Language as a Reflection of Character: A Study of Children’s Utterances in the Role-Play Center of Early Childhood Education

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_59How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Early Childhood Language; Child Utterances; Character Development; Role Play; Learning Centers in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This study aims to explore how the utterances of young children during role-play activities reflect character values such as politeness, honesty, confidence, and responsibility. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through participatory observation, semi-structured interviews with teachers, and documentation at TK Teratai in Makassar City. The findings show that the language used by children in role-play activities such as Market Day, fire simulations, and the doctor profession clearly reflects their developing character. Children’s polite, honest, confident, and responsible speech emerged naturally in social interactions facilitated by teachers through role-play. Teachers played a crucial role as linguistic and moral models, as well as facilitators guiding children to use value-laden language. These findings reinforce the notion that language is not merely a tool for communication but also a mirror of character formation in early childhood. Thus, language-based role-play activities can serve as an effective strategy for character education in early childhood education settings.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Syamsuardi Syamsuardi
AU  - Hajerah Hajerah
AU  - R. Rika Kurnia
AU  - Sitti Nurhidayah Ilyas
AU  - Nur Alim Amri
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/24
TI  - Language as a Reflection of Character: A Study of Children’s Utterances in the Role-Play Center of Early Childhood Education
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Science and Teacher Education (ICESTE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 749
EP  - 760
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_59
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-489-1_59
ID  - Syamsuardi2025
ER  -