Language acquisition gives children access to a symbolic meaning system, a resource to transform lived experience into knowledge. Language is deeply intertwined with learning: language is both acquired and used in the construction of new knowledge through speaking and thinking. According to Tomasello (1999), just as glasses amplify human vision and megaphones the human voice, language amplifies thinking.
Recent psychological and linguistic studies demonstrate that language learning is far from a static, external process confined to dictionaries and grammar books. It is instead dynamic and intrinsic to each subject, whose interactions with other speakers engage their perceptions, motivation, emotions, sociability, and cognition.
Sociologists and educators often identify “cultural inequality” as a key source of disparities in language development. Explanations focus on the role of social contexts and practices, irrespective of economic factors.
These fields show us that social outcomes are also related to individuals, although it might be difficult to understand the ‘individualized social experience’. This process is referred to as as inculcation or incorporation. However, we call it ‘social construction’ because it does not result from direct transmission, but from contexts of interaction in which children learn to deduct and reconstruct cultural and linguistic practices for themselves” (Teberosky, 2016).
Reynolds et al., 2001
The lack of quality interactions during early childhood affects future academic performance. However, the gaps that emerge in those years become evident only after they have directly impacted a child’s learning opportunities: fewer stimuli often results in lower grade completion and a higher risk of being held back or dropping out of school.
Belfield et al., 2006
Children capable of using language are better able to actively and constructively think and learn. For that reason, investments in language development from an early age impact later educational attainment and influence productivity, income, and quality of life. Studies have shown that the period from 0 to 10 years of age is the most important for individual development, with higher rates of economic return and social impact. Thus, policies that target early childhood may not only reduce inequality but generate significant financial gains for society.
Fernald, Marchman e Weisleder, 2013
Researchers have found that parents of higher socioeconomic status (SES) talk to children more than their lower-SES counterparts (Hart and Risley, 1995). This affects vocabulary and language processing efficiency, creating a six-month gap between children as young as two years of age.
Becker, K. L. (2013). Uma análise econômica da relação entre a educação e a violência. Tese de Doutorado, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba.
Belfield, C., Nores, M., Barnett, S., & Schweinhart, L. (2006). The High/Scope Perry Preschool Program: Cost-Benefit Analysis Using Data from the Age-40 Followup. The Journal of Human Resources, 41(1), 162-190. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40057261
Cunha, F., & Heckman, J. J. (2010). Investing in our young people (Discussion Paper No. 5050). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Fernald, A., Marchman, V. A. & Weisleder, A. (2013). SES differences in language processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months. Developmental Science, 16, 234–248. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12019/abstract
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children.
Reynolds, A. J., Temple, J. A., Robertson, D. L., Mann, E. A. (2001) Long-term Effects of an Early Childhood Intervention on Educational Achievement and Juvenile Arrest: A 15-Year Follow-up of Low-Income Children in Public Schools. JAMA, 285(18), 2339–2346.
Teberosky, A. (2016). A linguagem de 0 a 5 anos. São Paulo, SP: Laboratório de Educação.
Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural ecology of young children’s interactions with objects and artifacts. In E. Winograd, R. Fivush, & W. Hirst (Eds.), Ecological Approaches to Cognition: Essays in Honor of Ulric Neisser (pp. 173-150). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Our work is structured around children's developmental language trajectory from 0 to 10. We focus on three different stages that address key challenges and opportunities facing the Brazilian education system.
Language learning begins through adult-child interactions and intersubjective processes. The quantity and quality of verbal input that young children hear in everyday communicative situations enable them to gradually build the necessary schema to not only engage others in conversation but also to use language while reflecting on it. In addition to the models offered, adults may contribute to language development by interpreting, repeating, expanding, and/or reformulating what children attempt to say. For this reason, they are not merely "external variables" but rather key components in this process.
The ability to comprehend and produce narratives is central to the development of oral language skills, and also facilitates learning how to read and write. However, it requires that children ages 6 to 8 already possess advanced cognitive and linguistic skills. The challenge at hand is not only for children to understand the events of a story but also to use their prior knowledge of narrative structures to establish connections and make inferences. In this context, hearing adults read stories aloud helps children both learn language and about language, even before they are able to read independently.
