the class on topics such as cats, tadpoles or silkworms. They may present points in an exposition, persuading others to a point of view. (See the oral language activities on page 58 for more on the features of various genres.) Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language 39 Figure 2.6 Some oral language text types Oral language text type Purpose Text framework Language features Description To describe the characteristics Features of the object-• nouns or features of a thing or event SCUMPS may be used: size, • variety of adjectives colour, use, material, parts, • action verbs shape • figurative language, e.g. The blue boat is like a fish Personal response To respond to a book, movie I like ... • words that express or play My favourite ... judgements The book is ... • descriptive language Recount (factual or literary) To retell a series of events Orientation • descriptive language Events in order • past tense Evaluation (optional) • words that tell where, when, with, whom, how Narrative To entertain, amuse or instruct Orientation • characters and setting are Problem or complication described using nouns and Series of events adjectives Resolution • time words • action verbs in the compli-cation and resolution Procedure To instruct someone on how to Goal • verbs usually at the begin-do something Materials ning of each instruction Method • words that tell how, when, Evaluation where, whom Report To classify and/or describe Generalisation/classification • technical language Description • simple present tense Summary • generalised terms Explanation (factual or To explain how or why Phenomenon • technical language literary) something occurs Explanation sequence • use of words to establish cause/effect sequences, e.g. such as, because, as a result Exposition To persuade by arguing one Thesis • use of first, second, in side of an issue Argument: conclusion -Point • use of because -Point Discussion To examine issues from more • use of thinking verbs, e.g. than one perspective feel, believe, hope • use of connectives, e.g. on the other hand, however L Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
40 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Learning about language: grammar Young children in school and preschool are learning the discourse of school, and this involves talking about language. At school, children learn to be aware of and define what is a word, a letter, a vowel sound, a sen-tence and a text type (narrative or information), and this metalinguistic awareness is necessary for school success. Young children learning second or third languages often have metalinguistic awareness or ways to talk about language by saying, 'You don't say it that way in English'. Young bilingual children may not be able to articulate the differences in syntax, meaning or sounds, but they are aware that language has grammatical rules and that language is used in particular contexts. In the early years of school, knowledge of grammar is useful; however, grammar is best used in context, when sharing a book, reflecting on oral language statements or questions, and in dramatic play and other activi-ties. Grammatical terms are useful when the teacher reads a book about how animals move and the children create a list of words describing move-ment. Classifying the words by explaining that they are verbs or action verbs is useful for the children's thinking about language. Figure 2. 7 explains some grammatical terms, and judgements about what terms may be useful in the classroom need to relate to knowledge of the children in the class. Repetitive worksheets of grammatical terms may have little use in the early stages of literacy development. However, teach-ers' knowledge about how language works provides insight into young children's phenomenal language abilities and growth in the early years of school. In the first years of school, the terms noun, verb, adjective and sentence may be useful. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language 41 Figure 2.7 Grammatical terms and examples Grammatical term Meanings Examples Adjective or adjectival A word or phrase that adds meaning to a noun wonderful, those, black, round, with the phrase long hair Adverb or adverbial phrase Adds meaning to a verb, adjective or other adverb quickly, very quietly, like a horse Auxiliary verb Part of a verb group, helping verb, shows tense I have written. or mood Clause A group of words with a finite verb Tom has six dogs. Cohesion Linking of ideas in speech, sentences and The name, Sam, is the name of a boy in paragraphs my class. Conjunction A joining word in a text and, but, if, so, or Finite verb A verb that has a subject Sam ran. Inflection A suffix added to a noun or verb to show tense es, s, ing, ess, ed, ly or number Modals Indicate a degree of definiteness Low modality: might, could, may High modality: must, will, ought Modality Modality or degree of certainty can be expressed Nouns: possibility, necessity, requirement through nouns, adjectives or adverbs Adjectives: possible, necessary Adverbs: perhaps, maybe, never Mood declarative To make a statement The dog is hungry. imperative To give a command Goto bed. interrogative To ask a question Are you hungry? Noun Refers to places, people, things and concepts Melbourne, man, tree, space Phrase A group of words without a finite verb the yellow star, a big hole Preposition A connecting word showing the relation of to, with, across, in, up, around, down a noun to some other word (many are high-frequency words) Pronoun A word that stands instead of a noun he, she, we Sentence One or