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Exploring Speaking Skills Development of 4–5-Year-Old Children: The Role of One-on-One Interaction and Experience-Based Storytelling
Abstract
Children’s speaking skills at ages 4–5 are a key indicator of language development, influencing social interaction, learning processes, and school readiness. This study aims to explore the speaking skills of children aged 4–5 years in early childhood education (PAUD), focusing on vocabulary, sentence structure, articulation, and verbal expression. This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach with a case study design that involved 15 children at Kiddie Care PAUD in Gorontalo. Data were collected through observations, semi-structured teacher and parent interviews, and recordings of children’s conversations. The findings show that most children's speaking skills are in the “Starting to Develop” to “Developing as Expected” categories. Children demonstrate strong abilities in storytelling and responding to questions based on personal experiences. However, difficulties remain in producing complex sentences and articulating certain phonemes such as /r/, /s/, and /l/. The findings highlight that socio-pedagogical interventions, specifically one-on-one teacher–child interaction and experience-based storytelling, play a significant role in improving children’s speaking fluency, articulation and self-confidence. These results emphasize the importance of interactive and contextual learning approaches in early childhood language development. This study contributes to the development of context-based language learning strategies and provides empirical support for effective language stimulation programs in early childhood education.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ebj.v8i1.85291
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