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Syftet med detta examensarbete är att ta reda på hur pedagogerna ute i verksamheterna använder vardagssituationerna i tamburen för att främja barns språkutveckling. För att utreda detta syfte ställs två problemfrågor, 1. Vilka strategier har pedagogerna för att ta tillvara på samtalen tillsammans med barnen när de befinner sig i tamburen? 2. Vilken typ av samtal finns det i tamburen?   De teorierna som ligger till grund i detta examensarbete är företrädesvis Lev Vygotskijs teorier om språkutveckling, samspel och interaktioner. Det empiriska materialet till detta examensarbete är av en kvalitativ art och genomfördes genom observationer av pedagoger i rutinsituationerna i tamburen, på två olika förskolor. Analysen av det insamlade materialet visar att den språkliga och kommunikativa interaktionen mellan barn och vuxna varierar på olika förskolor. På den ena förskolan som observerades bestod interaktionen mellan vuxen och barn till stor del av korta kommandon och tillrättavisningar, medan observationerna på den andra förskolan visade mer hur pedagogerna var mer av den vägledande sorten där de använde sina egna språkkunskaper för att hjälpa barnen att förstå sin omvärld genom språkliga benämningar och meningsuppbyggnader. Studien visar att det finns en medvetenhet kring språk och språkutveckling i rutinsituationer till viss del, men att detta är något man kan fortsätta att arbeta och utveckla mer i förskolans verksamhet. / The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers out in the operations are using everyday situations in the hall to promote childrens language development. To investigate this purpose, this study will go through two issues. 1. What strategies has the pre-school teachers to take advantage of the talks with the children when they are in the hall? 2. What type of conversations can be seen in the hall?   The theory underlying this study is Lev Vygotsky's theories of language development, interplay and interactions. The empirical data for this study was conducted through observation of educators in routine situations in the hall in the preeschools, in two different preeschools. The analysis of the data collected shows that the linguistic and communicative interaction between children and adults vary at different preschools. On one of the preschools that was observed, did interaction between adults and children largely consisted of short commands and reprimands. While observations on the second preeschools showed more how educators were more indicative of the kind where they used their own language skills to help children understand their world through the linguistic terms and constructing sentences.   The study shows that there is an awareness of language and language in routine situations to some extent, but this is something you can continue to work and develop more in preschool.

The lack of parental support and the use of English as the language of teaching and learning are two of the main factors that influence poor learner performance in South Africa. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted internationally, the need for research tailored for the South African context still exists. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to contribute to knowledge about parental support concerning learner development of second language proficiency. An explanatory sequential design of mixed methods research, also known as two-phased model was used to guide the study. The first phase focused on the quantitative secondary data from Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006 (PIRLS 2006). The source of the secondary data was the results of the parent questionnaire, administered to South African parents of the Grade 4 learners (n = 16 073). The International Database (IDB) analyser software and Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were used for data analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. The quantitative results revealed that a significant percentage of parents (30%, SE =0.7) did not engage in literacy related activities with their children prior to Grade 1 compared to a low percentage (2%, SE = 1.21) of those who did the activities. However, a significantly higher percentage of parents (29%, SE = 0.65) did engage in literacy activities with their children in Grade 1, compared to 5% (SE =0.34) who never or almost never did the activities. A significantly higher percentage of parents (89%, SE = 0.67) agreed a lot with positive reading attitude statements compared to 2% (SE = 0.25) who disagreed a lot. The limited time spent by parents on reading and books at home were noted as a matter of concern. This concern was augmented by the low educational level and employment status of the parents. These results were used to inform the qualitative data collection in order to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of the parents. The second or qualitative phase of the study used convenience sampling to select participants, to gain an understanding of their experiences with regard to supporting the second language development of their children. The eight (8 participants) selected parents participated in two focus group meetings. Six themes emerged from thematic data analysis, namely: alternative parenting, parent-child activities, technology and Internet support, parental challenges, language usage and quality of education. The characteristics used for developing a conceptual framework for parental support on second language development were extracted from these aforementioned themes. The results revealed that parental support is a complex dynamic process that requires one to consider the interface of systems around the parent and the learner. Consequently, how this complexity requires a reconceptualisation of factors affecting parental support concerning second language development. The reconceptualisation can provide new avenues for theorising about parental support in second language learning context, particularly in multilingual and developmental countries. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka vad forskningen säger om högläsning i förskolan. Frågeställningen handlar om vilka metoder förskollärare använder vid högläsning och vilka långsiktiga effekter dessa metoder har på barns språk. Detta arbete har en sociokulturell utgångspunkt och skrivs som en litteraturstudie därmed används innehållsanalys som metod.    Resultatet visar att det finns många effektiva metoder som förskollärare kan använda vid högläsning för att stödja barns språk. Det är framför allt en metod som förespråkas inom forskningen, att föra samtal och dialoger med barnen. Dessa dialoger bör enligt forskarna utgå ifrån barnens livsvärld. Även rollspel framhålls som en effektiv metod för att stötta barnens språkutveckling. Barn lär på olika sätt och därför är det viktigt att lärarna är medvetna om didaktiska val när de planerar undervisningen.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how four different teachers in the social sciences subjects in elementary school work with language development. The research questions for this study are: In what way do teachers work on language development in their teaching within the socialsciences subjects? How do the teachers take regard to students’ language development? What are the teachers’ difficulties in working with language development in the social sciences subjects? What support do the teachers feel they need to be able to conduct language development teaching? Two methods have been used to answer the research questions. Four teachers were interviewed and observed. Lev Vygotskij’s sociocultural perspective was used for the theoretical point of the study. The result of this study shows that the language development education is contextual and also full of opportunities for interaction. It also shows that the teachers have an important role that benefits their pupils’ knowledge. The four teachers used similar methods in their work with language development of their pupils’. They usually try to work with focusing on the subject specific words and concepts that occur in the lesson. The difficulties that the teachers usually experience in language development teaching are that they find it difficult to come up with various activities that could be considered language development. They also mean that they have not learned to do language development activities in their teacher training. Something else that the teachers have recognized is about the pupils’ school language and the difficulty of developing that. The teachers mean that language teaching is the best basis for the pupils’ language development.

