Oral Language Development Oral Language Development The Duality

Oral Language Development

Oral Language Development The Duality of Learning Language Receptive Language Expressive Language The ability to understand spoken language The ability to use words to convey meaning

Jerome Bruner (1983) Proficiency in oral language provides children with a vital tool for thought. Without fluent and structured oral language, children will find it very difficult to think.

Moats, 2001 The Language Experience Gap: “Word Poverty” Not all children are fortunate to be born into homes where parents or caregivers provide rich language experiences. These disadvantaged children enter schools lacking oral language skills.

Meaningful Differences There is a huge difference in the language development of children in professional, working-class and welfare families.

Hart & Risley compared the mean number of minutes of verbal interaction per hour in three socioeconomic groups:

Early Language Experiences Quantitative Differences Words heard in a 100 heard in a per hour week 5, 200 -hour year Words heard in 4 years Professional Family 2, 153 215, 000 11 million 45 million Working Class Family 1, 251 125, 000 6 million 26 million Welfare Family 616 62, 000 3 million 13 million - Hart & Risley (1995)

The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth High Oral Language in Kindergarten 16 15 Reading Age Level 14 5. 2 years difference 13 12 Low Oral Language in Kindergarten 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Chronological Age

Creating a Language-Centered Classroom Environment Children who do not hear a lot of talk and who are not encouraged to talk themselves often have problems learning to read. A Child Becomes a Reader (2003), p. 7.

In what contexts do we teach oral language? Literacy Social Interaction Sensory Motor Numeracy Developmental Play Centres Inquiry Based Activities Language Experiences Show and Share Through content of all learning areas

What activities can parents, caregivers and teachers do to develop oral language? • Show and Tell • Other?