A Study On The Playfulness Of Language Play In The Middle Childhood

Play is the main form and content of children’s day.Language games are an important means of promoting the development of language skills in young children,and as a common teaching game in kindergartens,there are many different kinds of language games,which are very popular with children.There is little research on children’s playfulness in language games,so we have taken the middle school class(4-5 years old)as the subject of this study to gain an insight into the playfulness of middle school children in language games.This study will help teachers to understand more comprehensively the playfulness of the children in the classroom and the factors that influence playfulness,so as to provide support and reference for teachers to better guide the children in the classroom.This study drew on the original scale of the Playfulness Scale for Children developed by Barnett and revised it by adding the characteristics that Guilford(1967)suggested should be present in a creative personality to form the Playfulness Performance Observation Scale for Language Play in Middle Class Children.Using mainly indirect and non-participant observation methods,eight teachers and 128 children in four middle classes in two kindergartens in Chongqing were observed.Approximately 300 minutes of observation videos were collected and subsequently graded using the revised scale.An analysis of the overall and specific dimensions of playfulness performance of128 children in the intermediate classes and the influencing factors such as the gender of the children,the characteristics of the teachers and the conditions in the kindergarten led to the following conclusions.1.The playfulness of the children in Language Play is generally moderate to high.The "physical spontaneity" dimension scored moderately well,with children being relatively active in their play;the "social spontaneity" dimension scored highest,with children showing friendliness towards peers;the "cognitive spontaneity "The lowest score was for the dimension of apparent pleasure,where children sang and danced infrequently,and for the dimension of sense of humour,where children had a high laughing point and laughed frequently."In terms of gender,boys scored higher on average than girls in all six dimensions of playfulness.2.As for the factors influencing the playfulness of language play in the middle childhood class,the following factors were identified.Firstly,teachers’ characteristics,including their outlook on play,their teaching experience,and their ability to guide language play,all have an impact on the playfulness of language play in the classroom.Secondly,in terms of kindergarten conditions,the organisation of language play,the layout of the kindergarten classroom and the materials used in the kindergarten classroom also have an impact on the playfulness of language play in the classroom.Based on the above findings,the researcher makes the following educational recommendations for improving the level of playful expression in language play in the middle childhood classes.1.teachers’ views on play.This includes establishing a correct view of play and correctly handling the relationship between teaching and play.2.Teachers’ practice.This includes giving children autonomy in their activities,paying attention to their individual differences,and giving them sufficient playful experiences.3.Kindergarten management.This includes creating a relaxed and interesting language play environment,arranging the class activity area reasonably,and allocating class teachers reasonably.