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Developing children’s speaking skills can facilities their understanding of the meaning of words and concepts and of other aspects of language such as sentence structure and listening comprehension. According to Hill, she indicates that children draw on the meaning, syntax and the phonology of spoken language as a bridge to emergent literacy (Hill, 2012).

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Educators can plan simple formative assessment to assess children’s knowledge of vocabulary by creating picture cards with pictures or drawings of common vocabulary items and then pointing out one of the pictures and ask children to name (label) orally (Fellow & Oakley, 2014, p. 266).

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As noted by the child’s mom, he is interests in animals and transportation toys. In order to stimulate the child’s interest in doing the assessment, I created several picture cards with animal items, transportation items, food items and school activities items. I would put picture cards with similar items in a group, and pick a group and place them in front of the child. Then, I would tell the child that he will do a word challenge today and the instruction of the challenge was he would answer what is in the picture as I point to him.
During the assessment, I would take anecdotal notes about the child’s performances and use checklist to record  if the child can recognize the words and understand its meaning, and if the child can response questions with a one-word answers or two words phrases.

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Wordless storybook can a good assessment tool that involves the use of pictures as the stimulus for talk.
Wordless story book provides children with opportunities to develop their comprehensive and speaking abilities by observing, thinking, and describing the story in the book. Also, a wordless story book can help educators to assess children‘s knowledge and abilities in speaking, such as the ability to ask and answer questions, ability to use complete sentences and descriptive words and phrases to describe the story, and ability to use oral language to clearly express and share ideas and thoughts (Fellow & Oakley, 2014, p.114).

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As noted by the child’s mom, the child enjoys reading and listening to stories. I chose an age-appropriate wordless storybook called Good Dog Carl to do the assessment with the child. Before the assessment, I would like to attract the child’s attention and activate his prior knowledge by asking questions, such as “do you like animals?”, “What kind of animals do you like?”, “look at the book cover, what do you think the dog is happy or not? Can you predict what will happen in the story?” And then, I would invite the child to look at the wordless storybook and asked him to tell a story purely through the illustrations. I also would guide children to describe his story with some open-ended questions. For example, I would inquire him, “can you identify and describe people and objects in the picture? What do you think the dog and baby are doing? Can you guess what will happen next page?”.

During the assessment, I would take anecdotal notes to record the child's performances, responses and his description of the story.

From the child’s response and his description of the story, I can assess the child’s ability of :

1.       Listening comprehension: does the child fully comprehend my instructions and questions; is there any evidence of misunderstandings?

2.       Sentence use: what types of sentences does the child use? Is the syntax correct?

3.       Vocabulary: what vocabulary does the child use? Does he use only simple, high fluency words or use less common words? Are some new words used correctly in the story?

4.       Oraganisation of story: is the story well organized? Is the setting described? Are the characters in the picture and their actions clearly described?

5.       Detail: how much detail is given in the story?

6.       Expression: does the child retell the story with expression and enjoyment?
(Fellow & Oakley, 2014)

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Sam is a five years old boy who currently will be raising first grade at local primary school. Sam came to Australia from China when he was three years old, together with his families. He comes from a supportive family environment and speaks affectionately about his home life. When he attended preschool at age of four, he started to learn English. Since his first language is mandarin, he speaks mandarin at home most of time with his parents and grandparents and only speaking English at preschool. As noted by his mom, Sam has interests in animals, sports and transportation toys. He also likes to listen to and read stories in mandarin and sometimes he will try to use English to read stories.

In the beginning of the assessment, I could observe that Sam was initially soft-spoken, a little confident, and shy. After encouragements, he became more vocal and willing to engage in assessment.

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Oral vocabulary refers to words that children can understand or use while speaking and listening (Department of Education and Training, 2019). Based on my record and observations of the assessment, I could see that Sam has some strength in vocabulary. He could confidently and correctly recognize most of the items in the pictures and label them orally. However, he still didn’t have good knowledge to use the word appropriately and comfortably in multiple contexts. For example, Sam understood the word, ‘ball’, but when he saw the picture of a dog is playing ball with the baby, he only could describe the story like “dog and baby play”. According to Harmon and his other colleagues’ research (2007, p.138), they suggest that “knowing a word means not only knowing the meaning but knowing contexts in which it is used; it means knowing related words and ideas; it means knowing when and where to use a word”. Besides, from Sam’s description of the story, I found that he still needs help to increase his vocabulary knowledge. There is evidence in the research that shows children with deep and broad vocabulary can help them better express their ideas and become better readers, writers, and communicators in the future (Fellow & Oakley, 2014). Because he didn’t have wide vocabulary knowledge, the most of vocabulary that he used in his speech are simple and high-frequency words, such as play, can, see, is, come, etc. Also, limited vocabulary knowledge impedes Sam’s language expression. When he tried to describe the story more detailed, he didn’t know what words he can use to express his ideas.