more clauses linked together. In written The dog chased the cat up the tree. language, a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark Subject and predicate The subject is the agent or subject of the verb; The dog = subject the predicate contains the finite verb and its chased the cat up the tree = predicate modifiers Tense The verb usually indicates when the action Present: I think ... present occurred Past: I thought ... past Future: I will think ... future Verb Describes a process or action; there are saying said, skip, like, think, wish, had, was verbs, action verbs, feeling verbs, thinking verbs, wanting verbs, having verbs and being verbs Voice In the active voice the subject is the doer; in the Active: The dog chased the cat. active passive voice the subject is acted upon Passive: The cat was chased by the dog. passive Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
42 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Connections between oral language and literacy development Oral language is linked to literacy; however, spoken language does not provide a neat, sequential base that can be easily mapped to written language (Hill & Launder 2010). Oral and written language often differ in the use of vocabulary, syntax and conventions. Vocabulary In oral language, meanmgs can be expressed through gesture, facial expressions and intonations, and the articulation of nouns may not be essential. However, in written language, meanings must be achieved through the use of explicit language and the grammatical use of sentences. In oral language, a sentence fragment could be 'Sit over there', accompanied by a gesture. In the written sentence 'Tom sat on the chair', the subject, (Tom) is identified, as well as the object (chair). Oral language vocabulary Written language vocabulary Sit over there ... Tom sat on the chair. Oral language is contextual, relies on gestures and is often a sentence fragment. In written language, the subject and object are identified. Syntax The syntax of written language is different from that of oral language. For example, in the book Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak), we read about Max who 'sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks', which is a lyrical use of language with many lexical items. The syntax of written language contains more embedded clauses, saying verbs and direct speech. Oral language Written language We walked for charity on Sunday. The charity walk will raise money on Sunday. Nominalisation occurs where a verb is changed to a noun. sounds letters intonation, stress, pitch punctuation and capital letters, underline and bold font We hid the book. The book was hidden. Objects are placed first in a sentence in written language. That cat chased a bird. The cat from next door was chasing a bird. In written language, there is an increased number of lexical items such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Reference conventions or mechanics Written language contains letters to represent sounds, as well as punc-tuation and various font styles to represent intonation, stress and pitch. Sections or new ideas are represented in written language with headings, paragraphs and words to show the sequence of ideas; for example, first, second, last and summary. Oral language Written language sounds letters intonation, stress, pitch punctuation and capital letters, underline and bold font expressions to indicate topic changes, headings, new pages, paragraphs, e.g. now, right, right then sections or chapters, words such as first, second, summary Oral language and literacy research Researchers have studied aspects of oral language, such as phonology and vocabulary, to find neat precursors predicting later literacy development. Vocabulary in the early years is related to children's reading development later in school (Dickinson, Nesbitt & Hofer 2019). However, Snow and Van Hemel (2008) write that various oral language and literacy components are of obvious importance in their own right and that arguments about their predictive relationship to each other or to later developmental outcomes are unnecessary. While there are differences between oral language and written language, an NICHD (2005) study concluded that oral language is impor-tant in its own right for 'learning to learn'. Importantly, oral and written language are different ways of knowing (Halliday 1985), and different oral lan-guage functions allow children to think and access knowledge in different ways (Halliday 1975). Oral language exerts pervasive, long-term and indirect influ-ences on later reading development (Dickinson, Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek 2010). Studies have shown that rich language experiences before school play an important role in developing children's literacy and vocabulary skills in the later years of schooling. Dickinson and Tabors (2002) found the scores that kindergarteners achieved on measures of receptive vocabulary, narra-tive production and emergent literacy were highly predictive of their scores on reading comprehension and receptive vocabulary in 4th and 7th grade. Other research strongly supports the findings that children's language and literacy skills in kindergarten are strongly related to later academic suc-cess (Cunningham & Stanovich 1997; Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman & Hemphill 1991). Snow and Dickinson (1991) found that exposure to var-ied vocabulary, opportunities for extended discourse, and cognitively and linguistically stimulating oral language experiences in the early years are related to later literacy success. 43 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
