Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Oral Language Development: Its Role in Literacy & the Teacher’s Role in It



“Literacy development in the early years” (as the chapter is so aptly named) is a key to literacy development sometimes overlooked in the explicit text instruction of literacy. As a future teacher, I myself can sometimes forget about the importance of oral language development, especially in children younger than school age. The key lays in their abilities to relate what they’re speaking to meaning and then to text. Without those important bridges, they cannot relate sounds to letters and then meaning to words.
            As teachers and parents, we must encourage language development in the most positive ways possible. Just as easily as positive reinforcement boosts language development, negative reinforcement can hinder and damage it. (This did lead me to the question: Can delayed language development be “fixed” [for lack of better term] by the time the child is in an early elementary school setting?) Expansion (in the role of teacher/parent) is a key to this as well, as explained in Vygotsky’s theory. I strongly identified with the Constructivist theory, and the implications of it. I believe (as the theory suggests) a child’s language development is an individualized, active, and social process. We still play an important role in this way, because it is not only up to the child to learn and develop, but also up to us to properly interact and feed their growth. The child’s acquisition process is messy and continuous, and depends upon the social contexts of their lives. In this way, sitting a child in front of a TV program designed to help their language development can be rendered completely useless if they 1) have no one to interact with in person and 2) are not allowed to incorrectly explore (and eventually correct themselves) language verbally. This begs the question, at what point as educators do we begin “punishment” (again, for lack of a better term) for improper/asynchronous paced development, rather than find their errors endearing and part of the process?
            All of this is important to note as teachers when assessing children’s specific strengths and weaknesses in oral language development. We need to attempt to understand the child’s social context for language development, as a way of understanding their specific levels in development (what language is used around them, is it an interactive process, etc.) We also need to use developmentally appropriate language; this often means increasing syntactic complexity beyond what we believe they understand. We must provide a language rich environment where interactive language usage is stimulated (to a reasonable extent; class discussions are a great tool when monitored properly, but this does not mean we have to allow children to talk literally all of the time).

            I personally witnessed all of these examples coming into play during my last visit to AppleTree center. The children (4-5 year olds) were learning a unit on “Equines”. I never would’ve thought to teach children so young a word and concept many people my age aren’t even aware of. Though most of the class couldn’t read the texts themselves that were being read aloud to them, they were learning so much on a very interesting topic that is rich with new words and hearing very informational texts.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Chapter Four

One topic addressed in the text was formal conversations without the teacher. It addressed that when students are released to have group discussions, there needs to be an individual to direct conversation and ensure the discussion is kept on topic. I think group conversations without the teacher are a necessary part of the classroom. The individuals who have led class discussion have been able to build on their leadership skills. I have found it useful in our class discussions. It allows students to discuss with one another and expand their knowledge on a topic. It allows for students to hear different viewpoints on a topic. Students learn how to respect others and their beliefs through these discussions. I’ve thought about things differently from hearing other individuals in our class share their opinions.
 
The behaviorist theory states that language is defined as the observed and produced speech that occurs in the interaction of speaker and listener. I believe this is somewhat true of us. I believe that you are what you surround yourself with. However, is this true of every student? What are the benefits of this theory? What are the disadvantages of this theory?
 
 
The theories that I most identify with are The Piagetian and Vygotskian Theories along with The Constructivist Theory. The Piagetian and Vygotskian Theory is built on the idea that children develop through their activities. I believe that children learn through others. They pick up on social cues from one another and learn how to interact. The Constructivist Theory is built on the idea that children are the creators of language on the basis of an innate set of rules or underlying concepts. It focuses on the fact that children make errors and that this is an important part of learning how language works. I think students make mistakes and once they realize it is wrong they are able to improve. It is natural of individuals to self assess themselves and work on their weaknesses.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things:

