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5 Components of Effective Oral Language Instruction

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5 Components of Effective Oral Language Instruction

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This resource is helpful to help provide effective instruction in the classroom

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This resource is a helpful song to build oral skills

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Workout to the Letter Sounds | Version 2 | Letter Sounds Song | Phonics for Kids | Jack Hartmann

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Key Strategies for Developing Oral Language

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Key Strategies for Developing Oral Language

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This resource helpful to creating strategies to develop oral language

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Being able to talk and express your thoughts clearly is vital in life. Yet, too many students are graduating without sufficient experience with group discussions, or arguing their ideas effectively, and they are finding themselves unprepared for the communication demands of college and their careers.

How can we prepare our students for these rigors?

To lay a better foundation for this learning, we can do a few things: we can value oral language development, we can value communication of ideas over grammatical correctness, and we can value oral language as a powerful way to learn and remember content.

Here are three strategies to help develop oral language skills.

Strategy One: Adapt Activities to Include Authentic Talk

Adapting current activities to include more authentic, original, and extended discussions gives students opportunities to contribute more than one sentence to a conversation. Sometimes, we miss the opportunity to encourage language development. For example, many teachers use some form of a jigsaw activity, in which students get into expert groups, read a text, and answer questions or fill in charts. They then go to mixed home groups to share their information. Yet, often what happens is this: students just read aloud what another student has copied from a resource -- and opportunities for oral language development are lost.

To improve this strategy, you can have the experts engage in a discussion of what to put, in their own words, onto paper. Then, they can rehearse what they'll say - covering their papers to avoid reading aloud. Then in home groups, you can have each person glance at their notes, cover them again, and share with the group members, who listen and take notes. You can even ask students to try to speak in paragraphs, starting with a general claim or topic sentence, and then support it with evidence sentences. For example, in this video, notice how the talk evolves as students prepare their ideas for sharing.

Strategy Two: Use Activities that Develop Strong Language

Use activities that allow students to develop a "stronger and clearer" answer, as they talk to different partners successively in an activity. Instead of the all-too-common whole class discussion, with the teacher asking questions and a few students answering, ask a question and have students talk to three different partners. Or have students talk in different groups (see this 1-3-6 activity video).

A crucial aspect of this strategy is that students shouldn't say the same thing each time; rather, they need to build on the language and ideas of previous partner(s) to improve, expand, clarify, and support their evolving answer each time they share it.

Example Activities(from Zwiers, O'Hara, Pritchard, 2014):

Interview Grid:Students talk with one different partner each time, making their answers stronger and clearer each time, taking minimal, if any, notes on the chart. Note that this activity can also work using inner-outer conversation circles, such as the one in this Debrief Circles video.

Opinion Formation Cards: Students receive a quotation from the text (before it's read) that includes evidence for one side or the other of an issue. Students share their quotations and their evolving opinions, with reasons and evidence for them.

Opinion Continuum: Students share where they fall on the continuum of a two-sided issue and why. At the end, they share if they shifted at all along the continuum based on their conversations with partners.

Strategy Three: Use Strong Discussion Prompts

Try to use discussion prompts that foster evaluation in some way. Evaluation is usually needed for ranking, prioritizing, and choosing. For example, if you ask for evidence of a theme or a claim, many students just find the first three remotely evidence-y things they can, and stop there. But if you prompt students to rank the evidence from strongest to weakest, or to find the most influential cause of some war, you can often get deeper thinking and better conversation.

For instance, I was talking with a teacher who was asking this question, "How did the Civil War affect the families in the South?" I encouraged her to simply add "most affect" to force students to evaluate and discuss their opinions. When students evaluate, their ideas often differ. And if you allow them time to argue and negotiate the ideas, lots of learning can happen.

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Key Strategies for Developing Oral Language

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Being able to talk and express your thoughts clearly is vital in life. Yet, too many students are graduating without sufficient experience with group discussions, or arguing their ideas effectively, and they are finding themselves unprepared for the communication demands of college and their careers. How can we prepare our students for these rigors?