44 Teachers who use interesting and varied words help to create a vocabulary-rich environment ... Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Oral vocabulary Knowing the 'right word' is vital if one is to communicate information clearly. Large vocabularies have long been known to be linked to reading success (Anderson & Freebody 1981). They are also a signal that children are building the knowledge base about the world that is so critical to later reading comprehension (Neuman 2001). Opportunities to be part of conversations that use extended discourse Extended discourse is talk that requires participants to develop under-standings beyond the here and now. It requires the use of several sen-tences to build a linguistic structure, such as explanations, narratives or pretend talk. Home and classroom environments that are cognitively and linguistically stimulating Children are most likely to experience interesting extended discourse that is rich with vocabulary when their parents are able to obtain and read good books. Extended discourse occurs when their teachers provide class-rooms with a curriculum that is varied and stimulating. A vocabulary-rich classroom Teachers who use interesting and varied words help to create a vocabu-lary-rich environment-a classroom in which children are exposed to and encouraged to use a variety of words. An example of how conversations can support vocabulary learning is provided below, when a teacher talks with children engaged in dramatic play. Child: Teacher: Child: Teacher: I'll check the oven. What temperature does it have to be put at? When you put on the oven, you have to put it at a certain tempera-ture to see how hot it is. So, you might turn it to 100 degrees, or 200, or 300, or 400, or 500. 500. 500? That's usually the hottest, and that's broiling. (Dickinson & Tabors 2001, pp. 240-41) The teacher introduces various interesting words and gives brief explanations of each. She intentionally focuses on fostering language devel-opment, aware that children's vocabulary has an impact on later learning. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Dickinson and Tabors (2002) hypothesised about whether the home environment or preschool makes the difference. To do this, they developed several hypothetical situations to investigate: high-home/low-preschool language and literacy environments and low-home/high-preschool lan-guage and literacy environments. What they found in their research was that a child with a high-home and low-preschool combination would score below the mean for vocabulary, emergent literacy and narrative produc-tion of a story. The low-home/high-preschool mix would score well above the mean. The implication from this research is that excellent preschools can compensate for homes that have well below average language and literacy support, at least as reflected in emergent literacy skills. Research with families engaged in a 'vocabulary word hunters' project found that when homes and teachers work together to find opportunities to learn new words children's vocabulary increases (Nichols & Hill 2020). Early childhood teachers play a major role in supporting children's long-term development. Asking open-ended questions, repeating and extending children's utterances, and modelling advanced vocabulary have all been linked to accelerated performance on measures of language comprehen-sion and expression, alphabet knowledge, and phonological awareness (Justice, Mashburn, Hamre & Pianta 2008; Wasik, Bond & Hindman 2006). Oral language assessment Oral language assessment can take the form of assessing vocabulary, assessing syntax or sentence structure, and assessing retelling. In this way, oral language can be assessed at word level, sentence level and text level. Oral language assessment: vocabulary Teachers can create simple tasks to assess children's receptive vocabulary knowledge by making cards with photographs or drawings of common vocabulary items and then asking children to show or point to particular words spoken by the teacher. Using cards with four similar items, teachers can assess finer discrimination between specific vocabulary. For example, children's knowledge of colour could be assessed using a card with four boxes with an illustration in the colours red, yellow, blue and green in each box. The child is asked to: Point to ... [red] or Show me ... [green] To assess children's vocabulary knowledge of body parts, pictures of an ear, a nose, an eye and an arm could be used. An animal card could have 45 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
46 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching a picture of a horse, a cat, a dog and a pig, and the child might be asked to point to the horse. Where possible, avoid having words with similar beginning consonants as this can be distracting. Pictures to use for a beginning vocabulary assessment can include four items within the ten useful vocabulary categories shown in Figure 2.8. Figure 2.8 Ten useful vocabulary categories colours shapes animals body parts food transportation school activities clothing community household objects (reading, places painting) and people Teachers can use vocabulary assessment cards to gain an understanding of children's word knowledge. This can have an impact on the choice of vocabulary experiences to present to children and it also informs teachers about the type of instructions the child may be easily able to comprehend. Assessment: observing language functions Teachers can observe