Teachers' Talk in Preschools During Circle Time: The Case of Revoicing

Abstract

This study focused on a specific feature of preschool teacher talk, revoicing (a situation in which the teacher repeats, fully or partially, what the child said in the immediately preceding turn), within a specific interactional context, circle time, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the type of language mediation that occurs in this learning event. Data included recordings of 20 circle-time sessions with children from two age groups: preschool children (mean age of 47.4 months) and kindergarten children (mean age of 68.7 months). This age range enabled us to explore whether the use of revoicing reflects teacher attentiveness to the level of the children's developing linguistic and conversational skills. Revoicing was manifested in two forms, exact and reformulated, and was found woven into the teachers' talk throughout the interaction with both younger and older children, regardless of the topic or pedagogical aims of the session. Although revoicing served various pedagogical needs, it functioned mainly as a marker of acknowledgment, serving as a type of “filler” to sustain group involvement, and did not open a new slot for the children to join the discussion. This pedagogical action was more frequent with the younger children. The findings of the study should be viewed in light of the consensus that preschool teacher talk plays a significant role in supporting the development of children's language and of their conversational and literacy skills. Therefore, teacher awareness of the pedagogical goals that may be accomplished by their conversational moves, and their effect on the nature of interaction, is important in establishing an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of their practice.