статья" Taking a slice of the oral language pie"
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Taking a slice of the Oral Language pie

The ‘Oral Language Pie’ highlighted four domains of oral language that can be grown by educators with children in their sites. Listening and Responding, Growing Words in Talk – Vocabulary & Concepts, Talking about My World – Recounts & Retells & Building Talk for Thinking are all key aspects of oral language and all connect with literacy.   A range of instructional strategies can be used by educators to help build the language of these domains – or slices. These strategies are key implements in the teachers’ toolkit, as they don’t add another “activity” to fit into an increasingly crowded curriculum. These strategies allow educators to focus on oral language in different subjects across the curriculum, so the ‘thread’ of oral language is neatly woven into students’ learning throughout the day.  This provides multiple opportunities for students to strengthen their understanding and use of language, and serves to build the language of the subject.  Some of these strategies hand over the “voice” to children, increasing children’s talk time and subsequently reducing teacher talk time. Most of these instructional strategies are not new to educators, so it is about looking at the strategies differently, through the lens of oral language. The strategies are not neatly tied into a particular “slice” of the oral language pie, though some like “define‐do‐revise” links closest to vocabulary. Most though will have an impact on all “slices”, hence these strategies serve to strengthen a variety of aspects of oral language.

The Instructional Strategies Conversations& Wait Time Conversations allow children to hear and use language and are more likely to occur when children are engaged and interested in what they are doing. Both conversations between children and between adults and children are important. Research supports the fact that children who participate frequently in conversations have a positive impact on language development, particularly vocabulary,(Dickenson & Tabors, 2001; Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg,  2004,Ruston &Schwanenflugel 2010). What constitutes a conversation? Conversation involves talk about a topic, and involves taking turns between speakers. When people listen and respond, a conversation begins. Conversations with young children ideally involve 5 or more exchanges, which means both adults and children have at least 2 talking turns. Children in junior primary can be expected to engage in conversations that involve 6 to 8 exchanges,hence a child has 3 or 4 speaking turns. Use language that promotes conversation How educators talk with children is important! Research has indicated that conversation can happen more easily if adults use comments rather than direct questions, particularly ones that require a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, or questions that may be answered with single words (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001). Comments place less pressure on children to talk, and are more invitational, particularly for children who are reluctant to talk. Making comments about what the child is doing; about what you are doing; providing explanations about what is happening all help to create a conversational atmosphere. In addition to this, when adults use interesting or ‘rare’ words in their conversations, it provides an opportunity for children to learn new words and expand their vocabulary. Extending conversations can occur through using open ended questions e.g. “Can you tell me more about this?” and questions that require children to think e.g. “How do you think that happened?”as they invite talk. Wait Time Giving children time to respond in conversations is important. Often children need time to process your comment or question and then form a response. This is important for reluctant talkers and children with language differences and difficulties, who may need the extra processing time. Crevola (2012), recommends using wait time of between 3‐7 seconds in the classroom, to improve the number, length and quality of child responses.

Classroom Example: English Kylie’s class have a focus on the book “Waddle Giggle Gargle” by Pamela Allen. To help students build the background knowledge they need about magpies, nests and ‘swooping season’, Kylie had children make nests using boxes. The class went for a walk to collect items from the school yard that could be used to make the nest, for example twigs and dry grasses & leaves. Back in the classroom they added to this with items from the construction table such as shredded paper and feathers and thenmade their nests. Opportunities for conversations between children& between teacher and child occurred during the walk and during nest making in the classroom.

Example

Teacher: You found something!

Child: I got a stick.

Teacher: That is a twig, wow, it is skinny. Where did you find it?

Child: Over there by the tree.

Teacher: I wonder how it got on the ground.

Child: It fell off the tree.

Teacher: Maybe the wind blew it off the tree.

Child: Yeah (ha ha), woosh goes the wind.

Think‐Pair‐Share

Think Pair Shareis a cooperative discussion strategy that has 3 parts to the process:

• children think about a question or an issue

• they talk with a partner about their thoughts

• then several children share their discussion and thinking with the class

The strategy sets up a conversation between children, providing children with more opportunities to talk about their work and thinking.  It can occur across the curriculum, and hands on learning situations provide meaningful contexts for learning and think pair share can be used before or after such activities. 

Classroom Example: Science

Carrie’s class have been doing the Primary Science Connections Unit –Water Works. Lesson 3 ‐ “Rain, Rain” aims to explore what happens when rain falls on different surfaces.  They have a watering can and have different surfaces like a roof tile, corrugated iron, grass and dirt.

Before the experiment Carrie asked students what they thought would happen when the water was poured on the different surfaces? Think/Pair/Share 

The class did the experiment. She asked the children to talk about what happened during the experiment. Think/Pair/Share 

What happened and what you thought would happen – was it the same or different? Think/Pair/Share

Think Alouds

This is a strategy that is intended to make thinking or the comprehension process explicit. It is like opening a window into the mind to help make comprehension visible. Think‐Alouds allow the educator to model the thinking process by stepping it out, helping children make connections. The process used in a Think Aloud includes:

• Stating what happened

• A comment about what the people might be thinking

• An explanation of the problem.

Think Alouds are commonly used in reading, when the teacher talks through their thoughts during the reading process. However, think alouds aren’t just for reading comprehension; they can be used across the curriculum including many play based or hands‐on learning situations with children.

Classroom Example:

Science Dale has been exploring how everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways.   The class has used the sandpit and are exploring how sand changes once water is poured on this surface. When the water quickly seeps away, Dale used a simple form of think‐aloud:

• Stating what happened,   e.g. “The water is sinking into the sand really quickly.”