and assess children's use of language in different activities. Tough's language functions of self-maintaining, directing, pre-dicting, reporting, reasoning, projecting and imagining would work well here (Tough 1976, 1979). Figure 2.9 One way to obseNe language functions Name: Sam Sand play Book centre Science Art Outside play Instrumental t/ Regulatory Interaction al Personal t/ Heuristic Imaginative t/ Informative Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Observing the child talking in different settings • In which settings does the child use more or less oral language? • Is the child attentive during discussions when other children or the teacher are speaking? • With which children does a less talkative child communicate the most? • In what ways does the child adapt and adjust language to new situations and settings? Assessment: sentence repetition Purpose This simple oral language assessment task (see Figure 2.10) has several purposes: • to assess the child's recall of spoken sentence forms • to observe the child's attention and listening • to assess the child's hearing and attention • to assess the child's retention of sentence meaning • to assess speech production. The sentences have a simple structure similar to that in emergent and early reading books. If children have difficulty with this task, the teacher will need to explore further aspects of the child's language development. It may be that a speech therapist is required to provide special support. Or, the task might provide information about the child's attention and concen-tration-at school, children are required to listen, follow instructions and at times engage in assessment activities which may not be part of their previous experiences. There are more complex tasks for exploring children's language per-formance, using a range of sentence repetition tasks, in Clay, Gill, Glynn, McNaughton and Salmon (1983) and Kemp (1987). How to use the assessment Say, 'I'm going to say some sentences. Listen carefully, because I want you to say each sentence after me, as exactly as you can.' You could direct the child to focus on a section of your clothing-shirt, button, or so on-while the sentences are given, so that lip-reading is avoided. Then say: 'Listen now for the first sentence and say it after me.' I like fish and chips. Child repeats Good. Now say this one: Jack gave me a book. Child repeats Good. 47 t--1 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
48 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Repeat any part of this introductory session as you think fit, and use the exercise to help the child to relax. Present each sentence once only. You may want to use a tape recorder to help later in assessing the child's responses. If the child cannot do the task satisfactorily, reflect on the possible reasons. It must not be assumed that the child's inability to repeat sentences is, in itself, a reason for concern. Sentence repetition assessment must be placed within a context of other, and subsequent, language/reading assessments. Figure 2.10 Assessing sentence repetition Assessing sentence repetition Name: Name of teacher: Date: If child's repetition of sentence is accurate, tick 'Yes'. 1 The kittens / can play. Yes/No Child's response: ________________ _ 2 The little girl / has a red dress. Yes/No Child's response: ________________ _ 3 The lions roared / because they were hungry. Yes/No Child's response: _____ _ _ _________ _ 4 The cat waited for the mouse/ to run out of its hole. Yes/No Child's response: ________________ _ Total Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Scoring the assessment The child's repetition of the sentences should be assessed according to whether the phrases were repeated exactly. If the child makes two or three attempts, record the last attempted complete sentence. If you have any doubts at all about the child's ability to hear or reproduce particular sounds or words, the assessment tasks for phonemic awareness may be given (see Chapter 6). Assessment: narrative Narrative skills have been identified as playing an important role in aca-demic achievement, not only for sharing time and story writing but also as foundation skills for later literacy development (Roberts 2008, Snow & Dickinson 1991). To assess oral narrative skills, three photographs or illustrations with a simple plot can be gathered; for example, a dog lying down, then chasing a cat, then bumping into a tree. The child can be invited to look at the pictures and tell what the story is about. It is best if the narrative is recorded, transcribed and coded. A simple coding scheme can be used to provide a score that consists of four items, with a maximum score of four points. Criteria for coding the child's oral narrative: • Is the narrative sequential (beginning/middle/end)? • Does the narrative have a goal or problem? • Does the narrative have a resolution? • Are there any embellishments such as adjectives or other descriptors? Teaching strategies for encouraging language development Teachers can encourage children's spoken language through play, through reading books aloud and through conversations. When teachers read books aloud that engage children, they can pose questions that promote discus-sion. In the following example, the teacher reads a fantasy book about a child who finds a dinosaur named Dandy and brings it home to live. The dinosaur is overwhelmed by the loud noises he hears around him. The teacher uses extended discourse to encourage the children to analyse the dinosaur's reaction and to recognise and describe the emotion of fear. Teacher: Susan: Teacher: Susan: Teacher: How do you think Dandy feels, Susan? Bad. Why? Everyone take a look at the picture. I think he not only feels sad, he feels very-49 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
