Improving Prospective Preschool Teachers' Methodological Competence in Developing Children's Speech Through Digital Educational Tools

Digital tools offer new possibilities for supporting young children's speech, but research shows that their value depends on how adults use them: passive screen exposure can reduce opportunities for conversation, whereas well-chosen materials used together with an adult can enrich it. Teachers therefore need not only technical skills but the ability to subordinate a digital tool to a speech-development goal. Drawing on the TPACK framework, this study conceptualises methodological competence as the integration of linguistic-methodological, technological, integrative-design and reflective-evaluative components. A four-stage model – critical evaluation of digital tools, design of speech activities, trial in practice and reflection – was implemented in preschool teacher retraining courses at a regional center of pedagogical skills in Uzbekistan and compared with a conventional course in which digital technologies and speech methodology were taught in separate modules. Data were collected through questionnaires, a knowledge test, tool-evaluation tasks, activity plans, observation during placements and reflective journals. At the outset, trainees' technological knowledge was relatively good, but they seldom linked digital tools to speech-development aims. By the end of the course, trainees in the experimental group selected tools on the basis of the activity's speech goal, limited screen time to a few minutes and used the material as a starting point for conversation, retelling and play. Digital storytelling, in which children's own drawings and recorded narratives were assembled into e-books, proved particularly effective in increasing children's willingness to speak. The model requires no additional teaching hours and can be adapted for in-service training.