Phonological Awareness

 

Thank you Helen for posting these questions to think about! Here's what I think!

HA: Will be interested to see how today's Phonological Awareness training sits with prior knowledge...
Did it:
- Confirm what you already knew?
- Build on some of your base understanding?
- Get you to think in a new way about language development?

Confirm what I already knew?

With a background in linguistics and a general interest in language (particularly phonology and oral language), it was great to have some self-confirmation that I was doing ok - even now that I'm working with an entirely different age level and even a stage level I have not yet experienced.

Build on understanding?

Yes, it was good to be reminded of a few things that are crucial to language development at certain stages. I had completely forgotten about syllables! They are now in my plan. It was also good to be reminded of the importance of scaffolding - no wonder the children struggled at literacy time to generate rhyming words straight off the top of their heads!

Thinking about language development?

It's probably not new thinking for me - it has concerned me for some time that an increasing number of children seem to be starting school without good oral language and phonological awareness. ECE is going to become a integral part of this language development, and it wasn't until today that I found out that most ECE teachers are not trained in phonological awareness. 

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day regarding the 'state' of children's language. As an ex-linguist my argument was that language is constantly evolving. I'm sure those who spoke Old English were just as aghast as we are about what was happening to language. I have to admit though - the 'development' (or is it regression?) does worry me - I do have that natural tendency to want to protect the perfectly good version of English we've got!