50 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Children: Teacher: Todd: Teacher: Children: Teacher: Children: Teacher: Children: James: Teacher: Happy. I don't think so. What did Dandy do when the truck came? Shook. He was scared-he shook. And what did he do when the airplanes zoomed overhead? And when the train roared by? Did Dandy like loud noises? No! How is Dandy going to feel with all this? Bad. Sad. Not only sad. What else? Mad! Scared! You got it, James! He's going to be very scared! (Dickinson & Tabors 2001, pp. 190-91) The teacher's role in extending children's vocabulary is crucial. How can teachers encourage children to share ideas? What kinds of questions can teachers ask to generate talk? Interestingly, children often engage in extended discourse more if the teacher talks less. The benefits of having more teacher listening is that teachers may be better attuned to children if they listen more and children also gain in language development because they have to put their ideas into spoken language. Playful language and early literacy development When children are engaged in play they can also be viewed as being in the zone of proximal development. When playing, it is as though they are a head taller than themselves, engaging in risk-taking and achieving higher levels of cognitive functioning. Play activity generates levels of feedback under conditions of less risk. Children can modify their problem-solving strategies, correct their mistakes, rethink their plans and achieve higher levels of performance. Play offers varied contexts for acquiring literacy skills, as well as acting out the various social roles associated with literacy. In imagi-nary play, players can become part of a discourse community where meanings are communicated through gestures, words, scripts, roles, rules and other symbolic tools. For example, research with preschool children by Holmes, Gardner, Kohm, Bant, Ciminello, Moedt & Romeo (2019) showed positive relationships between children's storytelling, play, language and creativity. Wood (2004) provides an example of how children play with words, rules and various roles when she writes of three girls aged between 31/2 and 4 years of age in the home corner. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Play in literacy-rich play centres helps build connections between oral and written modes of expression. Oral language Home corner bedtime stories Sophie: Tasha: Beth: Tasha: Beth: Tasha: Beth: Tasha: Sophie: (Sophie comes into the home corner, alone. She speaks into a mobile phone.) Going to bed now Mummy. It's night time. Got dolly. Goodbye. (Sophie lies down, pulls the sheet over her and goes to sleep. Tasha and Beth come into the home corner. Tasha sits next to the bed.) I'll be the Mummy. I'll read the bedtime story. (Chooses book from the nearby shelf.) I'll read the story. No, I'm the Mummy. You be the Daddy. Daddies can read stories. No. Mummies read stories. Well my Daddy reads me stories. (Tasha reads a pop-up book showing different insects.) Now let's see. Here's the naughty spider and he's popping out for some dinner. Don't read me spiders. I'll get bad dreams. (From Wood 2004, p. 27) In this vignette, children understand the discourse of bedtime; for example, knowing about and negotiating roles and rules, reproducing cultural knowledge about bedtime routines, challenging gender stereotypes, conveying meaning through symbolic actions, understanding that print conveys meaning, and acting as readers. Play in literacy-rich play centres helps build connections between oral and written modes of expression. In dramatic play with peers, children often use more complex syntax and longer sentences. They also use metalinguistic skills to describe how language works and what language is appropriate. This is an important step in language learning, as children recognise that spoken language is a tool for representing meaning and that written language can also be used to represent meaning. Play may be the place where children first begin to experiment with narrative-with a beginning, different characters, setting a problem, then providing a resolution. 51 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
52 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Dramatic play A literacy-rich play centre might include the following 'real-life' centres and props to promote literacy-related play. If children are surrounded by literacy-related materials they are more likely to use this in their play. • Office centre: paper, pens and pencils, computer, keyboards, telephones, whiteboard, files and folders, books relating to the kinds of business performed by the office, e.g. travel books • Restaurant: menus, bills and receipts, order forms, cash register, check-out scanners, EFTPOS and swipe cards, advertising posters, recipe books • Building construction: plans, development applications, paper and pencils for recording building tasks and lists of equipment and materials, books about architecture • Highway: safety signs for traffic, street signs, billboards, police note-taking equipment, mobile phones • Shopping centre: paper, pens and pencils, food packages, food signs and prices, cash register, check-out scanners, swipe card machines Three decades of research into the connections between play and early literacy has found a strong relationship between pretend play and lit-eracy (Roskos, Christie, Widman & Holding 2010). Pretend play includes symbolic play, dramatic play and socio-dramatic play. This is associated with representation of meaning and is shared with literacy; for example, symbols representing meaning. Pretend play involves pretence actions including object substitutions and transformations, pretend language where language is used to negotiate and maintain play including meta-talk play, and pretend comprehension such as the ability to understand someone else's make-believe intentions. Play does depend on careful adult support. