Analysis of a didactic sequence for German language teaching in Kindergarten

Abstract

Though oral language is essential in our lives, since through it we express our feelings, thoughts, desires, experiences and build knowledge, little has been said about it in early childhood education. In this way, grounded on text genre theory, from the socio-discursive interactionist perspective (Bronckart 2012; Schneuwly/ Dolz 2013), we developed a didactic sequence (DS) based on two animal tales. Through this interventionist proposal, we concentrate on improving teaching and learning in a private kindergarten in which the participants are 3 to 4 year-old children. For this article we aim at describing and evaluating the configuration of the DS as well as analyzing it in terms of language capacities. In addition, we present partial results of the children's oral productions. Analyzing the DS, we found a prevalence of significance capacities (15%) and the linguistic-discursive capacities (12.5%). Our results show that the DS provides activities for children's oral production, considering that the two chosen stories and the activities involve them emotionally, psychologically and cognitively. In addition to retell the story, students began using the vocabulary and even certain expressions in their daily lives.

Key-words:
didatic sequence; childhood education; German language; sociodiscursive interactionism