              Chapter 4 teaches us about language and vocabulary development. Opening the chapter with an excerpt from the poem The Walrus and the Carpenter, helps us as the readers to jump right into this wonderfully intriguing topic. The theories on language acquisition and development, being the back bone to the actually teaching methods, is where I have decided to focus my attention on.
              The behaviorist theory is based on the child's interaction with language involving their guardians; whether that be a positive or negative interaction. If the guardian encourages the child's cooing and babbling the child is more likely to make attempts at speech. Where as if a child is told to be quiet constantly, this child will not be so adventurous. This theory also includes children mimicking the types of language that they hear. The book gave an example of a three-year-old girl singing "My country tis a bee" instead of "My country tis of thee" because 'thee' is a word she had never heard before. (pg 100) I still find myself singing the wrong lyrics to my favorite songs because I miss hear it or put a word in that I feel would make the most sense. This really makes you think about how much your language in the classroom can affect a child for the rest of their life. (scary I know) I guess one large question would be, how do you watch what you say in front of your students as to not completely thwart their language confidence.
                I thoroughly disagree with the Nativist Theory. I think it is incredibly unreasonable to think that a child would first "internalize the rules of grammar, then enabling them to produce an infinite amount of sentences." (pg 101) Personally, I learned to speak so early because my parents were constantly talking to me, reading my stories, filming me asking me questions, and so much more. Not because my parents sat me down and told me the correct use of "their, they're and there." How can a child's language possibly grow without the help of their surroundings?
               Piagetian and Vygotskian theories really go hand in hand. Piagetian focusing on the experiences and sensory actions of the child. This theory also focuses on the child first talking about them self. This theory makes a lot of sense because I know that when I was young I loved talking about myself and being able to express myself in a vocal way. The Vygoskian theory talks about using social interactions to further language skills. The best way I learned about life and about new words was listening to conversations had between my parents and other adult figures in my life. I was able to watch and listen as to how they used certain phrases or words and figure out what context to use them in myself.
               The constructivist theory also speaks more about a child's innate learning capabilities. This theory also involves children speaking in an incorrect manor but being able to correct themselves as being a very important part of the learning process. This theory could also potentially be compared to Halliday's theory where children "learn how to mean" (pg 102). The child alone learns how to use their language through relevance and functionality.
              Some final questions I have would be, how can we see how a child is learning language in the best manor? Is it okay for us, as teachers, to let our students mess up and correct themselves for their own benefit? Finally, what is the best way to implement these theories into our daily lesson plans?
             

Chapter 4 is all about language and the child. Growing up, this has always been something I have thought about. How do we know how to speak? We are taught, but how does our brain know to do that itself? These are questions I have always asked myself. The fact that people just start talking when they are infants is crazy to me. Chapter 4 discussed theories that help us understand a bit more how children go about speaking. All of the theories have great ideas and great points, but I like the Behaviorist theory the most. The behaviorist theory focuses more on positive reinforcement. It is so important for children to have some sort of reinforcement in their lives. Children love having positive reinforcement. Actually, I think all people like to have some sort of positive reinforcement in their lives from some one. It makes us feel good. It makes us feel like we are doing something right. I can remember being younger and showing my mom how well I colored in the lines in a coloring book and she would put it on the refridgerator. That made me feel so good about myself and about what I was doing. And thats exactly how children need to feel when they are learning how to speak and develop their language. They have no idea what they are doing, but they hear the adults around them talking, so they imitate that. Which theory do you most agree with and why?

Although each child is different, and each child learns in different ways and at different paces, they have created a general stages in which children's language develops. I agree with the age ranges and stages that they have created. It is very hard to try to group children together and make them all fit into certain categories. It is also very hard to do that in a classroom. That is a task I am a little scared of when I have my own classroom. I think it is going to be very difficult to have to figure out how to tend to each child when I have a classroom full of them. If you have a classroom full of 20+ kindergarteners, I don't really think you have time to sit down with every student and figure out what you need to teach them. But knowing the different stages in which children generally are when it comes to language development makes me not as nervous about helping the children. What do you think the best way is to see where the children are in terms of language development?

It is very important to be descriptive with our language around young children. The children will pick up on that and start doing it themselves. The chapter gives many helpful things to say to children to help their language. I really liked the section on overgeneralizations. I had no idea that you should not correct the child when they say something like using me for I. Instead of learning from it, it makes them not want to use the language at all. It is important just to model good language and hopefully the child will pick up on it by the age of 5. I think this is hard for most of us because we want them to be correct but I think they have to get a feel for the language and figure it out on their own. Do you agree with not correcting the child when they say something wrong? 

Can Language Development and Reading Be Related?

