Making Oral language Engaging and Meaningful

To build oral language skills, children need opportunities to practice these skills in a supportive environment where they feel at ease.  The conversations need to be relevant and of interest to them so they can share their thoughts and opinions and actively listen to what others say and respond appropriately to what they hear.  They need to pay attention, ask questions and share their knowledge.

Peer learning is an important part of language development.  Children can learn much from each other when they work together, sharing opinions, expressing ideas fluently and coherently, exploring ideas and reach a consensus of opinion.  This helps a child build their own knowledge using vocabulary to describe what was possible and why and helps them learn to listen as well as to think.

Our Inquiry topic this term provided ideal opportunities to make oral language activities engaging and meaningful and to help children engage in their learning.  As a trip to the zoo was planned we based our focus question on making an enclosure for a zoo animal - Does my enclosure work for my animal?  The children had to think about the needs of the animal they had chosen - its diet, habitat, wellbeing, exercise and safety.  

 

Answering this question provided many opportunities for children to research and share information.  They worked in small groups and reported back to the class some of their findings.  In doing so they had to express their ideas fluently and coherently, participate in conversations, listen to other suggestions and justify their own ideas.  The sharing of information helped the children extend their vocabulary and understanding. 

This was a great opportunity for the children who are reluctant to share their ideas in a whole class situation to informally ask and answer questions, to discuss and explain what they have been doing as they interacted with their peers in smaller groups.   It helped those with more limited oral language to listen to others expressing their ideas and using language in a meaningful conversation.  They knew that all ideas were to be accepted and explored.  Knowledge was shared and connections made with their prior knowledge and they were to encourage each other,  and listen and respect others views.  They learnt new vocabulary and had the opportunity to practice it in a non judgemental group.

After the initial research about their animal the next step was to work collaboratively on planning, designing and building an enclosure.  They had to consider how will I make it?  What materials and tools will we use?   This required a lot of discussion to evaluate the design, to refine it and see if it could work.  What is the animals natural habitat like?  Can it play and exercise in it?  Does it keep the animal safe? It was exciting to hear the discussions and how inclusive the children were in their groups. 

During our visit to the zoo the children could be heard discussing and evaluating the different animal enclosures, observing, comparing and contrasting them to their own designs.  They were surprisingly accurate in their designs.  The language used showed how the activities had been meaningful and engaging and helped the children learn so much more about their chosen fact than that they live in the zoo.  They learnt how to work collaboratively, problem solved, made connections with their prior knowledge from their reading texts, encouraged others and practised their listening and speaking skills.  It was very encouraging to see how well the children engaged with each other.

         

Making Progress In Different Forms

 With the end of the term looming, I have been reviewing the oral language development of three children in my class that I have followed for my Inquiry this year.

Child A is still very interested in being social and communicating with others.  She is naturally outgoing, loves to chatter and is not put off by the fact that the children and I often find her English hard to follow.  Her hand is often the first to go up in class discussions and with help to reformulate her ideas and put them into more grammatically correct sentences she will repeat the sentence.  

When she gets excited she will repeat what she wants to say several times not realising that she has already said the same thing.  It is great to see her participation in retelling stories and trying to focus on class discussions.  She always has lots of ideas to write about and draws quite detailed pictures which she can orally discuss.     

She recognises emotions in others and she responds appropriately.  When discussing friends in our Inquiry topic Child A was able to describe what friendship looks like and feels like .  She still found it hard to talk about the playground picture and just said a few phrases about it despite prompting her to try to say more    

Child B continues to be a quiet member of the class but he too is finding the confidence to sometimes raise his hand during class discussions to offer a suggestion.  He, like his many of his classmates, is learning to put his thoughts into a sentence and to use more than a one word answer to a question. 

He finds maths discussions more easy to join in as he enjoys maths.  I ask the children to justify their answer, even if is a simple explanation that one number is bigger/ smaller than another and Child B is prepared to attempt to do so.

Child C has English as a second language but he made great progress with his oral language.  At the beginning of the year he was not a confident speaker and he liked to observe what was happening in the class.  He prefered to listen carefully to class discussions but not join in. Because he is such a focused learner he is now able to join in class discussions adding valued comments and information.

