Five Teacher Tips for Supporting Student Understanding and Use of Oral Language in the Classroom
1. Face Students when Communicating
By facing your students when communicating, you enhance the effectiveness of your teaching, create a more inclusive and engaging learning environment, and build stronger relationships with your students. This ensures students will benefit from the verbal language you provide and the information you share non-verbally through your facial expressions, tone, and gestures.
2. Make Clear, Explicit Statements
Using clear, explicit language makes it easier for students to understand classroom expectations while increasing their engagement. For example, simply announcing, “It’s math time,” sends a vague message that requires students to do additional inferring about what should happen next. Directly drawing attention to your request, especially during transitions in activity, and providing specific information about what you want the students to do will ensure greater success.
A more explicit direction might be, “Everyone, stop and listen. I am going to give you directions. (Wait for students’ attention.) Please take out your math workbook and open it to page 54. What should you do?” At this point, students can demonstrate their understanding by repeating your directions, (“Open our math workbooks to page 54.”) or have an opportunity to clarify any confusion (“Which page number?”).
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3. Allow Extra Time for Students to Process Language
Students can vary in the time they need to process spoken information, which may be impacted by several factors such as attention, processing speed, working memory, and background knowledge. Establishing the use of “wait time” after inviting students to answer a question or engage in discussion allows all students to have sufficient time to process the incoming verbal information and formulate a thoughtful response. Such a practice can help to reduce anxiety for students who need more time to process oral language and for those who may be more cautious about sharing their ideas verbally.
Wait time can encourage other students to curb any impulses to “blurt out” their thoughts before thinking through what was asked of them by promoting better social communication. Modeling turn-taking and pausing to give others a chance to speak shows students that there is validity in taking time to think through their thoughts. A teacher may need to be explicit in demonstrating this at first, setting ground rules at the beginning of a school year or semester (e.g., no calling out answers, no waving hands in the air saying, “I know it!” or “This is easy!”).
For example, explain to the class that you think it is important to hear from all students, so state that you will hold your hand palm out (“stop”) for at least 5-10 seconds of “thinking time” before accepting any one student’s response. When your hand is lowered, choose a student to share their thoughts.
4. Repeat and Rephrase Key Information when Students Do Not Respond as Expected
You have your class’s attention, you have clearly stated an explicit question or directions, and given appropriate wait time... yet you are not seeing the expected response by some or all the students. Why? Communication is a two-way street. One possibility is that your students were not listening carefully the first time. It is also possible that you used words that are not familiar to the students, or you presented verbal information that is either incomplete or too lengthy and complex for them to remember or comprehend.
What now? As a first step, repeat the original statement clearly and slowly, adding needed information or simplifying the wording and sentence complexity, if appropriate. Still no response? Break down your statement and directly ask the students to identify unknown words or concepts and take time to teach them. Then, with their input, rephrase the original statement in a way that all students can understand and respond to accurately.
The following is an example to illustrate this process:
- Teacher: “In our story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the following statement tells us how the people solved their crisis. ‘So, a decision was made to abandon the town of Chewandswallow. It was a matter of survival.’ Who can explain this to me?’
- No student responses.
- Teacher: “Why did the people abandon the town of Chewandswallow?”
- Student: “What does abandon mean?”
- Teacher: “Thank you for asking that! Abandon means to leave a place and never go back. So why did the people leave their town?”
- Student: “Because it wasn’t safe there anymore.”
- Teacher: “Do you need to be safe to survive?”
- Students: “Yes!”
- Teacher: “Great! So, the people of Chewandswallow abandoned, or left, their town and will never go back. They had to leave and find a place that they could survive, or live safely.”
5. Assume Competency in Student Communication Attempts
Assuming competency means recognizing that every student can contribute meaningfully to class discussions. Sometimes, a student's input might seem off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate. Traditionally, these contributions might be seen as signs of inattentiveness, laziness, or misbehavior.
By assuming competency, we focus on the intent behind the student's response and the language they use. There are many reasons why incoming information might not be interpreted efficiently or correctly and equally many reasons why a student's response might not seem to "fit." It is crucial to show students that their contributions are valued. Recognizing that students may need several types of support to participate verbally is key. Some students might need more time to think, while others might benefit from word banks, sentence starters, or prompts to help them express their ideas.
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Oral Language Resources
Recognizing the significance of oral language helps create an inclusive and dynamic learning environment where every student can thrive. Learn more about it through our Oral Language Resource Hub.
Infographic: Six Ways to Support Oral Language Deficits
Infographic: Five Teacher Tips for Oral Language in the Classroom
Infographic: Five Key Components of the Science of Oral Language for Educators
