Living Language
Marian Whitehead
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
It is a warm morning in late April and most of the children are out in the nursery school's extensive outdoor area. A wide range of activities is going on, including a story-reading session by a parent in the grass amphitheatre, a dramatic enactment of the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' and a game of skill involving hitting balls suspended from the classroom verandahs.
It is a warm morning in late April and most of the children are out in the nursery school's extensive outdoor area. A wide range of activities is going on, including a story-reading session by a parent in the grass amphitheatre, a dramatic enactment of the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' and a game of skill involving hitting balls suspended from the classroom verandahs.
My attention is caught by some energetic and purposeful journeys being made to and fro across the length of the hard-surfaced area by a girl pushing a toy buggy fully loaded with dolls and assorted luggage.
Her progress is somewhat hampered as she is also clutching a very large road map book. The child, Chloe (three years seven months), senses my interest and starts to begin and end her treks at the bench I am sitting on. Gaining confidence, she pushes her large-scale map book under my nose and tells me she has to drive 'There'. She points to an area at the top of the page and tells me, 'You're here', pointing to the lower area of the page.
Chloe sets off on her trek again, calling back over her shoulder, 'You stay there!' On her return trip, Chloe asks me to write her name on my notepad and the name of her friend Claire and, after examining the writing closely, assures me I have done it right, 'Because they do look like that.'
On the telephone
Now it is late autumn and I am watching a girl (three years two months) writing lines of separate marks, rapidly and fluently, left to right and top to bottom, on a loose sheet of paper from my notepad. She is unaware of my presence, having picked up the paper from a pile I left available because so many children wished to write in my observational notepad.
This young writer is perched on the edge of a low table, legs crossed and resting her paper on her knee. Suddenly she picks up the receiver of the play telephone that is on the table and tucks it between her shoulder and ear, contining to write intermittently and listen to the phone with great concentration. Clearly this is a re-enactment of some carefully-observed adult behaviour involving informal writing and taking messages from phone calls.
In the doll's house
In the same room I watch a deeply absorbing sequence of imaginary play and language by one child that lasts for 15 minutes. The boy, just over three years, is playing alone with a dolls' house and the dolls that go with it.
He is clearly elaborating a story and is also doing all the conversations in a very quiet voice which is only occasionally loud enough for me to hear. These phrases consist of expressions such as, 'There we go!' and 'No way!' which children frequently hear from their carers and other adults. Much of this activity is centred on moving the dolls in and out of different rooms and up and down the stairs of the house.
At one point a toy car is introduced into the play with loud 'brum-brum' sound effects, and there follow some sustained attempts to force the car through the internal doorways of the toy house. Finally, this problem is resolved by moving the doll family out of the house and into a model aeroplane big enough to take them all.
Not only are these observations evidence of three-year-olds using spoken and written language in their play and learning; they also show at least three other goals being achieved. Language is being used to imagine and re-create roles and experiences. Two of the children know that print carries meaning and one knows that English is written left to right and top to bottom. She also understands how writing can be used for lists and instructions. And all this at the start of the foundation stage!
These observations were made at Earlham Nursery School, Norwich