Chapter 4: Language and Vocabulary Development

            The chapter begins by explaining how closely related language development and reading can be when children are in the learning stage. A child can be introduced to language from the moment of birth. Before the child is able to become literate—able to read and write, he or she has to take the first step by developing a language. In order to learn a language, children involve themselves in problem solving by first creating a hypotheses over the information they already know and then applying the hypotheses by interacting with other individuals around them. Would it be more beneficial for the child to interact with individuals that are also in the process of language development or adults who have already established a language? My thoughts are a mixture of both. Since children do not learn language passively, it might help to get adult input to help further their background knowledge. While interacting with other children that are developing language, the child might feel more comfortable constructing and rebuilding his or her language as he or she gains more background knowledge. I agree with the text when it states that children who are always exposed to an environment rich in language and who regularly interact with adults using language in a social context can develop more facility with oral language. I also suggest that children should interact with other children who may be in the same learning stage as them, to teach and build upon one another’s language. Children can learn receptive language (what they understand) and expressive language (what they use) by surrounding themselves with both adults and children of the same age. Since reading and writing involve the use of language, I can assume that the acquisition of oral language, reading, and writing share similar characteristics.  Reading is the interaction between the reader and written language. Developing a language can play a big part in the ability of learning to read. The text defines reading as “the use of one’s language ability to decode and comprehend text.” As educators, we pay attention to recognizable grammar sequences and patterns that generate appropriate phrasing when the child is in the process of reading. 
            The text provides several theories in language acquisition: the behaviorist theory, nativist theory, Piagetian and Vygotskian theories, constructivist theory, and Halliday’s theory of language development. To keep this blog post from exceeding in length, I won’t explain every theory but I will provide the page number to find them on! (PG 100-102) By familiarizing ourselves with those theories, we are able to provide environments for our future students that promote language development and reading.

            Language development in the early years can be heavily influenced by the child’s brain development. The more exposure the child has to language, the better the brain can make connections to experience and application. Children go through a series of stages when developing a language and begin to learn the structural rules of language including phonology, syntax, and semantics. Even though these rules have been set in place, the child learns at his or her own pace. So how do we measure a child’s language development? Formative and summative assessment should be used to identify children’s needs as they develop language. These assessments can either be formal or informal. Formal assessments are those that include standardized testing measures. Informal assessments include but are not limited to audio recording, t-unit analysis, checklists, and anecdotal records. To decide which assessment you should use with a child, remember what we learned from Chapter 3. Keep in mind the diversity of your classroom and the cultural background of each child.

How Teachers Help Students Develop Language

Chapter 4 mentioned five theorists that all describe how they believe children develop language and vocabulary. Each theorist has a different explanation; I believe that all of these theories contribute to language development. Some of these theories believe its start at a younger age, and some take place while children are a little older. During your experiences working with children, which theory have you experienced? I work at a daycare with infants through 18 months. I tend to see actions that go along with the Behaviorist theory and the Piagetian and Vygotskian theory. I notice that the kids I work with often imitate our actions. When we demonstrate that lions roar, they kids will start to make that connection when we see lions in our books and videos. Piagetian and Vygotsky say that development relates to the children’s surroundings. One example from my experiences is many of our kids learn to say “baby” as one of their early words. This is because they attend a daycare where we have several babies, and they hear us say that often. They will often point to the baby, and our response is “this is baby Emma.”

While visiting Apple Tree daycare, the majority of us are in the rooms with children from 3-5. In our textbook on page 106 it mentions that ages 2-3 is the most dramatic in development, 3-4 it develops rapidly, and 5-6 they sound much like adults when speaking. Are you surprised that Apple Tree has such a wide range of children grouped together? What differences have you seen in the younger to older children in your class? Do you think this is good for development or hinders student’s development being grouped together? In my classroom we only have one three year old, and she is advanced for her age. She talks very clearly, and uses vocabulary well for her age. I have not found many students that talk much like adults in our class. In my opinion, the majority of our students fall into that middle category. Maybe being grouped together its pulls the younger ones up (they develop quicker), but the older ones tend to get stuck in that middle category.

The book mentions strategies for Language development in early childhood classrooms, what we are experiencing at Apple Tree. On page 115 it list examples of learning centers and materials appropriate for this age group. Of these different centers which ones have you seen in your classrooms at Apple Tree? How do you think these are helping the students in their language development? My classroom has a fish as their class pet. They are learning how to take care of their pet, and this develops words that are related to helping/caring for others. This may be an area that they have to have permission to use and listen to teacher’s instructions in order to help.

