A survey of the perceptions of kindergarten teachers, first-grade teachers, elementary school principals, and speech/language specialists toward the importance of language development in the Capital Area Intermediate Unit

A survey was administered to 642 educators in order to assess their perceptions regarding specific language development factors at the kindergarten and first grade level. A total of 486 (76%) educators responded to the 35-item survey indicating their language development perceptions and responses to nominal data items.;Language development was differentiated into four major areas: learning, teaching, curriculum, and a preacademic readiness level, allowing for study of certain aspects of the language learning process as it related to kindergarten and first grade. This categorization allowed for a specific area of emphasis to be studied and to determine which aspect of the comprehensive area of language development needed additional or renewed focus.;Results indicated strong agreement for each of the four areas of language development at the kindergarten and first grade level. Educators in each of the four groups were consistent in concluding the following: integrated teaching in other subject areas could be accomplished by an emphasis on language development; language development is the base for all academic success; curriculum at the kindergarten and first grade level should be developed around language comprehension and expression skills; the kindergarten experience should include a preacademic level which would focus on language expression as the foundation for the integration of all academic learning/instruction.;Frequency counts and correlations compared language emphasis with demographic information such as: college courses in language development, experience, school location, position, amount of daily language time, and number of daily speaking opportunities. These factors did not affect educators' perceptions regarding the importance of language development at the kindergarten and first grade level.;This investigation provides the impetus for further investigation to determine the daily practice of language development that occurs in kindergarten and first grade classrooms.;In ranking various language skills, educators identified five as most important for academic achievement: Listening, Following Directions, Basic Concepts, Describing Objects, and Sentence Usage.;A question remains unanswered. While the perceptions of the significance of language are similar among these educators, in practice, do they teach, emphasize, and include the oral aspects which they indicated are absolutely essential to classroom success!...