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11 Ways tom Improve Students' Oral Language

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11 Ways tom Improve Students' Oral Language

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This resource helpful to spark ideas on ways to improve a students oral language

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Oral language is one of the most important skills your students can master-both for social and academic success. Learners use this skill throughout the day to process and deliver instructions, make requests, ask questions, receive new information, and interact with peers.

As a teacher, there's a lot you can do during your everyday lessons to support the development of strong oral language skills in your students. Today's post, excerpted and adapted from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia , by Berninger & Wolf, gives you 14 ideas for supporting oral language development in your students who are verbal. These teaching strategies can help students with specific language disabilities (including dyslexia), and they can boost the language skills of your other learners, too. Try these and see which ones work best for your students!

Encourage conversation.

Every social interaction gives students a new opportunity to practice language. Some of your students might need a little guidance from you to engage in conversations, so spark interactions whenever you can. Ask questions, rephrase the student's answers, and give prompts that encourage oral conversations to continue.

Model syntactic structure.

Your students may not use complete oral syntax in informal speech, but encourage them to do so when they're in the classroom. When a student uses fragmented syntax, model complete syntax back to them. This builds oral language skills and gives students practice in a skill necessary for mastering written language.

Engage in eye contact with students during instruction and encourage them to do the same. Maintaining eye contact will help learners gauge their audience's attention and adjust their language, their volume, or the organization of their speech. This will help them be better understood, communicate more clearly, and successfully interpret nonverbal cues about their clarity.

Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly.

Ask students to feel the muscles used for speech while they're talking and monitor their volume and articulation. Remind them that clear and loud-enough speech is essential for holding the attention of the group and communicating their information and opinions effectively.

Have students summarize heard information.

Encourage students to verbally summarize or otherwise discuss the information they hear. This should begin in kindergarten and continue with increasingly difficult questions as students grow older. Teach students to ask for clarification when they don't understand something, and emphasize that they can ask you directly or query fellow students.

Model and guide sentence construction.

Some students have trouble getting started with the wording of a sentence. Saying the beginning word or phrase for the student can help the student structure their response. Give students time for thinking and formulating an oral or written response. Students' explicit experience in both producing their own oral language and processing others' language will help facilitate their comprehension of reading material.

Explain the subtleties of tone.

Your students have probably experienced playground arguments related to tone; misunderstandings are common when students are using loud outdoor voices. Remind your students how tone of voice-which includes pitch, volume, speed, and rhythm-can change the meaning of what a speaker says. Often, it's not what they say, it's how they say it that can lead to misunderstanding of motives and attitudes. Ask your students to be mindful of tone when they're trying to get a message across, and adjust their volume and pitch accordingly.

Attend to listening skills.

Ensure that your students are listening by using consistent cues to get their attention. You might use a phrase like "It's listening time" to give students a reminder. Some students might also benefit from written reminders posted prominently on your wall.

Incorporate a "question of the day."

During each school day's opening activities, ask a question to encourage talk. (You can even write one on the board so your students can read it and start thinking about their answer as soon as they come in.) Start with simple one-part questions like "What is your favorite animal?" If a student doesn't answer in a complete sentence, model a complete sentence and ask the student to repeat your model. Once your students are successfully answering these simple questions in complete sentences, move to two-part questions that require more complex answers: "What is your favorite animal? Why?"

Compile a class booklet of students' phrases.

Give your students a sentence to finish, such as "When my dog got lost I looked..." Have each student contribute a prepositional phrase to complete the sentence (e.g., at the grocery store, in the park, under the bed). Then have your students create a class booklet by writing and illustrating their phrases. When all the phrase pages are assembled into a booklet, students can practice reading the very long sentence with all the places they looked for the dog. Encourage them to come up with a conclusion to the story.

Some students may have difficulty with abstract concepts such as before, after, or following, and with sequences such as days of the week or months of the year. To help students learn and retain these concepts, you may need to present and review them many times and in multiple ways. For example:

You might ask students to identify which holiday comes in each month and then review holidays for other months in sequence: "Groundhog Day is in February. What holiday is in March? In April?"

