The purpose of my report was to find out how music can benefit the language development of children, whilst getting a glimpse of how the educators in preschools use music as a tool for the language development of children. During the course of the report I’ve used the sociocultural perspective theory as a foundation to stand on, this is most of all visible in my analysis and discussion of the result.   In the result we can see that the educators possess insight in the importance of music in childrens development, and that they therefore give music a lot of room in their work. Songs where rhyme and language play are allowed are common elements at the preschool that attracts the children and makes them want to partake. Songs sung with movement is a commonly used combination which also serves to further lift the childrens language development when they, through movement, give meaning to the lyrics.   It does however take a devoted educator to make music with the preschool children and to support them and making them want to do it. The educator must be aware of the importance of the social interaction to make use of music seem important to the children. When music is made that moment has to be a harmonic and safe moment to create room for the children to learn and grow, not least in a linguistic manner. Educators who aren’t aware of how they present themselves to the children, and how doesn’t show any interest or curiosity in what’s being done will rub off their emotions onto the children increasing the risk of no learning or development taking place.

This study examines factors that influence the language use of preschool children in a child/parent education program. The Preschool for Child/Parent Education Project was initiated to address concerns for at risk children and their families in the community of Nipawin, Saskatchewan. The families invited to participate in the program were identified as having preschool children who were potentially at risk for school success.<p> The language experiences of four preschool children were observed as they participated in one nine-week child/parent education session. The parents, caregivers and preschool teacher were interviewed regarding their views about the language experiences of the children.<p> The factors that emerged as having an influence on the children's use of language in the preschool program were: play center activities, direct instruction, authentic experiences, parent/caregiver involvement and teacher efficacy. Results showed that the children in the Preschool for Child/Parent Education Project experienced a program that understood the language needs of young children and the powerful influence of a supportive family.<p> Implications are drawn concerning the benefits of providing opportunities for language development and use during the crucial preschool years in a child/parent education program. Recommendations for further research suggest recognition of the effects of early language intervention on young children with difficult life circumstances.

The study is based on Lev Vygotskijs and John Dewey's learning theory. Such is “the zone for immediate development” and “learning by doing”. Purpose: The study's purpose was to examine how four teachers´ work with bilingual children's language development in a preschool and in a preschool class. These questions will be answered in my study: 1). which view of bilingualism have been the educators? 2). which language development approach has been the educators of preschool/ preschool class have chosen to promote the bilingual children's language development in the Swedish language? 3). what similarities and differences, I find the teachers' way of working with bilingual children? Method: To investigate and answer the purpose of this study was therefore qualitative approach through interviews are used. Results: The results show that both teachers in a preschool and preschool class are working with language development in order to encourage bilingual children's language development. Conclusions: The conclusions are to be able to speak several languages is an asset. Teachers should encourage bilingual children to speak their native language. To encourage bilingual children's language development using a variety of language development methods in the form of music, singing, rhymes and chants. Reading many books and to retell.

Högskolan i Gävle    Examensarbete C Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi   15 hp Lärarprogrammet     Vårterminen 2011 Titel: Språket i första eller andra hand? En uppsats om språkutveckling, modersmål och svenska som andraspråk.   Författare: Kajsa Hjelmblom Handledare: Daniel Pettersson Sammanfattning Studiens syfte är att undersöka om lärare i grundskolans tidigare år känner till hela skolans språkutvecklande uppdrag och ta reda på hur klasslärare arbetar med att främja elevernas språkutveckling. Syftet är också att ta reda på om arbetet med elevernas språkutveckling skiljer sig mellan skolor med få eller många elever med invandrarbakgrund samt att undersöka om det finns något samarbete mellan klasslärare och modersmålslärare. Studien är en kvantitativ studie i liten skala. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en enkät som delats ut till klasslärare och modersmålslärare på två skolor, varav en skola har många elever med invandrarbakgrund och en skola har få. Uppsatsen belyser också hur barn utvecklar språk i hemmet och i skolan samt vad modersmål och svenska som andraspråk är. Resultatet visar att det finns varierande engagemang och kunskaper om hela skolans språkutvecklande uppdrag. Några klasslärare visar i enkätundersökningen att de är medvetna om vad det språkutvecklande uppdraget innebär medan andra inte känner till det. Resultat visar också att samarbetet mellan klasslärarna i studien och deras elevers modersmålslärare är nästintill obefintligt.   Nyckelord: Modersmål, svenska som andraspråk, språkutveckling och samarbete. / University of Gävle    Degree C School of Education and the Economy    15 hp Spring 2011 Title: The language in first or second hand? An essay on language development, native language and Swedish as a second language. Authors: Kajsa Hjelmblom Supervisor: Daniel Petterson Summary The purpose of this study was to examine if teachers in primary school are familiar with the school systems language development mission and observe how teachers are working with pupils' language skills. The aim is also examine whether the work with pupils' language skills differs between schools with few or several students with immigrant backgrounds and to look at whether there is collaboration between classroom teachers and home-language teachers. It is a quantitative study with a limited number of participants. The study was conducted using a questionnaire distributed to classroom teachers and home-language teachers in two schools, one school with several pupils from immigrant backgrounds, and a school with few. This paper also illustrates how children develop language skills at home and at school as well as description of what Swedish as a second language is. The results show that the commitment and knowledge of the school systems language development mission vary. The survey shows that some classroom teachers are familiar with what the language development mission is while others are not. Results also show that the cooperation between school teachers and home-language teachers almost is non-existing. Keywords: Native language, mother tongue, Swedish as a second language, language development and cooperation.

