From "Teaching Language" to "Using Language": Approaches to Early Childhood Language Education in Authentic Communicative Contexts

Abstract : The essence of language lies in communication and interaction. When language activities in preschools are primarily confined to a one-way question-and-answer pattern of “teacher questioning and children responding,” children may have opportunities to respond to teachers’ questions, but they may not have sufficient opportunities to experience and use language in authentic contexts. Therefore, early childhood language education should not focus solely on the teaching of vocabulary, sentence structures, or linguistic knowledge. Rather, it should return to children’s lived worlds and provide opportunities for them to use language naturally in authentic and meaningful contexts through interactions with teachers, peers, and their surrounding environments. In such contexts, children can use language to express ideas, negotiate meanings, ask questions, respond to others, and share experiences. In other words, early childhood language education should move from “teaching language to children” toward “enabling children to use language.” In this approach, language becomes a genuine means through which children understand, communicate, and participate in their everyday worlds. Therefore, to realize an approach to early childhood language education that “moves from teaching language to using language,” educators can focus on four dimensions: context, interaction, activities, and the teacher’s role. The emphasis is not on increasing the number of language-learning activities, but on creating meaningful everyday contexts in which children need to use language, want to use language, and have genuine reasons to use language. To further develop this perspective, this article examines approaches to early childhood language education in authentic communicative contexts, with particular attention to the shift from “teaching language” to “using language.”