Abstracts - Earli

Peer talk as cultural practice and a matrix for the development of discursive skills.Rebecca Sutherland, Harvard University, USAShoshana Blum-Kulka, Hebrew University, IsraelCatherine Snow, Harvard University, IsraelHow do children in different cultures use peer talk for language learning and to become membersof their own culture? We studied these questions by comparing the genre repertoire of natural peertalk of American and Israeli preschool children from a context and culture sensitive approach.Applying a four-dimensional discourse-analytical model to large samples preschool children’sspontaneous talk in the two cultures, we sought to explore, from a cross-cultural perspective a)variation in types and functions of genres and sub-genres used b) the emergence of "conversation",namely non-instrumental, out-of-play talk and c) the emergence of genres of extended discourse.The discursive resources evoked in the children’s talk were captured by segmenting the data intothematic episodes, and noting for each its dominant genre and types of keying (e.g. likepretend/non-pretend). The preschoolers’ peer talk discursive repertoire in both cultures was foundto be surprisingly rich in different genres. The most common types of discourse in both Americanand Israeli preschool are activity talk and play talk, but the children were also observed to engagein sociable, non-activity focused talk and in the co-construction of genres of extended genres, likenarratives and explanations. Cultural ways of speaking emerged primarily in modes ofinvolvement in sociable talk. Peer talk emerges as allowing for an apprenticeship in culture andconversation in several ways –in promoting discursive skills, in enhancing the understanding offunctions of talk and language at large, and as a site for enculturation.Pretend play in the wake of story reading: An opportunity for literacy enhancementEva Teubal, David Yellin Teachers’ College, IsraelEsther Vardi-Rath , Kay Teachers’ College, IsraelTamar Eylon, Kay Teachers’College, IsraelZehava Cohen, Kay Teachers’ College, IsraelTeresa Lewin, Kay Teachers’ College, IsraelHadassa Aillenberg, Kay Teachers’ College, IsraelChildren’s peer discourse has been found to scaffold discourse abilities in general as well asencourage the emergence of various genres of literate discourse (Blum-Kulka & Snow, 2004). Theaim of this three year study was to analyze children’s pretend play discourse after they had beenread a story. The questions to be addressed in this symposium deal with the impact of the readstory text upon children’s re-creation of that story when they engage in pretend play in the wake ofthe story. a) What is the degree of awareness of the given story text revealed by the children’sdiscourse? b) To what extent do children expand the story text? The children played for abouttwenty minutes. The coding scheme used in this analysis consisted of categories focused on thechildren’s attitude to the story text during the "story playing session": 1) awareness of the storytext- adhering to text, expanding text, metacognitive attitude to text - .this includes play behavioraccording to the text, as well as behavior altering the text (introducing additional characters, forexample) while still taking it into account and maintaining the frame of the story. 2) Ignoring thestory text- children depart from the frame of the story. ost of the children’s discourse revealsawareness of the story text (82%). Children’s pretend play in the wake of a story read to them is anactivity with great potential for learning from and about texts within a context which is relevantand authentic from the children’s point of view.– 296 –