Teaching Oral

Teaching
Teaching Oral Language Oral Language

Building a firm foundation using ICPALER Building a firm foundation using ICPALER
in the early primary years
Teaching Oral Language

Oral language is widely recognised as an essential foundation for successful school learning.
However, until recently, the acquisition of oral language skills has been largely overshadowed
by reading, writing, spelling and numeracy, and has not been considered a key component of
school curricula.
In Teaching Oral Language, Dr John Munro redresses this imbalance through the delivery of
his step-by-step model, ICPALER. The Ideas–Conventions–Purposes–Ability to learn–Expression
and Reception framework describes the various aspects of oral language from a classroom
perspective, and demonstrates how teachers can best guide students to become effective
communicators and language users. Designed to facilitate teaching and assessment, and to
equip teachers to hear and see students’ speaking and listening skills, ICPALER promotes the
use of self-talk and empowers students to become self-teachers of oral language.
Representing the culmination of Dr Munro’s research and practice over many years, Teaching
Oral Language explicates the ICPALER model for classroom implementation. This breakthrough
program has been used to inform several major oral language projects commissioned by state
and federal education departments, and is an indispensable resource for teachers and their
students in the early primary years.
Associate Professor John Munro is Head of Studies in Exceptional Learning
JOHN MUNRO
and Gifted Education in the Graduate School of Education at The University of
Melbourne. A trained teacher and psychologist, his research interests include
literacy learning and learning difficulties, maths learning disabilities, learning
internationally, gifted learning, professional learning and school improvement. He
is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and a Life
Member of Learning Difficulties Australia.
ISBN 978-0-86431-920-3
9 780864 319203
JOHN MUNRO
Australian Council for Educational Research
Teaching Oral
Languageâ•¯
Building a firm foundation using ICPALER
Jo h n Mu n ro
ACER Press
First published 2011
by ACER Press, an imprint of
Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd
19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell
Victoria, 3124, Australia
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Text copyright © John Munro 2011

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Cover image: Students of Sholem Aleichem College / Photographer: Guy Lavoipierre
Figure (p. 219): Shutterstock (Image ID: 71427319)
Typeset by ACER Project Publishing
Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author: Munro, John
Title: Teaching oral language : building a firm foundation using
ICPALER in the early primary years / John Munro.
ISBN: 9780864319203 (pbk.)
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Oral communication--Study and teaching
English language--Spoken English--Study and teaching.
Children--Language.
Dewey Number: 371.1022
Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................................... v
Part 1
The oral language framework 1
Chapter 1 Why a focus on oral language?............................................................. 2
Chapter 2 A framework for describing language................................................. 7
Chapter 3 Analysing the types of ideas or meanings communicated.......... I..... 13
Chapter 4 Analysing the use of the conventions of language....................C..... 36
Chapter 5 Analysing how language is used to achieve

particular purposes......................................................................... P..... 54
Chapter 6 Analysing students’ language learning capacity..................... AL... 73
Chapter 7 Screening procedures to identify oral language knowledge

in the classroom..............................................................................ER... 85
Part 2
Teaching 101
Chapter 8 A teaching framework for enhancing students’ oral

language in classrooms........................................................................ 102
Chapter 9 Teaching word meanings and conventions......................................114
Chapter 10 Teaching students to comprehend and say sentence meanings...... 135
Chapter 11 Teaching discourse, topic meanings and conventions.................. 149
iii
Contents
Chapter 12 Teaching students how to use language to achieve their

purposes and to interact socially......................................................... 160
Chapter 13 Teaching that integrates using the meanings, conventions

and purposes........................................................................................... 173
Chapter 14 Implementing a speaking and listening teaching unit..................... 187
Part 3
ICPALER in context 213
Chapter 15 Language learning, the culture and the brain................................ 214
A final message................................................................................................................228
Appendi x 1 Oral language screening profile – brief...........................................230
Appendi x 2 Oral language observational profile – in depth.............................. 233

References ...................................................................................................................242
Index ...................................................................................................................248
iv
Preface
When I began my career in the 1960s I was thankful that I did not need to be
concerned about oral language. I knew that all of the ‘huff ‘n’ puff ’ about language
and literacy had no relevance to my work as a science and maths teacher. I felt
sorry for my colleagues who had to take account of these factors.
My experience in special schools in the early 1970s caused me to reflect on
my beliefs about language and learning. Having the students talk about the ideas
they were learning and say how they would learn them seemed to help them stay
focused. Regular talk about what they had learnt helped them remember and
transfer what I had taught them earlier.
My experience at the Children’s Cottages at Kew certainly catalysed further
my thinking about language. One student could recall verbatim each Wednesday
the episode of ‘Homicide’ he had watched the previous evening. However, he had
great difficulty expressing spontaneously an intention in a three-word sentence.
A second student, believed by most of the staff to be mute, talked only when he
perceived physical danger for a peer and when physical assistance for the peer
was difficult. He could talk, but rarely did. Other students, who were ascertained
as unable to speak, did learn to speak, but not English. The ward staff who
took care of them spoke Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. The students learnt these
languages through their interactions with their carers. Unfortunately, the
parents of the children, who visited them periodically, could not understand
these languages.
Also during the 1970s, I completed a research study of how young children
learnt to understand the meanings of terms such as ‘first’, ‘last’, ‘at the same
time as’, ‘before’ and ‘after’, when these referred to the time relationship between
two events. I became aware of some of the phases through which a child’s
comprehension of a word’s meaning developed and the mechanisms proposed to
explain these. I was also compelled to reflect on the implications of these findings
for my teaching. A student’s vocabulary knowledge, I knew, provided the building
blocks for their knowledge and learning. Teaching that did not take account of
what a student knew about a word’s meaning and how to learn it would be less
effective in helping the student build new meanings.
I became interested in the models of vocabulary, or semantic network
theories, that were emerging in cognitive psychology at the time. Teaching
the students to link explicitly their word meanings into networks, to suggest
synonyms and antonyms for the words they were learning, and to visualise their
meanings or to link them with actions became important. Helping them to learn
v
prefa ce
how to teach themselves new word meanings and to see that they could be self-
teachers of vocabulary was also important for me.
I learnt, as well, another aspect of language that changed my teaching and how
I think about life. I had been trained as a science and maths teacher at a time when
the physical sciences were going to change the world and usher us into the utopian
world of the future. Chemistry, physics and mathematics had taught me that the
world was definite and certain. Scientific thinking and the scientific method could
be relied upon to ensure that all ‘right people’ saw the world in the same way and
to remove the messiness of subjectivity.
In the 1970s this set of beliefs was challenged, very seriously. Dr Ian Campbell,
a lecturer in psychology at the University of Melbourne, raised the possibility
that our world is not necessarily objective and fixed. Instead, we construct
representations of it, through our use of language. This is illustrated in the
following example. Two students receive the same low score for a test. The first
student interprets this situation as, ‘Yes, I knew I was hopeless at this subject. I
just can’t do better. That’s how it is’. The second says, ‘This is a very bad score.
What can I do to get a higher score next time?’
The notion that we use language to interpret our experiences and that what
we tell ourselves can determine our response to it was new for me and had direct
implications for my practice as a teacher. It also had implications for me as an
individual. Was it possible that particular situations are not necessarily stressful
or anxiety arousing? Did people talk themselves into being anxious, feeling
threatened or helpless, being angry or vengeful? This, at the time, was the focus
of Rational-Emotive Therapy (or RET), an approach to well being that focused
on the self-talk we use to tell ourselves about our world.
During the later 1970s I became involved again intensively in mathematics
teaching and, particularly, in teaching students who had mathematics learning
difficulties. As you might expect, my approach had changed. Given the task solve
2x + 7 = 19, I encouraged students to say it to themselves as, ‘I have 2 bags of
bolts and 7 loose bolts. Each bag has the same amount. When we open the bags
and put all the bolts together, we have 19. How many bolts were in each bag?’
When they were asked to factorise 2x + 8, I taught them to say it as, ‘I have 2 bags
of bolts and 8 loose bolts. Factorise means to put them into equal groups. How
many bags and loose bolts will I have in each group?’ When they were asked to
work out 0.23 + 1 =, they were less likely to say 0.24 when I taught them to say it
as, ‘2 tenths, 3 hundredths and 1 whole. How much all together?’
We used language to put maths tasks into categories. We described tasks
like 2/6 + 3/6 as, ‘Says to add and ready to add’, while we described 1/3 + ½ as,
‘Says to add but not ready to add’. The students researched how many ways we
can say plain old 1, for example, Year 9 maths students came up with (–1)2, √1
and 20 and the Year 10 students said sin2φ + cos2
vi
Pr e fa c e
and log1010. We played with using these alternative ways of saying 1 (or 2
or any other quantity). The students were using their language knowledge to
build their maths knowledge.
We applied the RET language to mathematics tasks and this seemed to
alleviate the maths anxiety some students had. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t do this
maths’, they learnt to say to themselves things like, ‘What does the task say?
What picture does it tell me to make? What type of task is it?’
In the early 1980s I was asked to apply the language-based approach to
literacy learning. What emerged differed considerably from the conventional
language-based approaches to literacy in several ways. First, it focused on
student learning activity, rather than on teaching activity. Reading involved
the reader acting explicitly on the text information in particular ways. Second,
it saw the role of the teacher as scaffolding or supporting and guiding readers
to use these actions systematically. Third, it involved the teacher guiding the
students to get their knowledge ready for reading in various ways. A key aspect
of this was teachers guiding the students to talk about their relevant imagery and
experiential knowledge in sentences, so that they could match this more easily
with the sentences in the written text. Fourth, it involved the teacher guiding the
students to review and consolidate what they had learnt in a reading session and
to store this new knowledge in their long-term memory.
This language-based approach to literacy learning was implemented with
success in several schools. One school that attracted a good deal of publicity was
Bellfield Primary School in inner-northern suburban Melbourne. In the early
and middle 1990s, the school had low literacy outcomes. The literacy education
program that I implemented began with building explicit phonological and
phonemic knowledge and skills. From this we moved to a focus on the students’
vocabulary and the ability to talk about ideas in sentences, and to ask and answer
questions as a means for building new knowledge. The students’ reviewing what
was learnt at the end of each teaching session and storing this in their long-term
memory, again through oral language activity, was important.
From this beginning, the implementation involved targeting additional aspects
of literacy, always building the oral language foundation first. Evidence for the
need for this foundation was shown in data I collected in 2000–2001. Assisted by a
group of special education trainees, I assessed the receptive vocabulary of the Prep
cohort. The receptive vocabulary in the group of 21 five- and six-year-old students
varied from an age score of 2.5 years to 6.4 years, with a mean of 3.8 years. Perhaps
more disturbingly, we monitored the students’ interactions with their peers over
several playtime sessions. The students who had lower vocabulary scores were
more likely to interact non-verbally with their peers, usually physically.
These data exemplified the spread of oral language knowledge that entered the
Prep year at Bellfield and the communicative competence of the students. While
vii
prefa ce
this may be disturbing at Prep, it was obvious that if steps were not taken to
close the gap, the difference between oral language ability and the ability to learn
would only increase. The students whose language competence was lower in Prep
would be more likely to experience a lower level of academic success.
At Bellfield I led the implementation of an intensive oral language program.
It was explicit in the sense that my focus was on what the students knew. Specific
student responses, in speech and its interpretation and comprehension, were the
key data. I also focused on teaching the students to use oral language to learn.
This included them learning to use specific and explicit self-talk to guide and
direct their learning activities.
The literacy gains made by students at the school over the late 1990s and early
2000s reflected this focus. The improvement at the school was noted in Teaching
Reading: Report and recommendations – National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy
(DEST 2005) and by Munro (2004).
I was able to see the impact of oral language on academic learning more broadly
when, during the 1990s and 2000s, I had the opportunity to work as a school
reviewer for the Department of Education in Victoria. I reviewed the progress of
primary schools in the northern and western areas of metropolitan Melbourne.
Many of the schools I reviewed, like Bellfield initially, had low student outcomes.
Discussion with the leadership teams in the schools suggested that students had
comparatively low levels of oral language knowledge and skills. As well, they
suggested the students did not know how to use oral language processes to focus
and guide their learning.
During the 1990s, I was invited to work more with schools to improve their
work in oral language teaching. I looked for a model or framework to underpin
this work. I knew there were many ways of describing language learning but
teachers often found these impractical. I aimed to develop an approach that was
teaching friendly, that addressed issues that concerned teachers and that could
readily be implemented in classroom teaching. As teachers, we are interested in
the types of ideas our students understand and express, what they know about
the conventions for doing this, the strategies or actions they use to do this, and
what they know about how to use language in the social context of classrooms to
communicate orally and to learn. This became the Ideas–Conventions–Purposes–
Ability to learn–Expression and Reception model or ICPALER.
Increasingly, I came to believe that primary schools needed to implement,
in the early years, an intensive oral language program that would prepare the
students for their journey through primary and secondary education. When I was
invited during 2002–2004 to train teachers to implement the Literacy Restart
program by the Department of Education in Victoria for Year 7 underachieving
readers, I extended this oral language foundation. Dr Ken Rowe, in Teaching
Reading: Report and recommendations – National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy
viii
Pr e fa c e
(DEST 2005) commented on the success of this training:

Key ï¬†ndings from the evaluation of the Restart Initiative from 2002 to
2004 indicate that signiï¬†cant and sustained gains in reading achievement
progress were achieved by students taught by Restart teachers, many of
whom had been trained in strategic reading instruction techniques, and
supported by professional development in explicit reading instruction
strategies provided by Dr John Munro – a reading research specialist at
the University of Melbourne. (p. 54)
In 2001–2004, I led a University of Melbourne research study with the Catholic
Education Office of Melbourne that traced the emergence of literacy knowledge
in young children. We followed the reading development of approximately 550
students as they progressed through Year 1 and Year 2. About 400 of the group
had reading difficulties. As part of the study, we assessed several areas of oral
language knowledge: their knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and discourse
structure; listening comprehension; short-term memory; rapid automatised
naming; and phonological and phonemic knowledge. One of the remarkable (and
frightening) findings was that the at-risk Year 1 readers were lower than their
able peers on every measure of oral language. You can imagine the implication of
this for their future learning, if this discrepancy is not addressed.
Two invitations from the then Department of Education and Training in
Victoria afforded me the opportunity to take the oral language work further.
The first was to develop the content for the Language Disorder Program in 2004
and the second was to develop the Victorian Essential Learning (VELS) English
continuum in 2005. In the Language Disorder Program, I saw an opportunity
to assist schools to include oral language teaching in their practice. In the VELS
English continuum, I saw an opportunity to develop a learning pathway that
linked reading and writing with speaking and listening.
Many of the schools I had reviewed did not have an explicit oral language
program in the early years of formal education to close the gap in student knowledge
that entered each school with the Prep cohort. As well, the speaking and listening
strand in the English continuum in the Curriculum and Standards Framework
was barely used at all. It was the ugly sister of the reading and writing strands.
When I initiated discussion about oral language knowledge, many teachers and
principals were unsure of exactly what this looked like. If they couldn’t see or hear it
being used, how could they target it in their teaching? As well, many did not know
how to teach it. They believed that somehow it would drip in, if only the students
were immersed in it. They seemed to forget that immersion can sometimes lead—
tragically—to drowning, particularly if you don’t know how to swim. Similarly, if
you don’t know how to learn language, immersion by itself may not be very useful.
I believed that teachers and schools needed a description of how oral language
ix
prefa ce
developed that was teaching friendly. Not surprisingly, I suggested the ICPALER
model. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
representatives accepted this and I used this model to develop this speaking and
listening continuum and indictors of progress.
A second education provider, the Catholic Education Office of Melbourne, also
recognised the importance of oral language knowledge as a foundation for formal
learning and, in 2007, it requested a version of ICPALER that targeted the Prep
to Year 2 students. This was developed as a professional development activity and
led to the project Oral Language Supporting Early Literacy (OLSEL).
The ICPALER model, in the thinking of schools, is not restricted to the early
years. Over the past decade the importance of teaching academic vocabulary in
the senior secondary years has increasingly been recognised, in parallel with
teaching students to use synonyms and to frame their content knowledge in
verbal proposition.
This book presents the ICPALER model as it stands. Its focus is on oral language
learning in the early primary years. It takes a broad, multi-faceted perspective on
oral language. It aims to equip teachers with a framework for hearing and seeing
their students’ speaking and listening knowledge. You can judge its success.
Some children have a communication disability that restricts severely their

ability to speak, to understand speech or to communicate effectively with
others. These children require professional guidance and assistance that is
beyond what can be provided in regular classrooms. This book does not deal
with language and speech pathology. It is strongly recommended that children
with difficulties in these areas access language and speech pathology services.
The national professional organisation is Speech Pathology Australia. Its web
site is http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/.
x
pa r t 1
The oral language
framework
This part explains the framework used in this book to describe language. Educators
and schools need a framework that is teaching friendly. Teachers are interested in
the types of ideas or meanings their students communicate, their ability to learn
and to use the conventions of language to achieve this, their students’ ability to
use language to achieve their social purposes and their capacity to learn language.
Each of these aspects comprises an aspect of the framework and is described in
this part. The acronym ICPALER is used to refer to the framework.
1
C h a p t er 1
Why a focus on oral language?

This is a book about teaching children oral language. At the outset, we need to
say what it is and why it needs to be taught.
At one level, we all know what oral language is. It is communicating using
words when the words are spoken. It is about speaking and listening; that is,
comprehending and producing speech. It is about sharing our thoughts, intentions,
goals and feelings with others. It uses sound patterns we call words such as ‘cat’,
‘dog’, ‘black’ and ‘chase’ to represent items and events in our world. We link these
words in different ways to express different ideas, such as, ‘The black cat chases
the dog’ and ‘The black dog chases the cat’.
It is, however, more than this. We know that the words we say do not necessarily
look or sound like the items or events they represent; they are symbols we have
learnt to use. We know that different languages use different symbols for the same
items and link the symbols in different ways to describe the same event. We also
know how hard it is to learn the set of word symbols other languages use.
Oral language includes what we know about spoken words, what they mean
and how to use them to understand and think about our world. It is not only what
we and others say. It is what we know in our heads about the language, about
how people generally say things and how they use language. This invisible oral
language underpins how we speak and listen. This has been called our I–language
to distinguish it from the language we use to interact with others, our E–language
(Chomsky 1986), as illustrated below.
I–Language E–Language I–Language
When we teach oral language, we need to focus not only on what students do
when they speak and listen. We also need to give consideration to what they
believe about oral language; what it is like, the patterns they have drawn out and
how it can be used.
2
Wh y a f o c us o n o r a l l a n g ua ge ?
1.1 Oral language as a key foundation to

students’ ability to learn
1.1.1 Oral language and academic achievement

The ability to use oral language to communicate effectively is a key foundation
for a student’s academic success in formal education. It predicts, for example,
literacy and numeracy achievement (Lovett et al. 2008). Children’s literacy ability
is linked with their ability to:
• use words meaningfully (their vocabulary)
• speak accurately and to use sound patterns in their language (their phonological
awareness)
• speak in sentences (that is, to use grammar)
• stay on the topic of a message
• use speech to communicate their goals, intentions and how they feel
• teach themselves new words and ways of speaking.
Children’s ability to think about spoken messages affects directly what they do
when they read. As they speak and listen, they learn to:
• link the ideas, to back track and to fit ideas together
• sum up or consolidate what was said in two or three sentences in a story or in
a conversation
• build vocabulary
• get a sense of where a spoken message is going, to think ahead, to anticipate
and to infer
• detect the general theme of a message
• say sentences they hear in their own words
• link a sentence they hear with the situation or context in which they hear it
• ask questions about what they hear
• detect attitudes and the disposition of the speaker in a spoken text.
Learning to think in these ways in early oral language experiences provides a
basis for using them later in early literacy and in learning more generally.
It is useful to distinguish oral language from other forms of verbal
communication such as literacy. In the present sense, literacy refers to using and
comprehending written information. In recent years, literacy has also been used in
a more general way to refer to how people understand other types of information
such as visual literacy or financial literacy.
The term oracy matches literacy. The two obviously overlap. Sometimes when
we read we say aloud what we see; we convert the written information to a spoken
form. On other occasions, we use our oral language to interpret or make sense of
a written text, even when we don’t say it aloud.
3
Tea chi ng O ra l L anguage
1.1.2 Oral language and learning to think

Oral language provides a platform for thinking about our world more generally.
One example of this is how we use it to steer our way through a problem or an
issue. Young children show this when they work through a challenge. They:
• tell themselves about the situation and interpret the challenge, for example,
‘Why isn’t it moving?’
• say what they do to deal with the situation and think about a possible solution,
for example, ‘I need to …’
• monitor the success of their actions and take corrective action if necessary, for
example, ‘It still won’t move. I need to …’
This type of dialogue helps young children manage and direct their learning.
It becomes part of their self-talk or inner language. This is used to guide their
thinking generally. It is sometimes referred to as an individual’s metacognitive
or self-management strategies. It helps children to become independent learners.
1.1.3 Oral language and interacting with others

Children use their oral language to communicate with others. Their ability to use
language influences how they use their social interaction skills to achieve various
social purposes. They learn to use their oral language to:
• share ideas, negotiate, manage interactions (for example, to initiate, maintain
and conclude spoken exchanges for various purposes), learn how others
communicate and communicate feelings and intentions
• tap into the inner worlds of others: to hear how others interpret events and see
the world (the use of language in joint play activities is important here)
• form an impression of their place in a dynamic and changing world. Their self-
image and their self-confidence are shaped in part through the quality of their
social interactions with others, including siblings and peers.
This aspect of oral language begins to be acquired prior to school entry. The
feedback children receive in social interactions can become part of their self-talk
and influence later learning.
1.1.4 Oral language and learning in groups

Teachers and students use oral language to manage and direct all aspects of
classroom life. Imagine a Year 1 teacher reading the big book A Nice Walk in
the Jungle (Bodsworth 1989) with her class. She asks the students to sit on the
mat and tells some of them where to sit. She instructs them to pay attention and
assumes that all of them can listen and comprehend what she says. As she reads
the story, she asks class members to name the items she indicates, to talk about
what pictures show, to answer questions, to repeat new words and to predict what
4
Wh y a f o c us o n o r a l l a n g ua ge ?
might happen next. She periodically instructs students to behave in acceptable

ways. At the end of the story she asks the students to review what they had learnt.
This scenario shows some of the assumptions a teacher makes about how
students use oral language. The Year 1 teacher:
• used speech to change what the students knew, even though the class was
working through a picture book
• said the ways of thinking she wanted the students to use to learn; she assumed
the students could use these to shape their thinking
• managed and directed student physical behaviours through language; she
assumed the students could use oral language to manage their physical activity.
We know that not all students in Prep to Year 2 classrooms are able to learn
effectively in groups. They are not all equally able to use oral language in the
ways assumed by the teacher. They need to learn how to do this.
1.2 Oral language: what is learnt and how?

