Example 2
The second example is from a research study conducted in a primary school in
Dublin which had a band one Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools
(DEIS) designation (McGough, 2008). A range of teacher talk strategies was
used to support young children’s listener-speaker/communicator skills along with
developing vocabulary, structure and range of language use while constructing
and presenting accounts and narratives. In this sample from the study, the teacher/
researcher and a group of four year old children are using a familiar song as a
model for constructing a new song on a similar theme. The original song was
about an elephant and describes his characteristics. In this song, the subject is a
lion and the children construct a range of new descriptors: