The Forgotten Giant: Classroom Talk That Supports Language Development Across Grades

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium is to call attention to the powerful but neglected role of interactive language for supporting the development of children’s language and literacy abilities from preschool through fifth grade. The first paper draws upon data from several studies with preschoolers on the quality of teacher talk and offers promising directions for interventions. The second paper describes results from two experimental projects that examine the growth of teachers’ high-cognitive demand talk with preschoolers during book reading in classrooms and reports associations between the cognitive demand of teachers’ talk and children’s language skills. The third study reports relationships between fourth and fifth grade teachers’ uses of explanation and questioning and students’ literacy skills.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Division C - Section 1a: Literacy

Chair

• Molly F. Collins, Vanderbilt University

Papers

• Limitations and Potential of Teacher Language in Preschool Classrooms - David K. Dickinson, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Increasing Children's and Teachers' Abilities to Engage in Inferential Talk in Preschool - Molly F. Collins, Vanderbilt University

• Teacher Talk: Explorations of Classroom Practices and Links to Literacy Achievement Within Upper Elementary Classrooms - Amanda P. Goodwin, Vanderbilt University; Sun-Joo Cho, Vanderbilt University; Stephanie Nunn, University of Maryland; Rebecca Deffes Silverman, University of Maryland - College Park; Dan Reynolds, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

Discussant

• Margaret G. McKeown, University of Pittsburgh