Article

Young Learners: Teachers’ Questions and Prompts as Opportunities for Children’s Language Development

Author

Janet Scull,Louise Paatsch,Bridie Raban

Information

pp. 69~91 / 2013 Vol.7 No.1

Abstract

One highly regarded context for language learning is book reading, as teachers engage children indiscussions around texts read. However, there is considerable variation in teachers’ patterns of talk thatmediate this learning with preschool children’s oral language development dependent on theopportunities for engagement in language use provided by teachers. To explore the affordances of talkinteractions within book reading a systematic analysis of teachers’ questions and children’s responseswas undertaken. Results of this analysis show that the highest proportion of questions asked by thisgroup of 18 preschool teachers were closed questions with a small proportion of open teaching questionsasked. However, while open questions provided the most substantial opportunities for children’sextended talk, the range of questions asked provided opportunities for preschool teachers to extendchildren’s responses, support children’s understanding of the text, develop vocabulary and worldknowledge, and to model more complex language structures.

Keywords