He is prepared to share his personal experiences and thoughts and justify them.  He is very good at retelling the sequence of a story to his reading group and remembering details.  His sentences are grammatically correct and he has begun to use longer and more complex sentences - person, action, object, time/place such as "In the weekend, I went to the beach with my family."  His grasp of grammar and phonemic awareness has helped him make very good progress with his reading and writing. 

These three children have come to school with a wide diversity of early language experiences.  Not only are they affected by their home language and early childhood experiences but their personalities, cultural expectations and their ability to hear or generate speech are all part of their oral language development.  It is up to us as teachers to make oral language activities engaging and meaningful in the classroom to help such children engage in their learning.

 

     

Learning How To Be A Friend

 A friend is someone that makes you feel special and that you like spending time with.  You can have fun with a friend - laugh and be cheered up by them, share and play with them.  Young children need opportunities to practice building friendship by learning the skills of turn taking, resolving conflicts and thinking about how their actions affect others.

Friends are also important for our mental health and happiness.  They provide comfort, prevent isolation, give a sense of belonging and build self esteem.  

Team one studied how to be a good friend this term.  As an assessment tool we looked at what friendship "looks" like, "sounds" like and "felt" like.  I thought these might be quite hard concepts for the children to grasp but the following are some of the points they made in their assessment discussions.

    "Looks like"

        *friends have a smile because they are happy together

        *they hold hands

        * they hug

        * they play nicely with each other

        * they are excited

        * they listen to each other

        * they are helpful and kind

        *they are excited to be with each other

        "Sounds" like

            * have kind voices

            * have a happy voice

            * use a quiet voice

            * laugh together

            * say nice things

            * use a calm voice

            * use an excited voice

            "Feels" like

            * happy being with a friend

            * not lonely

            * calm and kind

            * cheerful

            * grateful

            * sharing

            * always together

With all these wonderful sentiments shared, it shows the children are well aware of how to be a good friend and were able to express their feelings very well.

        

        

   

Unexpected Outcomes Of Learning To Spell

 Many of the children who have been at school for a year or more are able to read a good number of basic words - what we call high frequency words.  But spelling them is a different matter.  It can be a challenge to develop a connection between letters and their sounds or phonemes.  They need to learn the 44 phonemes in English and the "code" for writing them down.

Spelling is a fundamental skill that children need to develop for effective communication.  They need to be able to start a word by hearing and recording the correct initial letter and then get most of the following letters in the right order as an embedded mistake is hard to eliminate.  With many exposures and practice using the look, say, cover, write and check method a child becomes familiar with the correct spelling.

Spelling is part of our literacy programme as well as home learning.  Attention is drawn to groups of letters in a word that make certain sounds, for example the "ai" sound in "pain" is different from the "ay" in "play".  This helps children become aware of visual patterns in written language and the possible sequences of letters when they are attempting to write words themselves.

Some of the methods I am using are to "over pronounce" words so that children can hear and memorise the correct spelling.  It helps them think about the letters that represent the sounds in a word.  An example of this is the word "went". Many children leave out the letter "n" but when I over pronounce it, they realise what letter is missing.  Writing the letters they have difficulty with in a different colour or highlighter makes the children recognise where they need to take care and remember the tricky bits.

Other fun ways of learning spelling words are games with high frequency words that the children need to say before they move on, words with missing gaps, spelling riddles, word searches (which make the children look at the whole word and correctly search for each letter)  and spelling quizzes against other students.

Spelling has more uses than memorising lists of words.  I have found three main uses - the more familiar a child is with a word, they are more likely to recognise it in their reading texts, and to use it in their own story writing, and the third use is that a child will also be more likely to use it in their speech.  They love to say the new words and as I am trying to inspire some children to increase their oral language, I have been  encouraged to find this unexpected outcome of teaching children how to learn to spell.    

Reformulate, Elaborate and Expand

 To improve oral language, it is important to work on active listening, vocabulary and oral narrative skills or the ability for children to express themselves.  Building up a knowledge of vocabulary is important.  Oral skills are obviously the key to spoken communication but they are also essential for learning to read.  It is often taken for granted that by the age of five most children arrive at school with well developed oral skills.  Unfortunately some children come to school with poorly developed language skills and are at risk of having difficulty in learning to read.  Providing support in oral language skills helps provide a firm foundation for learning to read, although some children will need ongoing support with language and literacy activities. 