Have students identify the month before or after a given month. "May is before June and after April." "May is between April and June."

Question to boost comprehension.

Asking questions before and after a reading assignment not only helps sharpen oral language skills, it also helps students think about what they're reading and absorb information from the words. You might try the following strategies to facilitate reading comprehension:

If there's an introduction to the story or passage, ask students to read it and answer purpose-setting questions: "Where does the story begin? "What kind of story or article is this? Why do you think so?"

Ask students to predict outcomes: "What will happen? How do you know?"

After the reading, ask students to reveal whether their predictions were correct and identify where the ending or conclusion begins.

Have students summarize the passage: "Who were the characters?" "What was the plot?" "What was the outcome?" "What was the main idea?" "What were the supporting details?"

Teach for oral reading fluency.

Oral reading fluency refers to how rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically students read text. The goal is accurate and fluid reading with adequate speed, appropriate phrasing, and correct intonation. Here are a few activities that aid fluency:

Sentence completion: Read a phrase and signal for a student to complete the sentence. Then read another phrase and signal another student to complete the next sentence. This activity provides good modeling of rhythm and inflection and builds reading group skills.

Round-robin repeated reading: Each student reads a sentence, paragraph, or page, and then the next student gets a turn. Prompt each student to read with rhythm and fluency.

Partner reading: Paired readers choose a quiet, cozy spot to practice reading to one another. This activity provides additional practice after reading in small groups.

Monitored reading: Ask an aide or parent volunteer to listen to a student's oral reading and watch for good phrasing and rhythm.

Repeated reading: Parents may assist with repeated reading at home by asking students to read orally the same 150- to 200-word passage repeatedly over several days. Students do not have to spend more than 10 minutes rereading each night.

Never assume students understood your instructional talk.

You use oral language every day to teach-but some students may not be getting your message. In this chart from Berninger & Wolf's book, Beverly Wolf shares some examples of how students in her classroom misinterpreted sentences delivered orally:

Be aware of the potential disconnect between what you say and what your students hear. Go over your message and present it in multiple ways to be sure all students understand.

***

Oral language is one of the foundational building blocks of learning. Try the suggestions in today's post with your students, and give them the boost they need for future academic and social success.
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia
By Virginia W. Berninger, Ph.D., & Beverly J. Wolf, M.Ed.

Learn how to provide effective instruction for students with learning disabilities while meeting the needs of all students! The first teacher training text to cover all four learning disabilities that require differentiated instruction, this book prepares educators to deliver explicit and engaging instruction customized to the needs of their students. Critical insights from diverse fields blend with lessons learned from actual teaching experience.

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14 Ways to Improve Your Students' Oral Language Skills - Brookes Blog

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UPDATED: 3/23/22 Oral language is one of the most important skills your students can master-both for social and academic success. Learners use this skill throughout the day to process and deliver instructions, make requests, ask questions, receive new information, and interact with peers. As a teacher, there's a lot you can do during your everyday [...]

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This resource helpful for a quick overview of what is oral language

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Ed-Talk: Oral Language Begets Literacy - Young-Suk Kim

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This resource helpful resource for different age groups and how to teach those age groups

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By Zhang Hong and Nola Kortner Aiex
ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication

At the most basic level, oral language means communicating with other people. But when we talk about oral language development across the curriculum, we do not mean teaching children to speak as much as we mean improving their ability to talk or communicate more effectively. Speech is not usually simply basic communication--it involves thinking, knowledge, and skills. It also requires practice and training. How can we help our children to develop oral proficiency? What do we need to do as teachers to facilitate that development? These are the questions we will discuss in this Digest.

Oral language acquisition is a natural process for children. It occurs almost without effort. The ability to speak grows with age, but it does not mean that such growth will automatically lead to perfection. To speak in more effective ways requires particular attention and constant practice. Holbrook (1983) sets out three criteria for oral language competence: fluency, clarity, and sensitivity. To help children achieve these levels of development is our responsibility as educators.