Questions to consider:
§  Many of us work in daycares/early childhood centers, and are now visiting Apple Tree. For language development, do you think children benefit more from attending a daycare or staying home with a parent?
§  Do you think teaching children to use sign language is a form of language development?

I found a few resources that teachers can use to help students language development.

I really like the second resource, reading rockets. It gives specific activities for each age group to help develop language and literacy. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2015


Chapter 3 in our book focused on diversity and treating each child as an individual in the classroom, both socially and academically. On page 67, the book states that now, more than ever, there is greater diversity in today’s classrooms and that differentiating instruction to meet the individual needs of all children is a necessity. The book also outlines that learning goals for all students are the same, which means that teachers need to adjust instruction for each student. What are some ways that you plan to adjust instruction based on the individual needs of all of your students, especially for literacy instruction? Can you think of any examples of this being done in any of your classes? I personally believe that the most effective way to teach each child to his/her own level is through group work and differentiated instruction. On pages 86 and 87, the book outlines how to effectively use differentiated instruction in a classroom. As the book says, I plan to assess my students by using the methods we are currently learning in class, and I plan to follow that by grouping children so that they can lead their own learning along with peers who are at similar levels as them. At this time, I would provide additional support for the students who are further behind than others.
            Page 67 of the book also says one in every three children is from a different ethnic or racial group. How do you plan on using this information to make your classroom feel more welcoming to these students, especially regarding literature? In my future classroom, I will be sure to include books and other forms of text that are very culturally and racially diverse, that way students will have a better sense of belonging and will be able to see themselves in the books provided in the classroom.          
     One thing mentioned in chapter 3 that I found particularly interesting is the idea of children learning English as a second language. How would you approach this situation if it were to happen in your classroom? Have you had any personal experiences with this? When I was in the second grade, we got a new student who did not know any English at all. My teacher’s approach was to make the language learning be a two way street. For example, she engaged us in learning Spanish from him, while we helped him learn English. I think that this helped us understand how difficult it was for him, as well as helped keep the line of communication open for students to learn from each other, which is one suggestion the book  makes for students like this. Another thing that is suggested in the book regarding this situation is to have the second language in writing around the classroom. I have noticed this a lot with Spanish in schools. For example, things will often be labeled in English and Spanish to help students learn both translations, depending on which language they may already speak.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Nation of Communities, Blended Together

Having grown up in a bilingual home, I agree with the text’s support for diverse learners outlined in Chapter 3. My father met my mother in South Korea while he was deployed there as a Marine. My mother continues to work on her English. It helps that my hometown has a large, supportive Korean community to help make America more home-like for her. I was raised with both Korean and English in my home, but I received no support from my schools for my multicultural background. Much of the chapter summarized the importance of recognizing and accommodating to ELLs (English Language Learners) in the classroom. As a teacher, I hope to break down the barriers of diversity in my classroom to create a rich learning environment for my students.

On page 70, the text states “differences do not mean deficits”. I believe it is important for educators to view their students’ diverse backgrounds as positive additions to the classroom. Being inclusive of student backgrounds creates a supportive community of learners who are willing to help one another succeed. The students will be able to better understand each other if they are aware of what makes them different and unique.

There is a section in the text that mentions and lists helpful strategies for teaching ELLs to read and write on pages 72-81. Three strategies I believe will be most helpful to me as a future teacher are:
  • ·      Make your classroom predictable with routines that will help ELL students feel safe and accepted in their new environment.
  • ·      Demonstrate sincere interest in learning about your ELL child’s native language, customs, and traditions. Allow this discussion to play an important role in your activities.
  • ·      Have ELL children collect new vocabulary on their “Very Own Words” cards kept in a container. On one side, write the word in English, and on the other, write it in their native language. Use an accompanying picture for visual reinforcement.

I found these strategies to be especially useful to my studies, because I have an extra major in early childhood education. I believe these strategies could be easily adapted for use in both a classroom with ELL students and in an early childhood classroom.


What strategy(s) do you find to be the most useful for implementation in your future classroom? All strategies were helpful, but try to pinpoint ones you truly believe you would use. I’m interested in seeing what others have to share on the topic of diversity in teaching literacy!