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American Montessori Society

Fall Conference

Irvine, California

October 12 – 14, 2007

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Words @ Work in the Classroom

Josh Thompson, Ph.D.

Texas A&M University-Commerce

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Words at Work in the Classroom

An exploration of spoken language in the Montessori classroom environment. Listen in on the pragmatic nature of language: how do directors prepare the language environment to provide communicative competence, and how do children learn to use language to do things?

(Infants &Toddlers, Early Childhood)

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Good Morning Songs

Good Morning to All (1893) by Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill

Good Morning, Good Morning (1952)from Singin’ in the Rain, by Brown & Freed

When Ducks Get up in the Morning by Nancy Stewart www.nancymusic.com

Thank-you, Lord, for this fine day

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ThanksThank-you, Maria Montessori

awaken my senses to the world around me

awaken my senses to the children around us

give me a place, a space, as a man in ECE

My childhood, my family

My mentors, teachers, friends, & colleagues

The Children

Turn to a neighbor, and express a thanks

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Oral Language Development

Foundations for literacy

Influence of home

Influence of classroom

Over-emphasis on literacy impedes oral language development (Dickinson & Tabors, 2002)

Turn to a neighbor, and express indignation!

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Pragmatics

Language to do things

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Linguistics overview

Language is a system of rules for using symbols for sharing meaning

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Linguistics overview

Six rule systemsphonology

morphology

semantics

syntax

pragmatics

prosody

(Gunning, 2008)

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Linguistics overviewTwo modes

many methodsReceptive Expressive

Oral Listen Speak

Written Read Write

Visual Appreciate Create

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Linguistics overview

Five big ideas of early literacy instruction phonemic awareness

phonics

vocabulary

comprehension

fluency

(National Reading Panel, 1999)

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Pragmatic Development

Communicative Competence - Knowing when to speak, when not to, what to talk about and with whom, when, where, and in what manner to interact (Hymes, 1972) Pragmatic Development

Language Functions – using language in various contexts to do things (Cazden & Hymes, 1972)

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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta

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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

Four Body Instrumentsclap pat stomp snap

ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta

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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

Four Body Instrumentsclap pat stomp snap

ti ti Ta ti ti ti titi ti Ta ti ti ta

Keep a poem in your pocketAnd a song in your heartAnd you’ll never be lonely At home or in the dark (de Regniers)

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Oral Language ResearchClassroom Discourse (Cazden 2001)

Home-School Language Study (Dickinson & Tabors 2001)

Micro-ethnography (Bloome, et al, 2005)

Labov, Hymes, Heath

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classroomsTwo Montessori, two public school

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classroomsOne 3-6 year old class, one 6-9 year old class,

one Pre-kindergarten, one first grade

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classroomsOne male, three female teachers

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classroomsYears of teaching experience = 2, 8, 22, 27;

Average = 14.75

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classrooms All monolingual English classrooms

20% - 57% Spanish dominant in the home

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classroomsFive hours in each classroom

Audio and Video recording of teacher talk

Observer Effect

Transcriptions, marked by Speech Acts

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classrooms Speech Act – seminal unit of discourse analysis

(Hymes, 1972)

S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. form identifies boundaries – what constitutes a unique speech act event

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SPEAKING Observation Model Record Form

(Hymes, 1968; Wolfson, 1989; L. Thompson, 1996, W.J.Thompson, 2001)Setting: Date: ____/____/___ Day: S M T W Th F S Time: __________A.M./P.M.

Place: Physical circumstances: Psychological setting:

Participants:Speaker: Addressor: Audience: Addressee:

Ends:Purposes or Outcomes: Goals:

Act Sequence:Message form: Message content:

Key: Instrumentalities:

Channel: Forms of Speech (codes, registers):

Norms:Norms of interaction: Norms of interpretation:

Genres: Categories:

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Capturing Teacher Talk

Listening in on four classrooms Speech Acts

Range = 3 events per minute to one event in five minutes

Average = 100 per hour, 500 per day, 2500 per school, 10,000 total

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Language functions

Using language in various contexts to do things

– Jakobson

– Hymes

– Halliday

– Tough

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Five Language Functions

Affection

Control

Information

Pedagogy

Social Exchange

(Baron 1990)

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Five Language Functions

Listening in on four classroomsAffection

ControlInformation

PedagogySocial Exchange

(Baron 1990)

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What is language good for?

What good is language, anyway?

What makes language good?

What is good language?

What do you wonder about? Ask a question.

What language is good for.

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Table Talk

“To become competent conversationalists, children have to learn how to

1. Choose and introduce topics for talk

2. Respond appropriately

3. Tell a story

4. Develop an argument”

(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 3)

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Table Talk

Indeterminacy of Goals

Vocabulary Approximation

Extended Narrative

Metapragmatic Discourse

Non-immediate

De-contextualized

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Table Talk

www.MealsTogether.com

www.TableTime.com

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Table Talk

“Ordinary conversations are, at least ostensibly, not goal oriented… ‘[T]alking is an end in itself.’”

(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)

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Table Talk

“Family dinners are also familial WE events shared with children; as such they may carry important intentional socialization functions ranging from table manners to socialization of family values.”

(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)

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Table Talk

“This built in tension between sociability and socialization further sets dinners apart from both ordinary conversations and public events and has important consequences for the thematic organization of dinner talk.”

(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)

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Table Talk

“Dinners, like ordinary conversation, allow members to engage in conversation for social enjoyment only, with no visible outcome; simultaneously, they may have crucial outcomes, especially with regard to socialization.”

(Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)

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Conclusion

Children learn to speak because they want to connect. The drive for relationship is stronger than any internal or external mechanics of language. Providing children, in classrooms, with rich potent language partners holds promise for extending language well into literacy, and on into communicative competence.

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Ancient Wisdom

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Book of St. James, chapter 3, verse 1

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Ancient Wisdom

2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. (NIV)

Book of St. James, chapter 3, verse 2

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ReferencesBaron, N. S. (1990). Pigeon-birds and rhyming words: The role of parents in language learning.

Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Bloome, D., Carter, S. P., Christian, B. M., Otto, S. & Shuart-Faris, N. (2005). Discourse analysis and

the study of classroom language and literacy events – A microethnographic perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Blum-Kulka, S. (1997). Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization in Family Discourse. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Cazden, C. B., & Hymes, D. (1985). Language Functions in the Classroom. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Dickinson, D.K. (2003). Why We Must Improve Teacher-Child Conversations in Preschools and the Promise of Professional Development. In L. Girolametto & E. Weitzman (Eds.), Enhancing caregiver language facilitation in childcare settings (pp. 4-1 - 4-8). Toronto, Canada: The Hanen Institute.

Dickinson, D. K., & Tabors, P. O. (2001). Beginning literacy with language: Young children learning at home and school. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.

Dickinson, D. K., & Tabors, P. O. (March 2002). Fostering Language and Literacy in Classrooms and Homes, in Young Children, vol 57, no. 2, pp. 10-18.

Gunning, T. G. (2008). Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students (6th ed). NY: Pearson Education. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics

(pp. 269-293). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: Report of the National Reading Panel.

Available online at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.cfm

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