During our lively dialogic reading to sessions, we unpack a story at length.  I try to guide the children through the sequence of a story describing what happens first, next, last and to have open ended conversations with back and forth exchanges.  One child who has very good oral skills often leads the way adding comments which helps others to add comments too.  Some children are asking simple questions while others add information from their own experiences.  They are becoming more able to "read" how characters are feeling either from language used in the text or by looking at the pictures, to predict a possible outcome with reasons given and to transfer information from one book to another book we have read.  

We try to take turns and let others express an opinion.  All ideas are accepted and discussed as peer learning is an important part of language development.  Ideas can be rephrased into modelled sentences using correct grammar and structure.  It is a teacher's job to reformulate, elaborate and expand on a child's speech rather than focussing on the mistakes made and to help children understand how conversations work - looking at the person you are talking to, take turns and listening to a response and for the children to be participants in the conversation. 

My three children that I have targeted for my Inquiry participate at different levels during "reading to".   Letting children choose a book from the school or class library is one way of finding out some of the interests of the quieter children.  One on one discussions before school or whenever time permits can boost a child's confidence to participate when they are interested in the subject.

The following is a description of the three children I have included in this assessment.

Child one is naturally quiet and shy and has English as a second language.  It maybe that the child finds the new environment of school very different from the home environment.  Although being a quiet, focused learner the child likes to observe our discussions and with teacher encouragement he will answer a question or add information.  It is our job as a teacher to show the class that a quiet child can communicate and often have very good ideas to share but they are just quieter than others. 

Child two has English as a first language but he is another quiet, shy person.  When he first came into our class he did not engage in our discussions.  He enjoys the "reading to" sessions as you can often see him smile at a particular situation.  He has gradually become confident enough to add a comment or answer a question when directly asked.  He will chatter one on one when I am out on duty about his family or something he has been doing but his speech is sometimes difficult to follow.  

Child three is naturally outgoing and wants to develop friendships.  She is prepared to take risks and repeat words and the endings of sentences.  She gives the impression she is able to converse with others but on examining her sentences it is often hard to comprehend what she is trying to communicate.   She often repeats words, phrases or the end of sentences which make it sounds as if she has a lot to say. Pronouns are mixed so it is hard to follow her stories.  She is more interested in attempting to communicate than in using correct grammar, verbs and structure. 

I will examine their informal and formal language, grammar and articulation, vocabulary and expressive language, sequencing and making meaning of events to see how I can help these three children become more proficient communicators. 

Inquiry 2023: Oral Language Data and Observations

(Image from the Korero Manaiakalani Oral Language Workshop)

 In 2022 I was fortunate to participate in oral language workshops run by the Speech Language Therapists team Korero Manaiakalani.  The philosophy behind the workshop was to increase oral language skills to "impact wellbeing, participation, learning and achievement."

The importance of oral language as the foundation to help children become successful readers and good communicators is again the focus of my 2023 Inquiry.   This year I was looking for a method of assessment which could measure, and help me understand my learners strengths and weaknesses in oral language.  When discussing this in our initial Inquiry group, Deb Shirley mentioned the work she had done the in her 2022 MIT study, which was available for teachers to use.  Her site contains assessment tools which can be downloaded and adapted to our own settings where needed.  Deb has also suggested various resources and ideas that she has used in her classroom. 

This was exactly what I was looking for to be able to gather data on strengths and weaknesses in children's oral language skills and to find strategies to overcome any weaknesses.  I will use Deb Shirley's assessment sheet ( see "Tuning into Oral Language") to gather data and record observations.  It is hoped to be able to repeat these observations to record progress over time and target specific areas if help is needed.

Deb has four areas of observation.  

- Observations are made of formal language used during learning and informal language used during play.

- Grammar and articulation (where so many of our children have difficulty with English grammatical structure.)

- Vocabulary and expressive language (using simple pictures and recording answers)

- Sequencing and making meaning (talking about pictures and sequencing an event)

Thanks to Deb for making such a valuable resource available for others to use.