Ventriloquism as early literacy practice: making meaning in pretend play

Abstract

This article discusses how children in New Zealand make meaning in their spontaneous pretend play from kindergarten (four years old) through to their first year of primary school (five years old). The findings discussed here are taken from a wider project investigating children's storytelling where 12 child participants were video recorded during their everyday storytelling experiences over a three-year period. This article reveals how children's engagement in pretend play often involves playing out an impromptu storyline where ventriloquism is used to talk objects into life through paralinguistic features such as gesture, gaze and voice prosody. These findings suggest that through the act of ventriloquism in pretend play children learn to engage in complex meaning making activities in playful ways, orally formulating characters and building coherent and systematic storylines that can be identified as early literacy practices.Keywords: pretend play; storytelling; early literacy practices; New Zealand; object personification and voice projection; ventriloquism Acknowledgements Thank you to the children, families and teachers who participated in this research. I would also like to thank the members of the UCLA CLIC winter quarter 2016 group in Chuck Goodwin's Co-Operative Action Lab for their exceptional insight into the data, and the members of Linköping Conversation and Interaction Analysis Group for their generous discussions around the data. Thanks also go to Friederike Kern for insightful discussions around Laver's voice quality. Funding: Thanks is given to the New Zealand Teaching and Learning Research Initiative for funding the project that this data belongs to, 'Literacy and narrative in the early years: Zooming in and zooming out'. 2 AbstractThis article discusses how children in New Zealand make meaning in their spontaneous pretend play from kindergarten (four years old) through to their first year of primary school (five years old). The findings discussed here are taken from a wider project investigating children's storytelling where 12 child participants were video recorded during their everyday storytelling experiences over a three-year period. This article reveals how children's engagement in pretend play often involves playing out an impromptu storyline where ventriloquism is used to talk objects into life through paralinguistic features such as gesture, gaze and voice prosody. These findings suggest that through the act of ventriloquism in pretend play children learn to engage in complex meaning making activities in playful ways, orally formulating characters and building coherent and systematic storylines that can be identified as early literacy practices.

Theories Supporting the Use of Puppets as Pedagogical Tool with Young Children

“…Notice that 17 articles use more than one theory. Three articles use three theories (Bateman [38]; Farrell Darling [44]; Wohlwend [58]). In 14 articles, two theories are used (Brown [39] [57]; Wohlwend [58]).…”

“…From a psychological perspective, the concept of Trouble of Bruner, used in Bateman [38], as an important part in stories, seems relevant in connection with the use of puppets in ECEC. Bandura's theory also seems relevant, as Quiros [62] uses him as support for the importance of storytelling for children's interest and behaviour.…”

“…In Bruner, one article uses the theory in a major sense and five articles use the theory in a minor sense, (Table 1). Bateman [38] uses the concept of Trouble from Bruner in the children's complex story structures as a part among resolutions and activities that are necessary for early literacy practice and story writing. This study, from New Zealand, is from a project investigating spontaneous play and storytelling with puppets by children in kindergarten (4 years old), and first year of primary school (5 years old).…”

“…Two articles use the theory in a major sense and two articles use the theory in minor sense (Table 1). Two of these articles refer to Corsaro's ideas of the inclusion and exclusion of friends in children's peer cultures and the value of insider humour (Bateman [38]; Wohlwend [58]). Wohlwend [58], observing 3-5 years children in US childcare centers, and finds insider humour as one important cohesive element of children´s peer culture and play with puppets, figures and toys.…”

“…Wohlwend [58], observing 3-5 years children in US childcare centers, and finds insider humour as one important cohesive element of children´s peer culture and play with puppets, figures and toys. Bateman [38] interpret that children's pretend play with puppets involves inclusion and exclusion of peers through the negotiation of roles and rules. Green [59], studies 31 children of 3 years of age in Germany and their special places by using puppets, highlights children's rights with the support of Corsaro, and both Green [59] and Timmons and Pelletier [64] highlight the importance of respecting children and following them, to get close and to be a friend to the child.…”