According to research, one of the factors that separates students who become good readers from students who will struggle when learning to read is the amount of vocabulary that the child brings to school when s/he enters school. For this reason, classrooms that serve high poverty students or a large amount of English-language learners, must be intense centers of oral language development. Here are some suggestions to build and enhance oral language development on a daily basis:

1. Be sure that your classroom “buzzes” with conversations of all types. Teach students to work in groups so that children have opportunities to talk and share their ideas and opinions with one another on a frequent basis.

2. Ask open ended questions and be willing to take the time to truly listen to what children have to say on the topics you present to them.

3. Tell stories, sing songs, read books and talk about what is going on in the class, in your own life and in the world. For very young children, read nursery rhymes, do fingerplays, have and use puppets and ask children to act out stories they have listened to in the classroom. For older primary children, encourage the use of daily journals, letters and shared writings.

4. Use a rich vocabulary and help children expand their own use of new words. Put up pictures in the room and label them with new words so children can associate the word with a visual cue. Have and use a word wall on a regular basis. Children love “doing” the word wall and can greatly expand their active vocabulary when the word wall is used for more than just decoration.

5. Bring in lots of examples of “real print” such as brochures, newspapers, magazines and build extensive libraries of classroom books both fiction as well as non-fiction. Ask children to talk about the things that happen to them, the things they like and the stories they enjoy. Take time to listen, to reflect and to share ideas, events, hopes and dreams.