Before we leave this opening discussion about oral language, it is useful to
think about what is learnt and how. We noted earlier that language involves
using symbols. We learn to link the symbols with what they mean through our
interactions with others. People around us teach us what is meant by the words
and the gestures we use. This is important when we are looking at how young
children learn to use language.
Young children first use oral language in meaningful everyday contexts. From
these they extract patterns about how it is used and apply these rules in the
future. These form their I–language (Ingram 2007). Children differ in how they
interact socially with others and use oral language in different ways. One person’s
I–language will differ from that of others. Some children begin school lacking
a sufficiently well-developed knowledge here. Unless they have the opportunity
to learn it, their progress through formal education may be restricted. They
will be less able to learn from the existing curricula or to operate effectively in
classrooms.
1.3 Why this book?

Children differ in their significant early language experiences. Our vocabulary
knowledge, for example, is influenced by the number and range of words to which
we are exposed in the early years. Joshi (2005) cites earlier research that shows
how this varies with family demographics:
Hart and Rinsley (1995) found both qualitative and quantitative differences
in the words encountered by children from lower socio-economic status and
5
those from higher socio-economic status families. They found that children
from higher socio-economic families were exposed to approximately 30,000
words per year while children from lower socio-economic families were
exposed to approximately 10,000 words. (p. 211)
You can speculate about the influence of this type of variation on students’ future
learning pathways if the difference is not targeted. Teachers and schools need to
know how to do this.
Our oral language is extremely complex. It comprises a number of aspects
that work together to allow us to communicate. Like any complex system, we can
see the workings when we know what to look for and when we have tools to help
make them visible.
Teachers and schools need a framework for understanding oral knowledge,
for analysing E–language, for monitoring students’ language learning and for
implementing effective teaching. This book develops a teaching friendly model
of oral language that can give educators: (1) a conceptual lens for unpacking and
seeing early knowledge in this area; (2) an understanding of how this knowledge
develops; (3) procedures for screening and monitoring it in the classroom; (4)
procedures for teaching it.
The framework uses concepts that are familiar to 21st century educators to
highlight the aspects of language. It focuses on guiding teachers to know what to
look for (or listen for) when interacting with students. It is referenced on the belief
that students can tell us what they know about oral language and that they are
more likely to use oral language when they have a reason for doing so.
Oral language teaching (for example, speaking and listening) has not received
the curriculum focus given to reading and writing in early years curricula around
Australia. Teachers know less about oral language knowledge and teaching than
literacy or numeracy. They are less familiar with what this knowledge ‘looks like’.
The purpose of this book is to assist teachers in the early primary years to:
1 understand how oral language is learnt and used
2 understand the relationship between oral language and other areas of learning
3 identify when language problems arise
4 implement teaching that helps students to improve their oral language.
It aims to provide teachers with the tools necessary for observing students’ oral
language at any time as they progress along their learning pathway.
6
C h a p t er 2
A framework for
describing language
In this chapter we examine a framework for understanding how young children

use language. Language and communication are complex processes. To be able
to hear and see language being used, we need to know what to look for. In this
chapter we develop a framework for describing and analysing how people use
language. You can use this framework to help you to identify the major aspects
of language, to describe what a person knows at any time and to see the aspects
changing as people learn more about it.
2.1 A conversation between some four-year-olds

and their teacher
Read this conversation among a group of four-year-olds talking with their teacher
about their pets.
Tom: We finded a new doggie.
Miss Brown: What’s he called, Tom?
Tom: Woofa.
Kath: Our dog was ran quick. It falled over our pool. Daddy gotted
him out.
Will: Gee, did it get drownded?
Kath: No, it didn’t die. It just shaked and Mum towelled it.
Will: Our dog got three puppies. We call her Tess.
Miss Brown: Tom, tell us more about your dog.
Tom: It is red and brown.
Miss Brown: Does Woofa have any toys?
Tom: We gave him a ball and he bited it and made it a hole. Daddy
put the inside ball.
Kath: Our dog barks all the time. He wakes me in the morgins.
Will: The Smiffs’ dog barks and wakes up our baby. My mummy
gets mad. She says, ‘One day I’ll kill that dog’.
7
We can unpack it to look at what the students seemed to know about how to
communicate. To guide this, you could ask the following questions about it:
How well are the ideas What conventions or rules were Why were particular
said or expressed? the speakers following? ideas said?
What do those involved
How well was the talk
seem to know about how A conversation about pets
received?
to communicate?
How well does each child
What ideas are being How willing are they to
adjust what she or he says
communicated? do this?
to the others?
You can look for these aspects of language in the conversation.

First, they were all able both to detect or receive what others said and could
speak or express a message. They all showed they had both receptive and
expressive language.
Second, each of the speakers seemed to know various things about communicating.
They all:
• understood what was being said. They all seemed to be aware of the ideas that
were being communicated. They all stayed broadly on the topic of pets and
mentioned ideas about their pets.
• knew how to say their ideas so that others would understand them. As well,
each knew how the others were speaking. They all linked the words in ways
that four-year-olds would.
• wanted to say their ideas and to hear what others in the conversation said.
They had a purpose for communicating. They took turns, extended what
earlier speakers said and acted in ways to share their ideas.
• had learnt how to do these things and believed they could use them successfully.
We can integrate the two aspects into a framework that describes the
conversation as a whole. See the table below.
Each speaker and listener seemed to know The forms in which they knew it
Expressive Receptive
The ideas
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
8
A fr a mewo r k f o r d e s cr ib in g l a n g ua ge
You can use this framework to analyse any instance of language use. Recall a
recent conversation in which you engaged. The conversation probably involved:
1 an exchange of ideas that were, at any time, broadly on a topic. All of the
speakers were ‘on the same page’. As the conversation continued, the topic
may have gradually changed and one of the speakers may have intentionally
changed the topic, but if the conversation continued after this, the other
participants would have followed this change.
2 all of the speakers talking the same language. In order to understand each
other, you would all have to be following the same rules for speaking and
listening. The way you spoke in the conversation may not have been the way
you always speak, but you adopted this style because it fitted the conventions
or rules for that particular exchange.
3 each of the speakers doing this, which suggests they wanted to engage in
the communication. How prepared were the conversers to play the game; to
share ideas, to link with what others said and to follow the accepted social
procedures for that conversation to achieve their goals? Communicators show
how ready they are to listen to others. Listening attentively sends a different
message from interrupting a speaker or doing things that suggest that the
listener doesn’t value what is being said.
4 some of the speakers learning new ideas. The conversation may have
introduced ideas or perspectives that were unfamiliar to some of the speakers.
These speakers probably used language procedures to help them learn the
new ideas. They may have asked the speaker to elaborate or clarify what was
said. They may have asked questions that probed the new ideas and tried to
link the new ideas with what know, for example, ‘Do you mean …?’, ‘Does it
…?’ or ‘Is it like …?’
The conversers could express ideas and detect and receive the ideas expressed by
others. Any communicator shows their understanding of each aspect of language
through both the expressive and receptive modes.
Each aspect, of course, doesn’t need to be spoken. One or more of the conversers
may have used sign language or lip read. Some of the participants may have used
hearing aids and/or other devices to assist them to express or receive information
from others. In order to participate in the conversation, all needed to use the four
areas of knowledge mentioned above.
We can represent the framework by the acronym ICPALER, as shown on
page 10. You can use the framework in your classroom to:
• understand and monitor language use and the language needs of students
and groups
• identify the language demands of the teaching you use
• identify areas that need to be targeted in teaching.
9
What each The ideas The conventions The purpose for The ability
communicator communicated used to do this communicating to learn how
knows to use language
I C P AL
I C PA L ER
E R
The forms of the Expressing ideas Receiving ideas
communication
2.2 How is the ICPALER framework similar to other

frameworks used to describe how individuals
communicate?
Oral language learning and its use is a key focus for many professions, for example,
speech pathology, child psychology and linguistics. The frameworks they use to
describe oral language differ in a range of ways.
• how they identify different categories of speech and language
• the terms they use for particular aspects
• how they define a particular aspect, for example, terms such as syntax, syllable
or semantics are given different meanings by different professionals.
Many approaches note four main components of language:
1 the phonology of the language: the sequences of speech sounds that are used
2 the semantics of the language: how meanings are expressed through words
and links between them (its content or meaning) (Bloom & Lahey 1978)
3 the grammar of the language: the rules for linking words into sentences
(syntax) and for using parts of words to indicate meaning
4 the pragmatics of the language: how it is used to achieve particular goals and
purposes the ways in social contexts.
Some approaches combine two or more components, for example, Bloom and
Lahey (1978) combine the phonology and the grammar into the form or shape of
a language. This refers to the sounds of words and the rules for combining them
to form phrases and sentences.
Ingram (2007) approached the development of a framework from an alternative

perspective. He identified the minimum number of components a natural language
user would need in order to communicate successfully. He noted four levels of
language knowledge: discourse; sentence; word; and segment. Each level has both
meaning and form aspects.
10
A fr a mewo r k f o r d e s cr ib in g l a n g ua ge
Lust (2006) took this type of framework further. He noted that a person’s oral
language is made up of symbolic units that can be combined and sequenced to
generate an infinite number of utterances. The symbolic units (words, sentences,
paragraphs and topics) are structured hierarchically so that the topic of a spoken
text determines how you interpret sentences, and the topics and sentences
determine how you interpret words. Individuals use this knowledge to achieve
their goals. The language user learns rules for combining the symbolic units to
communicate. Combinations that do not follow these rules will not make sense.
The ICPALER model uses the types of knowledge approach described by
Lust (2006) and Ingram (2007). It was developed (Munro 1995a) to provide
educators with a teaching friendly framework for describing and understanding
how language is used in classroom contexts. Teachers are used to thinking
about the ideas their students have, how well their students use language rules
for sharing them, their preparedness to communicate and their ability to make
language work for them.
The following chapters examine various components of each aspect of the
ICPALER framework. You can reflect on:
• how the aspect is displayed by young children
• the implications for monitoring how these students use this aspect of language
• how the aspect can be used to decide the language needs of students and groups
• how the aspect can be targeted in teaching.
2.3 ICPALER in context

So far, I have suggested that we can identify, or see and hear a child using each
aspect of the ICPALER model and use this to describe what the child knows
about oral language. Given the complexity of oral language, this is somewhat
simplistic, for several reasons:
1 What an individual shows in their use of oral language depends on what
they think is appropriate in the context in which they find themselves. How
we use language at any time is determined by what we think is relevant and
appropriate for that context.
2 I have assumed that we can see and hear the aspects of the ICPALER model
as if each one is separate from the others. The conventions a person uses in
a context may be determined in part by their goals and by the ideas they
are communicating. It may not be appropriate to assume that the aspects of
ICPALER operate independently.
3 What a person shows in an oral language exchange is not necessarily
what they know. Had they judged the context differently, they may have
communicated differently. Their ability to show each aspect of the ICPALER
11
model is determined by the context. We need to collect information about

their language use in a range of contexts.
These observations do not negate the ICPALER model. They remind us that
the aspects interact and are used in an integrated way by language users. The
ICPALER model provides teachers and schools with a framework for observing
and monitoring the emergence and use of students’ oral languages as they develop.
12
I
C h a p t er 3
Analysing the types of ideas

or meanings communicated
In this chapter we examine the types of meaning typically communicated in

language transactions by young children and the ways in which they do this. We
call these the ideas in the message. It is the I aspect of ICPALER. The conversation
between Miss Brown and her students illustrates the different ways in which
meaning is communicated or shared. We will look at these in this chapter.
A first type of meaning is the topic, theme or gist of the conversation. It
links together what is said and gives it a context or a general reference. The
conversation had a clear topic. All of the students talked about pet dogs and how
they were part of the lives of their families.
A second type of meaning is shown by the individual words and phrases. The
students usually used words that were appropriate or relevant to the context or
topic. Based on what they said, you might assume that they could select from their
vocabularies the appropriate words for the topic.
A third type of meaning is shown by the sentences. The sentence ‘Our dog
was ran quick’ tells us more than the separate words dog, ran and quick. Even
though the sentences the students said were often not correct grammatically, the
responses of the other students showed they made sense. As we shall see later,
some sentences have a more complex meaning than other sentences.
A fourth type of meaning is shown by the set of sentences. While each sentence
has its own meaning, we get a richer meaning from a sequence of sentences. In the
students’ conversation we can see how the various sentences fit together. Kath’s
description of how her dog fell in the pool led to Will’s question about whether it
drowned, which in turn linked to Kath’s explanation of how her mother dried the
dog. There is a meaning thread that links or connects the sentences together and
allows the conversation to flow. We call this the discourse meaning.
13
3.1 The main idea in any communication

The message communicated in the conversation comes from the four types of meaning.
As we speak and listen, we tap into each type and combine what each tells us.
The connection between the types is not straightforward. The individual
meanings integrate to give each sentence its meaning and at the same time the
sentence gives each word its meaning. In a similar way, the individual words
contribute to the topic and the topic determines how we interpret each word.
Similar relationships exist between the other types of meaning.
During a spoken presentation, the overall idea in the message gradually
changes. Participants use information about the individual words, the sentences,
the links between sentences and the topic to understand what is being
communicated and what they could say next, as illustrated below.
first overall idea second overall idea third overall idea

of the message of the message of the message
words sentences discourse topic
An effective communicator can integrate automatically the information from the

types of meaning into the overall idea.
3.2 The four types of meaning in

classroom communications
We can look for these four types of meaning in how students communicate in a
classroom. We can examine how well they:
1 understand and use the topic or theme of a spoken message. How well do the
students work out the topic of a spoken presentation? How well do they stick
to it and extend it?
2 understand and use individual words. Do they comprehend the meanings of
words? Are they able to select and say the most appropriate words?
3 use and comprehend sentences. Do they usually say sentences that are sensible?
What types of sentence meanings do they have difficulty comprehending?
4 understand the meaning of a sequence of sentences. Are they usually able to
contribute to an oral presentation? Are they usually able to distil the intended
meaning of a sequence of sentences? Can they integrate the meaning across
sentences? Can they recognise the thread that links a set of the sentences?
14
A nalysi ng the ty pes of id e a s o r me a n in g s c o mmun i c at e d
We will examine how language users comprehend and produce each type of
meaning. We will unpack the I aspect in ICPALER into the four components.
This leads to the following elaboration of the table we are using to describe oral
language. To understand what a child or group know/s about the I aspect, you
need to explore the unshaded part of the table below.
The ideas Individual meaning
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
In the following sections we will examine the various types of meanings in the
sequence shown below:
individual sentence discourse topic

meanings meanings meanings meanings
3.3 Individual meanings

Each of the students in the earlier conversation had a word bank. This is the store
of words that they know, or their vocabulary. An understanding of words for
young children comprises knowing how to say the word (that is, its phonological
name), its meaning and its grammatical functions. The average 6-year-old
English speaker can say 2000 to 3000 words, understand 8000 to 10Â€000 words,
and can link these words in sophisticated and grammatically appropriate ways to
communicate ideas (Owens 2001).
For words the children can read, they also have a distinctive letter pattern
linked with the meaning and the sound pattern. Their knowledge of vocabulary
is strongly correlated with academic learning success. Teaching vocabulary
enhances, for example, reading comprehension (August et al. 2005).
We can identify some of the items in the word bank of Tom, one of the students
in the earlier conversation. Each word has two parts; what it means and how it
is said. The spoken part of the word is the label or name for its meaning. Tom’s
word bank might include these items (note: the meaning and pronunciation are
not shown here):
15
Tom’s word bank

doggie ball red
brown toys bite
hole made
Each of the students also knew a second type of individual meaning. It is shown
in how we distinguish between one or more items, or between the past and
the present when talking about actions. Kath and Will used the suffix ‘-ed’ to
indicate actions that had finished and Will used the suffix ‘-s’ to indicate plurals.
3.3.1 The two types of individual meanings: A morpheme

The two types of individual meanings differ. The words dog, stop and ball each
have unique meanings in the sense that ‘-ed’ or ‘-ing’ don’t. The suffix ‘-ed’ can
be added to a variety of verbs and change the meaning of all of them in the same
way; it tells you the action happened.
The name for these individual meanings is morpheme. Morphemes are the
smallest units: ‘the smallest meaningful constituents of words that can be
identified are called morphemes’ (Haspelmath 2002, p. 3). The two types of
individual meanings or morphemes are shown in the figure below:
morpheme
‘Free’ morphemes ‘Bound’ morphemes

Some morphemes are words: Some morphemes are parts of words:
‘doggie’, ‘get’, ‘over’ ‘-ing’, ‘-ed’, ‘-s’
We will look at these differences in the following sections. Before this, we will
look at how each individual meaning is stimulated during an oral exchange.
3.3.2 Morphemes have a sound address

We noted earlier that each individual meaning has its own spoken name or label.
When we hear a message, the sound patterns in it stimulate the matching names
in our heads. This allows us to recall the meanings linked with them. When we
hear ‘stopped’, we recall its meaning.
You can know how to say words but not what they mean. This affects how well
you can comprehend a spoken message containing the words. In this case, you will
often try to discover what the word means. You might ask questions, look at how
the word is being used or use the word and see how it fits in situations.
16
It is also possible for a communicator to have meanings, but without the label.
You may know what you want to say but have difficulty finding the words to say
it. This can be caused by various processes.
3.3.3 What do word meanings look like?

In order to make decisions about the word meanings children have, we need to
have an impression of what word meanings look like. The meanings of most words
we know have two components:
1 One part we learn from our culture. It says the features that characterise the
word. It can be a rule, similar to a dictionary definition of the word.
2 The second part comes from our individual experiences of the word. It is unique
to each person and says the features the person usually links with the word. You
can sometimes ‘see’ this component; you have an image of what the word means.
A person’s understanding of the word ‘bicycle’ illustrates this.
bicycle
The component that is a rule: The component that is an image: one or more
a land transport vehicle that is bicycles the person has experienced, what the
powered by using one’s feet to pedal. person thinks typifies a bicycle.
The two components combine to give us a meaning for ‘bicycle’ that we use when
we communicate.
Most of us have the two components for most of the words we know and we
use them in a balanced way. Some people may largely use rule definitions, while
others mainly use imagery definitions.
What do we mean when we say that a person knows the meaning of a word?
What would a child have to say or do to convince you that they understood what
‘doggie’ meant? We need to look for evidence of the two components.
You might see whether the child could:
• tell us what a doggie is and say its key characteristics. These are the criteria
we use to define the item uniquely.
• say the typical features that allow you to distinguish a doggie from other things.
• select pictures that show dogs or discriminate between pictures that show dogs
and pictures that show other pets or items.
• do actions that show what dogs do.
What a person knows about any word develops gradually. Younger children
think about word meanings differently from older children. We look at how
they develop below.
17
3.3.4 How word meanings gradually develop

The criteria an individual uses to define the meaning of a word gradually change
as the person grows older. The steps in a child’s understanding of a word are
illustrated for the word ‘doggie’ below.
Step 1: The word is a label The child uses the word as a label for a particular dog.
Step 2: The word is linked The child links the word with perceptual features, for
with perceptual features example, a ‘doggie’ has four legs, is often hairy and barks.
They may apply ‘doggie’ to animals that are not a dog, for
example, a tiny horse or a ferret. Other times, they might
not recognise that a particular animal is a dog. Children can
link both words and images with the word.
Step 3: The word is linked Later the child learns that dogs are defined by the things
with functions they do, for example, dogs are good at guarding things
(while cats are not), some dogs are good at hunting and
retrieving things.
Step 4: The word is linked Later still the child learns there are different types of dogs
with more general and and that some categories that include dogs also include
more specific words other animals (e.g. ‘mammals’).
You can see from this sequence that children who understand ‘doggie’ in a
Step 2 way would probably be unable to tell you how a doggie and a burglar
alarm were similar. A child who used ‘doggie’ in a Step 1 way may have difficulty
naming pictures of dogs in a story book.
Young children will understand a word in a partial way. The young children in
whom we are interested will probably have their word meanings across Steps 1 to 3.
We need to take this developmental sequence into account when we ask
children to tell us what they think a word means. Do they tell us: (1) what
examples of the item look like; (2) what they do or are used for; or (3) how
they are related to other general categories? To get an insight into how a child
understands words, we need to see how the child makes decisions about what
the word applies to and how it is used.
18
3.3.5 Content words and function words

The nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs used by the participants in the
conversation—such as ‘doggie’, ‘falled’ and ‘water’—have a concrete meaning.
These are called content words. Other words don’t, for example, ‘what’, ‘to’, ‘with’
and ‘about’. These are function words and have more of a grammatical role.
In children’s early speech the function words are more likely to be misunderstood,
used incorrectly or omitted, for example ‘doggie barking’. They make these errors
while using the content words correctly. Their speech is disrupted and hard to
understand because it lacks grammar. This was first reported over 150 years ago by
Broca and in its extreme form is called Broca’s aphasia (Purves et al. 2008). Some
children who have specific language impairments have difficulty using function
words. An example is how children learn to use articles such as ‘the’ (see Bortolini,
Caselli & Leonard 1997; Paradis et al. 2003; Restrepo & Gutierrez-Clellen 2001).
A second type of oral language difficulty involves individuals speaking fluently,
but communicating little information. They use the function words well, but omit
or misuse the content words. This was first reported in 1874 by Wernicke and in
its extreme form is called Wernicke’s aphasia (Purves et al. 2008). The person’s
comprehension is impaired and even simple sentences are not well understood.
3.3.6 Parts of words have meanings