Education systems worldwide face the challenge of promoting language as a tool to access knowledge. Towards the end of elementary school, textbooks increasingly employ dense, abstract, and unfamiliar language commonly used by subject-area experts. Therefore, when learning to study content-knowledge, students must become familiar with field-specific vocabulary and textual structures. In order to navigate the world of knowledge with autonomy, children must simultaneously learn about language content, form and function.
At Laboratório de Educação, we incorporate ground-breaking academic research into our platforms and methodologies, and we also seek to produce new knowledge in the field of education through our work.
In 2012, we conducted a qualitative pilot study on the use and appropriation of didactic resources available in the Trilhas instructional materials distributed by the Ministry of Education to first-grade teachers in over 2,800 municipal school districts. Trilhas proposes reading and writing activities that use children’s literature to enhance early literacy classes.
Participants were asked to follow the “Guidebook for Stories with Deception”, which proposes eight activities related to children’s books with main characters that deceive others or are deceived themselves. The goal was to compare how four first-grade teachers with different pedagogical and professional backgrounds in São Paulo and Mato Grosso used and appropriated this resource, in light of instructions to reflect on the language they use to introduce and conduct the proposed activities (i.e. the literate discourse suggested in the guidebook).
In 2012, we conducted a qualitative pilot study on the use and appropriation of didactic resources available in the Trilhas instructional materials distributed by the Ministry of Education to first-grade teachers in over 2,800 municipal school districts. Trilhas proposes reading and writing activities that use children’s literature to enhance early literacy classes.
Participants were asked to follow the “Guidebook for Stories with Deception”, which proposes eight activities related to children’s books with main characters that deceive others or are deceived themselves. The goal was to compare how four first-grade teachers with different pedagogical and professional backgrounds in São Paulo and Mato Grosso used and appropriated this resource, in light of instructions to reflect on the language they use to introduce and conduct the proposed activities (i.e. the literate discourse suggested in the guidebook).
In partnership with UNESCO, we conducted interdisciplinary research on the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (PNAIC) between 2013 and 2014.
Through case studies in four municipalities of São Paulo state, we analyzed variables associated with the implementation of this nationwide teacher-training program and examined its impact on educational actors. Our work traced the program from the ongoing professional development of teacher supervisors led by local public universities to the classroom practices of literacy instructors.
Based on results from a 2014 pilot study, we analyzed and improved the clarity of explanations regarding the linguistic and visual characteristics of 4th- and 5th-grade History textbooks. We also enhanced the guidelines for activities that prepare students for text-based study (reading aloud, vocabulary, and communication and comprehension), and detailed the planning process in order to use these didactic materials in teachers’ lessons on specific subject areas.
In 2015, we studied the linguistic and visual characteristics of the most common 4th- and 5th-grade History textbooks distributed through the National Textbook Program (PNLD 2013). The results of this analysis served as the basis for the Learning to Study texts manual and was later replicated by a doctoral student at the Institute of Education at University of Lisbon.
In 2016, we authored three articles that justify the manual’s didactic choices: “Adjusting Text Layout to Analyze Information”, “Creating Visual Aides to Study Texts”, and “The Use of Diagrams in 4th– and 5th-Grade History Textbooks”.
In late 2016, we became a partner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Learning for All” research project, led by Professors Paola Uccelli, Felipe Barrera-Osorio and Sara Dryden-Peterson. “Learning for All” is a comparative, multi-disciplinary, and multi-method investigation focused on two main questions: (1) Why does so little learning take place systematically in urban public schools serving vulnerable populations globally, and (2) What are promising local and global levers to improve learning for all in these schools?
With support from the recently-created Lemann Research Fund, the study attempts to shed light on the conditions that influence educational quality. In Brazil, Laboratório de Educação was responsible for translating, adapting and validating the research instruments, as well as collaborating with São Paulo’s Municipal Secretary of Education to identify the 10 schools that comprised the final sample.
Throughout four months, we administered language tests and socio-demographic questionnaires with students from the Regional Education Boards of Campo Limpo, São Miguel and Capela do Socorro. We also conducted 12 in-depth ethnographic case studies with students and observed in-class practices and interactions using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS).
