janet scull, louise paatsch*, bridie raban the university of melbourne *deakin university arece,...
TRANSCRIPT
Janet Scull, Louise Paatsch*, Bridie RabanThe University of Melbourne
*Deakin University
ARECE, January 2010
Young Learners: Enhancing children’s oral language through talk about text
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).
SyntaxSimilarly, 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)
0.58
0.180.14
0.06 0.04
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Closed Open Statement Pseudo ChoiceRequest
Recall to Elicit
Question Type
Proportion
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 dogIs 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 responseCan bears fly?
No
Types of Closed Questions (n=290)
0.47
0.13
0.4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Known Not Known Yes/No
Closed Question Type
Proportion
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 outlinedWhat do you think you would remember?”The clock
Clarification – A question to clarify the child’s responseChild - It doesn’t look like a bookTchr -This one?Child - Yeah, it looks like a seat
Expansion – A question which expands on the child’s previous response
Child - That’s upside-downTchr - 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 follow-up move, evaluation is avoided and instead justifications, connections are requested.
(Nassaji et al., 2000 p 33)
Types of Open Questions (n=89)
0.280.19 0.18 0.16
0.1 0.070.02
00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.9
1
Prediction Inferences
World KnowledgeEvaluation/Opinion
Clarification Expansion
Other
Question Type
Proportion
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)
0.6
0.4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Acknowledgement Information
Question Type
Proportion
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?NoNoHe’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 - [email protected]
Dr Louise Paatsch - [email protected]
Professor Bridie Raban - [email protected]