oral language
Young children's language develops more rapidly when they have frequent conversations with peers and especially with adults (Clay 1998; Zimmerman et al. 2009). Teachers can provide settings for such interactions. Barbara arranged the read-the-room center so that children could talk with each other and the teacher not only to facilitate their learning of print concepts but also to foster conversations. Through interactions with others, children learn the rules of conversation (e.g., turn taking, listening and the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of language.