This essay is a combination of an interview, survey and an observation that involves seven different teachers and thirty-eight pupils in a school situated in a suburb of Stockholm. The purpose of my research is an attempt to give a picture of how a team of teachers in a primary school act together when teaching maths, as the majority of the pupils have another mother tounge than Swedish. Yet another purpose of this essay is to examine what possibilities this team of teachers have in trying to develop the Swedish language within other bilingual pupils and at the same time develop their math comprehension. I have chosen to initiate the theoreti-cal starting point through the points of Rodell-Olgac &amp; Rönnberg &amp; Rönnberg; these authors discuss the importance of language comprehension when it comes to developing ones math skills. I have reached the conclusion in my examination that it is important to raise the impor-tance of language comprehension within math-education. It is crucial that teachers need to create different kinds of working patterns and methods that are adapted accordingly to the learning-ability of the pupils. Thus, teachers also need to show great consideration to the cul-tural backgrounds, expectations, attitudes and feelings of their pupils.

Forskningen om internationellt adopterade barn har visat att dessa barn löper en större risk att få språkliga problem, jämfört med sina jämnåriga kamrater. Framförallt har problemen förknippats med svårigheter med abstrakt tänkande, även svårigheter med matematik har uppmärksammats. Forskning visar att de språkliga svårigheterna finns hos närmare hälften av alla internationellt adopterade och det som framkommit är att svårigheterna kan uppstå av två orsaker. De orsakerna som nämnts är i första hand den så kallade språkbrytningen medan den andra orsaken beror på brist på bra mat och uppmärksamhet som ofta uppstår på institutioner såsom exempelvis barnhem. Språksvårigheterna som kan uppstå är dock i de flesta fall möjliga att överbrygga. I detta arbete har intervjuer gjorts med tolv föräldrapar som sammanlagt har 22 internationellt adopterade barn som adopterats mellan tidigt 70-tal och 90-tal. Det som undersökts är i första hand hur många av dessa barn som upplevts haft svårigheter i sin språkliga utveckling utifrån föräldrarnas perspektiv. Intervjuresultaten har sedan jämförts med befintlig forskning och visar att resultaten som framkommit av intervjuerna stämmer bra överens med bilden som ges i forskningen. Nyckelord: internationellt adopterade, språkutveckling, kunskapsutveckling, språksvårigheter.

The aim of this essay was to examine the way preschool teachers and children converse during school meals, and also the way preschool teachers start and develop conversations during meals. The conversations were analyzed from the topic of conversation and the teachers' ways of using language acts such as questions, remarks, exhortations. The study was based on observations, tape recording and contact schedule. The result shows that the topic of conversation is significant for how involved teachers are in conversations during meals. The result also shows how conversations develop or end depending on what language acts teachers use. This is particularly clear when using questions and exhortations. The discussion of this study is mainly about the fact that teachers use of questions does not seem to make conversation progress. In several cases, teachers' shut conversations down by using language acts. The discussion also shows that conversation between children can develop and progress without the help of teachers. / Barns språkutveckling, och närmare bestämt hur förskollärare och barn samtalar vidmåltid är i fokus i följande undersökning. Studien syftar till att undersöka förskolläraressätt att påbörja och vidareutveckla samtal under måltider i förskolan. Samtalenanalyseras utifrån samtalsämne och förskollärarnas sätt att använda sig av olikaspråkhandlingar (frågor, påståenden och uppmaningar). Studien genomförs med hjälpav observationer, bandinspelningar och kontaktscheman. Resultatet visar attsamtalsämnena under måltiderna har betydelse för förskollärarnas delaktighet. Det visarockså hur samtalen vidareutvecklas alternativt stannar av genom de olikaspråkhandlingar, särskilt frågor och uppmaningar som lärarna använder sig av.Diskussionen berör särskilt förskollärarnas användande av frågor vilka inte direkt visarsig vidareutveckla samtalen i någon mening. I flera fall tystar förskollärarna istället nedsamtalen genom sina språkhandlingar. Vi berör även att barnens egna samtal i flera fallutvecklas utan förskollärarens delaktighet.