Teacher Role

Many studies have indicated that oral language development has largely been neglected in the classroom (Holbrook, 1983). Most of the time oral language in the classroom is used more by teachers than by students. However, oral language, even as used by the teacher, seldom functions as a means for students to gain knowledge and to explore ideas.

Underlying this fact are two assumptions. One of these assumptions-- that the teacher's role is to teach--is usually interpreted to mean that to teach means to talk. Accordingly, teachers spend hours and hours teaching by talking while the children sit listening passively. Such conventional teaching- learning is one of the obstacles preventing the real development of oral language. Children leaving these classrooms tend to carry this passivity over to their learning attitudes, and tend to be "disabled" in their learning abilities, as well.

The second assumption is based on the fact that children start learning and using oral language long before they go to school. Therefore, it is assumed that the primary learning tasks for children in school are reading and writing, which are usually seen as the two major aspects of literacy.

In one investigation Stabb (1986) reported a steady decline of the use of oral language in classrooms as a major reason for the inhibition of students' abilities to reason and to forecast as they progressed from lower to higher grades. Such a phenomenon is found not only in the language arts classroom, but also in other classrooms. According to Stabb's and many other researchers' observations, classrooms are dominated by teachers talking and by workbook exercises. Researchers call this phenomenon "teachers- talk-students-listen" or "teacher-dominated." In related research, Willmington (1993) surveyed school administrators who attested to the importance of oral communication skills for teachers--and they considered listening to be the most important skill of all.

Another result of teacher-dominated classrooms is the negative effect upon children's attitudes toward learning. Operating under the two above-mentioned assumptions, teachers often fail to see that literacy learning is a continuum--an ongoing process of learning--for children. Learning before going to school and learning in school are often viewed as separate processes. Oral language, which is the major learning instrument for children before going to school, is no longer available with the onset of formal schooling. Confronted with new tasks of learning to read and write while being deprived of their major learning tool, children tend to feel depressed and frustrated. Learning begins to loom large, and schooling gradually becomes routine--exactly the situation described in Stabb's research.

After a few years students will have become programmed to a kind of passive learning atmosphere--the teacher talks, the students listen and do their homework. Here, learning simply means taking down whatever is given. In this type of classroom environment, students learn the basic skills of reading and writing. However, they will not learn how to think critically and how to make sound judgments on their own.

Stabb (1986) speculates that we teachers often become "so involved with establishing routine, finishing the textbook, covering curriculum, and preparing students for standardized tests that we have forgotten one of our original goals, that of stimulating thought." Though Stabb's speculation sounds critical, she does provide us with a thought-provoking expansion of the relationship between oral language development and thinking abilities development. In delineating a debate program for elementary school students, Aiex (1990) notes that, although the focus of the program is on the development of oral communication skills, critical thinking and reasoning abilities are also developed along the way.

Oral Language as Foundation

From the preceding, we can see that oral language is indeed an important link in the process of children's learning and thinking development. It is not merely a language issue; it is also an intellectual issue which deserves serious attention from both teachers and researchers. From the perspective of language development, oral language provides a foundation for the development of other language skills. For most children, the literacy learning process actually begins with speaking--talking about their experiences, talking about themselves. It is through speech that children learn to organize their thinking and focus their ideas (Lyle, 1993). The neglect of oral language in the classroom will destroy that foundation and severely hinder the development of other aspects of language skills.

Research on Cognitive Development

Current research literature on critical thinking and cognitive development indicates that the development of language has a close relationship to the development of thinking abilities ( Berry, 1985; Gambell, 1988). This is especially true for elementary-level students. Before achieving proficiency in reading and writing--and even after proficiency in reading and writing have been achieved--oral language is one of the important means of learning and of acquiring knowledge (Lemke, 1989). Throughout life, oral language skills remain essential for engagement in intellectual dialogue, and for the communication of ideas.

