Stages of Learning to Speak

Birth to age 2:  First word spoken by age 1. Use of holophrastic speech  -- one word conveys as much meaning as complete throughts. ( Ex. "out" means "I want to go out. OR "Get out." OR "The dog is outside." Etc. ) By age 2, 300-500 word vocabulary

Ages 2 - 5: Speaking expands rapidly.  Use of telegraphic speech -- Words are associated with mental images & past experiences and have symbolic function with single words used to signify meaning and things not present in the environment (Ex. Me go Mama). Children are dependent on primarily nouns & verbs until function words are added, such as is, to, the, that, & of.  Language is organized into typical English sentences. By age 5 vocabulary can be up to 6,000 words.

Ages 6 - 7: Social & school settings create new functions for language (as listed) and instruction should promote students to use language in a valirty of ways.  Mispronunciation is still common with words containing v, th, ch, & sh and with substitutions of w for r and l in words.  Vocabulary expands to 15,000 plus words.

• instrumental --- to meet needs
• regulate --  to give commands
• interactional -- to build personal relationships
• personal -- to express thoughts & ideas
• informational -- to relay new information
• imaginative -- to build & strengthen imagination
• heuristic -- to find reasons for actions & events

Ages 8-13: Speaking & vocabulary expand dependent on the quality of instruction.  Instruction should enrich and refine these skills.

Dialect is the set of speech characteristics peculiar to a region, community, social group, or occupation including jargon, slang, and coined words.  Speakers of dialects demonstrate linguistic differences & not deficits. As a general guideline, when students' dialects interfere with their ability to communicate & be understood, then it is important to suggest ways they can adapt the nonstandard features in certain types of situations.

Activities that Develop Speaking Abilities

Celebrative experiences -- Plays, presentations, performances, speeches

Respondent-centered questions -- Questions that include "you" and call for the validity of a personal response (versus text-centered questions that call for only one answer)  (Ex: Do you agree or disagree with the character's actions and why? versus What was the character's actions?)

Classroom conversations -- Small group conversations that involve students in substantial contributions and reflections.

Audio- and videotaping -- Any activites that involve speaking and the taping and subsequent listening of the taping

Panel discussions -- Formal discussions in which a small group is assigned a topic to research and present

Debates -- Formal presentations that showcase opposing viewpoints.

Show & Tell -- Informal experiences in which students share their important thoughts about their experiences and their lives.

Numbered Heads Together -- A cooperative group activity in which students are grouped in 4's and numbered 1-4. Each group works together to find and agree on answers to questions that are posed. The teacher then calls out a number and each student with that number give their group's response as they are called on.

Think-Pair-Share -- Students work in pairs and turn to a partner to share their response to a quesion the teacher has posed.  The partners decide on an answer and then share their response with the class when called on.

English Language Learners:  There are 3 approaches to bilingual education as recognized by the National Center for Research on Culturally Diverse & Second Language Learners.

Immersion -- ELL learn English as rapidly as possible through daily exposure or immersion without any special intervention or support.

ESL (English as a Second Language)-- Instruction is specifically designed in both English & the first language.  Helping students achieve competency in their first language decreases the difficulty of learning a second language. 

Bilingual -- Instruction is provided in the first language and oral English is learned concurrently.  Students learn to read and write in the first language while learning to speak in English, and later read and write in English.

Some important principles to remember:

• Bilingualism is an asset and these students bring their own knowledge to the learning experience.
• Code switching is natural--the interchanging of 2 different languages in a single sentence.
• Language flourishes in a language-rich environment in which students have opportunities to speak and experiment with language.
• Paying close attention to the working of questions, the pace of the lesson, and the strategy used to activate propr knowledge will significantly increase students' achievement in learning the second language. 

Teaching Tip: Ancedotal Records

These are kid-watching or observations of students on the teacher's part to note, in timely, accurate, and non-biased terms, how a student is progressing in product and performance, his/her strengths and needs as exhibited , and questions to discuss with the student.  An effective method to take ancedotal records is to focus the observation on a specific objective and to use a clip board and post-it notes to record the observations. Each observation must be dated to denote progress over time.

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