Oracy in a Japanese Kindergarten

Shirakawa, Y., & Iwahama, R. (2009). Oracy and literacy practices in a Japanese kindergarten: A theoretical examination. Early Child Development and Care, 179(5), 587-594. doi: 10.1080/03004430701379371

Background

Literacy in Japan is acquired mainly in the family context and kindergarten children close to six years of age can read 90% of hiragana (the symbols representing the sounds of Japanese) and write more than 50% of them.

Aims

The authors have looked for examples of practice in Japanese kindergartens of the kind supported by the theories of Vygotsky and others regarding language and cognitive development.

Sample

The authors share selected transcripts of three episodes of oral interaction in a kindergarten in Kobe (translated from the Japanese). One covers an incident between two pupils with the teacher acting as an advisor, another is a show and tell session and the third is of a ‘Who am I?’ game.

Method

The authors discuss each episode in terms of the teacher’s role.

Findings

In the first episode, the teacher advises one pupil who complains that a second pupil won’t play house with her. The teacher suggests the first pupil finds out the reason which turns out to be that the second pupil thinks the ‘house’ is too small for two. The teacher then encourages the two pupils to come to a solution. The two eventually work together to extend the ‘house’. Here the role of the teacher is to encourage pupils to seek the opinions of others, ask questions, explain and find solutions, important skills for the future. In the show and tell session, the teacher’s role is to organize, mediate the thoughts of pupils and help pupils develop interpersonal skills. In the game, the teacher gets the pupils to think before answering. These important oral skills are seen as preparation for literacy skills.

Each pupil is allowed to develop literacy at their own pace. The teacher reads to the pupils and some later take the books to look at the pictures, some repeat remembered phrases from the teacher’s reading and others learn to recognize some words. Any writing is likely to be personal involving family members or fellow pupils and can be a mixture of drawings and words.

Implications

The authors believe that further research is needed into the development of child language, particularly into how children’s ideas may be constructed through dialogue with others.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.