Children's Oral Language and Literacy Play in Day Care Centers

Abstract:

This article seeks to contribute to the reflection of the relation between children's make-believe play and oral language learning in meaningful narrative contexts in day care centers. By providing examples of ongoing action research, it aims to present how children can collectively construct an emerging narrative during their playtime from teachers reading literary books aloud. The results reveal the correlation between playing and learning, which are two sides of the same coin when mediated by children's literature as it supplies a meaningful linguistic and semantic repertoire for children's expressive and communicative production.

Keywords:
Play-Based Learning; Play and Literacy; Play in Oral Language; Children's Books; Day Care Centers