We noted in the earlier conversation that the students misused some of the word
endings, for example, ‘-ed’ to indicate past tense: ‘finded’, ‘gotted’ and ‘bited’. They
used others correctly, for example, ‘towelled’, ‘puppies’, ‘barks’ and ‘wakes’. Both
prefixes and suffixes convey meaning, for example, ‘dis-’, ‘trans-’, ‘un-’, ‘de-’, ‘a-’,
‘mis-’, ‘-ish’, ‘-ness’ and ‘-ly’.
This misuse is a part of normal language acquisition. Children both over-extend
and under-use each meaning. With continued experience they refine their use. You
should become concerned about a child misusing bound morphemes when the child
continues making these errors after their peers have outgrown them. You also need
to take account of possible reasons for it. The errors can arise because the child:
1 doesn’t understand the intended meaning. For the ‘-ed’ suffix, for example, the
child may not understand the difference between an action continuing versus
an action that has finished.
2 may not detect the difference in sound patterns between stop and stopped or
may not be aware that there are two types of action words: those that use ‘-ed’
and those that use other devices to show actions that have finished.
3 has not had consistent exposure to the correct use of the suffix. Children need
the opportunity to imitate correct language use in particular contexts and to
see that it works for them.
19
A child who is learning language more slowly than peers may be less likely to
cause concern than a child who shows a difficulty detecting essential aspects of oral
language. Some children who have specific language impairments have difficulty
learning to use bound morphemes (see Grela & Leonard 2000; Hadley & Rice 1996;
Rice, Wexler & Cleave 1995). The bound morphemes that are most difficult to
learn are the ones we add to verbs to show the intended tense and the ones we add
to nouns to show number. This has been shown in English and in several other
languages such as German and Swedish (Clahsen & Muysken 1989; Hansson 1997).
3.3.7 Helping students know the value of a knowledge of words

Some students may not be aware of how their word knowledge can work for them
and may not value this knowledge.
Words are the building blocks of our oral language knowledge. The more words
children know about a topic, the more effectively they can learn about it and can
comprehend it. As well, they can get greater enjoyment and satisfaction using the ideas.
They can also learn the value of using words specifically. They can be guided to
see how ‘nice’ doesn’t communicate as rich a picture as ‘pretty’, ‘exciting’ or ‘yummy’.
Our teaching and, more generally, our interactions need to encourage our
students to explore word meanings and patterns in meanings, and to take risks
with how they use them. They need to:
1 learn the power of words and also how they can work out the meanings of
unfamiliar words
2 be encouraged to think innovatively about words and bound morphemes. The
new words a student creates today may be part of our regular vocabulary in
ten years’ time.
3.4 Sentence meanings

In this section we unpack the single sentences component of the I or idea aspect.
This is the unshaded part of the model below. We examine how single-sentence
meanings are understood and produced.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
20
3.4.1 Sentences have meaning

Look at these sentences. Each has a meaning. Each communicates a message.
D: The girl eats the ice-cream,

while the dog chases the cat. E: The girl eats the ice-cream and
sits at the table near the window.
C: The girl eats the ice-cream.
F: The girl eats the ice-cream
B: Eat the ice-cream. with the strawberry on top.
A: The girl eats the ice-cream, G: The girl eats the ice-cream and
if it has a strawberry on top. her friend eats the strawberry.
The meaning of each sentence is a second type of idea. ‘The girl eats the ice-
cream’ has a different meaning from ‘ice-cream’. Each sentence meaning links two
or more individual meanings. It is called a semantic relationship or a proposition.
Although we know that we can comprehend sentences, we usually don’t
think of sentences having meaning. We talk more about their form or syntax.
Teachers interested in students’ language use need to think about the meanings
of sentences. This helps you to gauge the relative difficulty of sentences and to
judge students’ ability to comprehend them.
Sentence meanings or propositions differ in their complexity. Which of the
above are easier to comprehend and which are more difficult? It is useful for
teachers to know how to recognise this.
3.4.2 How to describe the elements that make up a sentence

We need a way to describe the elements that make up a sentence meaning. You
can do this in different ways. One useful way of doing this is to note the number
of events in the sentence, how they are related, the number of noun phrases used
to describe each event and how these are organised.
Sentence D above is about two events and sentence C is about one event. For
each event you can pick out the verb and the nouns (or ‘noun phrases’) that are
linked with it. It is useful to divide each event into the subject and the predicate
(from a traditional grammatical analysis, a sentence is made up of a subject and
a predicate, that is, those words in the sentence that are not part of the subject).
Sentence F has three noun phrases: ‘The girl’ is in the subject, and ‘the ice-cream’
and ‘the strawberry on top’ are in the predicate.
You can use this to analyse the meanings of the sentences your students
understand and the errors they make. You can see what parts a student seems to
use well and those aspects you may need to teach.
21
3.4.3 What do you need to do to understand a sentence?

To help see what makes a sentence easy or complex, it is useful to look at what a
person needs to do to understand it. In other words, how much thinking does the
communicator need to do?
Researchers (for example, Bock & Levelt 1994) suggest a number of steps are
involved in comprehending and producing sentences. We will look at what you
need to do to comprehend the sentence, ‘The girl eats the ice-cream with the
strawberry on top’.
1 You select the verb or separate verbs in the sentence (if there is more than one
verb). You use the verb/s to break the sentence into segments. In other words,
you note the subject and the predicate that make each event.
There is one verb: eats. The verb breaks the sentence into two main parts.
The girl eats the ice-cream with the strawberry on top.

2 You work out the meaning of each noun phrase that is linked with each verb.
You recall and build its meaning for that context. The topic can help. When
there are two or more noun phrases linked to a verb, you need to work on each
link separately. The more noun phrases there are, the more work you have to
do. Sentence F has three noun phrases linked with the verb.
‘The girl’ means … ‘eats the ice-cream’ means …

‘with the strawberry on top’ means …
3 You link the individual meanings into a relationship. To do this you use the
grammar of the sentence. Part of this involves using the word order of the
noun phrases to link the meanings.
The meaning of ‘girl’ is the subject. The meaning of this part is what she eats.

This tells us more about what she eats.
As the grammar of a sentence becomes more complex with more noun phrases
and verbs, the sentence will make a higher demand on the thinking processes.
22
As mature language users, we usually do these steps relatively automatically.

It is only when we need to read complex sentences that we become aware of
needing to look for the verb/s first and to use these to organise the individual
meanings in the sentence.
As students’ language develops, they can apply the three steps to more complex
sentences. Some students learn to do this more slowly. Others have difficulty
using one or more of the steps. You may need to assess what aspects of sentence
comprehension these students can do and teach them to comprehend and express
more complex sentence meanings.
Below we look at some of the types of sentence meanings that children
gradually learn to comprehend and say.
3.4.4 Types of sentence meanings

We can use the following way of describing sentences to talk about different types
of sentence meanings.
1 A simple-sentence meaning talks about one event. It tells us the action and
who or what did it. It may also tell us to whom it was done, how, when or
where it is done.
Examples in the conversation about the pets include:
We finded a new dog. Daddy gotted him. It falled over our pool. Our dog got three puppies.
The students found the single event sentence meanings relatively easy to
understand. Students learn to use variations of the simple sentence. Each is
used for a different purpose, for example, to gain information by asking
questions or to instruct. Examples from the children’s conversation are shown
in the following figure.
Make a statement, Give an Comment on a

describe or instruction or a Ask a question:
an interrogative situation: a
Type of recount an event: command: an two-event
function a declarative imperative sentence
sentence
sentence sentence
Example Our doggie falled Tell me. What’s its name? Tom, tell us more
in our pool. about your dog.
Some young students have difficulty using these different types of sentences to
achieve their intended purpose. You can monitor how well your students use
and comprehend each type. Keep in mind that students learn to use each type
first in familiar contexts and later use them more generally.
23
2 A compound-sentence meaning talks about two events that are joined by a

word such as ‘and’, ‘for’, ‘or’, ‘but’ or ‘so’ (these are conjunctions). Examples in
the conversation about the pets include:
Kath It just shaked and Tom We gave him a ball and he Will The Smiffs’ dog barks
Mum towelled it. bited it and made it a hole. and wakes up our baby.
Other examples and the relation between the two events are:
Ian comes but Ann doesn’t. The two events don’t both occur; one
event excludes the other.
The dog jumps the fence and chases the cat. The two events have the same agent.
The conjunction in the sentence can change the relationship between the
events. Had Tom said ‘but’ or ‘so’ instead of ‘and’, we may have interpreted the
sentence differently.
3 A complex-sentence meaning has an independent event (the dominant idea)
and one or more dependent events that are subordinate to it. The events are
joined by a term such as ‘because’, ‘since’, ‘after’, ‘although’ or ‘when’ or a
relative pronoun such as ‘that’, ‘who’ or ‘which’.
The students in the conversation didn’t show examples of these. Sentences A
to G above include some examples about the ‘eating the ice-cream’ event.
A: The girl eats the ice-cream, D: The girl eats the ice-cream,
if it has a strawberry on top. while the dog chases the cat.
In sentence A, the part ‘if it has a strawberry on top’ cannot exist independently.
It tells us more about the event of the girl eating the ice-cream. Similarly, in
sentence D the part ‘while the dog chases the cat’ tells us when the girl eats the
ice-cream. The subordinate or dependent parts tell us more about the main event.
Each of sentences A–G involves two events. Each is complex because one event
tells us more about the other event. Other complex sentence meanings can apply
to more than one specific event.
Over the primary years, students gradually learn to comprehend more
complex sentence meanings. The trend in complex-sentence meanings includes
comprehending and using reference to:
• two events linked in time or space, for example, ‘After they got a dog they moved
to a new house’ or ‘While they were moving to a new house they got a dog’.
• a cause–effect or consequential relationship, for example, ‘The ice melts
because it absorbs heat from the Sun’ or ‘He lifted it because the water was
24
rising’. Prior to understanding cause–effect relationships, children understand

each event but do not link them causally.
• general relationships, for example, ‘All dogs begin life as puppies’ or ‘All bicycles
have wheels’. Before they understand a statement that applies to every instance,
children understand the relationship for particular instances, for example, ‘The
tricycle has three wheels’.
• general inclusive relationships, for example, ‘Everyone with a pet stood up’ and
general exclusive relationships, for example, ‘They all swam well except Jill’.
• conditional or ‘if … then’ relationships, where one event will occur only if another
event occurs, for example, ‘If they run fast they might catch the train’. Until they
understand the notion of a possibility, they interpret the sentence as a sequence of
two events with both certain to happen.
This developmental sequence helps us see the order in which children learn to
comprehend the sentence meanings. You need to be able to recognise the various
types of sentence meanings so that you can see which meanings a student can use.
3.4.5 What makes a sentence more difficult to understand?

A sentence is more difficult if a person has to work harder to comprehend it
and needs to invest more thinking space into doing this. What makes a sentence
more or less complex? You can estimate the relative complexity of the meaning of
different sentences by asking the following questions.
1 How many events are described in the sentence? How much does it differ
from a single-event description? The simple-sentence meaning with one event
will be easiest and the complex-sentence meaning is the most difficult. For
example, on page 21 sentences B, C, E and F describe a single event, G has
compound meanings and A and D are complex meanings.
2 How are the noun phrases and verbs linked for each event in the sentence? For
each type of sentence meaning the noun phrases can be arranged in different
ways. Two simple-sentence meanings, for example, can have four noun phrases
but one can be harder:
The girl and her mother were eating The girl was eating her ice-cream
their ice-creams near the window. with the strawberry near the window.
The first sentence, with two phrases as the subject and two in the predicate,
will usually be easier to comprehend than the second sentence with one phrase
as the subject and three in the predicate.
Two complex-sentence meanings can have the same number of noun phrases
but one can be more difficult:
25
We got a doggie after The ice-cream that the girl sitting near the
we moved to our house. window was eating had a strawberry on top.
A complex meaning that links two events in time is usually easier than a
complex meaning that has an event that modifies the subject or the object.
3 How well do the children know the meaning of the verb or the noun
phrases in the sentences? Children use a new type of sentence meaning
first in particular contexts and then gradually transfer it. All of the
sentences A to G on page 21 describe events that would be familiar
to young children. You might expect, for example, that early in their
language experiences most children would hear and use the imperative
form shown in sentence B.
4 What is the meaning relationship in the sentence? What type of sentence
meaning does it say? Is it an example of a simple, compound or complex
meaning? Is it acquired early or later? Sentence G on page 21 indicates that
two events occur, while sentence D links two events in time, and sentence A
expresses a probabilistic ‘if … then’ relationship.
5 How many separate noun phrases are there in the sentence and how are these
distributed across the events? Having taken factors 1 to 4 into account, this
can come into play. Sentence B has less information than the other sentences
and C has less information than A, D, E, F or G.
Teachers who are not aware of the importance of sentence meanings may expect
their students to comprehend and use sentences that are in fact incomprehensible
to them. This could arise in literacy activities, in teaching more generally when
the teacher talks about key ideas, and even in the language the teacher uses for
classroom management and control. Some students may behave inappropriately
because they have difficulty comprehending language. Behaviour management
strategies need to take account of this.
3.4.6 Do we need to comprehend sentences before we can say them?

It is often assumed that we need to comprehend a particular type of sentence
meaning before we can use it in our speech. This is the distinction between the
expressive and receptive aspects of sentence meanings.
In fact, the research suggests that we use expression to teach ourselves a new
sentence meaning (Folger & Chapman 1978; Whitehurst & Vasta 1975). When
children in the age range of three to six years hear a type of sentence meaning they
are ready to learn, they often repeat it aloud. They are not saying the sentence to
communicate to others, but are saying it to themselves. Imitating it allows them
to put it in their minds, that is, to encode or represent it in their thinking spaces.
26
This imitation is not the verbatim, rote recall used typically in tests of
auditory memory span. Instead, it is used by the child as a self-teaching tool.
The children decide which aspects of what they hear they will imitate and how
they will do it.
They try to teach themselves about the new sentence meaning in various ways.
They may
• say the sentence slowly, or in parts
• do relevant actions as they say the sentence; the actions seem to help them
make sense of the sentence
• repeat a new sentence type several times, as if to practise it and to automatise
its form.
Saying the sentence in these ways allows the children to build a template of its
meaning and to use this later to comprehend and say similar sentences in their
spontaneous language. It also allows them to get corrective feedback. They can
use this to modify their understanding in a manageable way. If they don’t get
feedback from others when they imitate the sentence form, but receive it only
when they say it spontaneously, there could be too much information for them
to deal with at once. Using imitation to learn new sentence meanings is an
important language learning tool.
3.5 Discourse meaning

During language interactions, we frequently communicate messages that are longer
than single sentences. Conversations, stories, descriptions, sets of instructions or
explanations are examples. In addition to the meanings of individual morphemes
and sentences in a message, we also put together its discourse meaning.
A third type of idea in the conversations above is the meaning you get by
integrating the sequence of sentence ideas into a discourse idea. A discourse is a
sample of language that is longer than one sentence. The sequence of sentences that
make a discourse has a meaning or idea that is more elaborated than the meaning
of each sentence in isolation. You develop it gradually when you participate in a
language interchange. As you listen to a message you form an impression of where
it is going.
We can see an example of how the discourse meaning develops across the
following sentences:
Our dog was It falled over Daddy gotted Gee, did it No, it It just shaked and
ran quick. our pool. him out. get drownded? didn’t die. Mum towelled it.
Kath Kath Kath Will Kath Kath
27
The Kath’s dog was running and It didn’t drown. It shook

developing fell in their pool. Her father itself and her mother dried
discourse got it out of the pool. it with a towel.
meaning
In this section we unpack the discourse component of the I or idea aspect. This
is the unshaded part of the table below. We examine how discourse meaning is
understood and produced.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
3.5.1 What does discourse meaning look like?

Discourse meaning is not as easy to detect as sentence or word meanings. It
is not explicitly shown in the language properties of a sequence of sentences.
Rather we infer discourse meaning from the sentences by selecting key words and
grammatical features.
In the earlier conversation about pets, the discourse is negotiated or mutually
agreed by those involved. The speakers and listeners showed this agreed
understanding. The conversation illustrated several characteristics of the meaning
of the discourse. These include:
• The conversation is integrated or flows. Even when Kath took it in a direction
perhaps not intended by Miss Brown, the sentence ideas still seemed to be in
order. The notion of a direction for the conversation is relevant. From its first
to its last sentence, a message that has a discourse meaning hangs together.
• Ideas are linked across sentences. The ‘it’ was assumed both by Kath and Will
to be Kath’s dog. Part of discourse meaning is the carry-over of meanings into
following sentences.
• There is a high level of predictability between most of the sentences. You can
see where the message is going. When Tom said ‘We finded a new doggie’,
you might expect the next sentence will enquire about its name and the third
sentence will give it.
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• The discourse meaning for a text is different from the topic. A possible
discourse meaning for the earlier conversation is shown below. The topic for
the conversation could be the pets in Miss Brown’s class.
Discourse meaning
It tells us about the dogs that children in Miss Brown’s class have. Tom has a new dog
named Woofa. Woofa is red and brown. Woofa was given a ball that he ate. Kath’s dog
fell in their pool and was rescued by her father.
3.5.2 Why is comprehending and using discourse meaning important?

Often in speaking and listening we communicate ideas that are longer than one
sentence. Examples are when students:
1 keep track of the unfolding plot in a narrative. They link ideas mentioned in
different sentences, predict ideas that might be mentioned next and recognise
when new ideas do not fit with the emerging context. Young children who
understand the idea of a discourse show an emerging awareness of a narrative
genre or a story schema. They recount events or tell stories that hang together.
They refer to:
• the main characters
• where and when the story occurs
• the plot of the story and the events in it. They recount the events in the
appropriate order.
They can recognise discourse errors and inconsistencies in the narrating of others.
2 put together the key elements in an explanation, for example, how worms
breathe. They link ideas about how air is introduced into the worm’s blood
and how it is carried around the worm’s body. They will be able to explain why
worms need to remain moist to avoid suffocating.
3 understand the description of an event, for example, what it was like living in
early Melbourne.
4 follow a set of instructions, for example, how to cross a road. They will be able
to do the necessary actions in order.
Children who have difficulty comprehending and using discourse meaning will
be less able to link ideas in these ways. When retelling narratives, earlier events
and experiences, a poor understanding of discourse may be shown in a difficulty:
• keeping the thread of a conversation, staying on track
• recalling several of the main ideas; some sentence ideas are omitted
• linking ideas across sentences
• anticipating or predicting what might be said next during speaking, listening
or reading.
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3.6 Topic meanings

The final type of idea in the conversation is its topic or its theme. This could
be ‘The dogs Miss Brown’s students have as pets’. This idea unifies what the
different students and Miss Brown say. It acts as a coat hanger for the ideas. If
you were to draw a concept map of the ideas mentioned in the conversation, the
features shared by all of the contributions would fit with this topic.
Spoken messages such as a conversation, a story, a description, a set of instructions
or an explanation usually have a topic, a theme or a gist. Although the words that
are the topic have specific meanings, in this context they refer generally to the idea
that integrates or unifies the focus of the spoken exchange. The topic refers to the
essential ideas that make up the message. It is often a summary of the discourse.
What you know or believe about the topic of a spoken message influences
how you interpret it. Once you have decided it, you don’t believe that all words
or sentences are equally relevant. Instead, you decide that some ideas are more
likely and relevant than others.
In this section we unpack the topic component of the I or idea aspect. This
is the unshaded part of the table below. We examine how topic meanings are
understood and produced.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
The topic of a message can influence how you interpret it. It leads you to
expect some ideas over others. Once you know or have decided the topic of the
text, you retrieve what you already know about it and use this to guide your
understanding. You enter different areas of your existing knowledge and use
these areas. The topic guides you to decide which area of existing knowledge to
retrieve from memory and use.
3.6.1 How do listeners work out the topic?

One of the key things communicators need to do early in a language exchange is
to recall what they already know about the topic. If they don’t know the topic at
the outset, they need to work it out. To do this, you need to:
30
• use the first few sentences to make an informed guess about the possible topic
• test your guess and modify it if necessary
• retain in your short-term memory enough knowledge about what is said to
make a judgement.
Working out the topic when you are speaking and listening is sometimes more
difficult than when you are reading. This is because individual ideas in speech are
presented briefly. If the listener or speaker doesn’t retain what was said, it is more
difficult to pick out the main ideas.
Many young children will need to learn and practise how to do this. When
told the topic, some will need to learn how to use this, for example, to take time
to say to themselves, ‘If it is about …, what might it tell me? What things might
I hear? What might I say about this?’
3.6.2 How does knowing the topic of a message assist you?

