1 Oral Language Development

Research:

Researchers working with children with hearing loss and significant oral language

Several highly experienced professionals working with children with hearing loss and significant oral language and vocabulary delays have documented the need for increased, direct instructional time, i.e. one hour daily for every year of language/vocabulary delay (e.g. 3 year delay = 3 hours of direct instruction in oral language and vocabulary). The following, in combination, supports this recommendation Vemelson, 2011

 -From: Oral Language Learning: the primary years (Munro, 2009)

· “Oral language is the foundation of learning to read and write.” (Roskos et al., 2009, p. 1) · “One’s use of oral language enables them to learn in all areas, not just literacy.” (Munro, 2009). If a child has a strong grasp of language skills, they are able to question, converse, investigate, initiate and link meanings in all areas. Throughout a child’s school life, these skills are necessary in order to function effectively and achieve to an acceptable standard. · “The development of oral language is crucial to a child’s literacy development, including listening, speaking, reading and writing.” (Kirkland & Patterson, 2005, p. 3). · Listening, speaking, reading and writing are all necessary skills to obtain and those children, who arrive at school with a wide range of language experiences, will already have a strong knowledge of how language works and how effective talking is (Roskos et al., 2009). Therefore, it is important that children who have difficulty with language are identified at school early on so that they are given the opportunity to catch up to others and further their work in all areas. · Schools have to be aware of the language needs children have and address these by integrating language development into all areas of the school day. It is essential that teachers “set clear learning goals for children and deliberately engage them in activities that help them to explore language and develop the language skills they need,” according to Roskos, Tabors and Lenhart (2009, p.4). From: Annual Growth for All Students, Catch-up Growth for Those Who Are Behind, based on the Kennewick School District program to get 90-95% of their students to reach state standards in reading. (Fielding, Kerr & Rosier, 2007). The following list is not exhaustive (there are 93 maxims), but highlights those that relate to the need for increased direct instructional time for students who are behind. Maxim 21: Students who are behind need to make catch-up growth. Catch-up growth is annual growth plus some additional part of a year’s growth. Maxim 22: The primary burden of catching up the student shifts from the parent to the public school system when the student enters Kindergarten. Maxim 32: What works: instructional leadership, superb teaching, and excellent testing which assures annual growth and the four-phase TAG loop which assures catch-up growth: (1) diagnostic testing to identify sub-skill deficiencies, (2) proportional increases in direct instructional time, (3) teaching to the deficient sub-skill, and (4) retesting to be sure the skill has been learned. Maxim 46: Students learn more quickly with direct instruction than they do with seatwork, entry tasks, homework and other teaching techniques involving non-eyeball-to-eyeball teaching or practice time. Maxim 60: Catch-up growth is rarely achieved by pressuring students who are behind to “run faster” in the same amount of time. Catch-up growth is typically achieved by allowing them to “run longer” and “run smarter”, i.e., dramatically increasing direct instructional time and using it wisely.

Applications in the classroom:

- Developing oral language / https://writingworks.wikispaces.com/Developing+oral+language

Scaffolding Language Development

Video links:

Oral Language Development in the Classroom

Early literacy: The importance of oral language

The Development of Language Skills in Young Children by Dr. Lydia Soifer

TED: Patricia Khul: The Linguistic Genius of Babies

Oral Language and Assessment Part 1 - Part 2

Stages of Language Development

 Scaffolding Language Development

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