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These "traits" are simply bits of discourse of young Trinidad and Tobago children (3 -5 years). They are not "cute sayings" but terms for structured talk that came out of the observations of the two (2) "girl children" I studied roughly 10 years ago. If anything the terms and their description illustrate the children's way of dealing with their social environment and the adults who inhabit it.
If we as teachers and parents know how rapid and complex the language learning of young children is, we will be less likely to be dismissive of their efforts and will see rather how they try to integrate the "new" with the "known" in order to make meaning. "Maren Aukerman, an assistant professor at Penn GSE, poses this question in a recent issue of “The Reading Teacher.” Her article argues that “social” language and “academic” language are inextricably interwoven. Thus, children — including second-language learners — will draw on what is familiar to make sense of what they are learning in school." Should we not then investigate what is "familiar" to/with our young language users?
Here then are the traits/ bits of structured talk which may be useful in the development of Early Literacy in Trinidad and Tobago. In a subsequent section I'll describe briefly how I did what I did in order to see these traits and their link to the children's early at home Literacy efforts.
These traits occurred during talk over Literacy materials and just keeping company activities with the two girls over a four year period. The idea was to usher them gently into Literacy in a home setting without the harshness of making it look like work. Instead the effort produced moments of great fun. The kinds of speech acts/traits listed below all offer possibilities for using/developing talk with children with text and beginning writing in order to make the tasks meaningful and enjoyable. A few of them will be fleshed out with examples. It is necessary to see these traits and their link to the children's early at-home Literacy efforts.
"MAKIN CONVERSATION LIKE A BIG GIRL..." Even though the media for viewing and listening is good (t.v. etc) chatting to be heard is irreplaceable for the communication of the ideas of children."Grandma" referred in a complimentary fashion (even though she was busy) to this chatting need/behavior in the two girls: "making conversation like a big girl..." I believe that this "making conversation " in the language and theappropriate participation structures they glean from their social environment is one of the best Literacy teaching tools/gifts that we can use with our children here in the Caribbean who come from a creole-speaking background and who will be labelled "at risk"--if only we knew how to use it."...from the author's notes
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