Communicating Orally (Ability to Learn Oral Language): Scaffolding Learning From 1.25
Indicators of Progress
- Students work out the meanings of unfamiliar words by selecting the perceptual features that are linked with them, for example, they link tiny with being very small.
- Students talk about actions they intend to take, plan aloud, and say what they are going to do.
- Students use a sequence of two or three information-seeking or information-clarifying questions to elicit information gradually.
Teaching Strategies
Before speaking and listening: Getting your knowledge ready
The learning and teaching approach for speaking and listening is illustrated for students responding to the serial story Little Obie and the Flood written by Martin Waddell and published by Walker Books Ltd, London in 1991.
Students organise themselves as speakers and listeners
Students are supported to ‘get themselves ready’ for listening and speaking. They are introduced to the text and ‘think their way’ through it. You are going to be listening to a story. It is about a little boy and his family and friends. Some dangerous things happen to them. They say what they will do while listening to the story by responding to the following questions:
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What will you be doing? |
I will be sitting quietly, listening to what is said, and think about what is happening in the story. |
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How will your body feel while you are listening? |
I will feel comfortable and relax my body. |
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What might your face say as you listen to the story? |
I see myself smiling, feeling happy, sad or scared as I listen. My feelings might change as I listen. |
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What might you think as you listen to the story? |
I might guess what the story might say or tell myself what the story says. |
Plan actions for listening
Students say what they might do as they listen to the story, for example:
- Make a picture of what I hear.
- Listen carefully to the story.
- Say new words to myself and try to guess what they might mean. Look at what is nearby when I hear a new word and try to see what it fits.
- Wait my turn to talk and wait for other people to stop talking.
- Listen to how people say things.
- Think of what I will say before I say it. Say it in my mind first.