The importance of language in the early childhood classroom cannot be overstated. All classroom activities that children engage in involve language to some extent. Those who have studied language know that it is among the most complex of human behaviours. Yet by the time children have reached the end of their third year of life, they have acquired all of the basic constructs of their native language.

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They have a vocabulary of literally thousands of words and comprehend many more words than they produce. They use different structures to make statements about objects or events, to ask questions, or to make requests. They use and understand small innuendos in language that may vary in meaning from context to context.

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When a child enters the kindergarten classroom, they 'know' language. Our job then is to not teach them language, rather our job is to facilitate growth or development in their ability to use the language with which they enter. This page will demonstrate how language can be the integrating force in the early childhood curriculum. The primary focus is the strategies, materials, attitudes and environmental conditions that have proven to be useful for children's language competence.

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Organise the learning environment to facilitate language development. The living space in the early childhood classroom should be arranged such that it provides support for children's language development. The role of the teacher is that of environmental arranger. Children are curious by nature and the environment supports this curiosity if it is a dynamic rather than a static setting. Children notice even the most subtle changes in the classroom, such as a new object in the room, a missing object, or an object that has been moved.

 

These changes create an atmosphere that preserves the child's curiosity leading in turn to more cognitive-oriented exploration. The environment should provide the children freedom within a structure. That is, the teacher should plan the environment and activities so that certain objectives are met. Within this planned environment, there should be choices for the child which reflect alternative routes for teaching those objectives. The activities and materials provided for in the environment should be manipulatable, concrete, and relevant to the lives of the children.

 

Because language is a social behaviour and can only be learned in interaction with others, the environment should be interactive. The teacher should provide for a variety of activities. The activities can be changed and their difficulty increased as children develop understanding and accomplish the skills. The teacher can facilitate the children's interaction with the environment by asking questions, making suggestions, or stimulate children's language through other appropriate means. The language learning environment should provide opportunities for at least the following activities.:

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Spontaneous Language Production Activities: There should be a time and a place in each early childhood classroom for all children to be able to express themselves through language in a free and spontaneous manner. Such opportunities provide children with occasions to use many functions of language, including giving information, asking for information, using language to control their environment, using language for fantasy, as well as using language simply for the pleasure of interacting with others. Examples of areas in the classroom which provide such opportunity are the housekeeping corner, the dramatic play corner, the puppet stage, the language activity center, the block area, as well as the sand and water areas. Children should be allowed to freely use language for communicative as well as non-communicative purposes, such as making sounds and saying words for the pure enjoyment of the behaviour itself.

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There are many ways that teachers can support children’s communication development in the classroom. Many of the suggestions are easily transferrable to an early education and care setting.

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To help extend and support children’s language development in your conversations with young children, use:

+ Pauses – by pausing frequently and waiting for their answer in conversations you can encourage children to actively participate in the conversation and learn to take turns speaking.

 

+Pace – adjust the pace of your conversation to the child you’re speaking with and give children plenty of time to take turns and respond.

 

+Confirmation – respond to most of the child’s sounds and words and confirm that you understand what they mean. Don’t ignore children’s attempts to interact with you.

 

+ Imitation – imitate and repeat almost exactly what the child says to you.

 

+ Comments – make comments on what’s happening or what the child is doing.

 

+ Labelling – use words to label familiar and unfamiliar objects, situations or feelings.

 

+ Open questions – by asking questions that require more than a yes/no answer, you can encourage communication development.

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+ Extending - when you repeat what the child has said, add a little bit of syntactic or semantic information. For example, if the child says 'Daddy car', you have a few different ways to respond: 

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> Copying: Daddy car'

> Expanding: 'Yes, daddy's driving the car'

> Extending: 'It's a red car'

> Recasting: Is it daddy's car?'

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