Knowing the topic of a language exchange can assist you in a range of ways:
1 It helps you to link the exchange with what you already know. This helps you
to anticipate what might be said, the words that might be used and to deal with
ideas that might be unclear. You can evaluate what was said with what you
know. You are more able to ask, ‘Do you mean …?’, when you know the topic.
2 It helps you to stay on the topic and say things that are relevant to the direction
of the exchange.
3 It provides you with a tool for organising and linking the ideas that are said and
to comprehend them. We use what we know about the topic as a coat hanger;
we organise the ideas around it. This is important when the communication
is being used to teach and to learn new ideas, not only in formal teaching but
in everyday life.
3.7 Using the ideas in an integrated way

So far we have examined the various types of meaning in the I aspect of ICPALER
separately. In real-life communication, speakers and listeners use these in an
integrated way simultaneously. Each contributes to the overall or main meaning.
Students who have language impairments may concentrate or draw on some aspects
more than others. They may need to learn how to integrate the main idea in any
communication.
3.7.1 Vocabulary as a network of meanings

A person’s vocabulary network provides a useful way of thinking about how the
different types of ideas work together. The word meanings that you know are
linked in a network. When you hear a message, the words in it stimulate matching
31
words in your network. As well as these words, you usually can’t help but think of
other words that you have linked to these.
The earlier conversation could have been based on the network of meanings in
the figure below. Each individual word meaning is linked with others. Each link
joins two or more meanings. The link ‘dog’ – ‘fall’ – ‘pool’ describes a particular
event. This set of links becomes a sentence when it is said.
rabbit scare escape
cat chases dog barks disturb people angry
name new play fall car hit road injured
puppy toy pool get out shake
warm sleepy bone ball drown dry
bite
These networks are personal and subjective. While all of the links shown are
plausible and sensible, not all of the students necessarily had all of the ideas
shown. For Kath, dog was linked with falling in their pool and barking. For Will,
dog was linked with having puppies. These young students have linked up their
meanings based on their earlier everyday experiences. Falling into a pool is not a
feature that is common to all dogs.
3.7.2 The network of meanings scaffolds conversation

Some students’ sentences stimulated questions and possibilities in the networks
of others. Will already had the possibility of drowning in his network. Kath’s
mention of a dog barking stimulated an alternative set of links in Will’s network.
It is possible that each student’s network changed, with new links being learnt,
during the conversation.
As the conversation continued, the ideas that were the focus gradually
changed. You can see the flow or direction through the network. This became the
discourse meaning. Miss Brown knew what she wanted as the discourse meaning
and attempted to direct it.
You can see how each of the meanings in the network can belong to other
topics and can also be a topic for other verbal concepts. Students gradually learn
to use their networks in both of these ways. Some will need to learn how to
work out the topic name for a set of words and to suggest particular meanings
for a particular topic.
32
In other words, our vocabulary network model helps us see how the components
of the I aspect of ICPALER are linked. Studies of how we use our brains while
doing oral language tasks show how our knowledge is organised in a network-like
way (Cappa & Gorno-Tempini 2009).
3.7.3 Developmental changes in meaning networks

An adult conversation about pet dogs would probably differ in its quality from
that of these four-year-olds. An adult discussion may be more focused, probing,
objective and abstract, and less subjective or based in particular experiences. We
noted earlier that children change gradually the ways in which they link their
word meanings. As they develop further, they will link their word meanings in
more abstract ways, in addition to the links based on their experiences.
The richness of the person’s meaning or vocabulary networks and the number
of meaning links they have affect how well they can comprehend and produce
spoken messages. Imagine a situation in a classroom in which you intend to teach
ten related ideas about a topic. When you mention the topic, student A recalls four
relevant ideas and student B recalls 40.
4 ideas 40 ideas
Topic: 10 key ideas
Student A Student B
You would expect that student B, with a richer, more elaborated vocabulary
network, would comprehend the language exchange more effectively and learn
more about the topic as a result.
You can see evidence of your meaning networks in how some words help you to
read or remember others. Suppose you were asked to read the word ‘homogenised’,
both when it appeared in a list of unrelated individual words and when it followed
‘milk’, ‘cream’ and ‘pasteurise’. You would most likely say it faster in the second
context. A second example would be reading the word ‘sauce’, both after reading
unrelated words and after reading ‘tomato’ or ‘hot chilli’.
This effect is called priming. Because the meanings are linked in a network,
stimulating some of the words can cause linked words to be stimulated also. This
is what happens when you know the topic of a spoken text. The topic causes you
to expect that some words will be more likely to be said than others.
The links we know are determined in part by how the words have been linked
in the cultures in which we have used language. Cultures differ in how they do
this. We examine cultural effects below.
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3.8 Cultural influences on the ideas

So far our focus has been on English. A major influence on the ideas communicated
in any language is the culture in which the language is used. Given the multicultural
nature of our classrooms, we need to be aware of this influence and teach in ways
that take account of it.
Cultures differ in how they perceive the world and the entities that comprise
it. We are familiar with the notion that what one culture may see as a single
category (for example, snow), another culture sees as several categories. Cultures
differ in the boundaries they draw around items in their world, the features they
see as important and the items they decide to name or label uniquely. Children’s
early word learning reflects the cultural values and language patterns of the
community which they are learnt in (Lovelace & Stewart 2009). This directly
influences their vocabulary. Similarly, the ways in which children talk about
links between individual ideas (that is, propositions or sentence meanings) differ.
In other words, the ways of thinking about the world constructed by a culture
contribute significantly to the ideas the culture talks about (Langacker 1995;
Sharifian 2001).
One key cultural difference between Indigenous and Western cultures is in
how each constructs time. Western cultures conceive of time in a linear way,
with the time line broken into observable segments or sections. The English
language talks about ideas using this metaphor. The plot of an English narrative,
for example, develops in this way. On the other hand, Indigenous cultures conceive
of time in a more circular, cyclical way. Events in narratives are organised in
terms of cycles rather than on a single time line.
The ways in which a community or culture develops a discourse for discussing
issues become cultural tools for scaffolding in part the thinking of its members
(Wegerif et al. 2005). Cultures differ in how they prioritise and link ideas in
dialogue about a topic. The dialogue between participants is not simply a way
of sharing ideas. It represents a social mode for thinking and a tool for the joint
construction of knowledge (Zhengdong 2008).
The focus of this book is on fostering the effective learning and use of English.
Students in our classes come from a range of cultures, each with its unique ways
of representing the world and thinking about it. This cultural knowledge is
mapped into the three aspects of language knowledge the students bring to our
classes: their knowledge of how language is used (their I–language); the ways
in which they communicate (their E–language); and the language conventions
used by their culture. Our teaching needs to recognise this multiplicity of
language learning perspectives, show that we value and respect it, and provide
learning–teaching pathways along which each student can progress in learning
to communicate in English.
34
3.9 Review of the types of ideas in a spoken

communication
The types of ideas in language use and comprehension are called the semantics of
the language. They are a key aspect of early language development. The procedures
we have discussed here will assist teachers to monitor language progress, compile
language profiles for students and implement effective language teaching. You can
use the following table to record the language ability of students and to compile
their language profiles.
Type of ideas being Receptive Language Expressive Language

communicated
Individual meanings
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
We noted earlier the importance of teaching our students to celebrate their

knowledge of the meanings of words. More generally, we can encourage them to
pursue and value sentence, discourse and topic meanings and to see how these
can work for them.
35
C
C h a p t er 4
Analysing the use of the

conventions of language
In this chapter we examine the conventions we use during oral communication.

These are the rules speakers and listeners use to put together the types of
meanings. It is the C aspect of ICPALER.
The table on pages 65–72 shows how these conventions are gradually learnt,
in parallel with the emergence of meanings or ideas. While it is useful to describe
how each strand emerges, it is important to keep in mind that language learners
use these aspects in an integrated and strategic way to communicate. This chapter
is intended to help you to use the developmental sequence in your work.
Let us look first at what we mean by a convention. You can understand a
speaker when you know the rules or patterns they are using to represent the
individual meanings and to link them into sentences and discourse. The spoken
symbol for the English word ‘friend’ is Freund in German and ami in French. Each
culture uses an agreed sound pattern for the meaning.
These languages also differ in the rules they use to link individual meanings
into sentences. In English, ‘I want to go home’ is in German Ich möchte nach Hause
gehen. If you translate the German word by word, it says, ‘I want to home go’.
Each culture uses an agreed set of rules for linking the meanings into sentences
and discourse.
We call these rules conventions. They are arbitrary in the sense they provide
alternative ways of expressing the same idea. However, to use each language
successfully, you need to know the appropriate conventions or rules.
We have already noted that the language we use is a complex symbolic system.
These conventions are the keys to understanding and using the symbols. In order
to be effective language users of English, children need to learn its conventions.
4.1 The types of conventions we use to communicate

Most of us would probably not know explicitly the conventions we use in our
first language. Even though we use them spontaneously and effortlessly, we
36
A nalysi ng the us e o f t h e c o n v e nt io n s o f l a n g ua ge
would probably find it hard to explain them. We can easily recognise when others
use them incorrectly. When we learn a second language, we may use our first
language conventions as a reference point. In other words, what we know about
our first I–language is tacit.
Think back to a situation in which you had difficulty comprehending what
others were saying. You may have had difficulty:
• deciding the words that were being said
• comprehending the sentences because of the way they were formed
• combining the sentences to get the drift of the message.
A cause of language difficulty is an inadequate knowledge of the rules or
conventions for forming or structuring language. Successful communicators use
conventions to:
• combine sounds into words and to analyse the sound patterns they hear in
spoken language: the phonological conventions, for example, in the earlier
conversation, Tom pronounced correctly ‘We’ and ‘new doggie’.
• link individual meanings into sentences when speaking and to unpack sentences
when listening: the grammatical or syntactic conventions, for example, in
the earlier conversation Kath said, ‘No, it didn’t die. It just shaked and Mum
towelled it’.
• link sentences into stories, descriptions or conversations into discourse when
speaking and to unpack discourse when listening: the genre or discourse
conventions; for example, in the earlier conversation Tom responded to a
question with, ‘We gave him a ball and he bited it and made it a hole’.
In this chapter, we examine how communicators use conventions to produce and
to understand each type of meaning.
We will unpack the C aspect in ICPALER using these three aspects. These
components of the conventions are the unshaded parts in the table below.
The ideas Individual meanings
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions Phonological
conventions
Grammatical
conventions
Genre conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
37
The pathway we will follow to examine the conventions is shown below.
phonological conventions grammatical conventions genre conventions
4.2 Phonological conventions

Being able to say and to recognise the sound patterns that make up a language is
a key aspect of being an effective language user. These are the sound conventions
that characterise any language.
The speakers in the earlier conversation said sound patterns that approximated
to English words. Some at least understood what:
• Tom meant when he said ‘doggie’
• Kath meant when she said ‘falled over our pool’.
The conventions we use to say words are referred to as the phonology of the
language. Phonology includes the separate sounds and how they are combined
into syllables and words. This is one of the conventions we use when we speak so
that we can understand each other.
It is shown in the unshaded part of the table below. In this section, we unpack
the phonological conventions component of the C or conventions aspect in the
ICPALER model.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
conventions
Grammatical
conventions
Genre conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
Languages differ in the sounds that make up the language, how the sounds are
actually said and how the sounds are put together, that is, which sounds are more
likely to occur together. In English, some sounds are more likely than others to
follow a particular sound, compared to other languages. Children whose native
language is not English may know and use sound conventions that differ markedly
from those used to express ideas in English.
38
What we usually notice about a person’s use of the sound conventions is how
they say and recognise sound patterns. However, as we shall show in this section,
this is the tip of the iceberg.
To use the sound conventions you need two types of knowledge. First, you
need to learn and store in your memory the sound patterns that make up words.
This is your phonemic and phonological knowledge. Your phonemic knowledge
is what you know about individual sounds, for example, you may hear the word
‘spon’ and recognise that it has the ‘p’ sound. Your phonological knowledge is
what you know about sound patterns, for example, how words are said, and being
able to recognise words that rhyme. You may hear an unfamiliar word such as
‘promptuary’ and recognise the sound patterns ‘prom’ and ‘tuary’. You have a
sound pattern for each word and word part you know.
A second type of knowledge is the set of actions you can do to perceive or
detect a spoken message and the set of actions for making sound patterns. When
you have decided the words you want to say in a message, one part of your brain, a
speaking-motor part, tells the muscles in various parts of your body how to move
to say the words. For example, it tells you how to move your mouth, your tongue,
your throat and your lungs in the appropriate ways to articulate. Each word you
can say has information about how it needs to be said.
To say words accurately you need to:
Know the sound patterns for the words:

your phonological knowledge.
Do the actions to produce the sound patterns.
To comprehend spoken words heard, you need to:
Know the sound patterns for the words:

your phonological knowledge.
Detect the spoken message and filter out background noise.
Our brains store these two types of knowledge about the sound conventions for
words. In the earlier conversation, Kath said ‘morgins’ for ‘mornings’ and Will
said ‘drownded’ for ‘drowned’. Each of them had a meaning they wanted to share.
Kath may have said ‘morgins’ because this is the sound pattern she has stored.
Alternatively, she may know the sound pattern ‘mornings’ but her articulation
capacity leads to ‘morgins’.
Similarly, Will may have said ‘drownded’ for ‘drowned’ for either or both of
these reasons. He may have stored ‘drownd’ and then added ‘-ed’. Alternatively,
39
he may be much more used to doing the actions to make ‘ownd’ than the actions
to make ‘owned’. To analyse these further, it is useful to look at how children
gradually develop their sound knowledge and abilities.
Speakers may mispronounce words either because:
1 They have not stored the appropriate sound pattern.
2 They have not refined the actions for saying the sound pattern correctly.
4.2.1 Looking for the sounds in spoken English

To assist in understanding the sound patterns children learn to use, it is useful
initially to describe the set of separate sounds or phonemes that make up spoken
standard Australian English. This gives us an idea of the range of sounds children
need to learn to use.
You would be aware that there are more individual sounds in English than
there are letters. As well, a particular letter in English may be said in more than
one way. The set of letters, therefore, is insufficient for showing the set of sounds.
We need more symbols than the letters provide to show each sound. Linguists use
various systems for describing the sounds used in spoken English.
One widely used set of symbols is the standard set of phonemic symbols collated
by Professor John Wells and used as a foundation for the Longman Pronunciation
Dictionary (Wells 2008). This system has been used to describe the spoken form of
standard English in England and also Australian English (for example, Cassidy et
al. 2004); Australian English pronunciation patterns share some similarity with
those used in south-eastern Great Britain (Gordon & Sudbury 2002).
The phonemes identified and the symbols used by Wells (2008) to represent
each are shown in the following table. The phoneme in each case is the sound
linked with the underlined letter/s.
Vowels Consonants
ɪ fit, little, hymn, p pat, happy
e any, mess, led, head b bit, baby, nab
æ lad, map t top, time, cotton
ɒ wash, plot, Tom d do, middle, end
ʌ cut, mud, other, flood k kettle, clamp, school
ʊ look, good, put g gone, haggle, ghost
iː peace, seem, machine tʃ fetch, chew, picture
eɪ may, pace, break dʒ rage, lodge, soldier
aɪ smile, sigh, fly, climb f fit, lift, cough, phone
ɔɪ moist, toy v visit, leave
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Vowels Consonants
uː loose, true, flew, group θ thin, author, moth
əʊ go, moat, know ð than, mother, lathe
aʊ cow, found, s swan, city, cost
ɪə fear, pier, here z zebra, loses, buzz
eə fair, mare ʃ shop, station
ɑː start, father ʒ measure, pleasure
ɔː north, bore, claw, caught, warm h hat, whole, ahead
ʊə impure, cure, manure, tour m mat, dimmer, him
ɜː sir, purse, learn, infer n not, knight, gnat, canny, pin
around, lemon, tepid
ə ŋ sang, hunger, longing
(schwa, unstressed vowel)
i potty, mediate l loot, silly, fall
u you, influence, situation r ring, write, marry, around
n̩ hidden, denude j use, yellow, beaut,
l̩ paddle, pedal w wet, white
ˈ (stress mark) ʔ (glottal stop) hotdog, football
This set of symbols can be used to describe how individuals say words and the
sounds in them. The symbol /.../ is used to indicate each phoneme. The sentence
‘Roos eat grass’ would be represented as /ruːz/ /iːt/ /graːs/.
The following section describes how children gradually acquire these sounds in
words they say. It uses this way of representing sounds to describe their speech. You
can use this set of symbols to describe the sounds in a child’s speech at any time.
4.2.2 How children develop the phonological conventions

Most children learn gradually the sound patterns in the same order (Tomasello 2006):
1 Their development begins with crying and develops through cooing or
gurgling and then babbling.
2 They progress to saying recognisable sounds. The first two sounds they
generally say are the two that are furthermost apart in the mouth: ‘b’ and ‘ar’,
followed by ‘m’. The first recognisable syllable said is ‘ba’ and the first words
are ‘baba’ and ‘mama’.
3 They say other recognisable sounds that are opposite sound pairs. They do this
by learning to change the shape of their mouth and the position of their tongue
and lips and using their nasal cavity.
4 They learn to say words, mini-sentences and then simple authentic sentences.
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4.2.3 How do children develop the ability to say the sounds

conventionally?
It is difficult to describe the order in which children generally learn the sounds
because they don’t learn to say new sounds as separate, isolated sounds. Instead,
they show them in the words they say. You can use the following conceptual tools
to understand the order in which the sounds develop:
1 Distinguish between a voiced sound and its matching voiceless sound. Young
children frequently say ‘pook’ when they mean ‘book’, or ‘ket’ when they mean
‘get’. Examples of voiced and voiceless pairs are /b/ and /p/, /g/ and /k/, /d/
and /t/, and /v/ and /f/.
2 Look at the position of the sound in the word. Children usually say new sounds
at the beginning of words before they say them at the end of words. As well,
they often say the new sounds first with particular vowels, for example, the
short a (or /æ/) and u (or /u/), and oo (or /u:/). When you are concerned
about a child mispronouncing sounds, note whether the incorrect sound occurs
in the initial, middle or final part of the word.
3 Remember that sounds made by more precise tongue movements are learnt
later than sounds made by the tongue at the front of the mouth. They may say
‘tat’ for ‘cat’ (they replace /k/ with /t/), say ‘doh’ instead of ‘go’ (they replace
/g/ with /d/), or say ‘ban’ when they mean ‘bang’ (they replace ‘ng’ or /ŋ/
with /n/).
4 Distinguish between sounds that flow on and sounds that stop sharply. Some
sounds flow on, for example, /ƒ/, / v /, / s /, / z /, ‘sh’ (or /ʃ/), ‘zh’ (or /zə/),
‘th’ (or θ) and /h/, while other sounds stop more sharply, for example, /p/, /b/,
/t/, /d/, /k/ or /g/. Children learn to use the stop sounds first and may use
these for the flow-on sounds. A child may say ‘past’ for ‘fast’.
These are the types of distinctions to look for in early speech development.
Children generally learn the sounds in the broad developmental sequence shown
in the figure below (Bowen 1998; Grunwell 1997).
n, h, p, th
b, g, m, sh (she), z ch j (jug),
k, f, y, w, r (red) v (teeth),
d (measure) (choose) s, z (as)
l, t, ng (then)
4.2.4 Children’s errors indicate their progress developmentally

As the children progress through this sequence, they show common types of
errors in how they say particular sounds, for example:
1 They replace a voiceless sound at the beginning of a word by its matching
voiced sound, for example, they say ‘big’ for ‘pig’, or ‘gat’ for ‘cat’.
42
2 They either replace a voiced sound at the end of a word by its matching
voiceless sound or they delete the final consonant altogether, for example, they
say ‘bat’ for ‘bad’, ‘dock’ for ‘dog’ or ‘cay’ for ‘came’.
3 They replace sounds made by more precise tongue positions by sounds made
when the tongue is at the front of the mouth, for example, ‘shop’ is said as ‘sop’.
4 They replace flow-on sounds by stop sounds, for example, ‘fall’ is said as ‘tall’,
‘soap’ is said as ‘toap’, ‘very’ is said as ‘bewwy’.
5 They omit or delete some sounds or syllables from words; for example, they delete:
• /l/, /r/, or /w/ when they follow another consonant in words such as ‘blue’
or ‘bread’; they say ‘bue’ or ‘bed’.
• /s/ when it precedes a second consonant in words such as ‘spoon’ (‘poon’), ‘step’
(‘dep’) and ‘swung’ (‘wung’). They can say ‘s’, but only in some sound contexts.
• unstressed syllables from words that have two or more syllables, for example,
for ‘because’ the child says ‘cos’, and for ‘orange’ the child says ‘onge’.
6 Deleting the sounds helps children learn them because it simplifies or reduces
the complexity of the sound patterns.
This developmental sequence is linked with how students learn to control their
breathing and to move their mouth, tongue and lips. As well, they get auditory
feedback for the sound sequences they say. The feedback helps them detect and
say segments of speech.
All children are likely to make the above types of inaccuracies as they progress
through learning how to say words accurately.
4.2.5 Phonological and phonemic awareness

