connection between innovation and engagement

Connection between innovation and engagement

More info on Oral Language from the ESOL on-line community.

Hi Sue,

I was really interested in reading your post on Oral language and would like to contribute to the discussion.

As teachers, we all understand that oral language provides an essential foundation for building written language. Without a solid foundation the rest becomes very shaky. Oral language (Speaking and Listening) are still important aspects of the New Zealand Curriculum but, as reading and writing have taken on greater importance for assessment and professional development, the essential role of oral language learning may be getting overlooked. There does seem to be a general expectation that children will pick these things up by osmosis, or from ‘just in time’ learning within other learning areas. However ‘just in time’ learning can mean that some children will have already become anxious about speaking challenges due to a low skills set and this sets off the old ‘fixed mindset’ /‘self-fulfilling prophecy conundrum. (see diagram from Mihaly Csikszentmihályi attached screenshot)

Children require a whole bucketful of well-nourished speaking experiences if we want them to become articulate speakers and writers. Some get this at home, many others don’t, and this is where school must be vigilant in ensuring we bridge the gap. Teachers around the Christchurch area have noted, possibly as an effect of the earthquakes, that a whole cohort of children has entered school with deficit in oral language, and they are already investigating ways to remedy this and meet the new needs.

First up, I think, it is essential for us to ensure the planned provision of multiple and daily opportunities for children to engage in rich spoken interactions. This can take place through news groups, ‘expert’ talks to class mates, ‘seesaw’ conversations, hotseating, class and group discussions and debates throughout all year groups. All of these startegies require modelling and deliberate acts of teaching, to enable children to develop the skills of questioning, listening, building on other’s ideas, expressing their own ideas and taking on different conversational roles. I suggest teachers review the timetable and allocate a specific slot every day to oral language skills, as well as ensuring opportunities are planned within authentic contexts. I can already hear the cries of “But, when?” But I say, isn’t it time for teachers need to reclaim their timetables and control what is happening in their learning spaces? If they truly believe in the importance of oral language and a holistic curriculum then they will do this, secure in the knowledge that the benefits will be seen across the whole of the school programme.

For the development of other facets of oral language, such as pitch, pace, pause, projection, control of breath etc. teachers can utilise storytelling, poems and shared reading during literacy, (including storytheatre and choral reading). A progressive, developmental focus on using voice effectively will prepare children long before they face the huge challenge of public speaking. Call and response, chanting, impromptu talks, reciting favourite poems etc. can all be slotted in as refreshing transition activities.

The technology available in classrooms is wonderful for recording talk – for podcasts, videos or radio plays – giving  children multiple and safe opportunities to hear themselves and refine their skills. For example, try sitting two articulate children down and recording their conversation as they tackle a maths problem, then play this back to the class to listen to way they shared their ideas and worked off eachother’s suggestions – don’t just focus on the maths but on the way they talked about it. I know many schools are using podcasts very effectively for sharing on blogs but they can also be a wonderful oral language teaching tool in the classroom.

As a specialist writing/drama teacher, I am particularly interested in the Talk4Writing programme being developed by Pie Corbett in the UK. I’d love to talk with others around the country who are already using storytelling to enhance their writing programmes, or are interested in developing the approach. I recently attended a two-day workshop with Louise Coigley, from the UK, who uses storytelling with children and young adults with delayed language, and I was very excited by how she used both chant and gesture to enhance understanding, interaction and confidence.

It is sad to think that there are some children in our classrooms who do not engage in oral interactions beyond the cursory during their home life. Schools need to ensure that they are providing plenty of planned opportunities for them to extend their oral language capabilities. The ability to partake in meaningful oral interactions will take our children much further than being able to structure a piece of writing, and not only that – it will enhance their ability to write that piece!

Heather McQuillan has been a teacher, deputy principal and drama adviser, and is an

award-winning writer. She is currently doing her MA in Creative Writing through

Massey and is the Associate Director of the School for Young Writers in Christchurch. She is also an aspiring Storyteller.

Learning through talk - Great resource

Kia ora Janet and All,

This is a rich discussion around oral language and I’m enjoying reading about the different approaches, strategies and resources being used and developed.

