1. Oral Language Development

3. Oral Language Development

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Meaningful Differences
There is a huge difference in the language development of children in professional, working-class and welfare families.
Meaningful Differences
Meaningful Differences (Hart and Risley,1995), a landmark study of toddlers and preschoolers in professional, working-class and welfare families, revealed that there are huge differences in children’s language development, a fact of which teachers of young children are well aware.
Discuss:
·       Why are we seeing such wide gaps between children’s oral language skills upon entering school?
·        What are the implications for Kindergarten and First Grade classroom?
Discuss Resource OL 2 Meaningful Differences in Everyday Experience of Young American Children. This highlights the key points from the Hart and Risley studies.

7. Hart & Risley compared the mean number of minutes of verbal interaction per hour in three socio-economic groups:

8. Early Language Experiences
Quantitative Differences
Words heard per hour
Words heard in a 100-hour week
Words heard in a 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)

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

10. 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.

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

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