We are delighted to invite you to the launch of our new research report. This study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, explored the role of teachers’ knowledge in supporting children’s oral language progress across the two years of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). It tested whether children made more progress when their teachers had specific knowledge of language-supporting strategies.

We used a new video measure to capture the dynamic, flexible knowledge which supports educators’ in-the-moment decision-making during interactions with children. We found that teachers’ knowledge of language-supporting strategies predicted gains in children’s understanding of vocabulary and sentence structure between the ages of three and five. 

More important than knowing the strategies themselves was understanding why they might be effective. The children who made most progress were those whose teachers could connect their knowledge of language-supporting strategies with their knowledge of child development, to understand why a strategy might be used, or what effect it might have on children’s language. We think that this explicit knowledge may allow teachers to use language strategies intentionally to support specific language goals.

Please join us to hear more about our findings and discuss what they might mean for practice, policy and research. As well as the research team, our discussant panel will include:

Dr. Lesley Curtis (Everton Nursery School and Family Centre)
Professor Kathy Sylva (University of Oxford)
Beatrice Merrick (Early Education)

The research team are: Dr Sandra Mathers,  Professor Lars-Erik Malmberg, Dr Ariel Lindorff and Dr Julian Gardiner

Early educators’ knowledge of early language pedagogy