§ Reflect on what are the educational situations in which language work is carried out:

ÞTake into account that creating situations where language can be used ⍯ creating
situations where language is worked on / taught

§ Prioritize the communicative element of the language

Þ Propose real situations connected with the interests of the children

Þ Allow the children to take charge of the conversation
§ Observe children and identify their needs.

§ Promote different types of interaction:

Þ teacher – student
Þ teacher – small group
Þ teacher – large group
Þ student – student
§ Promote different types of interaction:

Þ teacher-student
Þ teacher – small group
Þ teacher – large group
Þ student – student

§ Define/ Establish the criteria to form groups within the classroom (linguistic criteria)
§ Let the children speak and to do so, be aware of the types of questions you ask.
Þ Questions promoting the formulation of hypotheses, anticipations, predictions or
questions helping the verbalization of actions allow children to make a richer and
more varied use of oral language
Þ Promote a use of language with greater complexity and a higher level of abstraction
What are adequate questions?

Tornero et al. (2015)

§ The teacher should make a conscious use of a range strategies to support children’s
linguistic and communicative development.

ÞHelp each child by attending to their needs: guiding them with questions,
reformulating, offering an appropriate context, encouraging continuation...

ÞMake explicit the conditions of the specific communicative activity to guide children

ÞRemember it is important to keep quiet sometimes, give children time to speak,

listen carefully to their contributions and respect their frames of reference.
§ The teacher should make a conscious use of a range strategies to support children’s
linguistic and communicative development.

ÞHelp them when they need it, i.e. when children's interventions have not been
effective or appropriate

ÞIntervene thinking of both the speaker and the listener, stressing the importance of
group interaction
§ PLANNING IS AT THE CORE OF INTERVENTION

§ What is the purpose of language teaching?

ÞLanguage activities should be planned accordingly

ÞUse and practice language in everyday situations.

Þ Identify the linguistic units (contents) that can be worked on through the
conversation that will arise within the activities

Þ Plan the didactic intervention

1. In routines

Þ Assembly allows to work on dialogues as well as on many oral sequences (narrative, description,
exposition). Beware of doing activities that are very repetitive.

2. In any activity related to other content areas

3. In any other situation specifically related to language (stories, chants, songs, poems,…)

Þ Representation games > thematic corners.

§ A store [teaching the communicative exchange that occurs in a store implies teaching courtesy
formulas, concrete communication structures, increasing the lexicon (nouns and adjectives)

Þ Phone call game

§ It can be done with different purposes: invite to a birthday party, borrow an object,...
§ Same language uses repeated in different contexts
§ To practice conventional formulas in significant situations

§ Social linguistic habits

§ Linguistic structures related to everyday actions
§ Psychomotor skills, arts and crafts, mathematics, science, …

§ Lively and motivating use of language

§ Related to experimentation and manipulation
§ Even though the purpose of these activities is not language teaching itself, we
make use of language learn the other contents.
§ Language use in these activities:

§ To share previous knowledge and make assumptions

§ To ask questions
§ To give reasons and justify actions
§ To establish cause and effect connections
§ To share beliefs about events and actions
§ To share and justify opinions
§ Language use in these activities:

§ To ask whenever something is not understood

§ To express intentions or ideas regarding a Project
§ To state the features of an object
§ To express their opinions regarding something that happened in the classroom
§ To focus on what the child herlsef is doing and guide her through interaction
§…
§ Whenever we plan actitives related to non-linguistic contents:

§ We need to anticipate the kinds of dialogues that will arise within the activity
§ And thus, we need to anticipate what we want to achieve in each interaction
§ Playful and poetic uses: stories, short poems, rhymes, songs, riddles…

§ Audio-visuals:
§ To practice pronunciation
§ To learn the exact meanings of words
§ To make the right combinations between words
§ The communicative purpose will guide the use of linguistic units
§ Each
communicative action will involve the use of certain linguistic
components
§ Planning and evaluation are linked together.

1. Identify the situation

2. Set the goal – identify the communicative skill we will be dealing with
3. Identify the contents à define the linguistic units that will be worked on
4. Desing the situations and analyze the possible group structures according to the
interaction situation:
§ Big group vs. small group
§ Homogeneous group vs. heterogeneous group
§ One-to-one conversations
5. Design the intervention situations and decide the role the teacher will play,
keeping in mind the following:

§ Affective scaffolding
§ Scaffolding for practicing language use:
§ Reformulations (substitutions, additions, summaries, changes, ...)
§ Other types of help (give children the words they need, give examples,
…)
§ Cognitive scaffolding
§ Questions
§ Managing of speaking turns
§ Error correction
§ Bigas, M. (2000) El lenguaje oral en la escuela infantil. En M. Bigas, & M. Correig
(eds.) Didáctica de la lengua en la educación infantil. Síntesis.
§ Huarte, M. & Ozerinjauregi, J. (2012). Interakzioaren garrantzia euskararen sarrera
goiztiarrean. Mendebalde Kultur Elkartea (arg.) Hizkuntzaz Jabetzen: 0-6.
Mendebalde.
§ Fons, M. & Palou, J. (2016) Hablar para comunicarse. En Didáctica de la lengua y la
literatura en Educación Infantil. Síntesis.
§ Tornero, B. et al. (2015) Nivel cognitivo de las preguntas que formulan las educadoras
de párvulos. Educación y Educadores 18 (2), 261-283.