Abstract :
[en] Context: Children's language environments are crucial for the development of early oral language skills (Hoff, 2006), which in turn support later school readiness skills and enables academic achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). To date, there is limited evidence on the quality of interactions in toddler classrooms, and even fewer studies have investigated interactions across different activities (Guedes et al., 2020). However, different activities are likely to influence educators’ language practices and children’s opportunities for interaction (Degotardi et al., 2016; Cadima et al., 2022). Objectives: In this context, the current study explores the extent to which global interactions, fine-grained measures of children’s and educators’ talk, and specific talk strategies vary according to different activities. Method: Video recordings captured educator-child interactions on a single day in 40 French toddler classrooms, with an average age of 15-36 months. At the classroom level, trained observers coded global interactions during multiple observation cycles in different activities using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System - Toddler (CLASS-Toddler; La Paro et al., 2012). Additionally, 10 minutes of educator-child interactions in each activity were extracted and transcribed using the CLAN program (MacWhinney, 2000). At the individual level, fine-grained variables measurements (i.e., lexical diversity, mean length of utterance) were conducted using CLAN, and specific talk strategies (i.e., wh-questions, comments) were coded according to a specific coding scheme. Results: Our multilevel models and corpus analyses predict that some activities are more conducive to higher-quality interactions (i.e., book reading) than others (i.e., mealtime) at all levels of analysis. We also predict that different patterns of children’s and educators’ talk strategies are distinctly associated to fine-grained variables and global quality ratings. Practice or Policy: Professional development should include targeted training focused on improving the least effective interactions within certain activities and/or maximizing the effectiveness of interactions in others.
