Does the Combilist training improve interaction skills of teachers and students?

Abstract

Oral language education is teaching language through interaction with children, so an environment can be created where children are challenged to learn language skills. Because teachers do not have the skills to bring oral language education to practise, the Combilist training was developed, to learn conversation and interaction skills in the classroom. In this study we want to investigate the effect of the Combilist training on teacher skills to bring oral language education in practice, focusing on questioning of the teachers and speaking time of teachers and children. In a pre-posttest study, twenty-four participants from four different schools were tested on total number of questions, number of closed questions, number of open questions, number of what-action-question (wav), speaking time of teachers and speaking time of children. These results show that the Combilist training is a good tool to narrow down the total number of questions and to enlarge the speaking time of children in the classroom, thereby creating opportunities for children to develop their language skills.