Teacher as Facilitator

Given this understanding of the importance of oral language skills, we should reflect on our attitudes toward the teaching- learning relationship. First of all, we need to overcome the faulty assumptions mentioned before. As teachers, we should not assume the role of authoritarian knowledge giver. Instead, we should see ourselves as friendly and interested facilitators of student learning. In emphasizing the role of oral language in the classroom, we are by no means implying that the teacher's role is not important; on the contrary, we present a more demanding task for teachers. To facilitate a learning process in which children are given both opportunity and encouragement to speak and to explore their own thinking, the teacher has to do more than tell children what he or she means, or what the text means. Instead, the teacher has several different roles to play.

The teacher can encourage students to bring their ideas and background knowledge into class learning activities. To achieve this goal, the teacher must be a good and responsive listener to children's talk. Facilitation of a child's talking in class is not enough for language teaching, however, but only provides an environment conducive to both teaching and learning. At this point, the teacher can raise questions concerning the content of the class or the text. While maintaining the role of a knowing arbiter, the teacher still needs to persuade the students. Here one point should be emphasized--implementation of oral language development across the curriculum requires teamwork. All content- area teachers have to be actively involved in this task. The goal is not only to get children to speak, but also to have them learn and develop through speech.

As the children's other language skills develop in the course of time, classroom talk can be directed more towards the goals of exploring ideas found in texts and sharpening thoughts. "Speaking to learn" is the vehicle for increasing and deepening knowledge.

Two publications recommended as resource guides for classroom teachers are "Guidelines for Developing Oral Communication Curricula in Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade" and "Listening and Speaking in the English Language Arts Curricula K-12."

References

Aiex, Nola Kortner (1990). "Debate and Communication Skills." ERIC Digest. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. [ED 321 334]

Berry, Kathleen S. (1985). "Talking to Learn Subject Matter/Learning Subject Matter Talk." Language Arts, 62(1), 34- 42. [EJ 309 762]

Gambell, Trevor J. (1988). "Linguistics and Literacy Teaching." Paper presented at the World Conference of Applied Linguistics (Sydney, Australia). [ED 299 816]

Guidelines for Developing Oral Communication Curricula in Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade (1991). Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association. [ED 337 828]

Holbrook, Hilary Taylor (1983). "ERIC/RCS Report: Oral Language: A Neglected Language Art?" Language Arts, 60(2), 255-58. [EJ 276 124]

Lemke, J. L. (1989). "Making Text Talk." Theory-into-Practice, 28(2), 136-41. [EJ 415 815]

Listening and Speaking in the English Language Arts Curriculum K- 12. 1989 Field Test Edition. Albany, NY: New York State Education Department. [ED 335 726]

Lyle, Susan (1993). "An Investigation into Ways in Which Children Talk Themselves into Meaning." Language and Education, 7(3), 181- 87. [EJ 485 116]

Stabb, Claire (1986). "What Happened to the Sixth Graders: Are Elementary Students Losing Their Need to Forecast and to Reason?" Reading Psychology, 7(4), 289-96. [EJ 348 985]

Willmington, S. Clay (1993). "Oral Communication Skills Necessary for Successful Teaching." Educational Research Quarterly, 16(2), 5-10. [EJ 480 434]

Zhang Hong is a staff member of the Indiana College Placement and Assessment Center, Bloomington. Nola Kortner Aiex is Assistant Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, Bloomington, IN.

This publication was prepared (Digest #107, EDO-CS-95-10, June 1995 ) with funding from the U.S. Department of Education under contract number RR93002011, and published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication.

The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of Learn2study, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by Learn2study.

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Oral Language Development across the Curriculum, K-12

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By Zhang Hong and Nola Kortner Aiex ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication At the most basic level, oral language means communicating with other people. But when we talk about oral language development across the curriculum, we do not mean teaching children to speak as much as we mean improving their ability to talk or communicate more effectively.

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Make time for English Language Development

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Make time for English Language Development

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This resource looks into seeing if there are benefits to making a separate time slot in the class schedule for just oral language development

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This resource is helpful to read about how poetry can be used to help learn English

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Journal Information

The Reading Teacher is a peer-reviewed journal serving teachers and literacy professionals interested in the teaching of reading to children in the elementary classroom. The journal offers teaching tips, application of research to classroom practice, thought-provoking commentaries, book and resources reviews, and more.

