(gentle music)
- Hello, my name is Aurelia Carranza and I am part of the teaching team
of the subject Didáctica de la Comunicación Escrita en Inglés.
In this video, I am going to talk about
some of the main aspects of Unit 1.
In particular, I am going to concentrate
on the connection between written and oral language
and also on the stage previous to literacy.
In this first unit, we learn that
oral and written language are connected.
The frame used to illustrate this connection
in general and at a theoretical level is a first language context.
Why?
Because here, we can clearly see how they relate.
This unit also shows strategies to bridge
both types of language, which are valid
for the foreign language classroom as well.
The material that we recommend to prepare this unit
is chapter one and chapter three of the book
Reading and Writing in Preschool, Teaching the Essentials.
It is available at the UNED Virtual Library.
It is online and for free.
If at some point it is no longer available at the library,
we will let you know how you can get it.
It is a very practical book since it
contains different study resources.
It contains tables summarizing the main contents
of the unit, illustrations, photographies
of productions by children, for example.
Well, we must bear in mind that literacy
never happens without a good story to tell about.
Children have a lot of information they want to share,
but they are not as interested in recording these stories
because they are not familiar with this concept.
But even if these stories are not recorded,
they are important for literacy because children extract meaning,
and meaning is a key word in this presentation.
You will hear it many times, okay?
Children extract meaning and intentions from stories,
and this is a good preparation for future reading.
At the beginning, they can only do it orally,
but little by little, they get more skilled
in writing and drawing, and the graphic world
becomes a bridge to the oral because drawing and writing
convey the meaning, again, okay, that the child wants to communicate.
Now I am going to talk about some important
concepts that you need to know
In the first place, we will talk about
standards for early literacy
At the beginning, preschool was a place where children
would socialize or get used to school routines.
Schools had some educational materials
that families didn't have at home,
but children would play freely most of the time,
and they were only taught a few things
like numbers from one to 10, colors,
or maybe they would memorize the alphabet.
However, in the 1990s, research showed
the interest and the ability of children
in relation to reading and writing, and the perspective changed.
The next concept is that of awareness of print,
and for this, children need the help of their teachers
who will call their attention to the existence
and some aspects of written language.
How can we do this?
Well, for example, we can write a word.
Children observe how we write.
We write ball, B-A-L-L, and we ask children to draw a ball.
This way, children become aware that
language, the name of things, can be recorded.
Well, awareness of print should not be confused
with concepts of print, which refers to gaining awareness
of the function of print and how it works.
For example, the concept of word,
the fact that words are formed by letters,
or most important, print carries meaning, meaning, significance, okay?
So children need to be exposed to language
through guided activities,
and they should also be allowed to experiment with print,
but most important, through meaningful activities,
because if the activities are not meaningful,
if they cannot relate what they are doing
with their reality, if they cannot make sense
of what they are doing, they cannot connect oral and written language.
Well, next, phonemic awareness,
and it means gaining awareness that sounds consist,
sorry, it means gaining awareness that words consist of sounds, okay?
Another concept related to this is that of phonics,
which links sounds to the letters that represent them,
and since we are teaching English,
we should let children know that this relationship
between letter and sound is not stable.
And finally, I will talk about alphabet knowledge.
The fact that a child can memorize and recite the alphabet by heart
doesn't mean that the child will perform well
later in reading or writing, so they need to
learn the alphabet within meaningful contexts.
Well, lately, literacy has been extended.
The meaning of literacy, this concept, has been expanded,
and now it stands for the recognition
of different forms of communication,
including oral language, drawing, etcetera.
This is important because print is meaningless
if children cannot connect it to the language they know,
and for this reason, they need to be immersed
in rich oral language contexts in order to know how language sounds
and that it is used to communicate meaning.
And now I'll talk about the role of the teacher.
The role of the teacher is supporting
children's improvement of language use as they are using it.
When we read big books aloud, for example,
children can observe how a book is handled,
which orientation should be followed as we read.
Always from left to right, up and then down,
they notice the words we emphasize, our pronunciation, etcetera.
We also support them when they first try to write.
They observe how we write words,
and expository texts are very good for this.
We have to write first a word that stands for a group of words,
like family, toys, colors, etcetera.
We underline that word, and then we make a
list of things that belong to that group.
Children can tell us those words.
If they don't know, we can help them.
If we say, for example, if we start the list
with the word family, then the members of a
family are mommy, daddy, sister, etcetera.
Okay, and expository texts work very well
if we create one of them in relation
to some story we have read loud before.
Okay, so children have some base.
Oh, okay, this has been moving.
Okay, well, now I will talk about some
resources that you can use for your classes,
and the first one is that of dramatic play.
Through dramatic play, children explore storytelling,
and they act scenes from their everyday lives
and stories they have heard from books.
They also elaborate stories.
They invent, exploring fantasy,
and putting into practice their creativity,
and this is perfect for a first language context,
but how about a foreign language context?
Is this possible?
Yes, it is possible.
Even if children do not know the words,
the use of mimics, movement, dance and theater
is very effective, conveying meaning.
Here, the kinesthetic part of learning comes into play.
Students learn pronunciation, tone, gestures,
etcetera, with this type of activities.
If you want to know more about them,
there is an article available on the Virtual Zone.
It is called Boosting Language Skills of English
Learners Through Dramatization and Movement.
Well, expository texts, I have already talked about them,
but I will give you some more information now.
Well, they help children expand their vocabulary,
and they work better if supported by other means.
I have talked about stories read from a big book,
but they also work well with the help of picture books
related to the objects read aloud to them,
or even the objects themselves, objects that the children can touch.
And they have the advantage that they can be displayed on the wall,
and we can complement them with pictures or drawings, for example.
Well, books, we need to talk about books.
Hearing many stories help children
internalize the language of written text.
However, not all the children have the same
capacity to do this, so we need to help them.
The teacher should show how oral language is crafted,
translated into written text.
How can we help these children?
Well, for example, group lessons where children
are invited to respond to a book they have just read aloud,
they have just heard read aloud, are very useful.
Well, and finally, the last resource
I am going to talk about is technology.
And many children respond very well to the use of technology.
They are digital natives.
However, there are still some children
that need more support, they need help
Scaffolding is also necessary when they start using technology
so they can use it in meaningful ways.
Well, to give you one example,
children may draw and write using technological
tools like the app Book Creator for iPad.
They can create their own page of a book
using their finger or a pen or paste images stored in the app.
Well, this is it, but it is not all.
You still need to study the material, okay?
If you have any doubts about this video or about Unit 1 in general,
you can ask us any questions you have in the forum of Unit 1, okay?
Well, so thank you very much for your attention.
(upbeat music)