ABSTRACT

Chapter 14 The articulate playground: trainee teachers meet pocket monsters E liz a b eth G ru geon

Speaking and listening have an established role within primary classrooms, but it is easy to forget that much of children’s oral language use and learning takes place outside the classroom. The playground is a domain that teaching assistants often know well; in this chapter Liz Grugeon draws together the observations of a number of trainee teachers to show children using language for many purposes. It helps them organise their games and fantasy play, allows ‘business’ to be conducted and reinforces the social order, for example. Some children who appear quiet in the classroom are shown to be perfectly articulate and able to command an audience when the context is right for them.