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Oral Language Development

What is Oral Language Development?

Oral language Development is the the growth and learning of language when it is spoken. They ways to develop spoken language is by listening to it and speaking it yourself. When a student is trying to learn a new language, it is imperative that teachers develop their speaking language, because it is important for students to know how to communicate with others with this language. This includes language that is academic language and casual language. So, here are some important things to know about and ways that teachers can help these students in their oral language development.

Silent Period

When students are first learning a language, they may go through the Silent Period.  This is when they do not talking during lessons or in the classroom for a while. It might last for only a couple hours, a few weeks, or even many months. It all depends on the student, and how comfortable they feel with speaking this new language with other learners or teachers. Wright shares on page 155 of his book Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners that "Teachers should not assume that because students do not talk, they are not learning". The students through this time learn how to listen and are figuring out this new language they are learning. They might not be comfortable speaking the language yet until they gain some insight on the language first through the listening process. Teachers should not force the students to talk during this time. Instead, teachers should use different techniques in the classroom to help these students learn while also creating a comfortable environment for them when they are ready to take a stab at speaking the new language.

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The video above explains the Silent Period in a more in-depth way. Go ahead and check it out.

Wait Time
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Wait time is when teachers give the students time to think about a question or topic that the teacher poses to the class. Many students need time to be able to think about what is being said and process the language that you are using to be able to respond in an effective way. Many teachers will just start asking questions without giving wait time, and then the students have a harder time feeling like they can answer without knowing what to say first. Wait time also allows the students to be able to structure their thoughts into what to say in the language. So, it is important for teachers to allow this time in their classrooms in order to keep a low affective filter and to create a thoughtful discussion going.

Strategies for Classroom Interaction

The interaction that a child needs in order to progress in their language learning is being able to talk and listen to their peers, their teachers, other Emergent Bilinguals, and English speakers around the community. Here are some ways that students can grow their oral development of language:​​​

Cooperative Learning: Students work together and collaborate in groups or pairs to complete projects, problems, presentations, and other assignments. Ways that a teacher can make this effective is by making sure to make the assignment very clear to the students. This type of learning allows for scaffolding to unfold, where students can work together to help one another along in their learning. This is also a way of developing oral language because the students talk to one another and listen to one another's input. This also is a way to lower the affective filter, because usually students feel more comfortable to speak with their peers. Much of the projects that you can assign as a teacher could also be hands-on, so that these students will be able to grasp the language in a more visual way. Some ways you can also relate all of the content they are learning throughout these projects also relate to language is by including vocabulary they need to go over and learn and have the students talk with one another about these new words.

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Think-Pair-Share:​ Students will be able to learn cooperatively by being able to do Think-Pair-Share. The teacher can assign partners or just have students talk with a partner near them about a topic or question that is discussed in class. Usually, the teacher can first (before they talk) give some time to write down what they think and what they want to discuss with their partner on paper. Then, they will discuss the answers and what they wrote with the partner. This activity allows the students to feel at ease talking with their peers and allows them to feel ready if they are asked to share out their answers and discussion ideas to the class. 

​Roundtable: For this activity, the teacher will create groups of 3 to 6 students. For these discussions, the teacher might also be a moderator or could just facilitate by walking around to different groups. These groups will brainstorm ideas that they have about concepts discussed in class and write them down on paper. All of the students in the group need to be given a chance to talk and share their ideas. This way, they are building their oral development and listening to all of their peers speak. Students can learn vocabulary this way, clear up misconceptions, and gain new perspectives on the concept at hand.

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Numbered Heads Together: This collaborative learning group is made up to around four students. These students will be given a number, and will also give the group as a whole a question or topic to discuss. With this in mind, the teacher has to let the students know that they will be picking out a student from each group to discuss their question/topic. So, the students will discuss with one another so that every student in the group is ready to share the topic/question with the class. This is a way that the teacher can still create a class environment where their is a low affective filter for all of the students, while also being able to call on students to share to see what they understand. 

Class Discussions: These discussions are when students are talking about a mentor text, a video, or anything related to the content at hand. They are facilitated by the teacher and uses "talk moves" to do it. The students are free to discuss, which helps them develop their oral language. They can learn and use new vocabulary, discuss their points and supporting it with evidence, learn and use new language structures, and learn more about the subject content. These discussions also can really engage the students and allow their voices to be heard. They are able to share their thoughts and ideas, and can feel comfortable orally sharing with their classmates. These types of meaningful conversations develop listening and speaking in the language they are learning.

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"What Am I?" Game: For this activity, students have cards that they attach to their heads with a headband. They cannot see what is written on the card, but others can. These cards will have different objects, people, animals, or any other thing you can think of on it. The students have to talk and be able to use vocabulary they have learned in order to be successful in this game. They also have to ask questions and be able to listen to what others are saying. Through this, they will think and then have to be able to identify what they are. ELLs are learning to speak the language and use the vocabulary they have learned. 