I agree that ESOL teachers are in a prime position to understand and support effective oral language teaching with their colleagues.

My little bit to to add to the discussion is to remind ESOL teachers that we have a wonderful mainstream resource in all NZ Primary Schools called ‘Learning Through Talk’. It’s a set of two handbooks (available through ‘Down the Back of the Chair’); one for Juniors, Years 1-3 and the other for Years 4-8. This is a free resource from the Ministry of Education and it is FANTASTIC- packed with research-informed information, sound advice and suggested ‘Deliberate Acts of Teaching’ for teachers to use in developing learners’ oral language, which is after all, the foundation for all learning and communication in the school setting and beyond.

I remember seeing a Speech-Language Therapist once demonstrating a language-acquisition model as a pyramid-shaped building with oral language being the basement. If it’s full of holes or weak, when input flows in to that basement like a flooding river, it will just leak out and the basement will be unable to support the floors above; ie feed on to subsequent language development in reading and writing. If the oral language basement is co-constructed planfully and strong, then continually reinforced, other ‘floors’ can easily and effectively be built on top.

Unfortunately, ‘Learning Through Talk’ is another of the MoE resources that was well prepared by its developers but was released into schools without corresponding and necessary PLD to unpack it. My advice to ESOL teachers would be to get alongside their Literacy leaders and dive into the texts, devising a programme of in-school PLD, perhaps little snippets at staff and team mtgs over time, to ensure that teachers are guided into it.

There are some ‘flash’ looking commercial oral language resources being released and these may well be very useful for hooking staff into explicitly teaching oral language and good for dipping into. But I think ‘Learning Through Talk’ is a wonderful and comprehensive resource to support good oral language teaching practice, if only teachers can be guided into it.

I would be very interested to know if anyone has come up with a different, effective and efficient way of introducing this great resource to other teaching staff?

Ng mihi,

Linda BJ

Motueka South School

More emails on oral language discussion

Hi everyone

I am loving this oral language discussion and the great resources that have been recommended. 

I am not familiar Teaching Language in Context by Beverley Derewianka and Pauline Jones but I was privileged to hear Beverley speak whilst studying for my TESSOL Diploma. It was an outstanding lecture on incorporating language teaching into curriculum areas. She illustrated her talk using picture books and some Ready to Read and School Journal texts. Her modelling was mind blowing and has stayed with me so I am sure her book would be equally powerful.  

The Neale Pitches email that Jannie refers to was sent to the Literacy community and it is certainly worth reading. You can access it through this link-  

http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/sympa/archive/literacy/2016-03/msg00006.html  . 

Jannie made the point that "minimal oral language capabilities can often mean the difference between being a power-holder and having the means to be involved and be fully participatory, or being only somewhat or not much at all." This reminded me of a story that I just read this morning which illustrates this point "Being a Teenager is Hard Enough Without Having to Learn English as a Second Language,"By Chin Lu February 22, 2016. 

Chin ends her story with this statement "During my first few years in America, none of my ESL teachers asked about my background—how smart and confident I'd been back in Taiwan, and how much I struggled to bring that confidence to classrooms where I could barely grasp the language. I felt powerless without my voice. I couldn't prove my worth, stand up for myself, or make friends. It was well into high school when I could adequately express my thoughts and emotions in English, when I stopped dreading being called on in class. And if that moment can come sooner for the thousands of other immigrants who will enroll in American schools this year, we'll all be better off." 

I am sure that there are many New Zealand immigrants who would tell similar stories to that of Chin. For these students explicit oral language teaching is crucial but it is also important that all students have the opportunity to grow and develop their own oral language skills throughout their schooling. It is also about "knowing your learner" our first ESOL principle. 

I agree with Jane's point that "many teachers struggle with how to integrate focused and strategically designed oral language tasks across the curriculum. My belief is that oral language should be an integral part of all learning areas  and that we need to deliberately structure oral language tasks in order to ensure that students are learning new language rather than sticking within the known." I look forward to viewing her book on this topic. 

