Social Sciences

From Talk to Text: Using Talk to Support Writing

1 December 2004 - 30 November 2006

About the research

The principal aims of the project were to investigate how creating explicit opportunities for talk can enhance children’s early attempts at writing, and to develop practical and successful ways of implementing this in the classroom. The work aimed to gain a better understanding of how talk can be used to support children’s writing in the early years. This will have an impact on our understanding of the importance of talk in teaching and learning and on achievement in writing both in the early stages and in later years.

The outcome will be twofold:

• Firstly, there will be a collection of activities that teachers can undertake with young children which will help them put their ideas into words, orally at first and then, in writing. These activities will have been shown to be enjoyable for children and effective in enabling them to produce higher standards of writing. These activities are currently in preparation and will be available in 2008.
• Secondly, the teachers involved will have developed their own theoretical and applied understanding of appropriate pedagogical interventions to support early years’ writing.

Documents

Talk to Text final report