Transcript Document

Young Learners: Enhancing children’s oral language
through talk about text
Janet Scull, Louise Paatsch*, Bridie Raban
The University of Melbourne
*Deakin University
ARECE, January 2010
Chief Investigators:
Associate Professor Margaret Brown (Principal Investigator), Associate Professor
Esther Care, Professor Bridie Raban, Professor Field Rickards, Mr Terry O’Connell
(Australian Scholarships Group)
Research team:
Associate Professor Brown (Team leader), Ms Emelie Barringer, Dr Anna Bortoli, Mr
Robert Brown, Dr Linda Byrnes, Associate Professor Care, Ms Esther Chan, Dr Amelia
Church, Ms Jan Deans, Ms Lucy Jackson, Dr Anne-Marie Morrissey (now at Deakin
University), Dr Andrea Nolan (now at Victoria University), Dr Louise Paatsch (now at
Deakin University), Mr Derek Patton, Professor Raban, Dr Maria Remine, Dr Janet
Scull, Ms Lena Tan, Ms Jessica Taylor and Dr Linda Watson (Birmingham University,
UK)
Funding Support:
Australian Scholarship Group (ASG); Australian Research Council (ARC): Linkage
Projects funding scheme (Project number LP0883437); Melbourne Graduate School of
Education, The University of Melbourne
Funding:
Australian Scholarships Group
$500,000
A not-for profit organisation, a parent co-operative focused on providing
educational opportunities for children
ARC Linkage Grant
$395,000
Easier to access if your partner puts up real dollars
University of Melbourne
$63,078
Through individual staff grants and Early Career Researcher funds
TOTAL FUNDING
$958,078
The Young Learners’ Project - will employ a mixed methods approach to :
• Establish an initial child profile.
• Develop a structured process through which teachers will; a) identify the
theoretical constructs that underpin their practices in the preschool and
first year of schooling; and b) identify their distinct literacy teaching
strategies.
• Develop a comprehensive early literacy scale.
• Evaluate effective literacy teaching strategies in the context of individual
children’s differences as evidenced in the Child Profile.
• Develop support material for parents and teachers.
This presentation reports a sub-study within this program of research that is
investigating patterns in teaching conversations during book reading with
implications for children’s language development.
In this we will consider:
• The research base that supports specific links between children’s oral
language and literacy learning.
• Data collection and coding of teaching questions.
• Patterns in questioning and children’s responses emerging from the data set.
• Implications for teacher training and develpoment.
Language and literacy
Oral language is widely recognised as the foundation for reading
development as it provides the semantic, syntactic and
phonological base for successfully moving from oral to written
language (Clay, 2001; Hill, 2009; Raban, 1999; Stanovich, 1986,
Snow 1990).
However, despite this the two modes of language differ in their
physical and social design posing challenges for young readers. As
Christie (2002) asserts in terms literacy development it is the
mastery of literate language that is one of the most important
challenges of schooling.
• vocabulary choices - rare words
• grammatical complexity of written language - extended,
decontextualised language forms, complex clause structures
Where the Wild Things Are - Sendak 1963
Max “sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks”
“And the wild things gnashed their terrible teeth and roared their terrible
roars”
“And now”’ cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”
Book reading as a context for developing literate language Vocabulary
A preference for interactive ‘dialogic reading’ engaging students in
conversations about text has been demonstrated to provide the stimulus
for expanding vocabulary knowledge (Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Ewers &
Brownson 1999; Whitehurst, Zevenbergen, Crone, Schultz, Velting &
Fischel 1999; Beck & McKeown, 2001; Wasik & Bond, 2001).
Syntax
Similarly, reading texts to students introduces new syntactic structures to
build and expand their knowledge of grammar (Cazden, 1982). Structural
variations introduced in texts develop a familiarity that allows the reader to
handle complex language with growing facility. As a stimulus for talk, texts
invite dialogue, expand lexical and grammatical competence and provide
contexts for language use.
Talk for learning
The main purpose of teacher talk is to structure opportunities for
student learning. Teacher talk used purposefully and concisely
allow students’ opportunities for active and focused listening as well
as providing a model for student talk. Most learning, however, will
occur during the opportunities that are made for student talk.
(Essex and Raban, 1999, p7)
Method
Participants and data collection
• 19 trained preschool teachers (analysis of 16 transcripts)
• All work in the funded preschool program (opportunity sample)
• Participated in a small group book reading session (3-6 children)
• Teachers selected the book to read (one non fiction text)
• All sessions were video recorded and transcribed
• Duration of sessions ranged between 10 to 15 minutes
Coding of data
1. Question types used by preschool teachers during book reading
sessions - based on Siraj-Blatchford & Mani (2008) - Researching
Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) and Effective
Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE).