This paper is a study of a class of newly immigrated students, age 13–15, that currently is learning sufficient Swedish to be able to attend the regular education in secondary school, and how they perceive different methods of learning language through music – specifically singing. By teaching four different songs in four different ways, I have tried to establish if it is possible to distinguish a superiour method for teaching a second language by singing. The survey can see no such method, although some ways of teaching was more popular with the students. They also stated that – even if they disliked the method for learning – they considered it easier to sing than to use spoken word to pronounce correctly, and that most of them learned one or several new words with each song. They remembered the lyrics from one occasion to another. Research and experience shows that music can be a powerful tool if used correctly when learning foreign languages, and my conclusion is that it would benefit the immigrated students if it could manifest itself more in the Swedish educational system.

The objective of this study was to aid in discovering whether or not the sex differences in language development are at least partially a result of the differential effect of the environment on the two sexes by determining whether the sex orientation of stimulus objects presented to preschool children would influence the quantity and quality of verbal responses emitted by the children. Twenty preschool children, 10 boys and 10 girls, were each presented with neutral, masculine oriented, and feminine oriented stimulus objects and were asked to respond to them in the form of a story. Quantity of verbal responses was measured by the number of words and number of expression units produced by the subjects in response to the stimulus objects. Quality of language was measured by the mean length of expression units produced in response to the stimulus objects. No significant sex differences were found in the quantity or quality of verbal responses to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories. There was a significant difference in the quantity of language produced by the total group of subjects in response to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories, the quantity of language produced in response to the masculine oriented stimulus objects being greater than that produced in response to neutral or feminine oriented stimulus objects. The quality of language produced by the total group of subjects in response to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories showed no significant differences.

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Social contingency, or prompt and meaningful back-and-forth exchanges between infant and caregiver, is a powerful feature of the early language environment. Research suggests that infants with better attentional skills engage in more social contingency during interactions with adults and that adult contingent responding influences infant attention during the interaction. This dissertation examines reciprocal relations between infant attention and social contingency as well as the associations each have with infant language. This study utilizes secondary data from 106 participants collected as part of a longitudinal study of attention development run at Florida International University. Sustained attention (duration of looking) and attention shifting (speed of gaze-shifting) were assessed at 6 months and 12 months in social and nonsocial contexts with varying levels of distraction. Social contingency was assessed during toy play with a caregiver at 6 months and 12 months using fluency and connectedness. Child language was measured via caregiver-report and direct assessment at 18 months. Results indicated that attention shifting related more strongly to contingency at 6 months and sustained attention related more strongly at 12 months. Sustained attention to nonsocial stimuli and attention shifting towards social stimuli related most strongly to contingency. Attention and contingency each related to language independently. These findings suggest that attentional skills relate to both contingency and language. These relations shift over the first year of life, and the attentional skills that relate to contingency may not be the same as those that relate to language development broadly. / Psychology

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