Another aspect of children’s knowledge of sound conventions is their awareness of
sound patterns within words. This ability has been shown repeatedly to predict
later reading and spelling skills (Munro 1999). This knowledge develops along
the following path:
1 Children first show they can recognise implicitly sound patterns in words.
They show this by playing with sound patterns in words; for example, they
rhyme and alliterate words. They can recognise and say a rhyming pattern
even though they are not able to say how they do this. They engage in songs
and nursery rhymes.
2 They next learn to segment one-syllable words into two parts, typically into
onset and rime. They hear a word and say it in two separate parts by breaking
it at the vowel, for example, they can segment ‘flip’ into ‘fl’ and ‘ip’, ‘train’
into ‘tr’ and ‘ain’, or ‘slow’ into ‘sl’ and ‘ow’. The rime is the vowel and the
consonants that follow it and the onset refers to the sound/s that come before
the vowel. At the same time, they hear an onset and a rime and can blend them
into a word, for example, they hear ‘dr’ and ‘ob’ and can say ‘drob’.
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They can also segment one-syllable words into two parts that identify the first
and last sounds; for example, they can segment ‘flip’ into ‘f ’ and ‘lip’, or ‘train’
into ‘trai’ and ‘n’. They can select a word that begins with a particular sound;
for example, ‘Tell me a word that starts with b’, and isolate a sound in a word,
for example, ‘What is the last sound in cat?’
3 They can segment one-syllable words into separate, individual sounds or
phonemes. They can hear a word and say its separate sounds in order, for
example, they hear ‘flip’ and say ‘f ’, ‘l’, ‘i’ and ‘p’ (that is, /f/, /l/, /I/, /p/),
or hear ‘train’ and say ‘t’, ‘r’, ‘ai’ and ‘n’ (that is, /t/, /r/, /é/, /n/). This is
called phonemic segmentation. They show they can recognise explicitly single
sounds in words by counting the number of sounds in a word and by tapping
for each sound. They can also blend a string of sounds into a one-syllable word,
for example, they hear ‘c-l-o-t’ and say ‘clot’.
At around the same time, they show they can recognise the syllables in two-
and three-syllable words. They hear the word ‘secret’ and they can clap or tap
for each syllable, that is, ‘se’ and ‘cret’.
4 They can manipulate sounds in more complex ways. They hear a one-syllable
word and can delete sounds from it and say the word left, for example, ‘Take
the “m” out of “camp”. What word would be left?’ They hear the word ‘blink’
and swap the ‘l’ for ‘r’ and say the word.
5 They can manipulate sounds in two- or three-syllable words. Most two- or
three-syllable words differ from one syllable words in an important way: the
vowel in at least one of the syllables is de-stressed. It is said with very little
sound value, as a very short ‘uh’.
Listen to how you say the ‘a’ in ‘around’, the ‘e’ in ‘spoken’ or ‘butter’, the ‘i’
in ‘tepid’, or the ‘o’ in ‘demon’. You don’t say the ‘a’ as /æ/ or the ‘en’ as /en/.
The sound you say for each of these vowels in these words is not the sound
you would say if the vowel was in a one-syllable word. You say it with almost
no sound, often as a very short ‘uh’ or grunt. This vowel sound is called the
schwa. As we have seen above, each of the vowels can be said as a schwa, with
little or no sound value or stress.
Students gradually develop an awareness of the schwa. They learn to hear
it in words and to transfer it between words. They also learn how to change
how they say a three-syllable word such as ‘family’ when they add a syllable
to make ‘familiar’. You can hear this when you add ‘ence’ to ‘infer’ or ‘defer’.
Students learn to segment two-, three- and four-syllable words into sounds
by recognising the schwa. As well, they blend two or three syllables by
de-stressing one or more vowels to produce the schwa. Students in the middle
primary years (and beyond) often have difficulty working out how to read
or spell two-, three- and four-syllable words because they haven’t learnt
effectively how the schwa operates.
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As children progress through this developmental sequence, they are using their
phonological and phonemic knowledge in increasingly complex ways. There is a
second aspect of this you need to take into account. Children can apply each of
these skills accurately to short one-syllable words before they can apply the same
skill to words that are longer.
These skills provide children with knowledge of sound patterns within words.
They can use this knowledge to listen for particular sound patterns in words and
also to say new words. The phonological and phonemic skills are also critical for
literacy learning. They provide foundation knowledge for learning to read and
spell words. Dyslexia is more likely when children lack these phonological and
phonemic skills (Munro 1999).
4.2.6 Phonological patterns in sentences and discourse

So far we have looked at the sound conventions to do with saying individual words.
Another aspect of sound development is how young children learn to use stress and
intonation patterns in sentences. The focus in this section is not so much on why
speakers use stress patterns in sentences, that is, the meaning associated with the use
of stress patterns or the intention the speaker is intending to convey. (This is discussed
in a later section examining our purposes for using language.) Our focus here is on
how children learn to recognise, interpret and use stress and intonation patterns.
When we are having a conversation, or telling a story, we don’t say all of the
words with exactly the same stress or volume. We say some words faster than
others, some words louder, some words with a higher frequency and some words
with more tone. The people that we are communicating with understand what
these differences mean.
An example of this is the sentence, ‘You put it there’. You would say this differently
to someone depending on whether you intend it to be an instruction (you’ve already
said it twice!); you are asking a question incredulously; or you are reminding a child,
in passing, of where they put their toy that they have lost. You will be able to hear
the difference between, ‘You put it there!’, ‘You put it there?’ and ‘You put it there’.
These types of sound patterns are called the prosody or the melody of speech.
We can alter both the meaning of a sentence and its emotional force by using
prosody. You can imagine how often we use this in classroom dialogue for general
communication, for teaching particular topics and for classroom management.
Students learn to use these prosodic conventions gradually over the early years
of primary education, after they have made substantial progress in learning to use
grammatical conventions (Doherty et al. 1999). You often hear young children
over-use stress by emphasising some words inappropriately.
Brain-imaging studies (for example, Pihan 2006) indicate that the right and
left hemispheric processes are used to interpret prosody. The right hemisphere
activity draws out the emotions from the tone of voice heard. The left hemispheric
45
activity deals with the language aspects, for example, how to say the sentence and
how to link the stress pattern with relevant parts of the sentence.
The prosodic patterns are not only important for early oral language. They are
also important in learning to read fluently and to link ideas in sentences.
Some children have difficulty recognising and using prosody. For example, they
may not be successful in recognising and conveying emotions in communication,
that is, recognising and communicating affective prosody. Alternatively, they may
be less able to decide whether a sentence they hear is a statement, a question or
an instruction. Early intermittent middle ear infections can restrict children’s
ability to detect prosodic patterns. Some research of affective prosody has gone
further and shown how different parts of the cortex deal with different types of
emotional expression, for example, happy, sad and angry intonations are processed
by different areas of the brain (Rymarczyk & Grabowska 2007).
4.3 Grammatical conventions

We noted earlier that language users have rules for combining individual
meanings into sentences and discourse. Speakers use rules to form sentences by
arranging words and parts of words in particular ways. Listeners know how to
unpack and interpret what they hear using these rules.
The conventions we use to do this are referred to as the grammar of the
language. It is the second component of the C or conventions aspect in the
ICPALER model. Speakers need to know these rules to communicate with
others. Young children do not use grammar in the way that adult speakers do.
The students you teach are probably progressing towards an adult understanding.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
conventions
Grammatical
conventions
Genre conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
46
As mature users of English, we use its grammatical conventions relatively

automatically. You can tell when a sentence is said with incorrect grammar,
even though you may find it hard to describe explicitly how you string meanings
together to convey what you want to say. Your ability to recognise when grammar
is used incorrectly is called your syntactic or grammatical awareness.
4.3.1 Grammatical conventions in the conversation

In the conversation in Chapter 2, each of the speakers showed they were developing
an awareness of word order as a convention we use to communicate. First, they
formed sentences by arranging words in an order to communicate their intentions:
• Tom sequenced some words to describe the ball his doggie had.
• Kath said, ‘It just shaked and Mum towelled it’. If she had said, ‘Mum just
shaked’ or ‘It towelled Mum’, she would have communicated a different idea.
Second, they seem to use grammatical rules to unpack and interpret what others
said. Tom’s responses suggest he understood both the question and the instruction.
They all made responses that were consistent with using the order of words to
understand the sentences said by others.
You should note here, that we cannot for certain say that they did use these
rules. When they heard Kath say, ‘Our dog … falled over our pool’, they probably
knew that it was more likely for a dog to fall in the pool than for the pool to fall
over a dog. It may have been enough for them to hear the separate ideas to be able
to comprehend what happened. To see if they were using word order, it would
be necessary to see if they interpreted a sentence like, ‘The girl hit the boy’,
differently from, ‘The boy hit the girl’.
There are various types of grammatical errors in the earlier conversation.
One type involved using incorrect word order or inappropriate words. Tom said,
‘Daddy put the inside ball’, instead of, ‘Daddy put the ball inside’; and, ‘… and he
bited it and made it a hole’, instead of, ‘and he bit it and made a hole in it’. The
listeners seemed to understand these sentences.
All of the students misused the verb ending ‘-ed’ by applying it to verbs
that in English don’t use it. Tom said, ‘We finded …’, Kath said, ‘… falled over
…’, and, ‘… Daddy gotted …’, and Will said, ‘… drownded?’ These errors are
morphological. What they need to learn is that there are exceptions to some of
the language rules we use.
4.3.2 What develops in the children’s knowledge of sentence

conventions?
It is sometimes said that children know most of the sentence conventions they will
need to speak English by the time they begin school. At one level this is true.
Slobin (1995) reviews evidence that shows this for languages from around the world.
47
However, a four-year-old, an eight-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old differ

in how they use the conventions. The four-year-old child may use relative pronouns
such as ‘what’ or ‘who’ and correctly ask or answer, ‘What is that?’, but will still be
less likely to use or comprehend, ‘What might happen if that were not here?’
Children continue to develop the language conventions during the school
years (Reilly, Zamora & McGivern 2005). They learn that a particular sentence
meaning can be said using alternative grammatical forms (Jisa et al. 2002; Reilly
et al. 1998) and learn to use the conventions in a wider range of genres (Berman
& Slobin 1994). These changes are illustrated in the following scenario.
Suppose Aiden saw Carlo throw a book and then sit down, and you asked
Aiden what happened. Aiden could describe the sequence of events in several
ways, depending on your question. Possible answers are shown in the figure below.
1. As two simple active 2. As a sentence made by joining 3. As a sentence using a

voice sentences. the two active voice sentences. temporal adverb.
Carlo threw a book. Carlo Carlo threw a book and then he Carlo threw a book first
sat down. sat down. and then he sat down.
4. As a passive voice sentence.

Aiden saw Carlo throw a
book and then sit down and The book was thrown by
then told his teachers what Carlo. Then he sat down.
happened.
5. As a sentence having a
main clause and a subordinate
The boy who sat down adverbial clause.
threw the book first. It was Carlo who threw the
7. As a sentence having a book and then sat down. Before Carlo sat down,
relative clause. 6. As a cleft sentence. he threw a book.
These ways of describing the same situation illustrate some of the conventions
children learn. Each is a response to a particular question. As well, the order from
1 to 7 shows the gradual emergence of the different forms. They are learnt in the
6–10-year-old age range with the child initially misusing them and receiving
corrective feedback.
4.3.3 Types of grammatical conventions

Each of the sentence types above requires the use of various types of grammatical
conventions. These emerge gradually in the language of young children (Chapman
2000; Miller & Paul 1995). Conventions include knowing how to:
1 Use verb tense appropriately to indicate when an event occurred. For example,
‘I throw’ versus ‘I threw’, ‘I was throwing’ or ‘I will throw’.
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2 Use the bound morphemes such as ‘-s’ to show the plural forms of nouns, ‘-ed’
to show the past tense of weak verbs, and ‘-ly’ to show adverbs. For example,
saying, ‘He walked slowly’, instead of, ‘He walked slow’; or, ‘He saw three
birds’, instead of, ‘He saw three bird’.
3 Use words from various grammatical categories correctly. For example, saying,
‘What did he do?’, instead of, ‘What he do?’ An example of how this gradually
develops is shown in learning to say, ‘I won’t do it’, in the following figure.
No do it. I no do it. I not do it. I won’t do it.
This sequence shows how children may first omit particular grammatical
categories from a sentence. They later say sentences that include the various
categories, but use inappropriate items from the category. For example, they
may know that a personal, possessive and/or relative pronoun is needed in a
sentence, but use an incorrect one: they may say, ‘Them gave it to me’, instead
of, ‘They gave it to me’; ‘The girl what was running’, instead of, ‘The girl who
was running’; or, ‘Me not want it’, instead of, ‘I don’t want it’.
These errors may suggest a lack of agreement between parts of speech.
Sometimes, just before correct use, children use two words from the same
category, one of which is redundant, for example, ‘Me, I won’t not want it’.
4 Use sentence templates and word order correctly. We saw in sentences 1–7
above how the same event can be said in two or more forms. Another example
is learning to use the passive voice form, for example, to describe the event in
which a girl hits a boy. You can describe this in the active voice form, ‘The girl
hit the boy’, and in the passive voice form, ‘The boy was hit by the girl’. When
children who haven’t yet learnt the passive voice form hear, ‘The boy was hit by
the girl’, they may interpret it as if the first noun, ‘the boy’, is doing the action.
5 Use the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. For example, ‘We had
the bestest time’ and ‘It was worser than that’.
6 Use the correct preposition or conjunction to link two or more events (Nippold
1998) in a relationship. Some sentence meanings link two events in time or
space, for example, ‘He opened the door after he turned on the lights’. Some
children assume that the order in which the events are mentioned is the order
in which they occur.
Sentences containing ‘if ’ and ‘because’ are more easily understood when the
event flagged by the term follows the main event, for example, ‘He put on his
coat because he was feeling cold’ and ‘You’ll hurt yourself if you fall off ’. The
alternatives, ‘Because he was feeling cold, he put on his coat’ and ‘If you fall
off, you’ll hurt yourself ’ are more difficult initially.
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7 Use relative pronouns such as ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘which’, ‘what’ and ‘that’. There are
two types of sentences here: those in which the event flagged by the pronoun
follows the main event such as, ‘The girl spoke to the man who was here’;
and those in which the event with the pronoun is embedded in the main idea
such as, ‘The girl who hit the boy went home’. Generally, children understand
the first type of sentence before the second type. Both types are easier to
understand than those from which the relative pronoun has been deleted, for
example, ‘The girl the boy hit went home’.
8 Use modal verbs such as ‘you should’, or ‘we ought’ (Nippold 1998). These verbs
express the attitude or mood of the speaker: ‘you must’ refers to obligation; ‘I
may’ and ‘I might’ to probability; and ‘I could’ to possibility or inference about
ability. Preschool children who have specific language impairments use ‘can’
to express their ability (‘I can go’) and to seek permission (‘Can I go?’), but
not as well as their able-learning, same-age peers (Leonard et al. 2007). They
have greater difficulty using ‘could’ to refer to ability in the past.
4.3.4 Using conventions that make the meanings agree:

Morphological conventions
Grammatical conventions involve using words in the acceptable or correct order
and making the various individual meanings agree. Statements exemplified by,
‘I playing in the park’, ‘He saw three bird’, ‘He wented slow’, ‘We had the more
baddest time’, ‘They has to go’, and ‘They musts eat it’, are typical errors made by
young children learning to use sentence conventions. One of the problems in all
of these sentences is that the morphemes in each sentence don’t agree with each
other. The speakers are misusing bound morphemes such as ‘-ing’, and ‘-ed’ to
communicate the time of an action, ‘-s’ to indicate plurals and ‘-est’ for adjectives.
What these children haven’t yet learnt is morphological awareness. This
involves children knowing that the word ‘trees’, for example, comprises two
components: the idea of a tree and the idea of more than one. They need to be able
to separate these two parts or combine the two parts if necessary. This is made
more difficult when the word can be both a noun and a verb, for example, ‘walks’.
In this case, you need also to look at its role in the sentence to decide whether it
is talking about an action that is presently happening or whether it refers to more
than one walk. In some of the examples above, the children may be aware that
the words they say and hear comprise two meanings, but are not yet using the
correct ones. Children continue to develop morphological awareness throughout
their childhood and into adolescence (Kieffer & Lesaux 2008). Some students will
need teaching that directs their attention explicitly to the morphological parts of
words and guides them to use these parts.
Morphological awareness is often more difficult for students from non-English
speaking backgrounds because the morphological conventions differ. While in
50
English we say, ‘I ate three cakes’, in some languages (such as Indonesian or

Japanese) a speaker may say the equivalent of, ‘I ate three cake’ (Aronoff &
Fudeman 2005), while a speaker of the Warlpiri language indicates the plural
of a noun by repeating the singular word, ‘I eat cake cake’ (Isac & Reiss 2008).
Teachers need to know that some of their students may come from language
backgrounds where adding the suffix ‘-s’ to a noun is not how a plural is indicated.
4.3.5 What do students know when they comprehend

a grammatical convention?
If you can understand any of these grammatical forms, you can identify what
was done (the action), who did it (the actor or agent of the action) and possibly
other information, such as when, where, how or why. This is also the information
students need when they are learning a grammatical convention.
This understanding links the convention aspect with the ideas aspect in the
ICPALER model. A sentence convention doesn’t have meaning for a language
user unless they can end up with this level of understanding. It provides us with
a criterion for deciding whether a convention has been learnt. It also indicates
directly how the sentence conventions and meanings interact with each other.
4.3.6 Useful tasks for examining students’ understanding

of grammatical conventions
One way of investigating students’ understanding of different grammatical forms
is to use the whodunit task, described by Feldman, MacWhinney and Sacco (2002,
p. 339). In this task, students listen to a sentence or a grammatical form and
decide the actor. By measuring how long it takes the students to make the decision,
you can see which forms are more complex. A range of studies summarised by
Feldman et al. (2002) have compared how well children can do this for three types
of sentences that had simple noun (n) phrases and short verb (v) phrases. Types
include: (1) The cat bit the dog (nvn); (2) The cat the dog bit (nnv); and (3) Bit the
cat the dog (vnn). The sentences also varied in terms of whether each noun was
an animal that could do the action.
These studies have reported developmental trends in sentence processing
strategies (Von Berger et al. 1996). Adults select the first noun in nvn forms as
the agent and second noun in both nnv and vnn forms. Children aged seven years
show adult performance for nvn forms but not for the nnv and vnn forms for at
least another two years. Those with expressive and receptive language difficulties
are more likely to be distracted by whether the noun is animate, that is, they are
less likely to use the order of the nouns in the utterance to make the decision
(Evans & MacWhinney 1999).
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4.4 Genre or discourse conventions

As well as the conventions for sentences, children learn the conventions for
linking sentences into a discourse or a genre. As they move through the
primary grades, for example, sentence connectors such as ‘also’, ‘however’, ‘still’
or ‘nevertheless’ begin to appear in their dialogue. They gradually use and
comprehend pronouns across two or three sentences. They hear a sequence of
sentences that include, ‘The cat fought the large black rat. When puss was too
tired to go on, the vermin pounced’, and use the phrases ‘the cat’ and ‘puss’ to
infer that the rat defeated the cat.
We saw this in the conversation. The students used conventions to link the
sentences. When Miss Brown asked, ‘What’s he called?’, they knew the ‘he’ was
Tom’s new dog. They all seemed to know the convention of staying on the topic
and said sentence ideas that fitted with it.
Speakers use a range of techniques to maintain the cohesion between a set of
sentences. These include the use of:
• sentence connectives and ties such as ‘on the other hand’, ‘as well’, ‘too’ and ‘then’.
Others include ‘still’ (as in ‘Still, you could have gone’), ‘as’, ‘also’, ‘however’ and
‘moreover’.
• topic sentences when speaking and listening; these provide a theme for the
following sentences.
• a brief introduction that charts the direction of the sentences, for example, ‘Hi’
and ‘No’.
• synonyms and re-wordings of a phrase.
• pronouns, noun-pronoun agreement conventions across sentences and verb-
tense agreement across sentences.
• tag questions that are added to a sentence and invite a response, for example,
‘isn’t it?’; ‘did they?’ and ‘wasn’t it?’.
Young children often know they need to use discourse conventions, but don’t
know how to do this. For example, they may use ‘and then’ to link a sequence of
sentences. In recounting an experience, they may not sequence the ideas in terms
of an effective story schema, mentioning the context and the main people in the
recount early in the presentation.
4.5 The conventions are learnt and used in

an integrated way
The three types of conventions contribute in an integrated way to a child’s use of
language at any time. This integration is shown in the automaticity with which
they use the three types. In the course of moving towards automatic use of one of
them, children may temporarily seem to forget what they know about the other
conventions. They may, for example, regress in their use of sound conventions
52
while learning new grammatical forms. On other occasions, their use of grammar
may lapse when learning to use new sound patterns.
Children need time to learn this integration. They need time to link or
synthesise the new knowledge with what they know. This often includes the
opportunity to practise the new convention initially in specific situations.
Without this opportunity, immature use of any one of the conventions may
occur. This can reduce the child’s capacity to communicate effectively. Immature
phonological development may mean that a child mispronounces words, confuses
words with similar sound patterns and says sentences with less intonation, while using
grammatical and genre conventions correctly. Immature grammatical development,
on the other hand, may mean that the child comprehends and uses sound patterns
efficiently but has difficulty comprehending and using sentence forms.
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P
C h a p t er 5
Analysing how language is used

to achieve particular purposes
Think back over recent oral language exchanges. You may have asked someone
for assistance, discussed a movie, novel or sporting event with a colleague or
shared jokes with a family member.
In each exchange, you had a goal or purpose for communicating. To achieve it,
you used ideas and conventions. By themselves, however, they may not have been
sufficient. To achieve your purpose you probably thought about how you would
say the ideas and the words you would use. How you express an opinion to a close
friend may differ from how you express it to a stranger or a superior at work.
Being able to use language for particular purposes is what language learning is
all about. This is why we engage in communication.
This applies in your teaching. Whenever you communicate with students in
your class, you have a purpose or a reason. You may want to see what they know,
to help them to learn, to encourage them to think in particular ways, to behave in
particular ways, to have particular feelings or to do particular things, for example,
to transfer ideas to another context.
Many classroom management and discipline problems arise because, at the
time, the teacher and students differ in their goals for communicating. Your goal
may be to teach new ideas. Your students’ goals may be to share experiences
with peers, work on their position in the peer pecking order or to work on their
presence in the peer group. These goals can clash with your goals.
A student may ignore or disobey an instruction, for example, because they
want to direct their activity or to challenge your authority. A student may speak
rudely to you using language they use with their siblings or peers because their
goal is to offend you or to show their independence.
These goals can lead to inappropriate and undesirable behaviours in your
classroom. If you respond to the behaviours and ignore the goals that led to them,
it is likely that the continuing goals will lead to other inappropriate behaviours.
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A nalysi ng how language i s use d to a c h ie v e pa rt icu l a r p urp o s e s
There are two issues here:

• the appropriateness of the purpose or goal
• the language the student uses to pursue it.
Two students can have the same goal or purpose, but may use their language quite
differently to achieve it. Our focus is on what a student knows about how to use
language to achieve their purpose or goals.
Given its importance to being an effective communicator and language user, it
is surprising that this aspect of language usually receives less attention than either
the ideas or conventions. In formal education, students are usually expected to learn
these aspects of language incidentally and automatically as they interact with others.
Some students come to school having begun to learn this knowledge. Others
are less well developed in this area. They are immediately disadvantaged. They
are less able to interact effectively with peers and teachers, and to use language
to achieve their purposes. Without the opportunity to learn this knowledge
explicitly, they are likely to be increasingly disengaged and alienated from
successful classroom interactions.
The purpose of this chapter is for you to understand this aspect of language
in how you communicate, to recognise it in the communication of students, to be
aware of its importance and relevance in real classroom interactions, and to be
able to identify when to implement teaching to help develop it where necessary.
5.1 The purpose aspect in ICPALER

