FTT-P

Development of the FTT- training for teachers and pedagogically trained elementary school caregivers on language support through language teaching strategies and their use in dialogs with children (especially in the area of emotions) and evaluation of the effects of the training on the linguistic performance and emotional knowledge of the children cared for by this staff

The aim of Feeling Thinking Talking in Primary School (FTT-P) is to develop a structured training for teachers and educators on content-based language support in the classroom and in everyday life, and to measure its effects on the performance of the children in their care. Language enhancement is achieved by the use of language support strategies and dialogic talk about emotions (emotion talk) - a meaningful and thus motivating conversation starter for children that combines linguistic and emotional learning. FTT-P extends the BISS development project Feeling Thinking Talking (FTT) (which has been evaluated as effective for elementary schools) to primary schools. A new focus is on developing everyday language skills in order to further children’s academic language. Talking about emotions, for example, stimulates a change of perspective and the ability to express one's own perspective - e.g., with the help of mental state verbs (feel, think), which necessitate the use of complex sentences which are typical of academic language. Language skills and emotion knowledge of 300 second graders are measured in a pretest-posttest-follow-up design with an intervention group (IG) and a (wait-list) control group (CG). The FTT-P training trains all teachers and educators of all-day primary schools for the use of all language-promoting situations which arise in class in the morning and during after-school activities in the afternoon.

Objectives 

The goals are on the one hand the development of the FTT training for teachers and pedagogically trained educators in primary school on language promotion by means of language support strategies and their use in dialogues with the children (especially in the area of emotions) and on the other hand, the evaluation of the effects of the training on the language skills and the emotion knowledge of the children in their care.

Funded by

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration

December 2022- November 2025

Project management

• Prof. Maria von Salisch, Leuphana University Lüneburg
• Prof. Miriam Langlotz, University Kassel
• Dr. Oliver Hormann, Technische Universität Braunschweig

Project team

• Dr. Katharina Voltmer, Leuphana University Lüneburg
• Roberta Enzmann, University Kassel

Partners

Various schools in and around Lüneburg, Braunschweig and Kassel as well as the Competence Centers for Teacher Education at the Universities of Lüneburg and Braunschweig

Publications (in German)

Hormann, O., & Skowronek, M. (2019). Wie adaptiv ist der Einsatz von Sprachlehrstrategien in KiTas? Ergebnisse einer Videoanalyse. Frühe Bildung, 8 (4), S. 194-199. https://doi.org/10.1026/2191-9186/a000444

Salisch, M. v., Hormann, O., Koch, K., Cloos, P. & Mähler, C. (Hrsg.) (2021). Fühlen Denken Sprechen: Alltagsintegrierte Sprachbildung in Kindertagesstätten. Zugleich Band 7 in der Reihe Sprachliche Bildung herausgegeben vom Mercator-Institut für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache Münster: Waxmann. Downloadable under the URL:https://www.waxmann.com/index.php?eID=download&buchnr=4302

Voltmer, K., Hormann, O., Pietsch, M., Mähler, C. & Salisch, M. v. (2021).​ Teaching the Teachers about Language Support Strategies: Effects on Children’s Language Development. Frontiers of Psychology, 12:660750. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660750

Voltmer, K.  & Salisch, M. v. (2022). The Feeling Thinking Talking Intervention with Teachers Advances Young Children’s Emotion Knowledge. Social Development, 31(3), 846- 861. DOI:10.1111/sode.12586