Jane also suggested that ESOL teachers "are the people who have most knowledge about how to structure oral language teaching and learning and that we can play a pivotal role in upskilling the wider education world."

My questions then become: 

1. Who leads oral language in my school? 

2. What does the current state of oral language teaching look like? How will I find out? (Can I talk with teachers/school leaders about this and undertake some in class observations?) 

3. Do I have something more to offer our teachers on how to incorporate oral language teaching into all curriculum areas? If so, who do I need to have conversations with? How can I start to build these conversations and develop oral language teaching skills with teachers? How can the ESOL Online community assist me in this role? 

4. Am I comfortable leading these discussions and professional development within my school? (I ask this as in many schools ESOL teachers are not in a position of power or authority). If not, how could I challenge the current position on oral language and maybe improve the way I am positioned? 

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. 

Regards

Janet 

--

Janet McQueen

Facilitator: Primary ESOL community

To post to the list serve email: primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz

To unsubscribe from the list, please visit http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOL-Online/Community-discussions/Primary-ESOL and

Oral language - On-line emails

Greetings koutou

Oral language has definitely become the ‘hot’ topic over the last year or so, and currently is 'VERY hot’. Oral language is, of course, the  prime meaning-making tool of humans and this cannot be under-emphasised. Limitations in oral language, understanding and expression, limit one’s overall and specific control over meaning-making of a person’s immediate and extended worlds of thinking, doing, believing. Most importantly, minimal oral language capabilities can often mean the difference between being a power-holder and having the means to be involved and be fully participatory, or being only somewhat or not much at all.

Neale Pitches rightly points out that oral language, namely, the exchange of meaning via spoken language, whether face-to-face and conversational involving ‘you’ directly, or via other contexts where spoken language is available and interacted with, as in great radio broadcasts, the spoken commentary of documentary, great interviews, running commentaries, etc, is one of two prime sources of language learning and acquisition. 

The second prime source is print, especially print that provides great models of ‘more than conversational’ text, with cutting edge vocabulary in meaningful contexts, expressed in more grammatically complex ways than might be used independently by the child. So being involved in print text in abundance is major in expanding the language capabilities of children and adults alike. Print text, especially factual text, offers language that is more usually grammatically tighter, with more technical and topic specific vocabulary than 'typical’ day-to-day speech, conversational exchanges in the cut and thrust of daily living. Of course, most importantly, print opens up new worlds, new insights…a rich expanded viewpoint of and on others.

Children who have environments that provide both rich conversational exchanges, where spoken text other than day-to-day functional conversations are also available, and who are immersed in an abundance of meaningful, relevant, inspiring print texts, are certainly cognitively, conceptually and linguistically advantaged. Capabilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing, are premised on these conditions – for better or worse.

Let the oral language conversation continue.

Best regards. Jannie

A key reference you might wish to access:

van Hees, J. (2007). Expanding oral language in the classroom. Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER.

Dr Jannie van Hees

Project Director - ELA / OLLI

Auckland UniServices Ltd

University of Auckland

Ph 09-623 8899 ext. 48348

Mob: 0274952684

j.vanhees@auckland.ac.nz

From: <primaryesol-request@lists.tki.org.nz> on behalf of Lynne Carlin <lcarlin@edendale.school.nz>
Reply-To: "primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz" <primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz>
Date: Thursday, 17 March 2016 5:05 pm
To: "primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz" <primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz>
Subject: [FORGED] Re: [Primary ESOL] ELLs and Oral Language, Primary ESOL Online Weekly Update, 16 March 2016

Hi Janet,

I would also like to thank you for the discussion about oral language. It appears that oral language often gets missed during the many 'professional learning' discussions that teachers have. 

I have found 'Teaching Language in Context' by Beverley Derewianka and Pauline Jones  (Oxford University Press) to be an excellent resource/reference book for oral language. It would be really good to hear of other reference books that ESOL/classroom teachers may be using.

 It is great to see a new oral language resource - I look forward to viewing it. Thank you Jane!

