Hearing Actual perception and processing of sound

Families help children learn languages better Scaffold and adjust linguistic input

Indicators of hearing loss  Child pulls on ears  Child has frequent ear infections  Child complains about ear aches  Child complains of ringing in the ear  Child requires more audio volume  Child asks for things to be repeated  Child has trouble repeating words and phrases

Teachers help with hearing loss  Place children in the front of the classroom  Make sure children aren’t sitting next to noisy students

Receptive vs. Productive  Receptive skills: Listening and Reading > receive  Productive skills: Speaking and writing > produce

Listening  Listening not passive  Learners should be actively engaged in tasks and activities

Learning channels  Preferred ways learners receive information  Auditory, tactile, visual

Types of input for learning channels  Auditory > songs, chants, poems, stories read aloud  Visual > images, pictures  Tactile > real life objects that children can touch

Comprehensible input Present information using all three learning channels

Important readiness skill Being able to follow simple instructions

Other skills built on listening  You near to hear a word before you can say it  You need to say a word before you can read it.  You need to read a word before you can write it Teaching language skills: Listen > Speak > Read > Write

Listening skills > Prepare for reading  Listen to and follow instructions – Prepares children for a variety of tasks  Follow an oral sequence of events – Prepares children to comprehend stories  Listen attentively to stories – Prepares children to comprehend stories  Comprehend a story that has been read and/or told – Prepares children to comprehend stories  Discriminate between sounds – Prepares children to decode words and helps with phonics instruction  Identify rhyming sounds – Prepares children to decode words and helps with phonics instruction  Segment words into syllables – Prepares children to decode words and helps with phonics instruction

Listening and reading similarities Utilize many of the same processes

Listening capacity  Informal measure of one’s ability to understand or comprehend spoken language in the context of a story being told or read aloud  As a foundation for reading, teachers need to develop children’s listening comprehension and listening capacity

Phonological awareness  The ability to listen and think about the entire range of sounds that occur in a word (e.g. un-der-stand, al-pha-bet)  By developing listening skills that focus on phonological awareness, children will be better prepared to participate in phonics instruction which, in turn, will make it easier for them to decode and read words.

Importance of patterns  People need to recognize patterns in order to read.  Reading is about patterns.  Detecting the auditory or phonological patterns that occur in language will better prepare children for the visual patterns that occur in English-language words.

Total Physical Response (TPR)  TPR is a teaching method developed by James Asher where learners physically respond to oral commands which are given.  Just as with babies, learners are expected to respond non-verbally to commands before they are able to speak.  The teacher usually gives an oral command while s/he demonstrates it.  Learners follow along with the commands and only speak when they are ready.  When they first begin to speak, learners repeat the commands given by the teacher.

Positive aspects of TPR  Uses the auditory, visual, and tactile learning channels  Helps to teach children to follow directions and listen attentively  Provides a comfortable environment for learners when they choose to speak  Easily adaptable

Finger plays  Finger plays are little chants that children say while moving their fingers and/or hands  Popular examples: “The Eensy Weensy Spider” and “Head and Shoulders”

TPR used effectively with Storytelling and drawing

Benefits of Yes/No cards  Allows all learners to participate simultaneously and silently (thereby reducing opportunities for learners to fidget and be disruptive)  Lets the teacher know if individual learners responded correctly

Breakdown of words Syllable clapping

Challenge of using rhyming word activities Words can be uncommon and very challenging

Minimal pairs  Two words that differ in only one sound  Yes/No cards are an effective way to practice them