Barrier Games: For this activity, students will be put into pairs and are given paper with a pencil. One partner is shown something (such as a picture, pattern, or object) that is behind a barrier (so the other partner cannot see) and has to describe it to the other partner so that they can try to recreate it or draw it. The students have to know the vocabulary needed to do this, and they orally are sharing what they see to their partner. So, ELLs are learning how to explain things with their language. 

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Role Play: Students for this activity are able to work on language form and structure by roleplaying it. The example that Wright gave was the idea of roleplaying a customer and a salesperson. This way, both of the students participating will get to practice their speaking skills. What a teacher could do to make this easy is to write a bunch of scenarios on slips of paper and have the students pull them out of a hat. You can make these role-plays silly, or you can make them like real-life scenarios. Either way, the students will be able to acquire language (especially oral language) in a fun way.

Obstacle Course: For this activity, students will get into pairs or groups and then blindfold one person. This person has to get through an obstacle course blindfolded that the teacher set up. The group mates then have to explain where to go and what to do to the other student. They can learn to use vocabulary, directions, descriptive words, and more to develop their language. It is a fun way to incorporate movement and oral language development in the classroom.

Acting Out Stories: Students learn so much from reading, and are able to support their learning of oral language by reading. With this in mind, the students would have an engaging activity by being able to orally act out the stories they read. ELL will be able to use the vocabulary from the book they are acting out and will be able to work on speaking clearly and confidently. 

Other Strategies for Speaking

Speaking, of course, is essential to the growth of oral language. Many students need to be able to communicate with others to succeed in a language. So, teachers can create experiences and assignments where the student will feel comfortable being able to speak in front of others in the classroom, even if they make mistakes. All of the strategies seen above use speaking in them in order to learn. Some other strategies that were not mentions were oral presentations, interviews, songs, and student lead conferences. In these situations, the student gets up and speaks. For the presentations, the students have to present on something they learned about and explain it to the group. For interviews, they will talk to others and gain information on a certain topic or question. For songs, the students can learn and sing a song and then will be able to remember it in order to develop language. For student lead conferences, the students have to lead everything instead of the teacher leading the meeting. All of these create ways that the student can grow their oral speaking skills.

Other Strategies for Listening

Students need comprehensible input in order to fully learn a language, which means that they need time to listen in the classroom. Many of the strategies shown above have different times where the students need to listen and are able to hear different things that they peers say and that their teacher says. One of the biggest listening activities and strategies that teachers can use is Total Physical Response (TPR). As explained on my TPR page, this is a lesson format where the teacher does not require the student to speak, but to listen. The teacher will use modeling, visuals, repetition many phrases, and use gestures in order to teach students during the Silent Period (as seen at the top of this page). 

Correcting Student Errors

Many teachers tend to have a hard time know where the line is for correcting grammatical errors. They don't know whether they should pick apart writing and speaking pieces because it could help or it could hurt. Or they don't know whether to just let it slide. There is definitely different ways and methods to go about correcting student errors, which will be shown below.

Stategies
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As shown above in Box 7.2 (retrieved from Wright, page 159), it is important to correct the students when they are ready and when they have been taught certain forms. Also, if they are saying something embarrassing, it is helpful to correct them so that they are not thoroughly embarrassed in the future. It is important to make corrections if students need to know so that they can comprehend and communicate better in the language. In any case, make sure to correct in a way that is not harping on a child. Instead, use questions and gentle reminders. Also, you can use "talk moves" (which was discussed above), which is ways to correct students in ways that still support student thinking. Here are the five identified below (with examples from Wright):

  • Revoicing: This move is when a teacher will repeat what the student has said because it was unclear. This way, the student will be able to correct what was said when the teacher asks. 

    • "So you're saying that it's an odd number?"​

  • Repeating: This is when the teacher asks a student to repeat and reset what another student has said. This is similar to revoicing, because then the student who said the first statement can confirm what they said was correct or maybe not as correct.

    • "Can you repeat what he just said in your own words?"​

  • Reasoning: The teacher asks a student to connect or apply what they were saying to another student's idea. 

    • "Do you agree or disagree? Why"​

  • Adding On: This is the prompting of students to participate.

    • "Would someone like to add something more to this?"​

  • Waiting: Using wait time, as discussed at the top of the page.

    • "Take your time..."​

Using these strategies allows for the students to have low affective filters and feel like it is okay to make mistakes. Correcting them in understanding ways allows for them to learn the language and be able to feel okay getting feedback. Recasting is also another way of correcting students, which is almost the exact same as revoicing. Recasting is when the teacher responds to a student by repeating some of what they have said, and then responds using the correct rules that the teacher wants them to learn. So basically, there are so many other ways to correct students so that they feel comfortable and safe in the classroom environment. Many of these corrections can lead to the learning of language skills, where most of this comes with practice. Having the students continuously speak, writing, and reading allows for the students to flourish in their language development. Also, creating lessons where the students are able to collaborate and communicate with one another creates a space of learning where the students are able to develop their oral language.

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