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American Montessori Society

Explore the use of spoken language in the Montessori classroom and discover how directors create a communicative environment and how children learn to use language effectively. Discover the importance of oral language development and its influence on literacy. Gain insights from research and classroom observations on teacher talk and language functions.

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American Montessori Society

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  1. American Montessori Society Fall Conference Irvine, California October 12 – 14, 2007

  2. Words @ Work in the Classroom Josh Thompson, Ph.D. Texas A&M University-Commerce

  3. 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)

  4. 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

  5. Thanks Thank-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

  6. 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!

  7. Pragmatics Language to do things

  8. Linguistics overview Language is a system of rules for using symbols for sharing meaning

  9. Linguistics overview Six rule systems phonology morphology semantics syntax pragmatics prosody (Gunning, 2008)

  10. Linguistics overview

  11. Linguistics overview Five big ideas of early literacy instruction phonemic awareness phonics vocabulary comprehension fluency (National Reading Panel, 1999)

  12. 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)

  13. Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

  14. Keep a Poem in Your Pocket ti ti Ta ti ti ti ti ti ti Ta ti ti ta

  15. Keep a Poem in Your Pocket ti ti Ta ti ti ti ti ti ti Ta ti ti ta Four Body Instruments clap pat stomp snap

  16. Keep a Poem in Your Pocket ti ti Ta ti ti ti ti ti ti Ta ti ti ta Four Body Instruments clap pat stomp snap Keep a poem in your pocket And a song in your heart And you’ll never be lonely At home or in the dark (de Regniers)

  17. Oral Language Research Classroom Discourse (Cazden 2001) Home-School Language Study (Dickinson & Tabors 2001) Micro-ethnography (Bloome, et al, 2005) Labov, Hymes, Heath

  18. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms Two Montessori, two public school

  19. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms One 3-6 year old class, one 6-9 year old class, one Pre-kindergarten, one first grade

  20. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms One male, three female teachers

  21. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms Years of teaching experience = 2, 8, 22, 27; Average = 14.75

  22. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms All monolingual English classrooms 20% - 57% Spanish dominant in the home

  23. Capturing Teacher Talk Listening in on four classrooms Five hours in each classroom Audio and Video recording of teacher talk Observer Effect Transcriptions, marked by Speech Acts

  24. 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

  25. 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:

  26. 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

  27. Language functions Using language in various contexts to do things • Jakobson • Hymes • Halliday • Tough

  28. Five Language Functions Affection Control Information Pedagogy Social Exchange (Baron 1990)

  29. Five Language Functions Listening in on four classrooms Affection Control Information Pedagogy Social Exchange (Baron 1990)

  30. 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.

  31. Table Talk “To become competent conversationalists, children have to learn how to • Choose and introduce topics for talk • Respond appropriately • Tell a story • Develop an argument” (Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 3)

  32. Table Talk Indeterminacy of Goals Vocabulary Approximation Extended Narrative Metapragmatic Discourse Non-immediate De-contextualized

  33. Table Talk www.MealsTogether.com www.TableTime.com

  34. Table Talk “Ordinary conversations are, at least ostensibly, not goal oriented… ‘[T]alking is an end in itself.’” (Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 9)

  35. 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)

  36. 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)

  37. 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)

  38. 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.

  39. 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

  40. 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

  41. References Baron, 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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