ORAL LANGUAGE AND STUDENT LEARNING PRIMARY

1
ORAL LANGUAGE AND STUDENT LEARNINGPRIMARY

• Language Support Program
• Hume Region

2
Oral Language Student Learning Primary

• Oral language is the medium through which
  teaching occurs and through which students
  actively engage in the learning process.
• We assume students are competent users of oral
  language. Not all students are.

3
Oral Language Student Learning Primary

• Oral language underpins the ability to
  effectively communicate. It is the foundation
  upon which written language develops and it
  allows us to make sense of other important
  literacies.
• How much of the normal classroom activities and
  interactions involves the ability to listen and
  speak?

4
Oral Language Student Learning Primary

• Oral language is a part of the vast majority of
  school interactions.
• Moore (1991) The Talk Curriculum
• Language is what we teach, no matter what we
  teach
• We learn to talk by talking. We learn to listen
  by listening. The more we talk and listen to
  others talking, the better our ability to
  manipulate language. The better our ability to
  manipulate language, the better our ability to
  think and therefore to read and write for both of
  these are thinking activities.

5
Oral Language Student Learning Primary

• Communication helps to construct all learning
  and is central to the capacity to demonstrate and
  convey what one has learned in different contexts
  and to different people
• Students need to learn that ..language and
  discourse differ in different disciplines
• (VELS Interdisciplinary Learning Strand)

6
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Limited vocabulary knowledge
• - We learn new words by comparing and
  contrasting
• them with words we already know.
• Struggle to follow directions containing
  instructional concepts
• Do either the first picture or the second one
• If you have not finished the work then you have
  to do it at home
• Before you start to write the story, spend some
  time thinking of a plan
• Dont go to your bag until I tell you.

7
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Struggle to discern and use underlying text
  structure relationships in oral and written tasks
• Comparison-contrast
• Cause-effect
• Problem-solution
• Main idea and supporting information.
• Limited ability to make inferences and predict
  information based on prior knowledge.

8
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Limited understanding of figurative (non-literal)
  language
• Similes, metaphors and proverbs
• Common sayings
• Classroom directions
• Jokes and sarcasm.

9
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Rarely seek clarification.
• Students are often unaware they do not know what
  to do or what they do not know
• Students may be uncertain about the ways to seek
  clarification if they are not modeled.

10
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Talk a lot but say little
• Student responses may be verbal but they
  provide limited content knowledge
• The listener has to keep asking questions to gain
  the required information.

11
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Provide information in a disorganised sequence.
• Information in essays may be inappropriately
  sequenced
• Recounts or retells may be characterised by
  provision of the main information but the
  sequence is disorganised

12
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Increased use of non-specific vocabulary (eg.
  stuff, thing, that one)
• Frequent use of shorter sentences with simple
  grammar with less use of longer and more complex
  sentence types. Increased occurrence of
  grammatical errors evident as sentence length
  increases.

13
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Limited awareness of non-verbal communication
  cues (Body language / Facial expressions)
• May take longer to respond to questions and
  queries (3-5 seconds).
• May butt-in and make comments at inappropriate
  times

14
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• Less ability to use their language to assist with
  task completion (self-talk the ability to talk
  themselves through a task they find difficult.)
• Less ability to use their language to
  successfully problem solve and resolve conflict.

15
Features of Oral Language Difficulties
experienced by Primary Students

• As you read through these characteristics of
  primary students with oral language difficulties,
  which students from your class popped into your
  mind?