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Week 2 lecture notes – Oral development

CHILD’S ORAL DEVELOPMENT – VIRTUAL
SCHOOL BAG
It's important to understand students is differences in oral development in areas of:
- Vocabulary
- understanding language structure

BEST WAY
 providing students with a more experienced English user then they are

this allows experience for the student to find and more increased and meaningful experience.
This needs to occur daily for there to be improvement and change this does not simply rely on reading
books but it relies on engaging in discussing the story the vocabulary used in the story expanding on the
vocab to allow the child to respond to questions and be engaged

ACTIVITY 2
presenting a child with illustrations or pictures of a situation and asking the child to explain what is
happening
or presenting a student with multiple pictures jumbled up and allowing them to organise it based on what
they think happened and in order to help understand the linking of activities and explaining the meaning
of their thoughts.
Children cannot read words when they don't understand what they mean first these activities first build
on the oral development and understanding of linking words to the situation and how they may be used
in different contexts

LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE TECHNIQUE

- students who lack certain experiences compared to their peers On the opportunity to recreate certain
situations OK shared experiences and shared language to contribute to the oral development.
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SPOKEN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

◦ By the time children enter kindergarten, they have mastered nearly all the complexities of language
use and development
◦ With this ability, children express their needs, thoughts and feelings
◦ So, how does all of this happen when formalised instruction or learning does not seem to occur
between a young child and those in the immediate surroundings?

◦ Spoken language is dynamic and dialogic

It is an exchange of meanings negotiated between speakers
Children continue to appropriate features of both spoken and written language when they enter school -
language that is now oriented to learning in educational contexts:

1. Discussions groups
2. Morning meeting time
3. Small-group discussion

SPOKEN LANGUAGE IS DYNAMIC AND DIALOGIC

Based on who you are talking to you for example a baby parent young student of different age who base on
how you will talk and formulate sentence is an what words you may use based on their knowledge of
language.

LANGUAGE VARIATION IN RESPONSE TO

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS.
 We need to understand how language is socially and culturally situated increasingly
 Children come into classrooms with a rich repertoire of language from their communities and homes
 Children's use of language to make sense of their communities and the world in which they are living
is ever-expanding
 Dialects and varieties of language bestow identity and membership
 A key principle for teachers to keep in mind when thinking about language variation and use is that
any instance of language use is neither good nor bad, neither correct nor incorrect; rather, what is
considered appropriate and effective language use is dependent on the context in which language is
being used (Goodman, 2003)
 'Australia is a linguistically and culturally diverse country' (ACARA, 2016b)
 Standard Australian English (SAE) is recognised as the'common language' of Australians (ACARA,
2014)
 It is difficult to impose standards of correctness that all users of English agree with. A more
productive approach is to consider the wavs English varies among users of the language (dialects)
and between contexts of use (registers)

We should be mindful of celebrating language differences and not prescribing the student to have a language
difference based on not taking into consideration their entire skill set.
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- Nothing is wrong with them, they are just different- And as a teacher understanding this can help
map out how you can correct them and teach them in the classroom for them to gradually understand
and pick up.

TEACHING SAE AS AN ADDITIONAL DIALECT

 It is important children learn how to use spoken and written varieties of SAE
 In the past, many teachers perceived students who spoke non-standard dialects of English as having a
language deficit

❀ Translanguaging: the different ways speakers of more than one language 'integrate, change and
adapt their language use and combine all their language resources to unlock meaning and share ->
understandings with others

 Students whose first language is a language or dialect other than SAE can face barriers to accessing
the curriculum and to achieving success at school
 Learning SAE as an additional language or dialect requires up to three to five years to build spoken
English proficiency and from four to seven years to achieve academic English proficiency
 Teachers are 'responsible for teaching the language and literacy demands of their learning areas,
which includes providing students for whom English is an additional language or dialect (EAL/D)
require specific support they need 'to build the English language skills required for effective
communication and access to the Australian Curriculum'

Language variation as a deficit Language variation as a

(monolingual mindset)
Deviations from standard varieties of English are
viewed as a marker of lower ability.
Saying 'hab' rather than 'have', or 'dis' rather than
'this', in Aboriginal Creole is a sign that the speaker is
less capable than others.
Students are prevented from using their home
language or dialect during class time.
All instruction is in English with little
accommodation, if any, for students who do not speak
English or SAE.
Schools remediate 'disadvantage' associated with
different languages, dialects and cultural practices
(e.g. parenting styles).
Teachers instruct students to speak 'properly' and do
not accept the use of other languages and non-
standard language variation in students' classroom
talk.
Learning a language is based on a universal
resource (plurilingual mindset)
Students are shown how to account for different
languages, dialects, purposes and registers (topics,
audiences, modes) as they make language choices.
Students are encouraged to have conversations about
language variation and the impact of different
languages and language varieties.
Acquiring multiple languages and dialects expands an
individual's repertoire for communication.
Being able to use multiple languages is also associated
with enhanced cognitive capacity.
Being able to communicate with people from multiple
language backgrounds indicates an expansive linguistic
repertoire.
Linguistic and cultural differences are seen as 'funds of
knowledge' for building literacy in the classroom.
The knowledge and language experiences students
bring to the classroom are used as a resource to support
literacy learning.
Literate ways of thinking develop by actively engaging
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developmental timetable.
All children learn to speak in the same way, all
languages have common structures, and all children
learn these structures one after the other.
The use of only standard English is the best means for,
supporting educational and economic success.
in the practices of a community of learners. Language
use is an integral part of the sociocultural context of the
community.
To learn a language, learners must actively participate
in events or settings where the language is being used.
Bilingualism and multilingualism, including bi- and
multiliteracy, are highly valued in academic, vocational
and community contexts.
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LEARNING THROUGH LANGUAGE