In this section, we examine how children learn to use oral language to achieve
their goals. In our ICPALER mnemonic, this is the purpose or P aspect. It is
shown in the table below.
Sentence meanings
Discourse meanings
Topic meanings
The conventions Phonological conventions
Grammatical conventions
Genre conventions
The purpose Manage and direct language use
Adjust to context and audience
Use language for different goals
Listen and speak between the
lines
Ability to learn
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Compare two recent conversation situations, one in which each person seemed
to achieve their goals for conversing and one in which they didn’t. In the latter,
some participants may have become uninterested, bored or alienated. Some may
not have understood what was being said. Some may have been turned off by the
inappropriate social behaviours of other participants. What made a difference?
What made one conversation more successful than the other? What features led
to less effective communication? They could have included a converser who:
• dominated the air play, didn’t take turns, talked over other speakers and spoke
too loudly
• did not use conversation protocols satisfactorily, for example, turned to talk to
others in ways that were inappropriate for the context
• did not judge how much information to give at any time and told others things
they already knew
• used language that was not appropriate for the audience, for example, offensive
phrases
• misinterpreted the body language of the audience and didn’t adjust to their
increasing irritation and disengagement
• did not listen between the lines or infer what the other speakers were saying
• did not initiate the conversation well.
Knowledge of how to use language in social interactions to achieve various
purposes or goals for communicating is called the pragmatic or the semantic
pragmatic aspect of language use.
5.2 How language is used in the conversation

You can look at how the students used language for different goals in the
conversation in Chapter 2. Different participants seemed to have different goals
for engaging in it. Who else was there affected this. Miss Brown probably directed
the students’ talking more than she would the talking of her colleagues. You can
infer the possible goals from what was said in the context.
Possible goal or purpose for

Participant What was said
saying it
‘Tom, tell us more about your To direct the conversation, to
Miss Brown
new doggie.’ invite Tom to talk about his dog.
To redirect the conversation
‘Our dog … falled over our pool.
Kath to have an opportunity to talk
Daddie gotted him out.’
about her dog.
To express his feeling of concern
Will ‘Gee, did it get drownded?’
and to obtain more information.
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We can also look at how the participants used language to achieve their goals.
They:
• took turns and shared air-play time, possibly because the teacher was present
• stayed on the topic, and extended and elaborated it. They showed they could
maintain the topic: when Kath used ‘it’ in ‘It falled over our pool’, they probably
knew she was talking about her family’s dog and not Woofa; when Tom said ‘It
is red and brown’, they probably knew he was talking about Woofa.
Speakers use language to achieve a range of purposes. Knowing how to do this
in everyday contexts is a key part of our knowledge of language. Young children
gradually learn these.
We can elaborate the ICPALER framework to show the components of the
purpose or P aspect. We will examine how they learn to use the four aspects
shown in the table below.
The ideas
The conventions
The purpose Manage and direct language use
Adjust to context and audience
Use language for different goals
Listen and speak between the
lines
Ability to learn
We will examine each of these components of the purposes for communicating

more closely below. Some students come to school not using these types of
knowledge effectively. They need explicit teaching that enables this to be learnt.
5.2.1 How do communicators manage and direct their use

of language?
Effective communicators manage and direct their use of language in various ways.
These include being able to:
1 initiate, maintain and terminate conversations in social exchanges
2 take turns in conversations, for example, how they wait or invite others to take
a turn
3 how they stay on the topic
4 how they adjust what they say to fit the audience and the context. This is
shown in how they adjust their tone and volume, and use phrases such as ‘you
57
know’ to link to experiences with the audience, and how they use greetings
selectively for the teacher and peers.
You can observe how well your students show these behaviours in activities
in which they share listening to and telling stories or recounting experiences,
discuss events and engage in other verbal interactions. The analysis of the earlier
students’ conversation showed that they had begun to develop these language
abilities. Generally, students learn to use these first in particular situations and
gradually learn to transfer and generalise them.
The four key elements of managing and directing language use are shown in
the following table.
The ideas
The conventions
The purpose Manage and How they initiate,
direct maintain and terminate
language use conversations
How they take turns
How they stay on topic
How they adjust to
audience and context
Adjust to
context and
audience
Use language
for different
goals
Listen and
speak between
lines
The ability to
learn
5.2.2 How communicators adjust their use of language to

particular context and audience
Effective communicators are aware of the need to take account of those they are
communicating with and the particular context or situation in which they are
communicating. They adjust and modify what they say in a range of ways; for
example, they:
58
• judge what others might know about the topic and adjust what they say. During
a conversation or an informative talk, for example, they try to see what others
know and use this to shape their communication. If their goal is to assist
others to learn more about the topic, they may shape what they say to target
what their audience knows. If their goal is to use their knowledge to show
supremacy, they may communicate in ways that restrict the comprehension of
others and show where others’ existing knowledge is inadequate
• decide how much information to give at any time; they read the audience to
decide what it might want to hear, know or discuss
• select the most appropriate words, sentence meanings, conventions and
intonation patterns to suit the group. A communicator whose goal is to
persuade others may use different language from a communicator whose goal
is to inform objectively
• know when they haven’t given enough information for the audience and, again,
according to their goals, take appropriate actions
• use the context to assist in communicating the message, for example, using
body language and gestures. Communicators whose goals are to persuade
others or to exert power may use gestures and tones more likely to elicit
emotions and affect relevant to their goals.
Young children are often egocentric in their ability to estimate what others might
know about a topic or to decide what is most appropriate in particular contexts.
These skills develop gradually. Some young children communicate with most
adults in the ways they communicate with their parents. They may assume that
what the audience knows about a topic matches their knowledge.
The ideas
The conventions
The purpose Manage How they initiate, maintain
and direct and terminate conversations
language How they take turns
use
How they adjust to audience
and context
Adjust to Judge what others might
context know during conversation
and Judge how much
audience information to give
Select appropriate words
and conventions
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The purpose Use the context to assist
understanding
Link ideas in relation to a

particular context
Use
language
for
different
goals
Listen
and speak
between
the lines
The ability to
learn
5.2.3 How communicators use language for different goals

or purposes
Individuals differ in their goals or purposes for using language. We need to be
aware that:
• the goals of our students at any time may differ from our goals. It is often
useful to infer these. To do this we need to tune in to how our students are
using language at the time.
• students differ in how they achieve their goals by speaking and listening.
Two students may want to avoid doing a task, but use their language in quite
different ways to achieve this. One may skilfully manage us, while the other
simply digs a bigger hole for themselves through their use of language.
• students differ in how well they can infer the goals of others from what is
said. Some students may not infer our goal when we use sophisticated speech
techniques such as speaking softly, changing emphasis or tone, rhetorical
questions or sarcasm. It is useful for teachers to express purposes as explicitly
as possible. Saying, ‘I’m waiting’, isn’t as effective to a class as, ‘I’m waiting for
you to be quiet’.
Teachers and students frequently use intonation and prosody to communicate
their intention or purpose. Each of the sentences in the following figure has stress
on different words (shown in bold). Read each sentence aloud. What would be the
goal of each statement?
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Sit there I didn’t I didn’t

please. say that. say that.
Sit there Sit there I didn’t I didn’t
please. please. say that. say that.
Young children often know what they want to communicate before they can infer
what others are intending. Some students have difficulty using language to express
their goals. When this happens, they often use physical means to communicate
their feelings and intentions. For example, they may push or grab inappropriately
instead of verbally requesting or attempting to resolve a conflict or a problem
by talking and listening. Some students begin school using physical rather than
verbal means to communicate. If they do not have the opportunity to learn how
to do this in verbal ways, they will be increasingly disadvantaged.
The ideas
The conventions
language How they take turns
use
and context
and Judge how much
and conventions
Use the context to assist
understanding
particular context
Use Infer the goals for an oral
language communication
for Identify the goals for an
different oral communication
goals
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The purpose Listen
and speak
between
the lines
The ability to
learn
5.2.4 How well do people use language to communicate

non-literally?
Young children will frequently be expected to comprehend non-literal expressions
such as, ‘Get a wriggle on’, ‘Put on your thinking caps’, or ‘Cut it out’. They are
expected to show their comprehension by acting in particular ways, for example, ‘I
want to be able to hear a pin drop’, means, ‘You need to be very quiet and not talk’.
Teachers frequently use non-literal expressions as part of their classroom
dialogue, for example, for the purposes of behaviour and classroom management.
Not all students understand them. Many interpret them literally. As a consequence,
they do not respond appropriately.
Often we are not aware that we are using them. For example, Kerbel and
Grunwell (1998) found that teachers who believed they rarely used idioms in their
classrooms actually said an average of 1.7 figurative expressions each minute.
Comprehending figurative expressions demands the ability to infer.
Communicators more generally need to do this when they take a conversation
further, that is, to extend a message into related areas. Merely repeating what
has already been said is functional. To do this, they need to infer, by linking
what has been said with what they know. This helps them think about where the
conversation might be going.
The ideas
The conventions
language
use How they take turns
and context
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and Judge how much
and conventions
Use the context to assist
understanding
particular context
Use Infer the goals for an oral
language communication
for Identify the goals for an
different oral communication
goals
Listen How they read in a message
and speak its intended meaning
between How they use idioms and
the lines metaphors
How they extend a language
exchange
The ability to
learn
5.3 Using the four components of pragmatics in

an integrated way
To achieve their purposes for communicating, children ultimately need to learn to
use the four components in an integrated way. They need to initiate and maintain
an exchange, adjust their language to the particular context and audience, use
language selectively for specific goals and functions, and infer what others are
saying in terms of the context and their goals for communicating.
Knowing how to use language in social situations for particular goals and
purposes gives communicators the power that comes with language. Being able
to communicate effectively in a range of contexts according to one’s goals or
purposes is what language use is about.
In the classroom, teachers use this knowledge to direct and to motivate
effective student learning. By teaching and modelling aspects of it, they can guide
and lead students to become more effective language users and to use language to
manage and direct their own learning.
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The effectiveness and quality of student–teacher interactions will be determined

in part by the teacher’s knowledge of it. Its use for classroom management and
discipline has already been noted. It will also help students to understand the
power relationships being communicated through language between teachers and
students and within the student group.
These inferences are relevant to social interaction in the classroom and in everyday
living. Individuals infer and synthesise characteristics of other communicators from
what they say and how they say it. We synthesise speaker characteristics and the
content of what is said. We judge others, using ourselves as reference points. These
judgements involve self-talk. Some individuals have an atypical self-referential
mechanism. Not only do they have difficulty making the high-level inferences but
they also have difficulty managing the self-referential activity.
This type of language processing is required constantly in classroom
interactions. It is not surprising that a large proportion of students who have social,
emotional and behavioural problems also have speech and language difficulties
(Tommerdahl 2009). While the direction of causality is usually assumed to
be from language to social and emotional development, it is more likely that a
reciprocal longitudinal relationship exists. Inappropriate social interactional
behaviours may, for example, restrict the quality of early language interactions
available to a young child. Adolescents receiving interventions for emotional and
behavioural problems frequently have previously undetected language difficulties
(Benner, Nelson & Epstein 2002).
5.4 How aspects of oral language develop

A summary of some of the steps in the ideas, purposes and conventions aspects of
the oral language learning pathway is shown in the following table. The ideas and
purposes aspects are combined under the heading ‘The emergence of meanings’.
The reference to age is only to provide a basis for sequencing the gains in each
aspect. While it is useful to describe the learning that occurs in each strand, it is
important to keep in mind that students learn the various aspects in an integrated
way in their communication activities.
There are dangers in partitioning such a complex activity into segments, as
there is some obvious overlap for many of the items that are mentioned. You may
believe, for example, that some of the items in the emergence of the conventions
aspect would be better located in the emergence of meanings aspect.
When should you be concerned about a student’s use of grammatical and
discourse conventions? You may be concerned when a student cannot either
comprehend or use in their speech the grammatical discourse forms you expect.
You could record the samples of the student’s speech and use the table to work out
the student’s location on the developmental pathway. You can use this to describe
the student’s knowledge of grammatical, phonological and ideas/meaning aspects.
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Developmental sequence for ideas, purposes and conventions in oral language
The emergence of meanings The emergence of the conventions

Age Phonological Grammatical and discourse
range development development
1–2 The children: The children: The children:
• use individual words for names of items and actions • learn to say the sounds • say telegraphic sentences that show
in their everyday words both to label and to request /m/, /p/, /b/, / l/, /ʌ /, an awareness of nouns, verbs and
• show a simple awareness of some everyday /ɒ/, /t/ and /n/ in the adjectives, for example, ‘want milk’
categories, such as food and toys initial position only and and ‘big doggie’
• imitate how others say words the vowels a and oo • ask telegraphic questions using ‘what’,
• show a positive emotional response to the speech of • repeat sound patterns for example, ‘What dat?’
others, listen to a short story and look at a picture or and begin to control
object as it is being described volume.
• describe events in one- or two-word utterances
• say three or four single real words consistently in
jargon-like sentences
• combine voice and gesture meaningfully.
• use 20–100 words • show more contrasts in • use single-word utterances
• are understood by others for one-quarter of their consonants using their spontaneously
utterances lips in initial positions • imitate two- to three-word sentences
• Describe events in two- to four-word utterances • practise perfecting that have nouns, few verbs, adjectives
• respond to commands in everyday contexts sounds and a few pronouns
• ask simple questions using ‘what’ to request • say most vowels, but • begin to refer to possession by adding
information and begin to answer questions such as not all perfectly ‘s’ to a noun (for example, ‘Mummy’s
‘what’ or ‘where’ • use medial and final cake’) and to use the articles in some
• begin to refer to immediate past events consonants. instances (‘the’ and ‘a’)
• begin to transfer what they say in one situation to
others
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Developmental sequence for ideas, purposes and conventions in oral language (continued)
66
2–3 • use simple language forms for various purposes, • begin to use some morphological
(cont) for example, to ask for objects/outcomes or help, endings, but over- and under-extend
to initiate and to refuse interactions, to describe/ (for example, say ‘He goned’ or ‘He
comment on events or objects and to refer to others. wented’).
• have average vocabulary of 896 words • can say two-thirds of • say sentences of up to five words:
• use mainly egocentric speech adult speech sounds ‘Mummy car stop’
• dramatise; they combine words and actions for their and fairly intelligible • use their own grammatical rules; they
own pleasure speech; substitute, both over-extend and under-extend
• ask ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ questions about omit and distort many particular rules
persons, things and actions in relation to everyday sounds inconsistently • use personal pronouns (‘I’, ‘me’ and
events • use final consonants ‘his’) and demonstrative pronoun
• stay on topic in a conversation about a shared book more regularly (‘that’), for example ‘That boy
or experience on several occasions • show speech melody naughty’
• name common colours, shapes, sizes, locations and and usually well- • use phrases to designate events, for
main body parts, and can say their full name and controlled voice. example, ‘What that thing go round?’
gender • use ways of saying negation, for
• say their toilet needs. example, say ‘no’, ‘can’t’ and ‘don’t’
• form plurals not only by adding ‘s’
to nouns; for example, they change
vowels to go from ‘mouse’ to ‘mice’
• can say, recite and sing common
nursery rhymes and rhyming
narratives.
• have average vocabulary of 1540 words, which includes • use speech that is 98 • say and comprehend some compound
the concepts for quantity, shapes and location per cent intelligible sentences of up to six to eight words
• use slang • use all English long, for example, sentences with
• comprehend one-event sentences and some two-event vowels and following prepositional phrases (for example, ‘She
sentences, particularly compound sentences in which consonants: /m/, /n/ put the doll under the bed’), sentences
the events are linked by ‘and’ and those in which they and /t/ in all positions, with verb infinitives (for example,
are linked by ‘because’ /k/, /p/, /b/, /f/, /w/ and ‘She wants to go’) and sentences with
• understand isolated word meanings, but deal with whole /h/ in initial positions multiple adjectives (for example, ‘She
sentences without analysing words and /w/, /p/, /b/ and /f/ holds the big blue hat’)
• use ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions in response to in medial positions • begin to experiment with alternative
what others say • omit some medial ways of saying a sentence idea, can
• talk about a topic and recount past events from a consonants and modify or transform simple one-event
perceptual, realistic, first-person focus, but increasingly syllables from words sentences
refer to objects, persons, events not present. They • may not say unstressed • say and understand sentences that
can think ahead and predict or anticipate what might parts of words contain nouns, verbs, adjectives,
happen in familiar everyday contexts and stories • often show interrupted adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions,
• express feelings, emotions and empathy for others flow or rhythm in prepositions, interjections and articles
• have monologues with other children but there is little sentences they say; • recall verbatim sentences of up to ten
co-operative thinking they stumble or block words.
• tell tales in which the topic or theme is clear and may on initial syllables
combine reality and fantasy • speak at a faster rate.
• can answer questions about the names of siblings, the
town and street where they live
• can maintain a topic in a conversation over several
exchanges
• make requests in more complex ways and
comprehend instructions that specify two events.
67
68
• have average vocabulary of 2072 words and can now • articulate in generally • use the grammatical classes needed
comprehend relative words for quantity (for example, intelligible ways, in a sentence but often select
‘bigger’ and ‘heavier’) and time (‘before’ and but phonemes /z/, inappropriate words from the class, for
‘after’), the names of parts of their body, recognise/ /v/, /r/ and /s/ are example, ‘Daddy took me at the circus’
select items that belong to a category (for example, not necessarily said and ‘Them childs are happy’
select or name examples of ‘pets’ or ‘toys’ accurately in all • self-correct spontaneously the
• can define simple words positions in a word sentences they say
• comprehend some two-event sentences, particularly • can recognise and say • say a one-event sentence idea in
complex sentences in which the events are linked by rhyme and alliteration multiple forms and transform simple
‘when’, ‘so’ and ‘who’, for example, ‘The boy who has in words; and can strip one-event sentences
a blue jumper stood up’ away the first and last • use conjunctions and embedded
• use responsive talk and move from egocentric speech sounds in one-syllable clauses. They comprehend two-event
to exchanging information words. sentences that have: (1) the relative
• talk about the perceptual features of number, speed, clause following the main clause, for
time and space example, ‘The girl spoke to the man
• relate experiences and mention specifics and details who was here’; and (2) adverbial
of personal experiences clauses, such as ‘He opened the door
• retell the plots of stories and children’s plays before he turned on the lights’
(television and theatre). Their narratives show a clear • recall verbatim sentences of up to 12
plot with sequence and closure words.
• can adjust their speaking style to take account of the
audience (for example, their age, what they might
know)
• name and describe common items and objects in
pictures
5–6 • make and comprehend inferential requests, for
(cont) example, hear ‘It’s dark in here’ and know they need
to put on the light
• use some imaginative thinking, but are mainly
realistic with little abstraction
• categorise concrete events by saying how the events
or objects are similar and/or different
• can answer personal questions about their birthday,
home phone number, parents’ names, etc.
• have a vocabulary of up to 4000 words • use the sounds /l-/, • use simple relative pronouns such
• say and comprehend synonyms and antonyms for /-l/, /-l-/; /-t-/; /-0-/; as ‘who’ and ‘what’ accurately, for
word meanings, for example, girl–boy, black–white, /-r/; /j-/ example, they are less likely to say
big–little, sweet–sour, etc • show adult melody ‘The boy what ate the apple was sitting
• anticipate closure in speech of others; they predict and experiment with there’
what others might say in a conversation or a story rhythmic patterns • say sentences that include all
• ask for explanations, motives of action, etc. • use facial expressions grammatical categories, but select
• understand differences between time intervals and that accompany particular words incorrectly, for
seasons of the year rhythm changes in example, they may not distinguish
• use terms to refer to space and time, for example, their speech. between mass nouns (milk, water,
they can use left and right when referring to etc.), and count nouns (dolls, toys,
themselves etc.), for example, ‘I want much water’
• can talk about and comprehend causal relationships • show subject–verb agreement, for
• participate in conversations, take turns, share, example, they are less likely to say ‘The
don’t monopolise, answer a phone effectively and dogs was swimming’
communicate simple messages
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6–7 • are more skilled in adjusting their speaking style to • use the easier conjunctions and
(cont) take account of the audience (for example, adjust prepositions such as ‘before’ to link
how they speak to suit the audience and context: use two events when real-world support
appropriate words to request an item from a teacher is not available, for example, ‘She
versus a friend or a parent) knocked on the door while he was
• describe similarities and differences between playing with his train’ rather than ‘She
concepts and define words. knocked on the door and he played
with his train’
• know that the order in which concepts
or events are mentioned in a sentence
does not necessarily match the order of
action, for example, in ‘The boy was hit
by the girl’, the agent of the action was
not the noun that was mentioned first
• begin to show an awareness of
exceptions to some grammatical rules.
• comprehend 6000–8000 words and use 2600 words • use all speech sounds, • use sentences of mean length 7.2
• are less likely to use egocentric speech including consonant words
• use and comprehend complex and compound blends /-z-/; /-st/; /lz/; • use most sentence forms; for example,
sentences /-tr/ and /-kt/ they comprehend sentences with
• follow fairly complex directions with little repetition embedded relative clauses, ‘The girl
• show communication ability; they share ideas and who hit the boy went home’
carry on adult-like conversation
• understand causal or logical relationships in
sentences and short discourse
7–8 • relate involved accounts of events, many that • appropriate control of • begin to use appropriate terms to
(cont) occurred in the past; for example, sub-plots in a rate, pitch and volume, connect sentences in a paragraph.
narrative use subtle rhythms and They show noun–pronoun and subject–
• link some word meanings in speech in functional intonational contours verb agreement across two successive
ways; for example, understand how cars and boats in speech melody. sentences; for example, they are less
are similar likely to say ‘The dogs are in the water.
• understand and use simple figurative language that It swims near the boat’
applies to them, their peers and their world; for • use temporal and spatial connectives,
example, ‘Get a wriggle on’ or ‘Pull your socks up’. such as ‘while’, ‘before’ and ‘when’,
and verb–tense agreement to link
two events when access to real-world
corroboration is not available; for
example, ‘She knocked on the door
while he was playing with his train’.
8–9 The children: The children:

• understand generalisations, causality and • understand and use more complex
consequence in relation to real-life contexts grammatical forms with relative and
• comprehend word meanings in functional ways subordinate clauses
• comprehend the functional meanings of words more • understand the link between two or
broadly and understand that words can be defined more sentences in connected prose
by the functions linked with them; for example, ‘bite’ and use sentence connectors such as
means an action that isn’t necessarily done with teeth ‘however’.
• understand and use simple figurative language that • use a range of common grammatical
applies more broadly; for example, ‘He let the cat out features to connect ideas, such as the
of the bag’. past-tense agreement to indicate the
intended relationship between two
events.
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9–10 The children: The children:
• understand logical inclusivity in language and can • show more complex grammatical
identify a sentence that is more general/specific than agreement both within and between
another sentences, including (1) verb–tense
• comprehend word meanings in abstract ways agreement and subject–verb agreement;
• understand how some words refer to concepts that (2) noun–pronoun agreement, for
are more general or more specific than others; example, they are less likely to misuse
‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘whom’ (for example,
that word meanings can be linked by inclusive
‘The girl spoke to the man whom she
relationships; for example, apples and oranges are knew’ versus ‘The girl spoke to the man
included in fruits and Jonathans are included in apples who was here’); ‘that’ for ‘what’ (they
• understand generalisations in sentences when they are less likely to say ‘The dog what did
refer to concepts in everyday contexts it has gone’) and ‘that’ for ‘which’.
• comprehend more complex idioms such as ‘I’ll wait • comprehend and use more complex
until the cows come home’. relative clauses adverbs, for example,
sentences in which relative clause is
embedded within the main sentence;
for example, ‘The girl who hit the boy
went home’, ‘The girl whom the boy
hit went home’ and ‘The girl the boy
hit went home’.
• comprehend the differences between
a command, a request and a promise.
They can distinguish between ‘I told him
to leave’, ‘I asked him to leave’ and ‘I
promised him to leave’. They can also
distinguish between ‘ask’ and ‘tell’, and
between ‘I may’, ‘I will’ and ‘I can’.
AL
C h a p t er 6
Analysing students’ language

learning capacity
The language a person uses at any time is influenced by their capacity to learn
it. It is possible that some students are not as well developed in this capacity. To
help them to learn language, we need to answer the question: what do they need
to know in order to learn language?
In our ICPALER model, this is the AL aspect (ability to learn). All of the other
aspects depend on how well the person can learn.
The ideas
The conventions
The purpose
Ability to learn
6.1 What learning abilities did the students

in the conversation have?
The conversation in Chapter 2 between the four-year-olds provides a starting
point. Each of them had been able to learn language. How did they need to think,
in order to achieve this?
6.1.1 Forming and using symbols

The students could think about items and events that weren’t present. They talked
about dogs that were not with them at the time. In other words, they used symbols
for both items and events. They could symbolise actions, such as, ‘It just shaked’.
Had the students been unable to symbolise, they would not have been able to talk
about the ideas when they weren’t present. They used sound patterns to symbolise
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the ideas. The spoken word ‘doggie’ doesn’t sound like the animal it represents.
They symbolised actions such as ‘bited’ and ‘falled’.
Young children learn to use symbols in the following order:
1 They first symbolise salient items in their lives, such as the faces of their parents.
2 They symbolise actions and concrete items.
3 They use spoken words to symbolise individual items and groups of items.
4 They learn to use pictorial symbols, such as the ‘golden arches’. When they see
a visual symbol or hear a spoken symbol, they can recall what it means.
5 They learn the alphanumeric symbols used in writing and reading, the letter
clusters and numerals.
6.1.2 A symbol stands for a category or a concept

The students understood that ‘doggie’ referred to more than one particular item.
They believed it applied to a category of items, that is, as a mental category or
an idea. For them a ‘doggie’ had particular features: it barked, bit, was a pet, etc.
They understood ‘doggie’ as being different from ‘cat’ or ‘chair’.
As children develop, they first think that all of the items in a mental category
need to look, sound or feel the same, that is, share particular perceptual features.
This can be a misleading criterion of putting things into categories. Not all things
that are an example of ‘five’ or ‘aunt’ look the same. These categories are often
called percepts.
Later, they learn to think about the categories in logical ways. These mental
categories are called concepts. The concepts associated with ‘five’ or ‘aunt’ are not
based on how things look.
Concepts are a key aspect of language learning. For the word ‘doggie’, children
learn to store in their memory what it symbolises or means and how it is said.
Each spoken word is linked with its meaning.
They also learn how each word is used in language. They wouldn’t say, ‘Peter
will doggie the car’, because they know that ‘doggie’ is the name of an item, not
a verb. They learn that some words are the names of objects, some name actions
and some name attributes or properties such as ‘smallness’ or ‘redness’.
The meaning of a word, how it is said and how it is used in language are
linked in the child’s memory and are collectively referred to as the child’s concept
of a word. Now the children know how to join words in sentences in novel ways.
They have begun to form a word bank from which they can select words to form
sentences and to communicate.
As well as teaching students new vocabulary directly, you may need to teach
some students how to learn new vocabulary for themselves. They need to learn
how to say and remember new sound patterns and to work out what they might
mean. In teaching, we call these vocabulary learning actions.
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Analysi ng stud e nt s ’ l a n g ua ge l e a r n in g c apa cit y
6.1.3 Linking symbols in sequence or order

The students in the conversation arranged word meanings in order to express
their intentions in comprehensible sentences. They also used the word order to
work out the intended meanings of sentences they heard.
Being able to arrange ideas in order and to comprehend by using the word
order are key abilities in learning language. Without it, children may have greater
difficulty learning to comprehend and say sentence meanings, and to use various
grammatical conventions.
Children learn gradually how to do this. They first learn to recognise two
items in order, then three and finally more. They show this in how they first learn
to sequence two items (for example, big – little, large – small and light – heavy),
then three items and then more.
You may need to teach some students how to link two or more symbols in
order. To learn the days of the week or months of the year or to learn to wash
your hands before you eat, for example, students need to learn that sequence is
important, how to repeat particular names in order, or do particular actions in
order, and then apply this to types of names or actions. You wash your hands,
for example, before you eat, regardless of the sink where you wash your hands
or what you will eat. Learning to use self-talk to retain the symbols in order is
important here. In teaching, we call these sequence learning actions.
6.1.4 Linking the ideas in meaningful relationships

The students in the conversation linked single ideas into sentences ideas. They
understood sentences that linked two or more ideas and linked them with the
topic. They understood the links between ideas.
One relationship they seemed to understand in a limited way was cause and
effect. Tom understood the connection between having a ball and biting it. Kath
understood the link between falling into a pool and being dried. Will understood
the link between falling into a pool and drowning.
As children develop, they learn to link ideas in more complex ways:
1 First, they link ideas through actions into an event.
2 Later, they learn how to link symbols. When they hear the event, ‘The cat
drank the milk’, they can imagine the event. These are the simple sentence
meanings mentioned in 3.4.4.
3 Later still, they understand two linked events, for example, ‘Before the cat
drank the milk, it played with the toy’. These were some of the complex
sentence meanings mentioned in 3.4.4.
4 Much later, they understand general links (for example, ‘All puppies are dogs’)
and conditional links (for example, ‘If the car runs out of petrol, it will stop’).
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You may need to teach some students how to form new sentence meanings for
themselves. While listening to a story or watching an event, the students can tell
themselves what happened, or make a picture of it in their minds. They can then say
what they saw and/or heard in sentences or longer discourse. In teaching, we refer to
these ways of thinking as sentence learning actions and discourse learning actions.
6.1.5 Transferring what they know

Individuals transfer their knowledge of language and how it is used to other
situations. Kath transferred what she had heard about Tom’s dog by linking with
her dog. Will linked Tom’s dog with his dog having puppies.
This capacity to transfer what they know is an important capacity for young
children. Teachers need to understand how young students do it. It would be
inappropriate, for example, for Miss Brown to tell Will to ‘stay on the subject’
(which would be about Tom’s dog). The experiential links these young students
are showing in their language illustrate the developmental stage of their capacity
to link and to transfer.
6.1.6 Building a bank of language experiences

The language learner needs to experience language in a range of contexts and
to build a bank of language experiences in memory. They can then use these
experiences and extract a knowledge of language that they transfer and use in
novel contexts. This process is shown in the following figure.
analyse knowledge of
Trial, Language
Earlier language
transfer experiences
language Take apart and • ideas
and apply in novel
experiences put together in • conventions
contexts
novel ways • purposes
The quality and the range of a child’s language experiences can influence what
they learn about language. Children’s earlier language experiences can differ.
Consider two three-year-olds, Lachlan and Ava, who see a ferret and say, ‘Look,
Mummy, doggie’. Look at how the two mothers responded in the figure below.
It’s a ferret. It looks like a

No, it’s dog. But see how it has pointy
Look, Look,
a ferret. ears. Its body is different. See
Mummy, Mummy,
how it is long and thin. It’s a
doggie. doggie.
ferret. It doesn’t bark. What’s
it called? Again?
Lachlan Lachlan’s mother Ava Ava’s mother
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Ava received feedback that tuned her in to looking at the features of the object
she was naming. With enough of these types of experiences, her bank of language
experiences will be of a higher quality than those of Lachlan.
Being aware of some of the differences in students’ earlier language
experiences can help you understand why students know what they know about
language. Children:
1 are exposed to different versions of spoken language. Some infants hear a
version of language that is slightly ahead of where their language is. Others
hear versions of adult language, sometimes shortened or abbreviated.
2 differ in the quality of the positive feedback they receive when they speak
and listen. This feedback affects how they value language as a way of
communicating, how prepared they are to experiment with it and their self-
confidence in using it.
3 differ in the modelling and the encouragement they get to imitate oral
language. Some learn to imitate language selectively and some learn to imitate
how to produce it.
4 differ in the extent to which language is paired with related motor activities
in their experiences. Some infants have a lot of experience pairing what they
say with actions they do. They bang a drum while saying, ‘Bang, bang’, and
repeat, ‘Jump, jump’, while jumping. This provides a link between verbal and
motor activity.
Each type of language experience teaches the child particular aspects of language
learning. If students have not had enough of any of these types, they are more
likely to have later language-learning difficulties. You may need to address this
in your teaching.
Infants store in their memories what they have heard and link this with what
was going on at the time, including the actions they were doing. These experiences
contribute to their capacity to learn language.
6.1.7 A belief that they can use language successfully: How

willing are the students to use language?
The speakers in the conversation in Chapter 2 were prepared to communicate
and even to take control of the conversation. They seemed confident about their
ability to communicate. They seemed to believe that they could make sense or be
successful when they talked.
Children need to believe that they can use language successfully. This confidence
has a significant influence on how they use it. A positive belief means they are
willing or prepared to engage in oral communication and to experiment with it.
Children who believe that they are less likely to use language successfully are less
willing to communicate orally. They store these beliefs in their earlier experiences.
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An individual’s dispositions or attitudes to language use and to themselves as

language learners are critical for later language learning. Without the intrinsic
motivation to learn, progress will be slower. It is important that students see that
they can learn language successfully and that using language works for them.
A key factor in building a positive self-efficacy and an associated self-confidence
is the quality of the feedback that an individual receives. For children learning
language, the feedback on occasions needs to help the child see that they can
communicate meaningfully. It also needs to help them see what they have in place
in terms of meaningful communication and indicate what they can do next to
improve this. It is often needed to model the next step in learning.
An unfortunately too frequent observation is that some students are prepared
to speak only in a restricted range of contexts. They may even, in the extreme,
present as selective mutes in the classroom context. This sometimes arises because of
earlier experiences that have led to the students developing a negative self-efficacy as
language users. Selective mutism is often linked with high levels of anxiety; the child
may want to speak, but their anxiety stops them from making any voice. In other
words, it is involuntary, in that the child can’t activate the mechanism for speaking.
Without effective language expression, a preparedness to experiment and to
try out new ideas, and a knowledge of how to use feedback for what they say, the
future language development of students whose self-efficacy for language is low
will be limited. It is critical that this is targeted in teaching.
6.1.8 Being able to perceive oral language

To learn language, children need to detect the sound patterns that make it, to sort
them out from other noises that occur at the same time, to retain them and to
integrate them. Auditory perceptual abilities include being able to:
1 hear adequately the range of sounds that make up speech (that is, acuity).
Children who detect only some of the sounds that make up words will form
incorrect versions of them and will have greater difficulty recognising
regularities in speech patterns. Those who have intermittent middle-ear
hearing loss, for example, may hear sound sequences differently on different
occasions. This can disturb significantly their experiences of oral language.
2 attend to a spoken message when there are competing sounds, for example,
to attend to what the teacher is saying when students are rustling papers in
the background, or there are footsteps in passage (that is, auditory figure-
ground differentiation).
3 direct and maintain attention to a particular spoken message and to listen to it
selectively when other people are also speaking (auditory selective attention).
4 make or form a complete interpretation of a message either when you only hear
part of it or when you hear the message in parts (auditory gestalt or closure).
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In a classroom, part of a spoken message may be interrupted by other noise, so

the student only hears part of it.
5 retain and say immediately the information they heard (short-term auditory
memory).
All of these auditory perceptual abilities are required for successful learning in
most classrooms.
6.1.9 How do you need to think to learn language?

To learn language, an individual needs to be able to think in the following ways:
Perceive oral language Use symbolism
Link ideas, for example, Conceptualise and categorise

cause–effect
Sequence and order
Learn and store
language experiences Transfer what they know
The more young children use these ways of learning, the more efficiently they
can use them to learn language. Without them, children are less able to learn to
communicate effectively.
6.2 Later developments in the ability to learn

language
The ability to learn language develops further when young children begin to
use what they know about language to direct their future learning and thinking.
We noted in Chapter 2 that our oral language helps us to think about our world
and affects how we interact with it. It provides us with a vehicle for thinking and
learning. It is a key part of our language learning motor.
6.2.1 Learning self-talk

Children show a change in how they process verbal information, usually when
they are about four or five years old. When they engage in an activity—for
example, playing with toys—they talk to themselves about it. They say what
they are doing and what they will do. Their goal is not primarily to communicate
socially with another person. Instead, they are thinking aloud or they are
talking to themselves about the event and what they are doing or feeling. It is
called egocentric speech.
After a period of time, children use egocentric speech less. At the same time,
they show other changes in their thinking. They become more reflective and link
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what they know with the context in which they find themselves. They learn to go
backwards and forwards in time and can link an event they are in now with earlier
events and then predict a future consequence.
They can do these things now, it is proposed (Vygotsky 1989), because they
have acquired the capacity for inner speech, a key aspect of their thinking. The
egocentric speech has been internalised as inner language and the children are
now using it silently.
They use their inner language to tell themselves how to think and what to do
in particular situations. They can now converse with themselves about a problem
or an issue without talking aloud. They can link ideas better in their minds by
using language and can retain ideas more easily by talking about them in various
ways. They can also tell themselves about ideas that are novel or unfamiliar, say
them over to themselves and store them in their memory.
Generally, they are learning to monitor, manage and direct their learning
activity and to respond in ways that are context appropriate (Ramscar & Gitcho
2007). They use this self-talk to focus their attention and their thinking resources
at any time. This activity is a key aspect of their thinking.
This capacity for self-talk develops from the child’s egocentric speech. The
egocentric speech is seen as a transition between the child first learning to use
language to communicate socially and then to use it privately as inner speech, a
key aspect of their thinking.
6.2.2 Learning to manage your language learning activity

The development of self-talk equips young children with thinking capacities
that are critical for subsequent language learning and use. We noted above
how it enables them to cross time barriers, to think into the future and to
plan. More generally, they use it to guide their thinking and learning activity.
Part of their self-talk is referred to as their metacognitive knowledge or self-
management strategies. These help children to become independent learners
in a range of ways:
1 When children are beginning to listen to a story about an unfamiliar topic,
they can tell themselves to plan how they will listen. They can suggest
ideas the story might say, words it might use and questions it might answer.
These all help the children to get what they know ready for speaking and
listening. They can also plan how they will listen and the actions they
might use as they listen. This activity helps them retain and learn from
what they hear.
2 As they listen to the story, they can tell themselves to think about the
ideas they are learning in multiple ways. They can tell themselves to make
a mental videotape of what they hear, to say what they heard in their own
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words, to pick out the main ideas or to say what might happen next. These
actions help them retain the ideas they heard and to understand them in
multiple ways.
3 At the end of listening to a text, they can tell themselves to review what they
have heard, to say the main ideas in different ways, to link them with what they
already knew and to say what they know now that they didn’t know earlier.
These actions help children store the new ideas in their long-term memories
and to recall them better on later occasions.
The quality of a child’s self-talk is determined by the language ideas and forms
they use in their social interactions. A child whose social language is less well-
developed is more likely to learn immature self-talk. This in turn will limit
their capacity to think in order to learn and to use language further. A key issue,
then, is: can students be taught to improve the quality of their self-talk?
Teaching students to use metacognitive strategies when they are listening
improves their understanding of the listening process, their confidence as
listeners and their awareness of how to act strategically when they encounter
comprehension difficulties (Desautel 2009; Goh & Taib 2006). Less able
listeners are assisted more by the teaching. Similar outcomes for reading
comprehension have been observed when Year 1 students are taught explicitly
to use metacognitive strategies that help them to make text connections,
predict and sequence oral language knowledge learnt while reading (Eilers &
Pinkley 2006).
In summary, children learn gradually to teach themselves about language.
To do this, they need to learn how to think about and to retain the language
information. Their metacognitive knowledge, their beliefs about whether they can
learn and use new language effectively, and their ability to transfer and apply their
knowledge are important elements. This constitutes their power house or motor
for subsequent oral language learning.
Children differ in how well they can do this. They differ in how well they can
act to build new linguistic knowledge and how well they can link it with what they
already know. It will be necessary to teach many students to improve their ability
to learn language in these ways.
6.2.3 How well do your students use self-talk?

You can observe how well students in your class use self-talk in a range of ways:
1 You can observe whether they tend to use egocentric speech when they play
or do a task. Some students take a lot longer to internalise the language they
use socially. These are often the students a teacher may ask to work quietly.
2 Before they begin a task—for example, listening to a story—you can ask them
to say what they think the story will tell them and what they will do as they
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listen to it. This will help you see how well the students can plan into the
future and link new information with what they already know.
3 You can ask them to think aloud as they work through a task, that is, say what
they are looking at and thinking about as they complete a task.
4 As they listen to a story, you can ask them to say what they have just heard
in their own words.
6.2.4 Self-efficacy as a language learner and user

It is not sufficient that students know how to learn language. We noted earlier
the importance of a young language learner linking positive rather than negative
emotion with language use. When children reach the capacity to reflect on and
evaluate how they use language, they further develop their beliefs about whether
they can use language successfully.
A child’s identity as a language user, their self-confidence and their self-efficacy
is maintained by the self-talk they use. Children who tell themselves, ‘I can’t tell
other people how I feel’, or, ‘I’m not good at saying what I think’, are unlikely to
improve their ability to learn language. To learn to use language independently,
they also need to believe that they can learn it and feel safe about taking risks
with the ideas they say. When children feel unsafe talking about their thoughts
or feelings, or believe that they will be valued less for the ideas they say, their
self-efficacy is likely to be lower.
Negative self-talk about language learning capacity needs to be replaced by
more positive self-talk. This is more likely when the feedback that a child receives
tells them that they can make sense when they communicate and that using
language works for them.
Students need to learn this in specific classroom contexts. I recently asked
a student in a Year 8 class to say the meaning of ‘scuffling’. She replied, ‘I don’t
know’. I asked, ‘Have you got a picture in your mind of what people are doing when
they are scuffling?’ She answered, ‘They are pushing and shoving each other and
tripping over’. I discussed with the class the importance of giving yourself time
to ‘say your mind pictures in sentences’. At the end of the lesson I asked the class
to review what they had learnt about how to learn better. One of the things that
most of the students wrote down was to say my mental pictures in sentences.
6.3 Cultural differences in teaching the ability

to learn language
Cultures differ in how they teach their children to learn language. There is not
the space in this book to examine these differences in depth. Instead, some of the
main ways in which they differ are noted so that teachers can be aware of these
and look for evidence of them in their teaching. They include:
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1 the opportunities they provide for language learning

2 the aspects of language they value and prioritise, what they see as valuable
language outcomes, what they encourage the students to talk about and what
is taboo
3 the contexts in which they encourage language use
4 the ways in which they scaffold the learning—some cultures may encourage
students to be analytic about language from a young age, while others may
encourage imitation
5 how they provide feedback for the language students use.
These areas of variation affect the implicit beliefs children have about how to
learn language and how they and others are expected to behave in language
transactions. They shape how a child will approach a language learning activity
in a deep way.
Teachers of multicultural classes need to be aware of this multiplicity when
implementing language teaching programs. It is unlikely that students will be
able to talk about these differences. Teachers need to be aware of the assumptions
they are making in their teaching about how students learn language and be
prepared to examine options when teaching students from different cultures.
6.4 The need to integrate and automatise the

aspects of language
Each aspect of the ICPALER model is relatively complex. For this reason we have
unpacked each aspect separately. This is not the way that the aspects are used in
effective communication. From a young age, each communicator uses the aspects
in a synthesised, integrated way when they speak and listen. They gradually learn
to do this automatically.
This capacity to integrate covers all aspects of the ICPALER model. The
aspects do not operate in isolation but are intricately linked and related. To
illustrate this, let us review the location of vocabulary in the ICPALER model.
Vocabulary is located in the Ideas aspect. While this is its main role, vocabulary is
in all parts of the ICPALER model. Word meanings can be influenced by the ways
in which they are combined in sentences and longer discourse using grammatical
and discourse conventions.
The purposes of language are also influenced by vocabulary. How well we
adjust language to take account of the context and audience, or use language to
achieve different goals, will be influenced by our vocabulary and our ability to
select the most appropriate words. How well we understand and use idioms and
metaphors will also depend on our vocabulary.
As well, the aspects of the ICPALER model are linked with emotions that are
based on a person’s earlier language experiences. Children who have had fewer
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positive experiences or who don’t think they can use language successfully will
link more negative emotions with the aspects of language.
The integration of the various aspects occurs in the children’s thinking spaces or
short-term working memory. The more efficiently a child can use this, the more a
child can bring together the various aspects and integrate them. A child’s ability to
learn language provides this integration for the other aspects of the ICPALER model.
Some children will have difficulty integrating some aspects into their language
use. For example, they may attempt to communicate what are for them complex
ideas but use the conventions in an immature way. Others, in their haste to
communicate complex ideas, may achieve their purpose in immature ways.
It is easier to integrate aspects of knowledge when you can use each aspect
relatively automatically. Children whose language use suggests they have not
automatised aspects can be assisted by continuing to practise those aspects
simultaneously with the aspects they are doing more effectively. From a teaching
perspective, some students will need time and practice in order to automatise
what they know about oral language.
6.5 The need to contextualise