- Closed questions
- Open questions
- Statement questions
- Pseudo choice requests
- Recall to elicit
2. Children’s responses - preliminary analysis of grammatical
complexity
Types of teaching questions (N=498)
1
0.9
0.8
Proportion
0.7
0.6
0.58
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.18
0.2
0.14
0.1
0.06
0.04
Pseudo Choice
Request
Recall to Elicit
0
Closed
Open
Statem ent
Question Type
Closed questions and children’s responses:
Known – A question to which the answer is known and to which there is only
one acceptable response
What’s he doing now?
Scaring the dog
Is he flying or is he running?
Running
Not Known – A question to which the child holds the answer. Response
usually involves a small selection of acceptable possible choices.
And what is your favorite story?
Where is the green sheep
Yes/No – A question requiring a yes/no response
Can bears fly?
No
Types of Closed Questions (n=290)
1
0.9
0.8
Proportion
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.47
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.13
0.1
0
Known
Not Known
Closed Question Type
Yes/No
Open questions and children’s responses:
Prediction – A question to which the child is encouraged to predict what may
be happening in the text.
Who do you think is next (child’s name)?
White dog
Inference – A question to which the child is encouraged to infer from the
text/illustration
Why do you think she wouldn’t wear it?
Because she wants to keep it safe
World Knowledge – A question requiring the child to relate to their own
experiences and world knowledge
Do you know another word for looking?
Peeking, looking and staring
Evaluation/Opinion – A question to which the child is encouraged to
evaluate or give their opinion
Which part did you like?
When his room was growing.
When he turned strange things into stuff
Other – Open questions which do not fit in the sub categories outlined
What do you think you would remember?”
The clock
Clarification – A question to clarify the child’s response
Child - It doesn’t look like a book
Tchr -This one?
Child - Yeah, it looks like a seat
Expansion – A question which expands on the child’s previous
response
Child - That’s upside-down
Tchr - How do know it’s upside down?
Child - Because the people and words and all the pictures are
upside down
The third move Even sequences that start with known information
questions can develop into more..if in the followup move, evaluation is avoided and instead
justifications, connections are requested.
(Nassaji et al., 2000 p 33)
Proportion
Types of Open Questions (n=89)
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.28
0.19
n
io
t
ic
ed
r
P
re
fe
n
I
0.18
es
c
n
ld
or
W
K
w
no
ge
d
le
0.16
n
io
n
pi
O
/
n
io
t
ua
al
v
E
0.1
C
io
at
c
i
rif
la
Question Type
0.07
n
p
Ex
n
io
s
an
0.02
O
e
th
r
Further question types:
Pseudo-Choice Request – A question which is usually a statement or
demand (indirect request) or to attend to information in text
Will we count them? One….
Are you ready to listen to this one?
Do you want to come a bit closer and sit down here?
Recall to Elicit Information – A question which seeks to recall information
previously learned, experienced or taught
What have we been exploring for the last week?
Australia
Statement Question Types - no response
Acknowledgement – A question which acknowledges the child’s response.
A verbal response is often not sought or may lead to a yes/no or non-verbal
response
He is a bit multi-coloured, isn’t he?
Information – A question which provides further information. A verbal
response is often not sought or may lead to a yes/no or non-verbal
response
It seems to be very hard to make them happy, doesn’t it?”
It looks like an island doesn’t it?
Statement Questions (n=67)
1
0.9
0.8
Proportion
0.7
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Acknow ledgement
Information
Question Type
Patterns in teaching questions similar to
Siraj-Blatchford & Mani (2008):
Of the total of all 5808 questions asked:
• 94.5% - closed varieties
• 5.5% - open varieties
This study analysed 498 questions:
• 82% - closed varieties
• 18% - open varieties
Open questions and opportunities for children’s talk:
Jenny and Finding Time
(Vladimir Skutna & Marie-Jose Sacre)
Open questions and opportunities for children’s talk:
Why do you think you have to start here?
Because that’s where the pirates were and then they sailed
away
And why is that (child’s name) do you think?
It makes you cheer up
Closed not known questions provide opportunities for extended
responses What else do you like on your toast?
Peanut butter
I like more butter and vegemite
I have junk food honey and jam at the same time on the same toast
Yes/no questions -
Well he’s hiding behind the tree, do you think that makes him scared?
No
No
He’s just doing that so no one can see him.
He’s got his wings, he’s got his feathers, does he need anything else?
No
[What else does he need?]
If you were Jenny do you think you would have felt the same about that plain hat?
No
[How would you have felt if you had a plain hat like Jenny’s?]
Implications:
Elaborate the relationship between teaching questions, the
complexity of children’s responses and oral language
development.
Examine teaching [the teaching/learning nexus]
• Description
• Analysis
• Predicting outcomes for children (City et al., 2009)
Explore productive teaching interactions as a core platform for
pre-service and inservice education.
For further information:
Young Learners’ Project
www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/younglearners/
Dr Janet Scull Dr Louise Paatsch Professor Bridie Raban -
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]