QUALITY OF EDUCATORS’ ACTIVITIES AIMED AT ENCOURAGING PROPER SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN IN KINDERGARTEN

Abstract

The paper is based on the idea that encouraging proper speech and language development is important for the overall children development. It has been determined that there are numerous methods and activities for encouraging speech and language development that educators can use in their work. The aim of this research was to investigate the educators’ attitudes towards the quality of their activities aimed at encouraging children’s proper speech and language development. We hypothesized that educators encourage children’s proper speech and language development, but that some aspects of their activities also discourage proper speech and language development. A descriptive-analytical survey method was used, while the data were collected by the means of a survey. The instrument used was a questionnaire for educators created for the purposes of this research. The sample comprised 27 educators employed in the Public Institution Preschool Education, Zenica. The findings showed that educators largely carry out activities aimed at encouraging proper speech and language development. However, the results related to their attitudes towards the activities aimed at encouraging and discouraging proper speech and language development indicated that, still, there are particular situations when some educators also carry out activities aimed at discouraging proper speech and language development.