A case study to explore developing a community of practice to support emergent literacy in preschool children's play
- Authors: Martin, Tamarynd
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Early childhood education , Children -- Language , Reading (Preschool) , Toddlers -- Books and reading
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/31841 , vital:31850
- Description: In South Africa at present, Literacy is a cause for rising concern, with reading and writing competency in primary school being at an all-time low. It is a widespread belief that part of the problem lies with the lack early childhood education. Only 37% of children under the age of five attend an early childhood development centre. Furthermore, South Africa has a shortage of educators, specifically within the domain of early childhood development. With more research being done in the area of literacy, more educators concur that emergent literacy forms the foundation of formal reading and writing later on. This study is a participatory case study, which reflects on the importance of literacy in the early years, showing the belief that pre-formal schooling, specifically emergent literacy, is directly linked to proficiency in reading and writing in formal schooling. This study also highlights how educators in early childhood development can be involved in ongoing reflective interventions through in-service training and communities of practice. This community of practice was developed as a series of focus groups, which met on a weekly basis to discuss and share thoughts, opinions and experiences surrounding emergent literacy in a preschool context. From multiple focus groups, I found that the participants became more confident in sharing their experiences and building upon each other’s ideas and thoughts. The focus groups, not only added to their understanding of emergent literacy, but enthused them and created more of an awareness in their day to day practices.
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- Date Issued: 2018
In conversation with Barney: a critical discourse analysis of interaction between a child with autism and his co-participants
- Authors: Geils, Catherine
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Autism in children -- Case studies , Autistic children , Autistic children -- Rehabilitation , Discourse analysis , Children and adults , Language acquisition , Conversation , Children -- Language
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2980 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002489 , Autism in children -- Case studies , Autistic children , Autistic children -- Rehabilitation , Discourse analysis , Children and adults , Language acquisition , Conversation , Children -- Language
- Description: My study arose in the context of an intervention programme aimed at the development of a child with autism’s communication and social interaction skills. The approach I take is a social constructionist one in which language is considered to be constructive and constitutive of social and psychological reality. This orientation challenges the assumptions of a western psychiatric approach that emphasizes the impairment and deficits associated with autism. The participants of the study are a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Autistic Spectrum), and his mother, father, sister and a volunteer on the intervention programme. The discourse analytic method of conversation analysis is employed as a means of elucidating the collaborative mechanisms employed by both the child and his co-participants in making sense of one another. The specific aims of the study are to closely examine the communicative behaviour and interactive styles of the child and his coparticipants, their implications for communicative success (co-ordinated interaction) or breakdown (discordant interaction), and the implications for how the child is positioned within the discourse in relation to his co-participants. My constructions of the data suggested that a playful, activity-based interactive style constituted by non-verbal turns, affection and short, simple utterances enhance mutual participation and the accomplishment of co-ordinated interaction. Barney’s co-participants sometimes tend to dominate interaction and frequently employ a strategy of repetitive questioning, which functions to direct and constrain the interaction and results in the child’s withdrawal and discordant interaction. This tendency to withdraw, however, seems to function as a means by which the child is able to actively resist positioning by others, and thus constitutes himself in a position of greater power. Furthermore, his use of the pronoun ‘I’ and collaborative negotiation of the words yours and mine suggest the active co-construction and positioning of himself as a separate person in relation to his co-participants. This research informs intervention efforts and encourages the co-participants to reflect on how interaction is co-constructed between themselves and the child.
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- Date Issued: 2004
The development of the meaning of non-ostensive words in a group of primary school children
- Authors: Segal, Denise Erica
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Connotation (Linguistics) , Children -- Language , Language acquisition
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2372 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004917 , Connotation (Linguistics) , Children -- Language , Language acquisition
- Description: The purpose of the present study was to investigate word meaning and its development in primary school children (6-12 years) . It was argued that the learning and development of the meanings of words such as pain cannot be primarily explained by means of ostensive definition. Furthermore, existing theories of word meaning which deal predominantly with substantive words fail to account for the learning of non-ostensive words. The pertinent psychological, linguistic and developmental psycholinguistic approaches to word meaning are reviewed briefly. The prototype approaches to word meaning are modified to apply to non-ostensive words . The focus is on conceptual meaning, that is, the way in which the senses of a word alter in different contexts. It is argued that the meaning of the word is its use in a diversity of linguistic contexts. The term "grammar" is applied in a unique way to encompass the meaning of the word (which stems in part from the words with which it co-occurs) as well as its selective use with other words in the language. Ninety-five metalinguistically-phrased tasks comprising short questions and picture-story sequences were analyzed in depth. The tasks were administered individually. A flexible interview afforded additional probing for each question. The analysis comprised percentage scores of responses at different age levels together with verbatim transcripts and qualitative descriptions: Uniformity, variation and developmental trends were found on different tasks for any particular word. Developmental trends were noted in children's understanding of particular words (for example, same), thereby extending the findings of previous researchers. There was evidence for a progression in children's ability to take into consideration that a word alters its sense according to the linguistic context in which it occurs (for example, same as it relates to chair versus dress versus pain). A comprehensive account of the words meaning could be established when a diversity of tasks was applied for each word. Children of different age levels employed different strategies in answering the questions posed. A model is proposed to describe the development of the meaning of non-ostensive words during the primary school years. It is suggested that psycholinguistic studies on word meaning be re-evaluated and that language and reading programmes incorporate the notion of "grammar". Application of this approach to the study of substantive word meaning in preschool children has important implications for theories of word meaning and for therapeutic intervention.
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- Date Issued: 1986