Lynne Carlin

Edendale Primary

On 15 March 2016 at 20:47, Jane van der Zeyden <janez@clear.net.nz> wrote:

Hi Janet

I am so happy to see that there is discussion going on again about the importance of developing oral language competence and proficiency. All too often in my work in schools I see literacy programmes both in mainstream classes and in intervention and support programmes where oral rehearsal for writing or talk about texts in reading is minimal and consequently our English Language learners are not scaffolded enough to achieve the task successfully.

For all students oral language is an absolutely vital aspect of learning. We need to remember that talking is our primary thinking tool. There are so many reasons why being articulate is a highly desirable skill. Based on my work with English Language learners along with my literacy work, I have written a book called The Essential Oral Language Toolkit because I know that many teachers struggle with how to integrate focussed and strategically designed oral language tasks across the curriculum. My belief is that oral language should be an integral part of all learning areas  and that we need to deliberately structure oral language tasks in order to ensure that students are learning new language rather than sticking within the known. The book is a practical guide for teachers at all levels of Primary and Intermediate schools.

If anyone is interested in my book there is more information on my website www.tools4teachers.co.nz and it can also be ordered from there.

Let's continue the conversations about oral language because I think our ESOL community are the people who have most knowledge about how to structure oral language teaching and learning and we can play a pivotal role in upskilling the wider education world.

Jane van der Zeyden

Literacy and ESOL facilitator

Tools 4 Teachers 

On 14/03/2016, at 4:06 PM, Janet McQueen <pandjmcq@gmail.com> wrote:

Oral Language - The on-going discussion - Emails from the ESOL on-line community with regard to teaching oral language to our ELL students

Hi Janet,

I would also like to thank you for the discussion about oral language. It appears that oral language often gets missed during the many 'professional learning' discussions that teachers have. 

I have found 'Teaching Language in Context' by Beverley Derewianka and Pauline Jones  (Oxford University Press) to be an excellent resource/reference book for oral language. It would be really good to hear of other reference books that ESOL/classroom teachers may be using.

 It is great to see a new oral language resource - I look forward to viewing it. Thank you Jane!

Lynne Carlin

Edendale Primary

On 15 March 2016 at 20:47, Jane van der Zeyden <janez@clear.net.nz> wrote:

Hi Janet

I am so happy to see that there is discussion going on again about the importance of developing oral language competence and proficiency. All too often in my work in schools I see literacy programmes both in mainstream classes and in intervention and support programmes where oral rehearsal for writing or talk about texts in reading is minimal and consequently our English Language learners are not scaffolded enough to achieve the task successfully.

For all students oral language is an absolutely vital aspect of learning. We need to remember that talking is our primary thinking tool. There are so many reasons why being articulate is a highly desirable skill. Based on my work with English Language learners along with my literacy work, I have written a book called The Essential Oral Language Toolkit because I know that many teachers struggle with how to integrate focussed and strategically designed oral language tasks across the curriculum. My belief is that oral language should be an integral part of all learning areas  and that we need to deliberately structure oral language tasks in order to ensure that students are learning new language rather than sticking within the known. The book is a practical guide for teachers at all levels of Primary and Intermediate schools.

If anyone is interested in my book there is more information on my website www.tools4teachers.co.nz and it can also be ordered from there.

Let's continue the conversations about oral language because I think our ESOL community are the people who have most knowledge about how to structure oral language teaching and learning and we can play a pivotal role in upskilling the wider education world.

Jane van der Zeyden

Literacy and ESOL facilitator

Tools 4 Teachers 

On 14/03/2016, at 4:06 PM, Janet McQueen <pandjmcq@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone

I know that the first term is often an interrupted one with school camps, athletic sport days, swimming lessons and the Easter holidays but these also provide many opportunities for language use. Oral language underpins much of our communication so this will be the focus of today’s update.

First I would like to welcome to our new members Natalie, Catherine, Laura and Soazik, we hope that you will find membership valuable and feel free to ask questions and to join our discussions.

Our Primary ESOL Community

Thank you to everyone who shared information on the APPA speech competitions in answer to Nan’s question.  

Cath also shared about the South Island, Mandarin speech competitions.

