Building Oral Language What should we consider?

Betty Hart and Todd Risley “The most important aspect to evaluate in early childhood settings for very young children is the amount of talk actually going on, moment by moment, between children and their caregivers.” Betty Hart and Todd Risley 2002

The Hart and Risley Study Number of words (in millions) heard by children by age 4 45M 26M 13 M Poverty Working Class Professional (Hart, Risley, 2002)

“Research has shown that children who don’t have well developed vocabularies by age 3 are likely to have difficulty in school. The good news is that preschool can help those children catch up.” L M Morrow, 2005

“The quality of teacher-child conversations when children were 3 and 4 years old was related to their end-of-kindergarten receptive and expressive vocabulary levels.” Dickinson and Neuman, 2004

By giving children positive interactions and experiences with adults who take the time to teach vocabulary, oral language concepts, and emergent literacy concepts, children should have a better chance to succeed at school and in the workplace.

So what does that mean for those of us responsible for prekindergarten for three year-olds?

Three year old classrooms shouldn’t be quiet!!

Discussion before, during and after activities – particularly reading activities – enhances comprehension and vocabulary growth. The quality of the discussion is more important than the quantity of the discussion. Teacher talk is important but children should be talking to each other as well as to the adults in the room.

A teacher’s oral language style influences the language development of the children in his or her classroom. We need responsive teachers working with our three year-olds!

The Responsive Teacher  Is tuned into the child’s interests, needs and abilities  Builds Up and Breaks Down Language all day long, across curricular topics in response to the children’s needs  Pauses to allow children to think and to speak  Encourages children to be active language learners and users all day long

What are Language Build-Ups And Break-Downs?  Build-up Language: Use complex language to help children grow their language skills  Break-down Language: Simplify language to help children enter into conversations and understand

Build-Ups and Break- Downs allow the teacher to modify a classroom activity to address different levels of language learners.

Building Up Vocabulary by Teaching Explicitly * Good vocabulary instruction is explicit and has measurable outcomes. * Teachers should build up new vocabulary in an intentional manner.

Two Strategies for Building-Up and Breaking Down Language  Thinking Aloud: Self-Talk/Modeling  Language Expansions: Extending What Kids Say

Thinking Aloud/Self-Talk. . Talk about your own actions and. thoughts Thinking Aloud/Self-Talk  Talk about your own actions and thoughts  Thinking aloud models vocabulary and syntax for children much better than questions and directions

Thinking Aloud:  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  Talk about how you make a prediction  Talk about how you make a decision

Expansions Children learn more complex language quickly when adults expand the things that children say. Expansions add meaning or complexity to the things children say.

Teacher behaviors and skills that support oral language Creates a print rich environment Uses precise, clear language Uses rich, developmentally appropriate vocabulary Engages in conversations with children on topics that include their expertise and interests Looks for ways in which pre-verbal and nonverbal children initiate communication and responds appropriately using gestures, vocalizations, words, pictures and/or assistive technologies Helps children extend both verbal and non-verbal communications Provides a reasonable response time for all children and specific examples of how they expect children to participate Provides numerous, varied opportunities to develop vocabulary including conversations, investigations, field trips, books, etc. Reads aloud to children every day! Encourages children to share their opinions and provides strategies that help them to articulate their opinions Validates and supports children’s expression using various forms of documentation

What is it called? What is it made of? What size is it? How do we use it? What is it called? What color is it? How does it feel? What shape is it?

Description of spiders Use children’s own words Description of spiders Scary Long-legged Hairy Black Ugly Actions Crawl Climb Creep Sleep Hide SPIDERS Where do we find spiders? In the garden On the porch In their webs In the bathroom On the wall

Help children build interesting sentences with their own words. Scary spiders crawl on the wall. Hairy spiders creep in their webs. Long-legged spiders hide in the garden. Then act them out – the children will remember them!

“Oral Language is the child’s first, most important, and most frequently used structured medium of communication. It is the primary means through which each individual child will be enabled to structure, to evaluate, to describe and to control his/her experience.” Archer, Cregan, McGough, Shiel, 2012