Reading comprehension doesn’t begin with reading; it begins with understanding spoken language.
It’s simple – our brains are naturally wired for talking and listening, long before we ever open a book. This ability to understand spoken language and express ourselves verbally plants the seeds for reading comprehension to bloom. Think of it as nurturing fertile soil for a beautiful garden.
For students learning English, there’s an extra challenge. They haven’t had years of soaking up English words and conversations about the world around them. So, we need to bridge that gap in the classroom, dedicating time to oral language skills, particularly academic language. Focusing on both literacy and oral language skills together gives multilingual learners the best chance for success.
Oral language is the cornerstone of reading success. It’s made up of six areas: phonology (sounds), grammar (sentence structure), morphology (word parts), vocabulary (word meanings), discourse (conversation), and pragmatics (social language use). These skills usually develop early, way before kids even start thinking about letters and sounds.
Understanding these six key areas of oral language is essential for teachers, but it’s important to remember that supporting oral language doesn’t have to mean major changes to your curriculum. Small, intentional tweaks to your daily routines can make a big difference. Below, we’ve curated some practical ideas to seamlessly weave oral language development into your reading block.
These thirteen engaging activities target each area of oral language, offering a fun and effective way to boost your multilingual learners’ skills and confidence.
Phonology
Phonology is the system of sounds in a language. Children develop phonological awareness, which is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. This includes skills like rhyming, blending, and segmenting sounds, with the most complex level being phonemic awareness, where children work with individual sounds (phonemes).
- Rhyming Riddles: Create rhyming riddles focusing on specific sounds or letter patterns. This helps students practice identifying and producing similar sounds, which is crucial for decoding and encoding words.
- Sound Bingo: Use pictures or words with target sounds. Students listen for the sounds and mark them on their Bingo cards. This makes sound recognition engaging and interactive, promoting phonological awareness.
Syntax
Syntax (Sentence Structure): Grammar encompasses the rules for combining words and sentences, aiding children in understanding word relationships and applying vocabulary and abstract thinking to comprehend language.
- Sentence Unscramble: Provide scrambled sentences from familiar texts or create new ones. Students rearrange the words to form grammatically correct sentences. This activity reinforces word order and basic sentence structures.
- Sentence Building with Picture Prompts: Show pictures and provide word cards or sentence frames. Students create sentences describing the pictures, practicing sentence construction and expanding their expressive language skills.
Semantics
Semantics, or the development of word meaning, involves both expressive vocabulary (words actively used) and receptive vocabulary (words understood). It’s not just about the number of words known (breadth) but also their deeper understanding (depth), including multiple meanings, figurative language, and word relationships.
- Vocabulary Charades: Students act out vocabulary words without speaking, while others guess the meaning. This makes vocabulary learning active and fun, promoting a deeper understanding of word meanings.
- Word Webs: Create word webs with a central theme or topic. Students brainstorm related words and connect them to the central concept. This visual representation helps students expand their vocabulary and understand the relationships between words.
Morphology
Morphology focuses on the smallest meaningful parts of words (morphemes) and the rules for word formation. It helps build vocabulary by analyzing word structure (prefixes, roots, suffixes).
- Word Building with Root Words: Provide root words and affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Students create new words by combining them, developing morphological awareness, and expanding their vocabulary.
- Word Sorts: Provide word cards with different word families or morphological patterns. Students sort the words based on their shared features. This activity strengthens understanding of how words are formed and their relationships.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics, the social use of language, includes understanding conversational norms and appropriate behavior. It’s crucial for comprehension and success in various social situations, especially for students from diverse backgrounds.
- Role-Playing Conversations: Create scenarios where students practice conversations in different contexts (e.g., ordering food, asking for help). This develops their ability to use language appropriately in social situations.
- Story Retelling with Emotional Focus: After reading a story, have students retell it focusing on the characters’ emotions and how they express them through language. This helps students understand the nuances of communication and develop their social-emotional skills.
Beyond these specific activities, there are a few key things you can do to cultivate a classroom environment where multilingual learners feel safe to take risks with language and support one another’s learning journeys.
- Foster a positive, accepting atmosphere. English learners are more likely to speak up when they feel comfortable and respected. Encourage risk-taking and validate student contributions to build confidence and reduce anxiety.
- Offer sentence starters and language frames. These scaffolds give English learners a model for expressing their ideas and participating in discussions. Adjust the level of support based on each student’s needs, removing scaffolds as they gain fluency.
- Give students the spotlight! Resist the urge to over-explain. Instead, use prompts and pauses (“Ok, what else?” “And so….”) to encourage students to keep talking and expressing their thoughts.
By weaving oral language development into your reading block and creating a supportive classroom environment, you’re not just teaching reading – you’re setting your multilingual learners up for a lifetime of confident communication and academic success.
Ready to learn more? Our newest course, 5364: Reading Instruction for Multilingual Learners (MLLs), will guide you through research-based literacy strategies and targeted language supports to boost the reading skills of your MLLs.
About the Author
Marcee Harris is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Teaching Channel. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and Sociology, as well as an M.A. Ed. in Education. Marcee specializes in curriculum development, maintaining and updating our course catalog, and partners with her Teaching Channel teammates to ensure customer success. Marcee is our resident expert for everything related to EdTech and the Science of Reading.
Fun Fact: Marcee used to be a professional cheerleader!
