Often, these children are unable to transfer the skills acquired during structured lessons to a more natural preschool setting. Because of this, many teachers, listening and spoken language practitioners and speech-language pathologists use conversational language lessons as a stepping stone between structured lessons and a natural preschool environment. [...] the role of teachers in regard to language development during centers time is three-fold: 1 Following the children's lead, teachers improve language ability through modeling, prompting, correcting and expanding language; 2 Teachers observe what language skills children have mastered; and 3 Teachers identify the developmentallyappropriate skills children are lacking for their age during play in a natural environment.