Kath shared Dr Jannie van Hees- Bilingual Snippets in response to my last update on supporting bilingual students’ transition to school.

(Remember the archive username is eesollonline (2 x e and 2 x l)  and the archive password is - mailinglist.)

Oral language

In her Week 6 Literacy Online Weekly Update Sue Bridges challenged us about how we teach oral language. Sue outlined why oral language is important and stressed that oral language should be explicitly taught at all levels of the New Zealand Education system.  I would encourage you all to read her update. (The password and username is the same as the one you use for primary ESOL, see above.)

Sue said teachers should consider whether the planned learning experience offers the opportunity to i) apply/practise existing speaking and listening skills, or ii) deliberate acts of teaching of newly-introduced/developing oral skills. We need to integrate this across the curriculum in authentic contexts. Sue encourages the use of explicit modelling of oral language skills prior to students performing tasks, followed by ample time to practice the skill and the provision of teacher feedback and feedforward to the student’s, on their use of the skill.

Sue “observed that for many older primary school children, speaking and listening skills are assumed to have been previously established, and now can be merely called upon. The oral language element is often covered in regular news sharing and a few weeks of ‘speeches’. And yet so much about appropriate use of register, pragmatics, word choice. pitch and so on can create difficulty in communication for those who are not lucky enough to just ‘pick it up’.” 

ELLs and Oral Language

Sue’s observations fit with what we know to be best practice for English language learners (ELLS).

The Introduction booklet to the English Language Learning Progressions pages 21 – 22 says, “Oral language is often as complex as written language and is sometimes more difficult to process. It challenges the learner in different ways from written language.”  The following excerpts help to explain the oral language challenge for ELLs. 

An English language learner may not have an existing basis in oral language on which to build English literacy skills. There are many interrelated factors that may influence an English language learner’s proficiency in oral language, including:

• the content of their previous English language instruction (if any);

 • the teaching approaches used in previous English language instruction (if any);

• the age at which they begin (or began) learning English;

• their level of confidence in speaking English.

…. All new English language learners face significant challenges when speaking and listening to New Zealand English. At the same time as they are learning the vocabulary and grammatical structures of the new language, they’re also working to gain control over other features of oral language. They need to learn the sounds of English words, the subtle meanings conveyed by changes in tone and speed, and the differences in meaning that a change in stress can make. (For example, “refuse”, with the stress on the first syllable, is a noun that means “rubbish”, but “refuse”, with the stress on the second syllable, is a verb that means “to say no to something”.) These are called the prosodic features of a language. Prosodic features combine with non-verbal language features, such as facial expressions, to create and convey meaning, and both are culturally determined dimensions of the language. It takes time to learn the significance of the prosodic features of a new language. Some learners will need to adjust their prior learning of one variety of English (such as American English) in order to learn New Zealand English, which has its own distinct features of pronunciation and vocabulary. For example, New Zealand English includes some words from te reo Màori.”

“…When English language learners begin to speak English, their first language is likely to have a strong influence on their grammar and pronunciation (such as in stress patterns or accent).  Many factors can affect a learner’s speaking proficiency. Each time a learner speaks, what they say will be affected not only by their knowledge of the language but also by the sociocultural context, for example, whether they know the person they are speaking to. The English language learner may also need to explore and discuss the differences between non-verbal and prosodic features of their first language (such as body language and intonation) and those of English, as these features are often culturally specific. Because of the complexity of oral language production, teachers (and other listeners) often need to allow additional “wait time” to give learners a chance to initiate, respond, and interact with others. English language learners should be encouraged to continue to develop oral language skills in their first language and to use critical-thinking skills (and other oral language skills) in their first language to help them develop oral language in English. Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) develops better when the first language develops alongside the additional language.”

As ELLs now make up about a quarter of all learners in New Zealand classrooms and their numbers continue to grow it is important that all teachers know how to explicitly teach oral language to ELLs. Recording a student’s progress on the ELLP listening and speaking matrices will help us to check that a student is making progress over time and to identify an appropriate next learning step. Our job is then to plan how we will deliberately teach the necessary skills and how we will incorporate the teaching and practice of that skill into daily curriculum learning tasks, whilst scaffolding student to success.

