Functions of Teacher Roles and Types of Teacher Language During Play

• In Event: Play Research, Practices, and Policies: Building Connections, Empowering Diverse Communities, and Improving Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Play is viewed by Vygotsky as a zone of proximal development and is considered as a tool for children to achieve higher cognitive functioning levels, including language development (Roskos & Christie, 2001). Adult guidance plays an important role in the zone of proximal development. Adults take on variety of roles in which lead to different functions of interaction between the child and the adult. Early childhood teachers can have a large impact on children’s play and language during the play. The teachers’ roles and their language interaction during play could have an impact on children’s complexity of play and quality of language.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the functions of different roles on which teachers take, and the types of teacher language during play. Our research questions are twofold: Q1) what kinds of roles do teachers in the community child care centers adopt during children’s free play and what is the function of each of those roles? Q2) what types of language do teachers use during free play and what is the function of that language in relation to the teachers' roles?

In order to answer these questions, we analyzed videotapes of eleven early childhood teachers in three community-based child care centers: two centers located in suburban areas, and one center in an urban area. Teachers were videotaped in their classrooms during free play time. Approximately 30 minutes of video were analyzed for each teacher. All videos were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

Findings
Q1. A total of 261 play events were identified. On average, teachers spent 66.9% of the 30 minutes involved in children’s play. The most popular role among the teachers was the onlooker (42.5% of the events), followed by the stage manager (24.2%), the co-player (15.3%), director (8.8%), play leader (6.5%), director, and redirector (2.7%). The analysis of each of these roles revealed various functions such as: giving direction, helping with preparation, dealing with conflicts, getting children’s attention, less or more verbal interaction, interruption, etc.
Q2. A total of 4638 utterances were identified, 3022 from teachers and 1616 from children. Teachers talked more during the redirector role followed by the play leader, co-player, director, and the stage manager roles, respectively. Children produced more utterances when the teachers adopted the play leader role, followed by the redirector and co-player roles. When the teachers assumed the stage manager and onlooker roles, children tended to speak fewer utterances. The types of language identified include open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, descriptive statements, evaluative statements, directive statements, pragmatic language, etc. The functions of each of these language types will be addressed later.

This study suggests that teacher interaction could have various functions from disrupting to enhancing classroom play. More interaction doesn’t necessarily mean better play behaviors. Teachers need to be aware of the impact of their roles and language interaction in child’s play.

Authors

• Juana Gaviria, Univeristy of Delaware

• Myae Han, University of Delaware

• Jennifer A. Vu, University of Delaware

• Jason Hustedt, University of Delaware