Activity Contexts in Early Childhood Classrooms and Children's Language Change

Abstract Early childhood classroom environments are critical for children’s language learning. The differing types of activity contexts in which children participate likely shape opportunities for language learning, yet how these activity contexts are studied is limited both in terms of observation timing as well as the measures used to study these activity contexts. In this study, we describe the frequency and duration of activities in 100 EC classrooms focusing on teacher organization of classroom activities and examine the extent to which the proportion of time children spent in specific classroom activities (i.e., large-group circle, small group, activity time: choice, meals/snack) predicted changes in children’s language skills over the course of an academic year. Findings indicated that large-group circle was the most frequent activity context in both Fall and Spring and that activity choice constituted the largest proportion of instructional time for both Fall and Spring. Proportion of time in activity contexts did not predict language change. Implications for research are discussed.