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Support for language development through teacher talk The way the teacher and adults communicate with children is vitally important-it is a two-way process. Early childhood teachers listen and extend the conversations of children. Teachers' talk includes descriptions, instructions, expression of personal thoughts and feelings, questions, statements, explanations and responses. Often the teacher talks too much, and children are not given the time or the opportunity to express ideas. It can be hard, but sometimes adults have to bite their tongue and not put words into the children's mouths. Adults can try to: • avoid monopolising the conversation • provide opportunities for children to talk • ask questions only when they do not know the answer • avoid authentic closed questions that just require a one-word answer • give children enough time to get the words out • listen to children. SCUMPS The SCUMPS framework is used to help children with object description. SCUMPS is an acronym for Size, Colour, Use (what the object is used for), Materials (what the object is made of), Parts (what parts the object has) and Shape. The teacher can make charts with pictures; for example, items of different sizes, colours, types of materials and parts of an animal as a clue for children to use adjectives to describe objects. SCUMPS can be used to remind children of different questions that can be asked: • S How big is it? • C What colour is it? • U Who uses it and for what purpose? • M What material is it made from? • P What are the main parts? • S What shape is it? Why is it that shape? This can serve as a mnemonic for children to use when describing objects such as a toy, when giving news talks, and in 'What am I?' and 'I spy' games. Blank's four levels of questions Blank (2002) developed four levels of questioning, from simple reporting to more abstract reasoning. The levels are a guide and questions can be developed for each level. The questions can be used in play situations or with a book such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). 53 I Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
54 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching 1 Reporting and responding to information The objects being discussed are in front of the child or have just been removed. • What's this? • Who's that? • Find one like this. 2 Reporting and responding to details and less salient cues The objects or events being discussed are still in front of the child (here and now), but the child has to look at the material more selectively in order to understand the questions. • wt_at's happening? • \Vhat colour is the hat? • How are these different? 3 Using language to restructure and reorder their experience The child must use language to restructure and reorder their experiences. They must attend to less prominent information to achieve the correct response. The child will also be required to use language to talk about language. • What will happen next? • Find the things that are not ... • Tell me something different that ... 4 Using language to predict, reason and problem solve The child must reason what may, might, could or would happen to objects, people or events in response to questions and statements. This is an abstract task beyond the 'here and now'. • What will happen if ... ? • Why can't we ... ? • What could you do when ... ? New words Use new words where possible. Roskos, Tabors and Lenhart (2009) suggest that vocabulary is learnt in context gradually over many encounters with a new word again and again. They suggest that adults use new or unusual words whenever possible, such as 'I'm famished, let's stop for some pizza' or 'That dog is a stray dog because he's roaming around without a leash'. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Sharing and show-and-tell Sharing time, or show-and-tell, is where children bring something from home to talk about. Show-and-tell has stood the test of time because chil-dren like to talk about experiences or items from home that are meaning-ful to them. The SCUMPS framework is useful for describing objects. To vary show-and-tell: • place objects in a bag and encourage children to guess the item • bring in a surprise item to share with the children • organise topic-based show-and-tell such as pets or artwork • link show-and-tell to writing by having the child dictate a caption to place beside the item discussed. Using everyday opportunities Everyday routines are times when teachers can introduce new words, as shown in the following examples. • Greeting time: This is a time when teachers can have informal conversations with children when they first arrive. • Snack or fruit time: Children can talk with each other or with the teacher. • • Group time: Children learn some of the pragmatic rules such as taking turns, listening to other people and asking questions. Activity time: Children can discuss what they are making and doing, and can learn to ask each other questions. Scaffolding children's language There are many ways to scaffold children's language development so that new vocabulary and syntax are introduced. Expansions The adult restates the child's language and expands it to introduce new words or new syntax. Child: Dog sleep. Adult: Yes, the dog is sleeping. He's tired. Extensions The adult restates the child's comments and provides more information. Child: Dog sick. Adult: Child: Adult: The dog is very sick. Dog sick. The dog has a cut leg. 55 r I Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