I think that Sam should be provided with various opportunities like the dramatic play that helps vocabulary development, in order to help him quickly learn less common words and use these words to better express his ideas and communicate with others.

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Sam hasn’t demonstrated an awareness of syntax with his sentence. Syntax refers to the rules of word order and word combinations in order to form phrases and sentences (Hill, 2012). From my record, I could see Sam did not use plural forms or verb tenses correctly. For example, when I asked him what do you think the dog and baby are doing in the picture (there was one baby in the picture), he hesitated a while and responded, “Dog play babies”. This may because the “difference in the way the syntactic contracts are made between English and mandarin could lead EAL learner to have difficulties in English on specific syntactic categories” (Howell et al., 2003, p.311). English and mandarin have similarities in word order but differ in the use of plurals and verbal tenses. Besides, Sam demonstrated inconsistent or incorrect word order in his speaking, and he used a limited number of grammatical markers, such as –ing, a, the, with, etc. For instance, when he described the pictures, he said, “dog play babies, dog pet babies”.  Because of the incorrect word order and grammar mistakes in Sam’s utterance, it makes me confused about his meanings. The research indicates that correct word orders and correct use of grammar in sentences are important for expressing ideas and making other people understand what are you trying to say (Hill, 2012).

I think that Sam needs many bits of help in his syntactic development, in order to support him to construct more complex sentences with correct word orders and fewer grammar errors.

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Pragmatics refers to the way in which children use language within social situations and communications (Hill, 2012). Based on my observation and record, I found Sam has difficulties with pragmatics skills. For example, Sam was shy and has less confident to ask for clarification when he hasn’t understood the questions that I asked. When I asked him to predict what will happen in the story, he may don’t understand the word ‘predict’ so that he didn’t say anything and just looked at me until I used a different way to ask him the question, “can you guess what will happen in the story”. In addition, I observed Sam can only use limited language to express his ideas during the assessment. When I asked him to tell a story through the picture, he could only give short descriptions, such as “dog and baby play”. When I asked him “what are they playing”, he responded with a simple word, “ball”. According to Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] (2011, Foundation-year 2), I realise that Sam is currently in the Emerging English stage, which it indicates that “learner at the beginning of this phase communicate verbally and non-verbally in familiar social and classroom situations, replying on formulaic expressions”.

I believe that it is important to encourage Sam to engage in play, conversation, and in interactions with others so that he can build confidence to initiate conversation and use more language to express and share his ideas.

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Sam can have good comprehension, can construct more complex sentences without making grammar errors, can use more new and less common vocabularies in his sentences and speeches, can become more confident as an initiator of conversations, and can actively ask questions and express his own ideas.
Sam can speak both mandarin and English fluently and understand that more than one language system is in use and will use each when appropriate.

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The preschool environment should be organized with a wide range of language materials such as blocks, construction equipment, and different textured fabric and papers that can be manipulated and explored by children and that can be used for cooperative learning around different topics and concepts (Enright & McCloskey, 1988). Therefore, children can follow their interests and freely make their own decisions about how to use the materials offered and determine their own language learning by engaging in both independent and cooperative play. The studies showed that children develop their language skills through purposeful interactions based on topics and activities that interest them (Neuman, 2013).

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Sam as a second language learner who has limited comprehension and does not speak fluent English always has difficulties on the learning concepts that educators spoken and taught. Educators and other children should be encouraged act as language teachers for the child. Educators need to modify or adapt their ways of speaking to what they think the EAL learner will understand and responded to. The research suggests that effective teachers intend to speak slowly, using clear enunciation, simplified sentences, and exaggerated tones to help children understand the learning concepts. Also, educators can contextualize their speech by using objects and physical gestures so that visual information makes EAL learners clear what is being said (Christie, et al., 2007). Additionally, when educators intend to teach new vocabulary to children, they should be mind to provide children with “child friendly” definitions (Beck et al., 2013). The child friendly definition can not only help learners to easily understand and recognize the words, but also knowing how to use the word appropriately and comfortably in multiple contexts.

Monitor the child’s progress: educators can organize another assessment like picture cards activity to assess children’s knowledge of vocabulary. From the assessment, educators can assess if Sam’s vocabulary knowledge is increased and if he can recognize the words and its meaning and have good knowledge to use the word appropriately and comfortably in his sentences and speeches.

