2. Symbolic language and communication in the school context

in learning stimuli. Teachers' oral communication skills are capable of actively supporting

This chapter aims to establish how educators manage oral discourse in preschool classrooms and how the implementation of specific approaches has more positive results than that of others. References are made to the theoretical approaches of sociolinguistics and ethnography of communication, as well as to Fairclough, Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, Mercer, Edwards, Maclure, Maybin, Volosinov, etc. The significance of active listening is analyzed as a primary skill for the language development. In addition, references are made to communication models such as the

Early education provides many speaking opportunities. Educators develop various activities aimed at language development, such as circle time discussions, teacher-learner routine interactions, reading and narrating stories, developing topics, giving directions, describing pic-

In this research, kindergarten educators engage students in discussions on the topic of 'Tolerance'. Children are invited to observe, describe, and narrate the story based on related images. In this effort, they are motivated and supported by their teachers. The main goals of the teachers' interventions are children's active participation, staying on topic, and responding to who, what, where, when, and how questions. The activities were recorded and the content was analyzed according to the qualitative content analysis of speech and communication. The

• Which specific strategies result in children being more productive in oral language?

The main body of this work comprises of three parts. Part I considers theoretical concepts associated with linguistic power and the function of the official language taught in schools as a medium for imposing state power. Emphasis is placed on oral discourse and communication in the school context. References are made to the transmission model and the dialogic model of communication. Part II consists of two sections. The first section considers the issue of orality management in the kindergarten and presents the key principles and objectives of the Greek kindergarten curriculum. The second section analyzes the importance of supporting oral communication in early childhood and the critical role of kindergarten educators to this end. The section also presents the methodology applied for curriculum implementation. Part III presents recordings of classroom discussions on 'Tolerance'. The recordings come from two kindergarten classrooms; they were transcribed and analyzed accordingly by the means of

The analysis found that each educator develops their own educational strategy that stems from their own personal theory and oral competencies. Constructive interventions with positive results were identified, along with less effective ones, which proved discouraging for children. Features of the more constructive interventions were: the implementation of the interactive communication model, the initiation-reaction-feedback (IRF) rule, a child-centered approach, credit time for children, a positive classroom climate, and the zone of proximal development

• Which communication model is implemented by educators?

transmission model of communication and the model of interactive communication.

curriculum implementation and meeting its goals.

232 New Pedagogical Challenges in the 21st Century - Contributions of Research in Education

tures, setting rules, and reading public signs.

research focuses on two questions:

communication content analysis.

perceived as an attribute of pedagogical phenomena.

Oral discourse is the child's earliest medium for knowledge acquisition and exploration of the world. It is the sphere in which knowledge and understanding are developed. Upon entering the school institution, the child assumes the role of student. Although learning to write takes great discipline, learning to speak is a less stressful process. According to Ong [1], writing is learned through concentration or study; rarely does it occur as spontaneously or smoothly as speaking. Through the practice of orality and the educator's mediation, the child assumes the role of subject-student.

The educational system tends to devalue popular modes of expression and impose the recognition of one legitimate language. The systematic learning of the standard language is the first coercion that occurs in the school context. According to Bloomfield [2], the official language imposes itself on all subjects on the territory of a political unit as the only legitimate language, especially in formal situations. As Bourdieu [3] notes, "the official language is bound up with the state… It is in the process of state formation that the conditions are created for the constitution of a unified linguistic market dominated by the official language. Obligatory on official occasions and in official places (schools, public administrations, political institutions etc.), this state language becomes the theoretical norm against which all linguistic practices are objectively measured". As the state's enforcement body for linguistic use, educators have the authority to subject the performance of speaking subjects to examinations and to officially sanction the outcomes.

The form of oral discourse most commonly encountered in educational practice is dialog. The relationship between interlocutors in this process is asymmetrical. The dominant interlocutor has longer turns and is in control of interruptions and corrections, thus putting at stake the subordinate interlocutor's freedom of speech. The register is not necessarily formal but rules of linguistic politeness are generally observed. "Within this context, educators and learners participate in a system of relationships of symbolic power" [3].

The analysis of oral communication in the school context aims to establish the types of conversation, which most promote students' understanding of curriculum content. Most research focuses on teacher-learner dialogs [4–7], whereas learner-to-learner conversation has been addressed by a rather limited number of researchers. Research findings indicate that although students learn from their teachers, they learn better from their peers. The orality movement emphasized the importance of oral discourse in the school context. Maclure attempted to specify the concept of orality and its types and to determine which of these types are promoted by the educational system. The four types of orality she identified are: orality for personal development, orality for cultural transformation, orality for learning, and orality for functional linguistic ability [8].