56 There is a strong connection between having stories read aloud and children's language development. Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching Repetition The adult repeats all or part of the child's comments. Child: Dog sick. Adult: Yes, the dog is sick. The dog is sick. Parallel talk The adult describes the child's actions. Child: Dog sick. Adult: Sammy is looking at the sick dog. Self-talk The adult describes actions or thoughts aloud. Adult: I feel sorry for the sick dog. Vertical structuring The adult uses questions to encourage the child to produce longer, more complex sentences. Child: Adult: Child: Fill-ins Dog sleep. Where is the dog sleeping? Dog on chair. The adult says a sentence that prompts the child to complete it. Adult: The dog is sleeping because he is ... Child: Sick! Reading books aloud Reading books aloud is one of the best ways to introduce new vocabulary and syntax. There is a strong connection between having stories read aloud and children's language development. Some children prefer to listen to information books, and these texts provide vocabulary and the use of scientific language. Rereading old favourites is important, as children learn the books off by heart and then find it easy to match spoken words with the written word. The close adult-child interactions also spark discussion about the ideas as well as the pictures. Children may also ask questions, and adults can respond with further open-ended questions such as 'What else do you think the hungry caterpillar could eat?', 'Do you think you are like the hungry caterpillar?', 'What part do you like best?' However, too many detailed questions can stifle children's interest in reading, which should be primarily for enjoyment. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Book-talk packs It is possible to create book-talk packs to encourage children to retell the book and create new narratives. Book-talk packs contain a book placed in a zip-lock plastic envelope with props that support language play and dramatic retelling of the story. For example, the book Who Sank the Boat? (Pamela Allen) can be packaged with plastic farm animals such as a sheep, cow, pig, donkey and mouse, as well as a boat. Children can retell the story by placing the animals in the boat. Other animals could be added for children to create extended versions of the tale. Another suggestion is for children to create the animals with clay or plasticine and float the boat on water, adjusting the animals' size so that the mouse really sinks the boat. Other suitable books include The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle), Where Is the Green Sheep? (Mem Fox), the Hairy Maclary series (Lynley Dodd) and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Bill Martin). Cumulative books work well, such as Mr Grumpy's Outing (John Burningham), The Great Big Enormous Turnip (Alexei Tolstoy), The Story of Chicken Licken (Jan Ormerod), The Gingerbread Man (Jean Richards) and The House That Jack Built (Rodney Peppe). There are also many cumu-lative counting rhymes and song books that can be used, such as 'Ten in the Bed', 'Five Little Monkeys', 'This Old Man' and 'The Farmer in the Dell'. Describing a picture Describing different pictures can be a very beneficial activity for oral language development. Cut out pictures from various sources such as magazines, catalogues and old books and have children describe them. Use pictures with increasingly more complex themes for this purpose. You will need to prompt children to elaborate on the descriptions of their pictures through questioning. You might ask questions such as: 'Who (or what) is in the picture?', 'What is its size?', 'Tell me about the colour of the picture', 'When and where does the picture take place?', 'Tell me about the shape of the picture', 'Tell me more about the background'. You should be able to describe the picture fully, based on what the child or children have told you. Later, ask the children to make up a story based on the picture. Oral language text structures and features Many different oral language genres and text types can be introduced in the early years. For example, news talk is usually a recount with a particular text structure and language features. Modelling or demonstrat-ing the structure of news talk, and guiding children with words such as who, where, when, what and how can scaffold children's oral language. Learning how to ask questions in 'I wonder?' activities provides opportu-nities for teachers to explicitly teach the format of questions, and many children require this kind of clear, explicit teaching. 57 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
