Language acquisition support system
- children need social interaction to develop social and language skills
- a language rich environment is essential for children’s language development
- adults facilitate language acquisition, a process he referred to as ‘scaffolding’
Scaffolding
Supporting children in their learning to help them reach the next level of cognitive and language development.
- simplifying language
- motivating children
- modelling language
Mode of representation
Enactive
Iconic
Symbolic
Enactive
Physical actions - hands on activities
Iconic
Learn through Pictures
Symbolic
Interpret symbols to form a mental picture
Vygotsky
Social interaction with adults and other children is essential for cognitive and language development. (Social constructivist learning theory)
Viewed children as
‘Apprentices’ who learn from others
Language development
- active process
- development of language is the result of social interaction
- children are apprentices who learn language from others
- language is important for cognitive development
Zone of proximal development
What children can achieve with support from an adult or child with higher level knowledge and skills
Types of speech
Social speech
Private speech
Social speech
is used by children to communicate with other
Private speech
Directed to the self and used for self direction. Children use it in play and it helps to develop their thought processes.
Supporting speech
- Using close observation of children’s current development to inform planning for their next steps
- using questioning and modelling language to develop children’s language skills
- giving opportunities for exploration and play to develop private speech