Regarding the systematic research of talk, two models of communication have been proposed. The Transmission Model of Communication views oral discourse as a medium for the transmission of information between a sender and a receiver. Although this model is held in high regard in educational practice, it fails to penetrate the complexity of oral discourse [9]. The second model, the Dialogic Model [10] draws on Piaget and Vygotsky and their constructive process of discourse. According to the Dialogic Model, understanding between interlocutors is constructed through dialog and is shaped by the social and cultural context. Hence, talk is a complete system of cooperative understanding.

3. Orality in the preschool curriculum

and the teacher's role as co-explorer or mentor.

Primary education curricula on language explicitly acknowledge that effective verbal communication can be stimulated by implementing appropriate strategies. The main objective is to enable students to use situation-appropriate language and to build critical awareness of linguistic uses and functions. The key principles of the cross-thematic curriculum are childcenteredness, active learning, exploratory learning, group work involving action and talk,

Oral Communication Skills and Pedagogy http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70831 235

The Greek kindergarten curriculum on language focuses on the gradual acquisition of language and knowledge by encouraging the exchange of messages. Communication permeates all the learning domains of the curriculum, facilitating an interactive and multi-sensory learning process. A holistic approach to language is adopted which views language as an integrated whole comprising of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This approach is based on continuity theories, according to which oral and written speech exist on a continuum [14]. Curriculum designers examined language curricula from other European countries and took into account research findings [15–17]. According to these, kindergarten can play a crucial role in preventing school failure, which, for young learners, is mainly associated with unfamiliarity with linguistic aspects of written discourse, as is often the case with children from unprivileged educational and social backgrounds. Furthermore, the curriculum drew on the Nuffield Science and Humanities Curriculum projects implemented by the British Schools

Admission to kindergarten inevitably means that new demands are made on the verbal communication the child has developed within the family and the wider social context. At this stage, family literacy plays a decisive role. According to the Greek Interdisciplinary Curriculum Framework [18], diverse communicative situations are created in the kindergarten class-

Verbal communication in kindergarten does not exhaust itself in intentional pre-planned activities. Rather, it is a universal, unscheduled process of child-to-teacher and child-to-child interaction, which occurs during all curricular activities. Through oral communication, children learn to adhere to adult conventions [19]. They are taught to participate in discussions, taking turns as speakers and listeners. They learn to listen without interrupting their interlocutors and to speak at the right moment taking into account what has been said. Listening refers to the child's ability to follow spoken stimuli. It is an active, systematic, and productive

3.1. Key principles and objectives

Council in the 1960s and 1970s [8].

• Narrate • Describe

• Explain and interpret

room to encourage children to talk in order to:

• Participate in discussions and implement basic reasoning

• Improve and enrich their verbal communication

• Acquire phonological awareness.

The dialogic model is connected to Volosinov and Bakhtin, according to whom utterances and responses constitute a chain of interlinked verbal events [9]. "Bakhtin suggests that dialogues are set up within utterances by our taking on and reproducing other people's voices either directly through speaking their words as if they were our own, or through the use of reported speech". Notwithstanding this appropriation of other people's voices, subjects retain responsibility for their choices [11]. Miller identifies nonlinguistic knowledge, as opposed to linguistic rules, as the main medium for understanding utterances. Furthermore, for effective communication to occur, it is vital that interlocutors wish to be understood. Understanding another person's utterances is a problem-solving process. Lack of cooperation in identifying and solving problems would render language a worthless communication tool [12].

According to Volosinov, words are ideological signs that emerge from the social contact between individual consciousnesses. They are the purest and the most sensitive means of social contact. Their main property is that, despite their interindividual nature, they are produced with the means possessed by the individual organism. Therefore, words constitute the semiotic content of individual consciousness. At the same time, words cannot be isolated from the specific social conditions in which they developed; in other words, they cannot exist as pure natural constructs.

By the same standards, comprehension is viewed as the result of interaction between a speaker and a listener. The nature of true understanding is dialogic. Meaning does not belong to a word itself, nor does it reside in either the speaker's or the listener's psyche. Rather, it is the result of a speaker-listener interaction produced through the content of a particular complex of phones. Like an electric spark, which can only be generated when two opposite poles come into contact, the electricity of verbal contact provides the word with the light of meaning [13]. For Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and Volosinov, language is socially and culturally shaped, and its use bears particular value judgments and commitments.

Conversation is the principal day-to-day linguistic behavior. The conversation analysis method was developed in 1970 in order to explore how ordinary daily behavior is perceived. Recognizing the fluid nature of conversation, conversation analysts study the way in which interlocutors perceive structure and coordinate their behavior so that effective verbal exchange can exist.

The key concepts of conversation analysis are coordination and collaboration. The operation of these concepts resembles that of nonverbal communication. For example, when one person wishes to give an object to another person, the outcome of the action is dependent on the two persons' collaboration. Participants in verbal communication behave in a similar way. Their behavior is familiar and predictable in its structure so that a communicatively successful outcome can be achieved.
