Early Childhood Educator Preparation to Support High-Quality Language Instruction
Incidental Support for Expressive Language
MODULE 4
Module 4 encourages teachers to use every opportunity during the preschool day to build language skills in authentic interactions. These interactions can occur as the teacher observes the children and interacts with the children throughout the day. Teachers should constantly be looking for specific examples where they might intervene, in hopes that these strategies become an embedded part of a rich language environment that promotes communication. Research shows that the best time to build children’s language is within the first five years of life. A teacher may model advanced language, scaffold child responses through expansions, reword a child’s response, or carrying on a multi-turn conversation. Through these incidental moments, the teacher can provide natural, high-quality language enhancement and support.
TEN STRATEGIES FOR ELICITING LANGUAGE
| Strategy Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Encourage Peer-to-Peer Conversations | Encouraging peer-to-peer interactions gives children the opportunity to interact and converse with one another. If a child comes to the teacher and makes a request that could be made to another child, the teacher encourages peer-to-peer interactions. For example, if a child comes to the teacher and says, “I want the red crayon,” the teacher redirects the child to the other child that has the red crayon. The teacher says, “Tell Brett that you would like the red crayon.” |
| Choice Making | There are many opportunities when teachers can offer choices of two or more objects to children. Some of these choices can include materials during play activities and foods during snack time. Children are most likely to make a choice when a preferred object is presented with a non-preferred object meaning children are more likely to communicate their desire for preferred objects. For example, during snack time, the teacher can offer a choice by saying, “Would you like raisins or goldfish?” Then, encourage the child to verbalize the choice. |
| Narration | Narration is like being a commentator of a sports event heard over the radio. The teacher’s role as narrator is to talk about everything she and/or the children are doing as if she were describing it to someone who is not in the room to see it. The goal of narration is to pair the child’s play and actions with the appropriate language. As a child repeatedly hears the words that go along with his/her actions, the child becomes more capable and likely to produce language about his/her own play. For example, if children are in the block area, the teacher can narrate by saying, “Look how Jimmy is taking the red block and placing it on the top of that tower. Oh no! I think it is going to fall down! Crash! The tower fell to the ground.” |
| Present Vocabulary with Pictures or Objects | Pair actual objects or pictures of objects with new words. Children are more likely to learn the meaning of a word or the function of an object when the actual object or picture is present. In this way, children can pair what you say about the object (auditory input) with what the object looks like (visual input) and what the object feels like (tactile input). For example, in the housekeeping center, the teacher could say while holding the broom, “This is a broom. We can use it to sweep up dirt from the floor.” |
| Use Specific Language | When talking to children, teachers should be as specific as possible with the language they use. Teachers should avoid using general non-specific words such as “that,” “there,” and “it.” For example, rather than saying to a child, “Can you please put that over there?” the teacher can be specific and say, “Can you please put the book on my desk?” In this way, children hear the names of objects repeatedly. The more children hear a word used correctly, the more likely they will be to use that word properly on their own. |
| Violate Expectations | During a familiar routine, the teacher sets up a silly situation or one that is out of the ordinary. The implementation of this strategy is most effective when used during a familiar routine. For example, during morning circle, the teacher can ask the children to get their blankets and go to their spots for naptime. This creates an opportunity for the children to comment on the absurdity of the situation. |
| Create Situations Where Help is Needed | Situations that are set up so that children will need to ask for assistance are likely to encourage communication. Presenting attractive materials that require assistance to operate can encourage children to communicate their need for help from adults or peers. For example, during outside play, the teacher can give the child a bottle of bubbles with the top screwed on too tight. If the child wants to blow bubbles, this will cause him to have to ask for teacher assistance in opening the bottle. |
| Model Desired Responses | Modeling is used by the teacher to demonstrate to children a sound, a word, or a language form that they do not yet produce on their own. Modeling can also be used to demonstrate to children what it is they are expected to say or do. Teachers can model by taking the first turn in a game, by correcting an incorrect word pronunciation, or by having a child repeat a grammatically correct sentence. For example, if a child points at a picture and says, “Look! It’s a tar,” the teacher can reply, “Yes, I see that star. Can you say star?” Then, encourage the child to pronounce the word correctly. |
| Use Sabotage | Sabotage is purposely creating a circumstance where something is out of the ordinary. One way to implement this strategy is by not giving the children all the materials they need to carry out an activity, which gives children the opportunity to make a request. This is an effective prompt for language when the cues are obvious. For example, during a painting activity, the teacher can provide the children with smocks, paper, and paintbrush, but “forget” to supply the children with paint. This would give the children the opportunity to request the paint. |
| Expansions | Expansions occur when an adult fills in the missing features of something a child has said, along with repeating the child’s utterance. For example, if a child says “ball,” the teacher may expand on that by saying, “Yes, I see the small red ball.” In this way, the teacher is acknowledging what the child has said by exposing him to language that is more descriptive. When the teacher expands on a child’s utterance, the teacher should always include the word or words the child used in his original utterance. |
