8.4: Introducing the Foundations
The preschool learning foundations for Language and Literacy are organized into three broad categories or strands:
- listening and speaking
- reading
- writing[1]
Supporting Listening and Speaking
Language takes place all around us—in social interactions between teachers and children, in classroom management, in play between children, and in instructional activities. For example, when children learn mathematics and science, they learn them through language as well as through meaningful, multisensory experiences.
Language also enhances or limits children’s ability to choose playmates and join in games on the playground. The foundations for listening and speaking include:
Language use and conventions focuses on how children use their language for a number of purposes, including learning how to participate in short conversations.
1.0 Language Use and Conventions
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 1.1 Use language to communicate with others in familiar social situations for a variety of basic purposes, including describing, requesting, commenting, acknowledging, greeting, and rejecting. | 1.1 Use language to communication with others in both familiar and unfamiliar social situations for a variety of basic and advanced purposes, including reasoning, predicting, problem solving, and seeking new information. |
| 1.2 Speak clearly enough to be understood by familiar adults and children. | 1.2 Speak clearly enough to be understood by both familiar and unfamiliar adults and children. |
| 1.3 Use accepted language and style during communication with familiar adults and children. | 1.3 Use accepted language and style during communication with both familiar and unfamiliar adults and children. |
| 1.4 Use language to construct short narratives that are real or fictional. | 1.4 Use language to construct extended narratives that are real or fictional. |
Vocabulary learning is one of the most important accomplishments of early childhood and is related to later reading comprehension.
2.0 Vocabulary
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 2.1 Understand and use accepted words for objects, actions, and attributes encountered frequently in both real and symbolic contexts. | 2.1 Understand and use an increasing variety and specificity of accepted words for objects, actions, and attributes encountered in both real and symbolic contexts. |
| 2.2 Understand and use accepted words for categories of objects encountered and frequently used in everyday life. | 2.2 Understand and use accepted words for categories of objects encountered in everyday life. |
| 2.3 Understand and use simple words that describe the relations between objects. | 2.3 Understand and use both simple and complex words that describe the relations between objects. |
Grammar allows children to go beyond mere naming with their vocabularies to express their ideas in sentences. It’s understanding how words are put together in a