Gestures, Objects, and Spaces: Exploring Teachers' Multimodal Communication in Nursery Schools

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Early Childhood Education
• Linguistics

Background:

• Adult-child interactions and object use are crucial for early language development.
• Most research focuses on home-based dyadic interactions, with limited studies in educational settings.
• Understanding classroom communication is vital for optimizing early learning environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the multimodal nature of teachers' communicative bids in nursery school group interactions.
• To analyze gesture use, audience, object involvement, and classroom layout in early childhood education and care settings.
• To explore how teachers' communication shapes linguistic contexts for young children.

Main Methods:

• Observational data collected during circle-time activities in 16 Spanish nursery school classrooms.
• Analysis of 16 teachers and 161 children (2-3 years old).
• Detailed analysis of teachers' verbal and verbal-gestural bids, including gesture types, audience, object use, and classroom layout.

Main Results:

• Teachers' communication with toddlers is highly multimodal, relying on various gestures.
• The use of objects in interactions was scarce across the observed sample.
• Certain classroom layouts appear to influence the types of gestures teachers employ.

Conclusions:

• Teachers' communication in nursery schools is rich in multimodal strategies, primarily gestures.
• Limited object use and specific spatial arrangements may present opportunities or constraints for language development.
• Further research into the interplay of space, objects, and multimodal communication is needed to enhance early learning environments.