| Literacy Training: Oral Language Development |
Context: |
| Children are natural communicators. They learn to talk by being immersed in language. The size of a child's vocabulary is determined in part by how much a parent or primary caregiver talks with the child. Teachers and tutors can support language and vocabulary development simply by holding authentic conversations with children. |
Goals: |
- To understand how to support the development of speaking and listening skills
- To explore ways to have dynamic conversations with children
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Materials/Preparation: |
| Ask tutors to start a folder of "discussion starters" containing colorful pictures from magazines or children's books, including nonfiction and informational books. |
Activity: |
| Talk with tutors about how their habits of talking with and listening to children will make a difference in children's language development. Explain that talking with children helps develop important language skills. Remind them that children themselves can provide many topics to explore, so special prompts are not always necessary to stimulate conversation.
Brainstorm with tutors about topics children like to discuss, and review how not to engage children in sensitive topics. Possible topics might include school routines and recent field trips. If necessary, pictures or books can help prompt conversations.
Invite tutors to share their discussion starters. Then model the following strategies for supporting children's language development:
- Rephrase and extend children's ideas. If children offer, "I see a car," tutors can extend the idea by saying, "Yes, I see it too. It's a big, blue car with fancy lights."
- Ask open-ended questions. We often ask questions that result in a yes/no answer, or "closed" questions. Open-ended questions encourage children to think about their answers more fully. For example, instead of asking, "Did you like the movie?" ask, "What was your favorite part of the movie?"
- Ask clarifying and elaborating questions. Many of our responses actually stop conversations. For example instead of "That's a nice picture," say, "Tell me about the picture you drew."
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Key Questions and Points to Remember: |
| Talk with tutors about their experiences talking with children. Model the use of rephrasing and asking clarifying, elaborating, and open-ended questions as you discuss ideas. |
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Developed by LEARNS, a partnership of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (1-800-361-7890) and Bank Street College of Education (1-800-930-5664). For additional activities or assistance, please call. |