• A comment about what the people might be thinking e.g.  “I want the water to stay on the sand, not go away.        I wonder where the water goes?”

 • An explanation of the problem, “There is air between the grains of sand and the water soaks   into the air spaces fast, so the water doesn’t stay on the sand, it soaks away”.

Vocabulary: Define‐Do‐Revise

Children learn words through immersion in a vocabulary‐rich environment and explicit teaching of targeted words. Key to assisting children to “grow words in talk” or learn new words, is to make the learning situation meaningful and ensure there is repetition. This will help words to become part of a child’s communication.  

When teaching a word:

Define what the word means in language that students can understand. Have children say the word.

Do – This will involve using the word in different sentences to highlight meaning, however showing students what words means is important. For example, if the new word is “rummage”, show images of this from Google to demonstrate what it could look like; or act out a situation to illustrate word meaning, e.g. “I am rummaging through my bag to find my new pencils”. Then explain the word meaning again. The “do” aspect makes word learning meaningful.

Revise ‐ Go over the word in different ways during the day or week to really get to know the word.   Providing opportunities for practice helps to build strong understandings of words and helps students be ready to use new words in talk (DECS Talking Literacy, 2009). This strategy can be applied across the curriculum and can be made to “come alive” through the “doing” or active learning aspect.  

 Classroom Example: Maths

Rachel has been doing measurement in maths. She has noticed that children were unsure of what the term “measure” meant so she defined the word: “Measure means to find out how long something is  ‐  we can measure how tall or how long. Children practiced saying the word and clapped out the syllables in the word, ‘mea‐sure’. To make learning meaningful, students measured how tall they were, measured their feet andhand sizes. To reinforce the learning, Rachel made reference to “measure” at other times of the day. To extend the learning for some students, she talked about other forms of measurement, such as time and temperature.  

Think‐Talk‐Write

 is a strategy that can be used to bridge children into recording their thoughts, through writing or through drawing if this is more appropriate.  

Think: Text planners and photographs can be used to assist children with thinking about what they have done after an activity has been completed. Using text planners with photographs serves to remind children what they did and provides an opportunity for explicit teaching of key language that is needed for the genre. For example time words, such as “then”, are important in recounts and command words, like “put” are important in procedures. It also assists children in organising their ideas, hence help to organise thinking.  

 Talk: The planners can then be used to engage children with talk and are used to support oral rehearsal or telling about the procedure or recount. Talking about the experience is crucial in strengthening oral language skills and assist children in organising language to use in the writing process. More sophisticated oral language does not map onto to written language exactly, however this is an important step in moving from the oral to written language.

Write: The planners and the talk experience act as a support into writing. The educator can approach the writing phase in different ways, beginning with having children try a simple drawing if that best meets their needs, to sentence closure tasks, to independent writing. The planners are important in the writing phase as they are a visual reminder of what is required for the genre. 

Classroom Example:

History Ryan’s class has focused on children’s families and children have brought in photographs of the people in their family.  

Ryan asked the children take a look at their photos and other children’s photos. He used think/pair/share and asked children to choose someone in the photo to describe. They used a description planner to help them think about what features to describe and support their talking. The children played “who am I?” and guessed which person it was from the photograph.

Finally children used their planners to help them record their descriptions.

Repeating what others have said 

This strategy aims to strengthen children’s ability to attend to other children and adults and ‘hold’ the information they have heard. By repeating what others have said, the child is actively building their ability to listen and remember, so it helps in developing working memory.  The ability to hold onto and remember the language that someone else has said is important for:

• processing and understanding what has been said

• holding a conversation

 • following instructions  

 • answering questions

In the classroom this strategy can be used at any time during group activities. Carmel Crevola (2012) refers to ‘invitational prompts’ to use with children, such as “What did he/she say?” followed by “What do you think about that?” This strategy is clearly applicable to discussions that occur throughout the day, when children are providing responses to teacher comments or questions.

What about your classroom?

Oral Language is critical for building relationships, for literacy and learning. It is the fuel that feeds the fire of comprehension, as the language that is heard must be understood before the language that is read can be decoded and understood. Language is the tool we use for expressing our thoughts, again both at the oral level first then and encoding this into print.   So, what can you do to develop oral language in your classroom? Instead of trying to add moreto the timetable, the examples show that oral language can be a focus in different subjects, which serves to build the language of the subject rather than add another activity to do.Think about how you can use these strategies in your class.  Will you target several strategies or one? How can they add to the learning environment in your site?

Bibliography

Boudreau, D. &Costanza‐Smith, A. (2011). Assessment and Treatment of Working Memory Deficits in School‐ Age Children: The Role of the Speech‐Language Pathologist. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, vol 42, pg 152‐166.

Crevola, C. (2012). Presented at Northern Adelaide Regional Leaders Day Conference DECS (2009). Making Meaning: Developing Oral Language through Children’s Books. Teacher Training Package developed by DECS Speech Pathology,South Australia.  

DECS (2009).Vocabulary: The Early Years. Teacher Training Package developed by DECS Speech Pathology,South Australia.  

Dickinson, D. & Tabors, P. (2001).Beginning Literacy with Language. Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishing.

Girolametto, L., Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2004). The effects of verbal support strategies on small‐group peer interactions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services inSchools, 35, 254–268.

Gjems, L. (2010). Teachers talking to young children: invitations to negotiate meaning in everyday conversations.  European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2, pg 139‐148

Ruston, H. &Schwanenflugel, P. (2010).Effects of a Conversation intervention on the Expressive Vocabulary Development of Prekindergarten Children.Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, vol 41, pg 303‐ 313.

Wilhlem, J. (2001). Improving Comprehension with Think‐Aloud Strategies: Modeling What Good Readers Do. New York: Scholastic