Publisher Information

The International Literacy Association is a professional membership organization dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy for all by improving the quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit. Members include classroom teachers, reading specialists, consultants, administrators, supervisors, university faculty, researchers, psychologists, librarians, media specialists, and parents. The Association publishes several peer-reviewed journals and numerous books, offers a range of professional meetings worldwide, and provides a variety of other services to the education community.

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Scaffolding Oral Language Development through Poetry for Students Learning English on JSTOR

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Journal Information The Reading Teacher is a peer-reviewed journal serving teachers and literacy professionals interested in the teaching of reading to children in the elementary classroom. The journal offers teaching tips, application of research to classroom practice, thought-provoking commentaries, book and resources reviews, and more.

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This resource is helpful to get a better understanding of Oral Language Development and the science behind it.

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Language is a fantastic gift: it empowers humans to create new ways of speaking with, for and to others about any topic or experience. Language is a rule‐governed, meaningful communication system. ...

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This resource helpful to build a classroom for oral development

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This resource is a helpful game to build oral skills

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This set of Would You Rather Cards are fantastic for getting to know your new class and as an ice-breaker for encouraging conversation.Tags in this resource: ...

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This resource is helpful to have has reference when developing oral language activities

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Evidence for Learning's Early Childhood Education Toolkit shows that communication and language approaches consistently show positive benefits for young children's learning. Oral language acquisition is important because it gives children a platform to communicate effectively. It predicts children's success in formal classroom settings and life trajectories more broadly. ¹

That's why we commissioned the development of oral language resources from the University of Queensland. These three tip sheets - free to download -- are based on a systematic review of the Australasian literature and provide evidence-informed strategies to support rich conversations with young learners.

Oral language is the way children communicate their views, learn to understand others, and make discoveries. Educators can support and enhance children's oral language by engaging "in sustained communication with children about ideas and experiences" ( Early Years Learning Framework). This tip sheet provides evidence-informed strategies to create opportunities for children's talk in early childhood education and care settings for children aged 2-5 years.

Creating spaces for children's talk (PDF, 257)

Tip Sheet 2: Curious about questions?

Oral language is embedded across the Early Years Learning Framework and is central to educator's work. Asking questions is a common approach to prompting children's talk and participation in conversations, however not all questions are equal. This tip sheet explains question qualities and describes what you can do when the questions you ask are 'tricky' for children aged 2-5 years.

Curious About Questions? (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Tip Sheet 3: Keeping the conversation going

When a child is an active participant in shared, extended conversations, they take more opportunities to talk, their talk is more complex, and educators provide a positive model for oral language use. Oral language is embedded across the Early Years Learning Framework and is central to educator's work. This tip sheet provides educators with evidence-informed strategies to sustain and extend conversations with children aged 2-5 years.

Keeping the conversation going (PDF, 264 KB)

Webinar: In March 2020, Evidence for Learning held a webinar with the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland. The webinar discusses evidence-informed ways that educators can support the development of critical oral language skills for young children and includes interactive activities. A recording is below. (53:13).

Acknowledgements

Evidence for Learning would like to acknowledge Professor Karen Thorpe, Dr Sally Staton and Dr Sandy Houen from the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at the University of Queensland for their work on these oral language resources. We also thank the other early childhood education researchers and educators who provided input to these resources.

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Resources to support oral language development

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Evidence for Learning's Early Childhood Education Toolkit shows that communication and language approaches consistently show positive benefits for young children's learning. Oral language acquisition is important because it gives children a platform to communicate effectively. It predicts children's success in formal classroom settings and life trajectories more broadly.

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This resource is a helpful song to build oral skills

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Jump Out Words! | Vol. 4 Open Answer | Jack Hartmann

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This resource is a helpful game that students can say different verbs, nouns, and other items to build a story

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Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)

Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)

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Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)