Another example of this was during my Phase 2 experience in a Pre-primary class of 4 and 5 year old’s, where children are in Piaget’s “Preoperational Stage” of development.  The foundations of language development are laid during the previous stage, but it is the emergence of language that is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development.  Vygotsky  explored the role of language and social interaction in cognitive development by researching children’s social interactions with adults.  He concluded that throughout their interactions, children first learn spoken and written language that then becomes internalized language to support their own understandings.  During my Phase 2 prac I was trained to use the Heggerty Phonological and Phonemic Awareness programme which I delivered daily.  The programme has a high level of explicit modelling and scaffolding and highlights student engagement where students practice blending, segmenting, and manipulating words, syllables, and phonemes each day.   Other language input from me included daily conversations with children, reading to them, telling them stories with puppets and singing with them.  This was balanced with activities that elicited talk from children such as our News Roster and Shared Writing sessions.