*Italic: the child's specific literacy performance objective

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Children’s oral language learning and development will be expanded and best progressed if educators can actively join with the play and talk with children during play. According to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural learning theory, it states that children learn to talk and develop more complex language skills through meaningful interactions with more knowledgeable adults and peers (Vygotsky, 1978). During play, educators can start conversation with children by asking open-ended questions that can extend the discussion and allow educators to support children’s vocabulary and encourage peer verbal conversations (Wasik et al., 2006). For instance, educators can ask questions like “what are you playing?” to encourage children to use oral language to share their ideas and opinions. Also, educators can adopt some quite specific language techniques while interacting with EAL learners during play (Fellow & Oakley, 2014). For example, Sam points to plastic vegetable toys and says, “I play”. Educators can expand what Sam says, and use the correct grammatical structure to say the sentence to him, “yes, you are playing”. Also, educators can rephrase Sam’s utterances into a complete sentence and add more detailed information, such as “yes, you are playing with vegetable toys”. Moreover, educators can describe what they are doing to model sentence structures and vocabulary for Sam, such as “Sam, I am going to use these vegetable toys to make sandwiches for my lunch” (Fellow & Oakley, 2014).

Monitor the child’s progress: educators can take anecdotes about Sam’s performance and conversations with other peers or educators during his play. And then, educators can analysis notes to see if he can comprehend questions and respond with appropriate answers, if he can construct simple sentences with correct word orders and fewer grammar errors, if he is able to use less common vocabulary in his sentences and makes his speech more fluent and detailed.

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Educators can support language development by engaging Sam and other children with group activities that encourage cooperative learning and verbal interactions with each other in English. Educators can plan socio-dramatic play activities where children can use oral language as they talk to determine the role that they want to play, to identify and label the materials in the play set, to communicate with others in pretend play situation and to discuss the direction of the play plot (Christie, 2013). The studies from Susan Burns and her colleagues indicate that “socio-dramatic play activities give children a chance to develop language and literacy skills, a deeper understanding of narrative, and their own personal response to stories” (Snow et al., 1999, p.72). In addition, the research also suggests that socio-dramatic play is a useful tool for supporting children’s development of different components of spoken language, such as phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics.

Furthermore, Fellow and Oakley (2014, p. 89) suggests that “children’s oral language competency benefits when educators are involved during their socio-dramatic play”. Educators are responsible to ensure the set up environment with all relevant material is included; observe children’s interaction with peers and supply help and guidance when children needed; engage in children’s play and actively interact with children; model oral language and instigate new conversation while taking on a role and actively interacting with children (Fellow & Oakley, 2014).

Socio-dramatic play example: the children have been learning about buy and sell. As part of the play, the play corner can be set as a supermarket. Five children can be play role as costumers, and the teacher can be cashier. The teacher will stand at the check counter, and five children will go shopping in the market. Each item in the shop has a price. The children will choose the item they want to buy and give the cashier to check out.

Teacher: what stuff did you buy?
Children: carrots, mango, tomato sauces…
Teacher: wow, so many things. What are you making for your dinner tonight?
Children: chicken soup.
Teacher: yummy, it’s 20 dollars. Do you want to pay by cash or card?
Children: I want to pay by card.

Monitor the child’s progress: educators will video record of children’s group activities. After finishing the activities, educators need to view the recordings as soon as possible so that the memory can help fill in the gaps in unintelligible parts of the recording. From recording, educators can observe if Sam can confidently take part in the classroom activities and become more confident as initiators of conversations. Also, if it’s possible, educators can write down Sam’s language and sentences to assess if he can produce original utterances rather than relying on formulaic and learned language and if he can confidently ask questions and use longer sentences to negotiate with other peers about the roles that he wants to act in the play. Moreover, educators can check if Sam can successfully achieve most of the oral activities that required.

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The home environment is crucial for children’s language developments, and parents are always play roles as children’s first and permanent educators. Family routines like meal time, bed time, and daily activities all offer opportunities to parents to conduct spoken interaction with children that can enhance their language learning and developments (Fellow & Oakley, 2014). As educators, we need to recognize the importance of family impact on children’s language developments and we need to build strong relationships with them, in order to share information and work together to better support children’s language learning.

Educators can encourage parents to frequently read storybooks to children, in order to scaffold children's engagement with the text to develop their vocabulary knowledge as well as increased ability with the structuring of sentences. There are amounts of research shows that adults spent more time reading storybooks to children will facilitate their oral language developments. The stories, pictures, and accompanying adults-to-children interactions promote language use and increase expressive and receptive vocabulary (Christie, et al., 2007). Children are able to learn new vocabulary during storytelling time as they point to pictures and new words they see on the page and when an adult reads and explains the new words to them. Besides, parents are encouraged to discuss the story plots with children by asking open-ended questions (Vasquez et al., 2013). For example, the questions can be, “what part of the story did you like the most? Which character did you like best in the story? Why?” to promote children to use more vocabularies and construct more complex sentences responding to the questions more detailed.

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In this assignment, I will be talking about 

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In this assignment, I will be talking about 

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1. The importance of speaking
2. The assessment tools that I used
3. How I intend to use assessments tool to assess the child's language abilities？
4. Profile my literacy learner
5. Plan for my literacy learner