58 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching The oral language activities in Figure 2.11 demonstrate the organisation and the language used in some different oral language genres. Interviews, jokes, riddles and dramatic plays are other genres, and these can also be explored as teachers and children learn about language together. Figure 2.11 Some oral language activities, text structure and features Oral language activity Text structure and language features Example of activities News talk Recount (who, where, when, what, how) Recounting the news from the weekend Orientation Photo Story comments with photographs Event Recounting school events Event Event Personal Description Responding to a book, film, television show response May be descriptive and/or technical using comparative language, personal vocabulary feelings and thoughts Use of first person 'I' to describe thoughts, feelings and observations Storytelling May be a narrative, recount, retelling Puppet plays Orientation (who, where, when) Storytelling traditional tales such as The Series of events and/or problem, conclusion Wide-mouthed Frog Descriptive vocabulary Readers theatre with masks and puppets Family and community stories I wonder. .. ? Explanation 'I wonder ... ?' charts can be set up when Phenomenon is outlined in a question, e.g. reading information texts I wonder how kites fly? Children's questions can be listed and Explanation answers or explanations provided under the Explanation question Summary Report Report Oral report on a topic, usually prepared in General classification advance so the material is organised and Information comprehensive Information summary May have a compare/contrast framework I made ... Procedure Description of objects, experiments in Materials science, paintings, constructions made in Methodology craft, art, activity Debate Exposition to persuade or argue one side of A debate with a topic, e.g. an issue Goldilocks was a thief Organising information into an introduction, Team 1: three speakers for affirmative points of evidence, conclusion Team 2: three speakers for negative Technical vocabulary and data may be used Chairperson, timekeeper and adjudicator to provide scientific or logical argument who decide on the winning team Source: Based on Derewienka 1990, 2011, and Western Australian Department of Education and Training 2006 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
Oral language Taking roles in oral language One idea that helps make the genres and features of language clear to children is to use different roles in oral language activities. For example, even in the first year of school, young children are able to learn the roles for conducting class meetings where there is a chairperson, reporter, encourager and organiser. Each role is carefully introduced and children are given turns at each one. Rather than imposing the roles, the teacher invites children to explore what a meeting looks like, sounds like and feels like. Then the behaviour of roles for the particular social activity are explored and the features added to information charts. It is best to begin with a few simple roles and behaviours, and practise these. Figure 2.12 Roles used in a class meeting CHAIRPERSON REPORTER Says: Checks off names of people present 'Good morning everyone' Writes names/initials of apologies 'The first item on the agenda is .. .' Writes notes from the meeting 'Any comments .. .' chooses a person 'The next item is .. .' 'Any comments .. .' chooses a person Closes the meeting: 'The meeting is now closed.' ORGANISER ENCOURAGER Makes sure the meeting starts and finishes Asks: 'Does anyone want to add an idea?' on time Provides positive comments: 'Good idea.' Gets agenda ready on chart or whiteboard Makes sure people are ready sitting on chairs or floor Reminds people of time and to move on to the next point Chapter summary Language is vital for three reasons: children need to learn language, they learn through language and learn about language. As children learn language they become aware of sounds (phonemes), words and word order (syntax), and meaning (semantics). Pragmatics is the social use of language which has to do with selecting language to suit a particular purpose, and vocabulary or lexicon is knowledge about words and word meanings. From birth onwards, infants and toddlers experiment with 59 Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021
60 Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching sounds, words and word order, and by the time they are 3-4 years old they have a large vocabulary. By the time children begin school they have a vocabulary of between 2500 and 4000 words. Children's preschool vocabulary is highly predica-tive of reading and writing in later schooling. The early childhood teacher is important for extending children's oral language, learning about lan-guage, learning through language, phonemic awareness and writing skills. Language involves meaning making and serves in many different functions: to satisfy personal needs, to control others, to interact socially with others, to express ideas about self, to explore new things and test knowledge, to use the imagination and to communicate information. There are several spoken language genres with associated features that teachers can use with children: recounts, narratives, procedures, explanations, reports and arguments. The teacher's spoken language program may reflect different theoreti-cal orientations about how children learn, which will affect the kinds of activities they provide. In many early childhood settings, play in real-life play centres stimulates the use of language for a range of purposes. The activities planned to extend children's language include reading aloud, dramatising stories and storytelling, as well as posing questions and scaffolding children's language. Hill, Susan. Developing early literacy : assessment and teaching 3rd edition 2021 ch. 2 pp 23-60 9781761073021