Teachers' literal and inferential questions and children's responses: A study of teacher-child linguistic interactions during whole-group instruction in Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms

Teachers' literal and inferential questions and children's responses: A study of teacher-child linguistic interactions during whole-group instruction in Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms

• Chen, Jennifer J. Kean University, Union, N.J., USA
• Liang, Xiaoting Kean University, Union, N.J., USA

Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(5), 671-683, 2017

Springer Netherlands

2017

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FE Medium of Instruction, Language of Teaching, Bi-& Multilingual Education, Problems of Bilingualism, Code-mixing & Code-switching
• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QB Pre-school Education, Child Caring Facilities, Maternal & Infantile Health Facilities

Hong Kong Kindergarten Classrooms Literal & inferential Language Preschool Children Teacher–Child Linguistic interactions Teacher Questions Teaching Practices Educational Programs Foreign Language Education Teacher Student interaction Kindergartens

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Pre-Primary Education

This study investigated the extent to which preschool teachers and children (ages 4–6) used literal and inferential language within the context of whole-group instruction in four kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong. A total of 20 sessions of videotaped classroom observations of linguistic interactions between teachers and children were transcribed and then analyzed using a coding scheme to determine the cognitive complexity of teacher questions and child responses with reference to four levels of abstraction, representing a literal-to-inferential continuum. The results indicated that the teachers' questions were predominantly literal in nature (83 %), and similarly the majority of the children's responses (77 %) were also literal. Furthermore, it was revealed that in an average instructional session: (a) teachers produced significantly more utterances than children; (b) the difference in the quantity of teachers' questions between literal and inferential levels was statistically significant; (c) similarly, the difference in the quantity of children's responses between literal and inferential levels was also statistically significant; and (d) children produced a significantly larger quantity of shorter than longer utterances. As there is distinct value in whole-group instruction as a salient context for teacher–child interactive, linguistic engagement in kindergarten classrooms in Hong Kong, it is particularly vital that early childhood educators understand what types of linguistic interactions are occurring there and how to target professional development for teachers to better support language learning in young children.
[Copyright of Early Childhood Education Journal is the property of Springer Netherlands.]

• English

Journal Articles

• 10823301;15731707

• 10.1007/s10643-016-0807-9

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/57e0bcf5

2018-06-14