Vi är två lärarstudenter som har funnit det mycket intressant att studera barn i åldrarnaett till tre år och deras språkutveckling i förskolan, vi har valt att fokusera vår studiekring samlingen som forum för språkutveckling. Under vår verksamhetsförlagda del avutbildningen har vi sett att förskollärare ser på samlingen på olika sätt och att den intealltid ses som ett pedagogiskt verktyg att stimulera barnens språkliga utveckling. Dåbarngrupperna blir större och det kan vara svårt att ge varje enskilt barn denuppmärksamhet som krävs för att stimulera barnets språkliga utveckling vill vi peka påsamlingen som arbetsmetod. Vi har valt att observera tre förskollärare samt genomföraintervjuer med dessa tre, vi valde tre utbildade förskollärare med olika långarbetslivserfarenhet. Vi ville se hur de agerade i samlingen samt ta reda på vad de görför att främja barnens språkutveckling i samlingen. Det vi såg under våra observationervar att det förekom både sång och lek, men att man inte såg samlingen som ett verktygutan mer som ett sätt att underhålla eller informera barnen. Vi har studerat vad somfinns skrivet om samlingen som pedagogiskt verktyg vid barns språkliga utveckling ochfunnit att man med fördel kan nyttja samlingen genom att leka ordlekar, läsa och låtabarnen prata inför sina kompisar på det sätt som förskolläraren vill. Här har manmöjlighet att gå in och styra det som man vill att barnen ska ta del av och öva på mengöra det på ett sätt som blir roligt för barnen. Vi har diskuterat och jämfört vårt resultatmed det som tidigare pedagoger och filosofer har skrivit. Vi vill med den här studienuppmuntra till att se samlingen som ett verktyg som har stor potential i dagensförskolearbete, samt att det är viktigt att inte glömma de allra minsta barnen genom attbara ha samlingar som fokuserar på de äldre barnen utan arbeta med samlingar för allaåldrar. / We are two teacher students that have found it to be very interesting to study children inthe ages between one and three and their language development in preschool. We havechosen two put our focus on the gathering as a forum for linguistic development.During our trainee work of our education we have seen that preschool teachers look atthe gathering in different ways, and that they don´t always see it as a pedagogical tool tohelp children in with their linguistic development. When the amount of childrenincreases in the ward it can be difficult teach child the attention needed to stimulate thechild`s language development, we want to draw attention to the gathering. We chose toobserve three pre-school teachers and conduct interviews with these three, we selectedthree trained preschool teachers with varying lengths of work experience. We wanted tosee how they acted in the gatherings and find out what they did to promote children'slanguage development in the gathering. What we saw during our observations was thatthere were both singing and playing, but the pre-school teachers did not see thecollection as a tool but more as a way to entertain and inform children. We have studiedwhat is written about the gathering as an educational tool for children's languagedevelopment and found that it can advantageously utilize the gathering by playing wordgames, reading, and let the children talk to their friends in a way that the pre-schoolteacher would. Here they have the opportunity to step in and control what they wanttheir children to take part and practice but do so in a way that is fun for the kids. Wehave discussed and compared our results with what previously researchers andphilosophers have written. We want to encourage this study to see the collection as atool that has great potential in today's pre-school work, and that it is important not toforget the very youngest children just by having gathering that focus on the olderchildren, but working with collections of all ages.

I have chosen to write this essay on language development in a preparatory class due to the fact that I live in a city where diversity is big and newly arrived students from different countries are constantly increasing in schools. My study has been made in a preparatory class in Södertälje. The National Agency for Education highlights the deficiencies in preparatory classes and believes that education is not adapted to each student's knowledge and maturity and it is therefore difficult for students to reach the goals in school. According to studies by the National Agency for Education, it appears that many newly arrived students do not recieve study guide in their native language, a resource that they are entitled to. Teachers and principals do not take charge of  students knowledge from previous school attendance in their home countries such as mathematics, history and other subjects. The purpose of this essay is to find out how to work with language development in a preparatory class. The focus of interest is to investigate how much the Swedish and the native language are used in class. My theoretical starting points will consist of theories of second language learning, language development, language switching and native language. In my studies I have used the qualitative method in which I have observed in a preparatory class for three school days and have interviewed three teachers and four students. The conclusion which I have found from my empirical material is that the teachers in the preparatory class work with language development by first and foremost providing security to their students in the classroom. When this security is created, their main tool for language development is constantly support in the native language in all subjects.

The purpose of this study is to examine how educationalists work with bilingual children's language by looking at how and what approaches are used to encourage language development. I have chosen to compare two educational philosophies: Montessori and Outdoor Education, to see how big the differences / similarities are in working methods. The background to this study is that preschools uses various approaches and have different methods to stimulate the children. This means that the conditions for children's language development might look different depending on the preschool they go to. The information used has been gathered through interviews, where I have taken note of educationalists thoughts on their working methods, and through professional literature dealing with this topic. Results and analysis has been performed and presented in various areas that are common in preschool: Reading, gathering, singing and rhymes. The examination shows that there are some differences but that the preschools are working in a similar manner.