• Students learn through language across every subject at school not just english
• In each curriculum area students learn through the specialist language and literacy of that discipline
• For many students the literacy demands of specific disciplines can become barriers to educational
success
• Knowledge about the different ways language is used in each subiect area helps students manage this
type of difficulty

LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGE

 Teachers who understand how English is structured and organised are able to teach reading and
writing more effectively
 When students build knowledge about language and how it works in a systematic and functional
way, they can use this knowledge to become more effective and productive readers and writers
 A language for talking about language and its features is called a metalanguage

❀Metalanguage: A form of language or set of terms used for the description or analysis of another
language.
» The words 'verb', 'noun' and 'adjective' are all examples of metalanguage – they are all words that we
use to describe other words
» The metalanguage helps make explicit the demands of the ELA curriculum in meaningful ways.
Thinking in terms of the functional categories helps learners begin to see the larger systems in the
language and the options they have for making choices from those systems in different contexts.

CHAPTER 2 - IN SUMMARY
• Classrooms are linguistically diverse places
• When planning for language learning, teachers need to recognise the varieties of language students
use at home and in their communities, while also providing them with opportunities to learn (SAE).
• Developing culturally relevant practices invites teachers and students to consider multiple ways of
knowing in which learning occurs
• Culturally relevant pedagogy and initial assessments supports the guiding assumptions that literacy
practices are purposeful and embedded in larger social goals
• This enables children to draw upon their lived experiences and knowledge to make sense of the
literacy events in the classroom

EXAMINING CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN

CLASSROOM SETTINGS
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★ I cannot plan out my year lesson plan before understanding what each of my students needs, where they
are at, what type of learning approach they need, who they are, and their interests. ★

STUDENTS BRING TO THE CLASSROOM AND THEIR LEARNING A

VAST ARRAY OF:
• linguistic knowledge
• cultural experiences
• Values
• Assumptions

THESE EXPERIENCES PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN ESTABLISHING AN

EFFECTIVE AND MEANINGFUL LITERACY CURRICULUM
• Understanding that children do not all have the same linguistic backgrounds, home experiences or
educational history is an important consideration
• In many cases, EAL/D learners are grouped together as though
• they have similar backgrounds
• In reality, the only common factor is that they are learning English
• They may not need the same instruction but they do need consideration of their previous experiences

TEACHERS NEED TO LEARN ABOUT THE HOME AND COMMUNITY

LITERACY PRACTICES OF THEIR STUDENTS:
 types of texts the parents, caregivers and community members read and have access to
 various purposes held for such reading events
 how literacy is used and valued in different communities
 refer back to Chapter 1 to recall the guiding assumptions about literacy
practices

DEVELOPING CURRICULUM THAT DRAWS UPON THE STUDENTS'

LIVES SHOULD INCLUDE THINKING ABOUT THE RESOURCES AND
KNOWLEDGE THE FAMILIES USE TO NAVIGATE THEIR DAILY LIVES
 Think about 'funds of knowledge' - the historically accumulated resources, knowledge and
competencies that families and community members have
 Remember children learn many skills from family and community members

Remember what you know about

o Funds of Knowledge
♡ Virtual Schoolbags

Getting to knew children Kid Watching -

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Finding out about the children through creation of real relationships with
significant adults and children themselves
Finding out about likes, dislikes, reading habits.

Including picture books, TV snippits, imagies inline with

lesson aims
• Choice of children's picture books and other literature - multicultural texts
• Interactive journals where students write about their own experiences
• Use their oral language skills Code switching allowed to make sense of things
Sharing and contextualising language use Dual language picture books

• Culture is the way in which we respond, think, believe, feel, act and learn
• Culturally relevant pedagogy is teaching into the academic and social needs of culturally and
linguistically diverse students
• This is determined by the teacher's willingness to not only learn who their students are, but also who
they themselves are as cultural beings (Pransky & Bailey, 2002)
• Connecting students' background knowledge and personal experiences -

Linking students' background to literacy events and texts:

• Multicultural texts honour the diverse cultures and language communities of which students are a
part
• They connect people of different backgrounds
• They become the starting place for deeper examination and discussion of experiences