Immediate and longer-term language acquisition of 5-6 year old learners in low SES schools and families: Retelling

The paper will report on part of a study investigating the oral language expressive capabilities of children of 56 five and six year olds in low SES schools and families. Pre- and post an intervention designed to provide the... [ view full abstract ]

The paper will report on part of a study investigating the oral language expressive capabilities of children of 56 five and six year olds in low SES schools and families. Pre- and post an intervention designed to provide the children optimising language and learning conditions – the Oral Language Intensive, each child was assessed using a range of language measurements. One measure was the child’s independent telling of a story based on a series of sequential pictures, followed by a telling of the story by the researcher using a prepared text (the model), followed by the child’s immediate retell. Two ‘tell, model and retell’ texts were used pre- and post, six months apart.

The measure offered interesting insights into the uptake potential of each child and across all the children in the study. Analysis and interpretation of the data will be presented and discussed, examining the variance between children and across time. This part of the study suggests young children’s capacity to learn can be extremely fast and retentive. Pedagogical implications will be discussed using a learnability and language acquisition framework and lens, with the unique framework set (van Hees, 2011) of each child in the study a prime consideration.