School of Education, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
School of Education, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2023 Jan;58(1):154-168. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12777. Epub 2022 Aug 31.
Early childhood teachers (ECTs) play a significant role in equipping children with oral language and emergent literacy skills ahead of school entry. They are well positioned to play a vital role in ensuring preschool children receive a high-quality preschool curriculum to prepare them for later literacy learning.
The purpose of this study was to explore early career ECTs' views and confidence regarding their role in providing preschoolers with oral language and emergent literacy support and to examine their perceptions of their preservice preparation.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: Nine Australian early career ECTs were recruited via purposive sampling for an in-depth, semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Participants attached strong significance to their role in facilitating children's oral language growth and emergent literacy skills and reported a range of practices to support children's learning. However, they rarely referred to using established language facilitation strategies or using dialogic book reading prompts. Further, emergent literacy concepts such as phonological awareness and print awareness were not routinely described as features of participants' classroom activities. Participants did not consistently make a clear conceptual distinction between the constructs of oral language and emergent literacy and often used these terms interchangeably. Notably, participants indicated that they did not feel confident in their ability to identify preschool children who were not meeting developmental language milestones and reported that they felt poorly equipped to do so by their preservice training.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: ECTs' strong willingness to support preschool children's oral language and emergent literacy skills may be hindered by gaps in their knowledge; these may contribute to important and missed opportunities for identifying and supporting preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth.
What is already known on this subject? High-quality learning experiences in preschool are important for maximising preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. Early childhood teachers can play an important role in facilitating this development and preparing children for later literacy learning. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? The study findings provide insight into ECTs' perceptions of their role and support in developing children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. The results indicated ECTs did not feel confident with their knowledge of children's language milestones or identifying children with language difficulties. Participants reported that their preservice training left them underprepared in the area of oral language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? ECTs demonstrated a strong willingness to support preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy skills. However, their self-reported knowledge gaps and low confidence may have implications for the early detection of children who are not reaching language developmental milestones in a timely way.
幼儿教师（ECTs）在儿童入学前为他们提供口头语言和早期读写技能方面发挥着重要作用。他们有很好的机会在确保学前儿童接受高质量的学前课程方面发挥重要作用，为他们以后的读写学习做好准备。
本研究旨在探讨幼儿教师对其在为学龄前儿童提供口头语言和早期读写支持方面的角色的看法和信心，并探讨他们对职前准备的看法。
通过目的性抽样，从 9 名澳大利亚幼儿教师中招募了 9 名幼儿教师，对他们进行了深入的半结构化访谈。采用归纳主题分析方法对数据进行分析。
参与者非常重视自己在促进儿童口头语言发展和早期读写技能方面的作用，并报告了一系列支持儿童学习的做法。然而，他们很少提到使用既定的语言促进策略或使用对话式阅读提示。此外，参与者并没有将音系意识和印刷意识等新兴读写概念作为他们课堂活动的特征进行常规描述。参与者并没有始终清楚地区分口头语言和新兴读写的概念，并且经常交替使用这些术语。值得注意的是，参与者表示，他们对自己识别不符合语言发展里程碑的学龄前儿童的能力没有信心，并表示他们觉得自己的职前培训对此无能为力。
ECTs 强烈愿意支持学龄前儿童的口头语言和早期读写技能，但他们的知识可能存在差距，这可能会导致错过识别和支持学龄前儿童口头语言和早期读写发展的重要机会。
本文增加了哪些新知识？关于这个主题，已经有哪些已知的信息？高质量的学前学习经验对于最大限度地提高学龄前儿童的口头语言和早期读写能力的发展非常重要。幼儿教师可以在促进这一发展和为儿童以后的读写学习做好准备方面发挥重要作用。本文在现有知识的基础上增加了哪些内容？这项研究的结果提供了对幼儿教师对他们在发展儿童口头语言和早期读写技能方面的角色和支持的看法的深入了解。研究结果表明，幼儿教师对儿童语言里程碑或识别语言困难儿童的知识没有信心。参与者报告说，他们的职前培训使他们在口头语言方面准备不足。这项工作在潜在或实际临床方面有哪些意义或影响？幼儿教师表现出强烈的意愿来支持学龄前儿童的口头语言和早期读写技能。然而，他们自我报告的知识差距和低信心可能会对及时发现未达到语言发展里程碑的儿童产生影响。
