Building Oral Language

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Building Oral Language

• Susan Dold, Ed. D
• doldsb_at_scsk12.org

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The Importance of Oral Language

• Children arrive in kindergarten with huge
  discrepancies in oral language development . . .
  and the gap between language-advanced and
  language-delayed children grows throughout the
  elementary school years.

Biemiller (2001)
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What is Language?

• The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
  (ASHA) defines language as . . . A code made up
  of rules that include what words mean, how to
  make words, how to put them together, and what
  word combinations are best in what situations.
  Speech is the oral form of language.
• www.asha.org/public/speech/development

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Findings from Research

• During elementary school, at any given time, a
  childs maximum level of reading comprehension is
  determined by the childs level of listening
  comprehension.
• Biemiller, 2001

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Some Facts

• Limited oral language negatively affects reading
  comprehension.
• Many of our children have limited oral language.
• On standardized tests, this shows up as
  vocabulary problems.

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Early Language Experiences Quantitative
Differences
Words heard per hour Words heard in a 100-hour week Words heard in a 5,200-hour year Words heard in 4 years
Professional Family Child 2,153 215,000 11 million 45 million
Working Class Family Child 1,251 125,000 6 million 26 million
Welfare Family Child 616 62,000 3 million 13 million
- Hart Risley (1995)
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Early Language Experiences Qualitative
Differences
Words heard per hour Affirmatives per hour Prohibitions per hour
Professional family child 2,153 32 5
Working class child 1,251 12 7
Welfare child 616 5 11
-Hart Risley (1995)
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Cumulative Language Experiences30 Million Word
Difference

• 45
• 40
• 35
• 30
• 25
• 20
• 15
• 10
• 5

Number of words heard (millions)
Children from Professional Families Working
Class Families Welfare Families
1 2 3 4
5 Age of child (years)
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The Simple View of Reading
2 domains
Decoding (word recognition)
Language Comprehension
Reading Comp.
X

Vocabulary
Phonics
Text Comprehension
Fluency
Phonological Phoneme Awareness
5 Components
Gough and Turner, 1986
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Language-Rich Experiences

• Extended conversations
• Telling/retelling stories and events
• Discourse and discussion
• Modeling of new and unusual words
• Discussion of word meanings

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Examples in Action

• Building up language
• Breaking down language
• Sentence expansion
• Cohesive ties
• Dialogic reading

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Building Up Language

• Big
• Synonyms huge, enormous, gigantic
• Snow
• Related words slush, drift, accumulate
• Move
• Words in the same group (whole body actions)
  run, leap, dance, crawl, stroll, wiggle
• Car
• Categorical relations vehicle, car, Ford

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Example

• Line up at the door.
• Building up
• Line up next to the library entrance.
• Line up next to the library portal.
• Line up beside the door.
• Line up adjacent to the door.

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Another Example

• I wore my warm coat because it is cold today.
• Since it is cold, I wore my warm coat today.
• It is cold today therefore, I wore my warm coat.
• It is cold today as a result, I wore my warm
  coat.
• Others?

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Breaking Down Language

• Think alouds
• Talk about what you see
• Talk about what you feel and hear
• Talk about actions
• Talk about emotions
• Talk about the future
• Talk about the past

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Expand Sentences

• Child I saw a dog.
• Coach What color was the dog?
• Child brown
• Coach I saw a brown dog. Repeat after me
• Child I saw a brown dog.
• Coach What kind of dog was it?
• Child boy
• Coach I saw a brown male dog. ETC

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Model Cohesive Ties

• I need a break because
• I need a break although
• I need a break since
• I need a break after
• I need a break therefore
• I need a break, however

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What is Dialogic Reading?

• A reading practice
• Using picture books
• Adults ask questions, children answer
• Adults expand on the questions

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Dialogic Reading

• Point out vocabulary words
• Ask what questions
• Expand on what students say
• Ask open-ended questions

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PEER
Step How do you do it? How does it help?
P Prompt the child Ask a question about the book prompt, if necessary Focuses attention, engages the child, builds vocabulary
E Evaluate what the child says Affirm correct responses, add information for clarity Constructive feedback
E Expand on what the child says Add a few words to the childs response, gently provide correct answer, if necessary Encourages the child to say more, builds vocabulary
R Repeat Ask the child to repeat the expanded or correct response Encourages the child to use language
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Lets try it!
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CROWD

• Look at your Dialogic Reading handout.
• Select a picture book and work with a group.
• In your group, develop one or two prompts using
  CROWD.
• Be prepared to share.

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Teaching Vocabulary Directly

• Model
• Routines
• Using context
• With Fry words and phrases
• Dictionary

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Vocabulary Routine

• Say the word and teach its pronunciation.
• Have the class repeat it.
• Read the word and say its definition.
• Have the class repeat the definition.
• Write the word and have the child write it.
• Add a gesture to the definition and repeat the
  definition sentence using the gesture.
• Pair students and have them teach the word to
  each other.
• Have them come back to the whole group and repeat
  it one more time.

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Vocabulary in Context

• Teach words in meaning clusters.
• Use graphic organizers.
• Ask questions about words in context.
• Have students prove it by locating evidence.

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Use Context Be a Word Detective

• Yesterday I saw a bright blue blogute sitting in
  the bush in my backyard.
• Blogute is a nonsense word, but use the context
  of the sentence to guess at its meaning. Be
  prepared to support your guess with evidence.

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Vocabulary and Fry Words

• Fry phrases
• Circle the wagons
• Toward morning
• The ship hit the waves
• Watch the river

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Dictionary Use

• DO use the dictionary to confirm the meaning of a
  word.
• DONT give a student a list of words to look up,
  define, spell, etc.

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In Conclusion

• Oral language is crucial to reading achievement.
• Encourage the use of new and different words.
• Make word learning fun.