As Sue pointed out the job doesn’t finish at any particular year level but rather we continuously build upon the students’ knowledge as they move up the school system. It is a daily focus through all curriculum subjects through all parts of the school day.

Back in 2014 I wrote two weekly updates with some ideas and strategies on how to teach oral language which you may like to check out again:

Sept 16, 2014 Weekly Update Key Instructional Ideas to support oral language development

Sept 22, 2014 Weekly Update , Part two, Oral Language Strategies

See also this Guest post,  Oral Language: To think, shape and convey ideas by Dr Jannie van Hees, 16 October 2014 weekly update.

You will also find useful suggestions on explicit, guided and independent learning activities appropriate to r each level of language learning across different curriculum areas in the Supporting Language Learning in Primary Schools (SELLIPS) booklets.   These make a great starting point for thinking about what type of support is appropriate and how you might practically teach this in an age appropriate manner.

The English language Intensive Programme (ELIP) Years 1-6 and 7-13 will also help teachers to identify appropriate oral interaction language features that may require explicit teaching , provide models of these features and some suggested strategies for teaching them.

In response to all of this my challenge is:

1.       What strategies do you advocate? What oral language strategies do you find most successful?
2.       Do you build multiple opportunities throughout the school day into your lessons for deliberately teaching and practising oral language skills?
3.       Will there be even greater opportunities and challenges for quality oral language development in innovative /modern learning environments? What are the opportunities and challenges for ELLs? How can we personalise and manage these to give ELLs the chance to be the best communicators they each can be?
4.       What further support do teachers in your school need in order to better teach oral language to ELLS? What are the gaps? How can they be filled?

Oral language readings and links

Here are a few additional oral language readings, and links that I have recently discovered.

Using pair and group work to develop ELLs’ oral language skills, by Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder on Colorin Colarado, posted November 17, 2014

Socratic Circles and the Common Core: An Introduction (Part I), By Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder on Colorin Colarado. (See also links to part 2 and 3.)  

Key Strategies for Developing Oral Language, by Jeff Zwiers on Teaching Channel, October 29, 2014 3:30 pm .

Why are Academic Discussions So Important for our ELLs?, by Nicole Knight on Teaching Channel October 24, 2014.

Video Series: Engaging ELLs in Academic Conversations, by Lydia Breiseth on Colorin Colarado.

18 Pronunciation Sites and Apps for Language Learners February 29, 2016 American TESOL.

Ten Pre-Listening Activities, By Hall Houston, EFL Magazine, 26/02/2016. 

Scaffolding Structures to Support Academic Conversations for English Learners, REL West, West Ed webinar, published November 2015.

Integrating pronunciation into classroom activities, by Barney Griffiths, Teaching English.

Top 10 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation in ESL classes, on Busy Teacher.

How to start academic conversations, Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford, in Educational Leadership, April 2009.

Other Links

Online Journals for English Language Teachers , Marisa R Constantinides on Listly.

What are the hardest languages to learn? by Sam Gendreau on Lingholic.

SIOP Activity: Right Away Questions, Pearson SIOP Model on You Tube.

Closing English Language Learner Gaps Early, Benjamin Heuston and Haya Shamir in Language Magazine, April 2015, examine how adaptive learning software makes the curriculum effective for English language learners worldwide.

What we talk about when we talk about best practices: Reading and writing by Debra Josephson Abrams, Multibriefs, April 30, 2015.

I hope that you all find something of interest in today's update. In the meantime please continue to share your thoughts, questions and discussions. If you have a question it is quite likely that someone else will be thinking the same thing. So please ask. It is also very likely that someone else in the community will be able to offer their suggestions, opinions and answers in reply.

Just send them to primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz  with an appropriate title in the subject line. 

Enjoy your week

Janet 

--

Janet McQueen

Facilitator: Primary ESOL community

To post to the list serve email: primaryesol@lists.tki.org.nz

To unsubscribe from the list, please visit http://esolonline.tki.org.nz/ESOL-Online/Community-discussions/Primary-ESOL and click the unsubscribe button. 

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