ABSTRACT
Effective learning environments for young children are social, physical, sometimes loud, and often active as they support the different ways in which young children learn. In this chapter, the authors draw on 11 years of thinking through and designing Ready to Learn research studies, in order to explore questions about children’s learning and the role of oral language and discourse, especially within communities with limited financial resources. The primary sources of language exposure for young children are home and school, yet research examining teacher language in early childhood programs suggests that teachers rarely introduce, model, or use strategies such as questioning to support advanced vocabulary development during their interactions with young children. The challenge the people saw in designing this study was how to translate what the people had learned about teachers' effective use of digital media in a fairly structured learning environment, into an unstructured home environment.
