Metacognitive Approaches to Developing Oracy: Developing Speaking and Listening with Young Children

The acquisition of speech and language represent significant achievements for all children. These aspects of child development have received substantial attention in the research literature and a considerable body of theoretical knowledge exists to chart progress from infancy to maturity. Cross-cultural studies have identified the common purposes served by the acquisition of oral language by children, and the essential similarity in the sequence through which speech develops irrespective of geography and culture. What is less clear is precisely ‘how’ children learn to say what they mean and ‘how’ teachers and parents can support and enhance the development of meaningful speech in their children. Until now, children’s speech has been underused as a means of promoting learning in the formal school setting. New requirements within the National Curriculum are trying to address this gap, but there remains a lack of clarity as to what this means for practice, and how it relates to the broad base of curricular objectives. This book brings together a body of work, from different countries; it offers an improved understanding of how strategies for developing speaking and listening may impact metacognitive awareness, and raise standards of literacy and dialogic thinking for all children. This book was previously published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

Table of Contents:
1. Perspectives on Oracy – Towards a theory of practice 2. Speaking, Listening, Planning and Assessing: The Teacher’s Role in Developing Metacognitive Awareness in Young Children 3. Oral Language Development 4. Dialogic Teaching: Developing Thinking and Meta-Cognition through Philosophical Discussion 5. "Listening to Myself": improving Oracy and Literacy among Children who Fall Behind Narrative Learning, EAL and Metacognitive Development 6. Acquisition of hearing, Listening and Speech Skills By and During Key Stage 1 7. Developing the Communicative Competence Narrative Thinking of 4 and 5-year-olds in Educational Settings 8. Oracy: Social Facets of Language Learning 9. The Prosaics of Figurative Language in Preschool: Some Observations and Suggestions for Research 10. Language Development in the Years before School: a comparison of developmental assets in home and child care settings 11. From Folktales to Algorithms: Developing the Teacher’s Role as Principal Storyteller in the Classroom 12. Supporting the Mother Tongue: Pedagogical Approaches 13. A Longitudinal Investigation of Mothers’ Mind-related Talk to Their 12- to 24- month-old infants 14. Constructing Language: Evidence from a French-English Bi-lingual Child 15. Digital Storytelling in a Science Classroom: Reflective Self Learning (RSL) in Action