More Than Words

Vocabulary and grammatical development support each other reciprocally. Children rarely learn new words and Auslan signs and their meanings in isolation. Children use linguistic cues such as sentence context and visual input, among other variables, to inform their understanding of possible meanings for new words. Neither vocabulary, Auslan signs nor grammar should be taught in isolation.

Some reflective questions to consider are:

• Do I provide children with opportunities to engage with a variety of phrases in the target language?
• Do the resources I use include opportunities for more than word/sign-level only input? (i.e. Not just single words or Auslan signs but stories, songs, etc., which provide rich contextual information and language structures.)