5. Conclusion

This chapter considered strategies, which promote the development of oral communication skills in preschool education. Part I considered theoretical and conceptual issues, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, and the Neo-Vygotskian approach to child learning. Part II presented language development issues in relation to kindergarten curricula. Finally, in Part III, two classroom discussions in the kindergarten were presented on the topic of diversity.

The analysis of the educational practices implemented was aimed at establishing how kindergarten educators manage oral discourse in the classroom and to what extent the application of specific educational interventions produce positive outcomes. Data analysis led to significant findings on the strategies, which promote orality in the kindergarten classroom and established the crucial role of orality development in the preschool learning process. The key role of communication in the kindergarten is reinforced by the learners' age group. At the preschool stage, children attempt to discover and understand the world around them, a process mediated by the teacher's oral discourse. Teaching is a predominantly interpersonal profession and communication skills are inherent to it. For this reason, the authors believe that kindergarten educators must receive both initial and further training in communication skills.

The analysis found that each educator develops their educational strategy based on their personal theory and oral competencies. Constructive facilitations with positive outcomes were established (classroom discussion I), along with less constructive ones, which proved to have a discouraging impact on learners (classroom discussion II). Furthermore, the teacher's weak verbal communication skills in discussion II meant that the cognitive objective of the activity was not achieved.

Constructive interventions include implementation of the interactive communication model, the initiation–response–feedback (IRF) rule, a child-centered approach, credit time for children and a positive classroom climate. In addition, the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is perceived as a pedagogical phenomenon and not as an individual quality of learners.

The discouraging interventions in discussion II include the following characteristics:


unclear, complex, or long questions is not an effective practice. Such questions do not facilitate

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

During this educational practice, the teacher rejects the "yes, but…" strategy, which promotes child activation. Instead, she implements negative discouraging strategies. By repeatedly using expressions such as "Of course not", "No", etc., she interferes with any attempt made by the students to think and express themselves. Another discouraging strategy is asking preschoolers 'how do you feel' questions. Children at this age rarely use words to express their emotions; it is much easier for them to do so with actions. By observing child behavior, we came to realize that children cannot describe how they feel. It is also highly inappropriate to draw attention to one student's diversity. The reasoning behind respecting diversity dictates that we handle it as if it did not exist, rather than stressing its existence ["How do you feel about Nakis having difficulty, little Nakis is different…", "Nakis is different from you"]. As a general rule, children do not respond to such questions. When one of the students responds "I feel good", the teacher says: "Good. Why do you feel good about Nakis being in our class?". The students do not respond. The teacher goes on: "Does it make things hard for us, does it make us feel good, what, what do we feel?", resulting in students responding "We feel bad". Evidently, the personalization of diversity is pedagogically inappropriate. In this example, such an approach leads to a negative conclusion. In such cases, discussion proves ineffective

This chapter considered strategies, which promote the development of oral communication skills in preschool education. Part I considered theoretical and conceptual issues, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, and the Neo-Vygotskian approach to child learning. Part II presented language development issues in relation to kindergarten curricula. Finally, in Part III, two classroom discussions in the kinder-

The analysis of the educational practices implemented was aimed at establishing how kindergarten educators manage oral discourse in the classroom and to what extent the application of specific educational interventions produce positive outcomes. Data analysis led to significant findings on the strategies, which promote orality in the kindergarten classroom and established the crucial role of orality development in the preschool learning process. The key role of communication in the kindergarten is reinforced by the learners' age group. At the preschool stage, children attempt to discover and understand the world around them, a process mediated by the teacher's oral discourse. Teaching is a predominantly interpersonal profession and communication skills are inherent to it. For this reason, the authors believe that kindergarten

The analysis found that each educator develops their educational strategy based on their personal theory and oral competencies. Constructive facilitations with positive outcomes were established (classroom discussion I), along with less constructive ones, which proved to have a discouraging impact on learners (classroom discussion II). Furthermore, the teacher's weak

educators must receive both initial and further training in communication skills.

learners' thinking or expression.

5. Conclusion

both in terms of process and in terms of cognitive goals.

garten were presented on the topic of diversity.


The constructive interventions in discussion I have the following characteristics:


To sum up, this work attempted to establish how children learn to construct an understanding of the world around them. It was suggested that, in their effort to construct meaning and learn, preschool children are directly influenced by the way in which educators manage orality. The authors believe that this statement extends the scope of the communication theory of learning in order to highlight the value of genuine dialog in the learning process.

B. Appendix

Classroom discussion I.

S4: Triangles.

S6: (shows)

S6: A tongue

S6: No.

S3: I ———

S3: (shows).

heads the same?

S5: Round things.

S6: Squares and triangles.

The transcripts use the following markup conventions: simultaneous utterances are marked by slashes // and long pauses by dashes —————. Emphatic speech is represented by UPPER-CASE. Unclear utterances are indicated by (…). Omitted parts are marked by […]. Additional contextual information appears in italic type. 'Ed.' stands for 'Educator' while children's names are given in full. 'Students' signifies that more than two children are speaking simultaneously.

Oral Communication Skills and Pedagogy http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70831 243

Ed.: Let's see what I've brought you today kids, what's this. Let's put it, where, here.

Let's look at it for a while without talking. ——— So, now, let's talk. I'd like us to.

For students whose names are unknown, S1, S2, etc. are used.

talk about this poster, what do we see, what's there?

Ed: Which ones are round, come and show us.

Ed.: His little mouth, are the other mouths round too?

Ed. What are the other mouths like, can you show me?

Ed.: Is there anything else round anywhere except the mouth?

Ed.: So, I now want us to think about something, first of all we look at the heads, are all the

Ed.: Ah! what's this round thing here?

Students: Squares // Triangles

S1: Oh! a round nose too.

S2: And one more little nose.

Ed.: Come up and show us too.

S1: Masks // S2: Circles // S3: Squares
