Research and policy
Research: young children should be seen and heard
1 Apr 2004
Recently, there has been increasing concern about the level of oral language competence with which children enter school (examples). The National Literacy Strategy, introduced in 1998, encouraged schools to focus exclusively on the development of pupils' reading and writing skills. Now, however, the National Primary Strategy, introduced in 2003, has begun to address concerns about speaking and listening.
Why speaking and listening matter
Language enables communication, and through language an individual can represent feelings, beliefs, desires and knowledge. The links between the ability to express oneself and the ability to integrate socially and to establish and maintain personal relationships are clear. It is through well-developed language skills that children are able to function as social beings.
Success in the educational system is also linked to spoken language competence. Government documentation states that: “Pupils' use of language is a vital skill which influences their progress in every area of the curriculum” (SCAA, 1997). All lessons in the primary school include, and largely depend on, oral communication. Therefore fluency in, and comprehension of, spoken language are the keys to effective learning.
A study in two inner-city primary schools
The small-scale study that we are going to describe here arose from the concerns of the headteachers and staff in two primary schools serving deprived, multicultural areas of an inner-city. Concerns focused on the level of their pupils' spoken language skills through the whole school and the perceived impact this was having on wider learning. Two reception teachers in these schools received Best Practice Research Scholarships (BPRS) to support classroom-based research into the issue, and worked in collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, with the aim of enhancing their pupils' speaking and literacy skills.
The research project sought to see if the development of the children's spoken language could be enhanced by:
- raising the teachers' awareness of the nature and importance of spoken language development.
- sharing this awareness within the whole school.
- providing assessment information on each child's spoken language skills.
- developing activities and supporting resources and materials.
- training parents, helpers and classroom assistants.
All the children in the two reception classes were assessed during their first three weeks after school entry, in order to determine whether their spoken language skills were depressed in comparison with those of the general population. The children were tested again, using the same assessment, at the end of the year. This enabled the research team to establish the progress the children had made in their speaking and listening. Children in another reception class, in a school located within half a mile of the other two, served as a comparison and were assessed but did not receive the language enrichment programme.
The assessment used was the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) Assessment Pre-school UK (Wigg, Secord and Semel, 1998) and this was administered by the Institute researchers. This tool measures a range of receptive language and expressive language skills. Receptive language refers to what is heard or understood, and expressive language to what is said or articulated. The test aims 1) to assist in the identification of children with language delay and difficulty, 2) to provide a diagnostic assessment of the areas of either strength or weakness in language development, and 3) to identify areas for follow up support and intervention.
The CELF assessment contains six subtests.
1. Linguistic concepts subtest
Children had to look carefully at pictures presented to them and follow instructions (e.g. “Point to a fish or a cat.”)
2. Basic concepts subtest
Children had to look carefully at pictures of children engaged in different activities or pictures of inanimate objects and point to the one that fitted a given description (e.g. “Show me the one that is cold”).
3. Sentence structure subtest
Children had to look carefully at a series of three pictures of people engaged in different activities and point to the one that fitted a given caption (e.g. “The girl is swimming”).
4. Recalling sentences in context subtest
Children had to repeat words from the text of a story read to them by the researcher.
5. Formulating labels subtest
Children had to look carefully at pictures and answer questions about them (e.g. “What is the girl doing?”)
6. Word structure subtest
Children had to look carefully at pictures and follow a language pattern modelled by the researcher (e.g. “This doll is out of the box. This doll is ... the box”).
The assessments undertaken at the beginning of the school year indicated that the language skills of the children in all three schools were less well developed than those of the general population.
Intervention programme
The two BPRS reception teachers were provided with supported study of the relevant background literature, coupled with advice and support from academic staff at the Institute of Education. The project also involved the systematic sharing of good practice across all classes in the intervention primary schools.
The aim of the enrichment sessions was to provide effective learning experiences and targeted teaching for the reception children, in order to develop both their comprehension and their use of spoken language. The sessions were based on a theme or topic, such as toys or transport, and provided a range of activities, including visits. Each theme was taught in a one-hour session, and sessions continued at the rate of one per week for 12 weeks at a time. During the sessions, particular emphasis was placed on vocabulary development, recounting or describing a situation and using different tenses. Volunteers (including TAs and parents) were trained before each prepared session with the children. Evaluation and feedback was systematically done after each session.
The children's progress
The children's progress was measured using the pre and post-intervention CELF scores. The results of the study are encouraging, since all the children made progress in their language skills, with the greatest gains being in expressive language.
Positive outcomes of the study
Those participating in the project identified a number of benefits in addition to the progress the children made in their speaking and listening skills. These were:
- Improved adult-pupil ratios: the children were able to work in small groups led by an adult. This provided opportunities for the kinds of sustained interaction that are often difficult to achieve where adult-pupil ratios are less favourable. It also provided valuable assessment opportunities.
- Assessment for learning: the results and analysis of the CELF assessments enabled the teachers to target specific areas of language performance for attention and support.
- Quality time in the University and away from school: this provided the teachers with opportunities for reflection, sharing and mutual encouragement. The teachers developed further insights into the nature and development of spoken language.
- Curriculum resource material: to accompany the activities that teachers devised to develop spoken language skills, appealing resources, such as finger puppets, were purchased and made.
- Improved session formats: sessions were evaluated to find the most effective format. For example, a play break for the children half way through the session and then a recount of what had been done in the first part of the session was built in. This allowed for recounting and narrative skills to be used.
- Partnership: the collaboration between teachers and researchers was seen as valuable. The research addressed the concern of the headteachers and staff of the schools involved in the project.
Future developments
The research team is keen to build on the positive outcomes of this study, and there will be a second phase of the research that will include improvements in the design of the intervention. As the children's ability to recount events and narrate stories significantly improved, this skill will be focused on and given greater emphasis. This aspect of language functioning is a key skill for a successful start in literacy learning. With this in mind, a formative assessment task developed and extensively used in New Zealand will be used in addition to the CELF assessment to gauge children's grasp of language structures, use of language to convey meaning, and comprehension.
(The Primary English Magazine, April 2004)
