Developing a language learning model by the whole-word reading and based on a cognitive approach with games for preschool children

Preschool education is very important for the overall and comprehensive development of children. Among the factors that add to the importance of this course are the flexibility of children's brains and the existence of a sensitive period for language learning in this course. New teaching methods may be needed to make the most of the flexibility of the brain and the critical period of language learning, giving them the opportunity to succeed in mastering the language more in the early childhood years. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to present and evaluate the language learning model for preschool children, which promotes education in a holistic manner and is based on a cognitive approach with play. Language is the most powerful tool for learning and acquiring different skills. Children who are linguistically strong often have fewer developmental and communication problems. Linguistic arts include four basic areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In the meantime, reading skills, which is the main subject of this research, are defined as an individual's ability to understand and use written language that is socially desirable or valuable to him. The traditional method of teaching reading in Persian has been based on the phonetic method. In this approach, education begins with the smallest and smallest elements of language and script, i.e. sounds, words or syllables, and ends with general elements. But due to the prevalence of reading problems and common reading inconsistencies, the whole-word reading pattern emerged in the 1980s to help teach children to read. In this teaching method, the word itself is considered as a whole unit and students relate it to their previous knowledge. Whole-word reading helps poorly read children to develop a meaningful vocabulary of familiar words and to be able to read more fluently through it. In order to be able to use the reading pattern more effectively for children, it is necessary to use teaching methods based on cognitive learning approach as the basis of education. The three main models of teaching the cognitive approach are: the mnemonic model, the picture-word inductive model, the attaining concept model. These three teaching models were used in designing the language learning model of the present study. Since any training for children, especially language training will be more effective and enjoyable if accompanied by play, it is necessary to use a variety of educational games. Given these cases, the main issue of the present study was what characteristics should have a teaching model that is suitable for whole-word reading and how can cognitive teaching models as well as valid and evidence-based educational games be used in developing this model? This issue was investigated with a combined approach (with two parts, quantitative and qualitative). In the qualitative part, the method of regular review of library resources including books, articles and research reports was used, and in the quantitative part, the survey method was used to validate the model. In order to gather resources, the keywords whole word reading, whole language, mnemonically learning, picture-word inductive model, PWIM, concept attainment, play, instructional games were considered. These words have been used in domestic library resources and Internet sites (Normagz, Magiran, Jahad Daneshgahi and Irandoc scientific databases) and foreign Internet sites (Science Direct, Core, Google scholar, Knowledge E and library Genesis). The target period for the search was from 2011 to 2020. After gathering the sources and reviewing the title and abstract, the items that dealt exactly with the subject of language learning and preschool and primary school children were purposefully selected and studied. To design the proposed model, themes that were frequently referenced in these sources were extracted and put together. Then they were compared and prioritized and the components of the model were organized in order. In other words, six elements of the pattern and the order and sequence of steps of the proposed pattern were designed. In the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire was used to validate the proposed model. This questionnaire has 19 items that according to the components of the model including objectives (7 questions), content (3 questions), teaching and learning method (3 questions), learning environment (2 questions), learner characteristics (2 questions) and evaluation. (2 questions) was designed. Answer options also include high, medium and low. The community of the quantitative research section includes all specialists in educational sciences and educational psychology with teaching experience in the university, and the sample was purposefully selected people who were active in the field of language learning and agreed to participate in the research. Based on the findings of a review of valid and relevant scientific sources, a model for language learning was proposed, the components of which were defined according to the principles of education in the cognitive approach, the use of educational games and improving reading skills of preschool children. This template has six components (objectives, content, teaching-learning method, learning environment, learner characteristics and evaluation). In the second stage of the research, the steps of implementing the language learning model were developed by combining the educational activities in the three cognitive teaching methods, and appropriate educational games were suggested in several stages. These include: selecting the picture by the instructor, identifying images and correcting the image-word vocabulary, reviewing the image-word vocabulary, fully purposeful educational game, conceptualization, word classification, and finally evaluation. According to the quantitative findings of this study, which resulted from the implementation of a validation questionnaire among specialists related to the field of language learning, it can be said that all components of the proposed model have good validity and more accurately have a relatively good credit components component. The language learning model designed in this study can be generalized to language learning programs that are designed specifically for preschool children. Therefore, its use is recommended for preschoolers and educators. Other researchers are also encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of this language learning model on reading skills in the early years of primary school and the development of children's interest in reading.