In order to automatise their oral language, children need to use it in a range of
contexts and use the feedback they receive from others. Part of the transfer process
involves being able to see how to fit their purpose or reason for communicating
into the particular context.
Some children may have difficulty doing this. They may find it hard to
communicate in unfamiliar situations or be reluctant to communicate. They may
not feel confident of their oral language in the situation or they may not see how
what they know fits in. They may need teaching that helps them in both areas.
84
ER
C h a p t er 7
Screening procedures to identify

oral language knowledge in
the classroom
In this chapter we examine how you can screen your students’ oral language
using the ICPALER model. Each of the I, C, P and AL aspects involves several
components. To do the screening, you need to use tasks that enable you to see each
component in the student’s activity.
The focus is not on assessing students’ oral language knowledge to work out
their age or year norms. There are several available texts that can give you this
information (for example, Newcomer & Hammill 2008; Reynell & Gruber 1990;
Semel, Wiig & Secord 2006). Rather, the focus is on screening what students
know at any time to assist teachers to put together an oral language profile of the
students and to plan the next step in teaching.
The screening looks at how well students use particular aspects of the ICPALER
model in regular classroom contexts. It helps teachers learn more about how their
students use language in authentic, real-life situations. It will help teachers to develop
a lens for seeing and hearing language use, the oral language knowledge and skills
students have, and the problems of students who have language difficulties. From
this, teachers can plan effective teaching programs for the group as a whole and
intervention programs for those who are having difficulty.
7.1 Screening for pronunciation difficulties

One of the first things you will notice about students’ oral language is whether
they have pronunciation difficulties, which will make their speech difficult to
understand. This can be due to either a speech disorder or to language disorder.
A speech disorder relates to the E aspect, the expression of language. Some
students may show a broad-based expressive difficulty with adequate language
comprehension. Their speech is difficult for others to comprehend. It may be
dysfluent, effortful and have defective sound patterns. It may comprise short
85
unintelligible utterances and the child may have difficulty imitating sound
sequences. Sentences may be sequenced incorrectly.
Speech disorders occur because some children have difficulty performing the
actions needed to produce speech. For example, they may have difficulty moving
their mouth cavities, their tongues or their lips. This difficulty can be due to
several causes:
• Children may have difficulty co-ordinating the muscles needed for speech.
Sometimes this is caused by poor muscle tone. Children may have motor
difficulties in other areas as well.
• Children may have impairments to the parts of the body used to produce
speech. They may be tongue tied, have dental abnormalities, a cleft palate
or have inappropriate movement of the soft palate so that it doesn’t close off
adequately the nasal cavity from the mouth during speech.
• Children may have learned misarticulations. They haven’t learnt to say some
sounds accurately, even though they don’t have any of the above causes.
Children with articulation problems consistently mispronounce particular
sounds and sound sequences. A frequent speech difficulty is stuttering, where
children repeat words, syllables or sounds, prolong sounds or stop voicing sounds
by blocking the air flow. It is often accompanied by severe negative emotional
reactions such as anxiety, frustration and embarrassment. These children require
access to speech pathology guidance and management. The Australian Stuttering
Research Centre’s website is a useful resource <www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/asrc>.
7.1.1 Pronunciation difficulties due to a phonological impairment

Some children mispronounce some sounds when they are followed by certain
other sounds. Their phonological and phonemic knowledge, described in 4.2.5,
is restricted in particular ways. Their articulation patterns can either be typical
of younger children or may show unusual sound patterns. They may show the
misarticulations either consistently or inconsistently. These are phonological
impairments and can be due to:
• the slower development of particular sound patterns; some children learn
particular sounds more slowly than peers
• the speech patterns a child has heard; children learn sound patterns through
their interactions with others, in their family and school environments
• specific difficulties learning and storing knowledge about how words are said;
some children may have auditory or hearing difficulties that affect how accurately
they hear the sound patterns. They may also have difficulty actually storing the
sound patterns in their memory and thinking about them in the required ways.
A phonological impairment is more difficult to analyse than a speech disorder because
the child says particular sounds accurately in some contexts but not in others.
86
identifying oral language knowledge in the classroom
7.1.2 When should you be concerned about a student’s word

pronunciation?
You may be concerned when a student mispronounces words you would expect
them to know. Your first step is to describe as precisely as you can the aspects of
the student’s speech that concern you. You can record samples of their speech and
use section 4.2 Phonological conventions to decide the sound patterns the student
can articulate and those that cause difficulty. The table in the section 5.4 How
aspects of oral language develop, Developmental sequence for ideas, purposes and
conventions in oral language (DSIPC) , will help you to decide whether a student’s
speech pattern is typical for the student.
7.2 Observing students’ oral language in

classroom activities
Once you have dealt with pronunciation difficulties, you can screen students’ use
of oral language to note the I, C, P and AL aspects they have in place. This will
help you see how students generally use the aspects in the classroom and which
students are having difficulty.
7.2.1 How do your students use each aspect of the ICPALER model?
You can begin by observing how the students handle each aspect of the ICPALER
model in a range of contexts or activities. You can do this as part of your regular
teaching. At the Prep to Year 2 year level, this may include observing their use
of language while listening to stories, doing gross-motor and perceptual-motor
activities, completing spatial activities and puzzles, doing art, talking to the group
in show-and-tell activities and in spontaneous conversations.
To do this, plan one or more tasks for each aspect of the ICPALER model
in each context. Examples of these tasks are shown in Observing oral language
behaviours (OOLB): Examples (pp. 89–95). The main aspects of the ICPALER
model are in the left-hand column. Possible types of tasks for each context are
shown in the remaining columns. You can use these examples to design particular
tasks for your students. These will be your test items. They will usually be the
types of things you assume most of your students can do. You can get pointers for
what to look for in Chapters 3 to 6.
You may want to know whether the language behaviours you are assessing are
relevant to the age range of your students and where your cohort is situated on
the language development continuum. You can use the DSIPC table (pp. 65–72)
in four ways:
1 To see where the tasks that you design and the language behaviours you plan
to assess sit on the continuum. You can see the lowest age range of typically
developing students likely to be able to complete the task.
87
2 To see where your students are located in the developmental sequence, once
you have collected the observation data for your group.
3 To see the location of individual students who have difficulty with some of
the tasks. You can use the errors they made to locate their level of language
development.
4 To see the types of language knowledge and skills your students could learn
next.
You can use the OOLB group checklist (pp. 94–95) to record the performance
of each student in your class on each aspect in a context. Use a checklist for each
context and write the tasks for each aspect in the Tasks column. Write the names
of the students across the top row. Record each student’s response to each task as
a ✔ or ✗. The OOLB group checklist includes three additional criteria to those
in the OOLB examples table (pp. 89–93). These relate to the student’s overall
willingness and preparedness to use oral language, the overall fluency with which
the student does this and whether the student shows co-occurring difficulties. As
well:
1 where students use language incorrectly, it is useful to record exactly what
they say.
2 record where students use language less efficiently; for example, take a long
time to say a word or sentence or frequently have difficulty recalling the
appropriate words.
You will need to record these observations separately.
In any one session in one context, you may have time to observe the responses
of only five or six students. If you are recording students’ responses in a context
for two or more sessions, you may need to change some of the specific tasks. In
the big book listening comprehension context, for example, your tasks for the first
session may refer to the first six pages, when you observe how well particular
students name items and say in sentences what pictures on these pages show. In
the second session you may observe how well other students name items and say
in sentences what pictures on the next six pages show.
Before each session, decide which students you will monitor in each context.
If you covered three contexts in a day, it may be advisable to monitor different
students in each context. It is advisable to monitor each student’s language use in
more than one context. This will allow you to observe whether a student shows
difficulties in a range of contexts.
88
Observing oral language behaviours (OOLB) examples
Context
Listening to story
Gross motor presented as a big book Art activities
How well the student: The student: The student: The student:
comprehends recognises and comprehends the recognises and comprehends the recognises and comprehends the
vocabulary (IR: names of parts of the body and names of items and actions in the names of items and actions used
words) the actions they do pictures in the story in art activities
uses words names parts of the body and the names items in the pictures in the names and describes actions,
appropriately (IE: actions they do story items and attributes in art
words) activities
says words accurately says accurately the names of parts says accurately the names of items says accurately the names of items
(CE: words) of the body and actions in the story in the art activities
understands comprehends and/or acts out one- comprehends and/or acts out one comprehends and/or acts out
sentences (IR: event and two-event instructions or two events described in the instructions and descriptions of
sentences, reception) story one or two events in art activities
repeats sentences describes how to do actions and says a sentence that links two or says a sentence about events in
heard (IE: sentences) gives instructions more items in the story the art activities
says sentences with a describes one or more actions in says one or more events in the text says one or more actions in art
particular grammar a particular form, for example, in sentences using a particular activities using a particular
(CE: sentences) ‘After you … ’ grammatical form grammatical form
The symbols used refer to the aspect of language (ideas (I), conventions (C), purposes (P) or ability to learn (AL)) and whether the
behaviour involves speaking (that is, expression (E)) or listening (that is, reception (R)). Thus, IR refers to listening to ideas and CE
refers to using conventions in speech.
89
Observing oral language behaviours (OOLB) examples (continued)
90
Context
Listening to story
Gross motor presented as a big book Art activities
How well the student: The student: The student: The student:
comprehends comprehends one or more actions shows comprehension of comprehends events in art that
sentences with a said in a particular sentence form, sentences that have a particular are said in a particular sentence
particular grammar for example, ‘After you … ’ grammatical form form, for example, ‘After you … ’
(CE: sentences)
listens, understands listens to, comprehends and acts comprehends and recalls the comprehends and recalls a
and retains what was out two or more instructions events that have happened on a sequence of events that happened
heard (IR: discourse) page just heard during art activities
says a message gives a sequence of instructions says in sentences the events that describes in sentences the events
longer than one about physical activities to others have happened on a page just that have happened during art
sentence (IE: heard activities
discourse)
uses language shows effective social shows effective social uses language effectively in social
effectively in communication skills in physical communication skills during interactions during art activities,
social contexts to activities and games listening and reading activities, requests materials effectively from
communicate (PE & can say why characters in a story peers, discusses art outcomes of
R: all components) take particular actions, how they peers
might feel
learns new language can attend to spoken information, recalls the names of unfamiliar recalls and comprehends the
and uses language can sequence spoken ideas in items mentioned earlier in the names of items used in art
to learn (AL: all physical activities, can learn story, recalls what happened on activities.
components) and recall new ideas in language earlier pages.
forms.
Context
Morning talk Spatial activities and puzzles Incidental conversations

How well the
student: The student: The student: The student:
comprehends comprehends the names of items recognises and comprehends recognises and comprehends the
vocabulary (IR: and actions mentioned in the the names of items, actions and words used in conversations with
words) events described adjectives in spatial activities peers
and puzzles, for example,
comprehends terms such as
‘beside’ and ‘longer’
uses words recalls the names of items and Recalls and uses the names of recalls and uses appropriate
appropriately (IE: actions mentioned in the events items, actions and adjectives in words in conversations with peers
words) described spatial activities and puzzles
says words says accurately the names of says accurately the names of says accurately the words used in
accurately (CE: items in the events items, actions and adjectives in conversations with peers
words) spatial activities and puzzles
understands comprehends / acts out one comprehends and/or acts out one comprehends and/or acts out
sentences (IR: or two events described in the or two events in spatial activities one or two events mentioned in
sentences, reception) sentence and puzzle contexts conversations with peers
repeats sentences says a sentence that links two or says a sentence that links two or uses sentences effectively to
heard (IE: more items in an event more events in spatial activities communicate intentions in
sentences) and puzzle contexts conversations with peers
91
Observing oral language behaviours (OOLB) examples (continued)
92
Context

How well the
says sentences uses sentences during morning describes one or more actions in uses particular grammatical
with a particular talk that have particular a particular form, for example, forms effectively in
grammar (CE: grammatical forms ‘After you …’ conversations
sentences)
comprehends comprehends sentences that have comprehends one or more comprehends particular
sentences with a particular grammatical forms actions said in a particular grammatical forms spoken by
particular grammar during morning talk activities sentence form, for example, peers in conversations
(CE: sentences) ‘After you …’
listens, understands comprehends and recalls the listens to, comprehends and acts listens to and comprehends peer
and retains what events mentioned in morning talk out two or more instructions conversations
was heard (IR: in spatial activities and puzzle
discourse) contexts
says a message participates in morning talk gives a sequence of instructions contributes effectively to
longer than one activities by comprehending and about events in spatial activities and participates in peer
sentence (IE: using a sequence of sentences and puzzle contexts conversations
discourse)
Context

How well the
uses language effective social communication shows effective social converses effectively with
effectively in skills in morning talk activities, communication skills in spatial peers; initiates and maintains
social contexts to for example, asks for activities and puzzle contexts, a conversation, listens well and
communicate (PE & clarification of ideas mentioned uses language that focuses her or shares effectively
R: all components) by others, asks questions, takes his activity and that supports the
on board what peers might know participation of peers
about an event
learns new language learns and uses new vocabulary learns and uses new vocabulary learns new vocabulary and
and uses language and language forms mentioned in and language forms in spatial ideas by participating in peer
to learn (AL: all morning talk. activities and puzzle contexts. conversations, and can recall
components) new ideas mentioned by peers in
conversations.
93
94
Observing oral language behaviours (OOLB) group checklists
Students’ names
Does the student: Tasks
Teaching Oral Language © John Munro 2011

comprehend vocabulary well
(IR: words)
use words appropriately (IE:

words)
say words accurately (CE:

words)
understand sentences (IR:

sentences, reception)
say sentences heard (IE:

sentences)
say sentences with a

particular grammar (CE:
sentences)
comprehend sentences with
a particular grammar (CE:
sentences)
listen, understand and

retain what was heard (IR:
discourse)
say a message longer than one

sentence (IE: discourse)
use language effectively

in social contexts to
communicate (PE & R)
learn new language and uses

language to learn (AL)
use language confidently and

willingly
use language fluently
show learning difficulties in

other areas
95

7.2.2 What to listen or look for in students’ use of language

When you are observing students’ language use, you can look for:
1 How willingly does a student engage in using language? Some students, for
a range of reasons, may be less prepared to do this, even though they can
understand and express ideas. They may lack confidence in their ability to
communicate, believe they cannot communicate successfully. They may fear
the consequences of talking. Students need to feel comfortable about using
language in each context. You may need to put in place the climate and culture
to support and foster it.
2 How fluently does a student use language? Some students are less fluent in
particular aspects of the ICPALER model. Some may take much longer than
their peers to recall or say words or to act out what they hear. Some may need
to hear a sentence more often than their peers before they can comprehend it.
By observing how students use oral language in multiple contexts, you will see
how consistent any problem area is.
3 How broad based is the language difficulty? Oral language difficulties can
range from broad-based to specific difficulties in particular areas. You can use
the table below to assist in unpacking this.
Are there difficulties with the meaning aspects of language?
Individuals say words accurately and Individuals have difficulty comprehending
say sentences and discourse that are words or sentence meanings correctly.
grammatically correct and fluent. However, They may take a comparatively long time
what they say is either not sensible or may to work out what individual words or
express immature meanings. sentences mean. The difficulty is meaning-
They may, for example, have difficulty finding based, rather than convention-based.
particular words they want and tend to:
• talk around an idea
• say inappropriate or incorrect words in
their spontaneous conversations, ask ‘how
do you say it?’, use fillers such as ‘er, er …’
Are there difficulties using the conventions of language?
Individuals know what they want to say but Individuals have difficulty using
have difficulty saying it. They may: conventions to help them understand what
• use immature or incorrect grammar, or other people’s language means such as:
other language forms such as incorrect • how words are said
morphology. They may omit function • how grammar is used.
words such as ‘the’, ‘a’ or pronouns, misuse
prepositions and morphological endings
such as ‘-ed’.
• say words inaccurately or show articulation
patterns typical of much younger peers.
96
Is the use of language inappropriate?
Individuals can use meanings and Individuals have difficulty understanding
conventions but have difficulty using how language is used in context, for
language effectively in ways that work for example:
them. They may be less able to: • the signals people use to initiate or
• initiate or engage in conversation, conclude a conversation
although they can comprehend what it • non-literal interpretations of language,
said for example, ‘You need to pull up your
• use language in context and either socks’.
ramble repetitively or tangentially link • the goals or intention of others, such as
ideas without regard to the listener. those shown in stressing ‘that’ in ‘I want
you to do that’.
4 Does a student’s language difficulty co-occur with other conditions that

can restrict learning in the classroom? As you observe the student’s use of
language in a range of contexts, you can also see whether a student possibly
has an associated intellectual disability or social-emotional difficulties.
One of the values of the model is that it suggests you ask: Which aspects of oral
language does the student have in place?
7.3 Assembling ICPALER oral language screening

profiles
After you have observed the students’ use of oral language in the various classroom
contexts, you can compile a profile for the class as a whole and for individual
students who may warrant further assistance.
You can use the Oral language screening profile – brief (OLSP–B) (Appendix 1)
to collate how often a student or a group of students shows each aspect of the
ICPALER model. You can complete the OLSP–B using the data you have collected
from your classroom observations and from what you remember about your students’
use of language. A higher rating on this profile suggests more effective use of the
aspect. This will identify the students whose language use may not be appropriate.
From this screening you can see which students merit a more in-depth profile.
Select those students whose language use was not appropriate and collate an
in-depth profile for each. For this you can use the Oral language observational
profile – in depth (OLOP–D) (Appendix 2). Again, you can use the data you have
collected from your observations of students and from what you remember about
their use of language. Higher ratings on this chart suggest greater difficulty or
less mature language development.
For a student who shows inappropriate language use, you can use this to
identify the areas of language use that are causing difficulty. For the I and C
97
aspects, the expressive and receptive aspects are treated separately so you can
see any differences.
Both the OLSP–B and the OLOP–D treat articulation by itself, so that you can
look at it separately. Several items are not appropriate for all year levels. You may
need to focus on those that are age appropriate for the students you are assessing.
The DSIPC table (pp. 65–72) indicates these.
Once you have identified the areas of difficulty, you can analyse them further.
A key thing you need to know for any area of difficulty is what the student has in
place. You can use the different components of each aspect of the ICPALER model
to do this, as described in the earlier chapters. Below are two examples.
7.3.1 Example 1
For a student with difficulty in the word area of the ideas aspect, you may want
to know the types of word meaning the student finds easiest and hardest. You can
analyse samples of the student’s conversations and use the table below to collate
the number of each type of error. You could ask the student to take you through
the story in a big book familiar to them and count the number of errors for each
type of morpheme.
Examples of errors Number of errors

Content word errors
Function word errors
Bound morpheme errors
This will help you see where most of the student’s individual meanings errors
occur in the conversation.
7.3.2 Example 2
For a student with difficulty in the ideas area of the discourse aspect, you can
look for evidence of a difficulty in discourse understanding in the student’s
conversations, storytelling and retelling of earlier events and experiences. After
you have read a big book to the student, you can ask them to retell the text, using
the book as a prompt if necessary. You can monitor how the student uses and
understands discourse meaning systematically by using the following table.
98
How well does the student: Expressive language Receptive language

recall all or most of the main The key ideas are The key ideas are recalled
ideas in a message? mentioned or not omitted. and understood.
recall and use or apply The sentence ideas are said The sentence ideas are
sentence ideas in the correct in order. comprehended in order.
sequence?
continue a key idea across the Ideas that are on track are The ideas mentioned earlier
sentence? said; elaborates, supports, are used to interpret and
questions, debates or respond to what is heard.
refutes ideas mentioned
earlier.
anticipate or predict what The ideas in each sentence What might be said next is
might be said or heard next? and across sentences flow predicted.
or hang together in their
meaning.
You can use this table as a behavioural checklist to monitor students’ behaviours
in the following activities: listening to and telling stories; recounting experiences;
discussing events; and engaging in other verbal interactions.
7.4 Using the profiles to plan teaching

You can use the profiles to plan a teaching program for individual students and
for groups of students. For individual students, the Oral language summary and
the ICPALER profile you compile will indicate the aspects of the student’s oral
language knowledge you need to target in teaching. On the OLSP-D, the aspects
you may need to target in teaching are those that have a rating score of more
than three. You can use the OLSP–B and the OLOP–D (Appendices 1 and 2) to
group the students into teaching groups. You can find the recommended teaching
activities in Chapters 8–13.
99
pa r t 2
Teaching
Part 2 describes teaching procedures you can use for each aspect of ICPALER. A
key focus here is on enhancing children’s capacity to learn the various aspects of
oral language. Students are scaffolded to become self-teachers of oral language.
As well, they learn to integrate their oral language knowledge and skills at any
time and see that they can be successful language learners.
101
C h a p t er 8
A teaching framework for

enhancing students’ oral
language in classrooms
In this chapter, we look at how you can use the ICPALER model to teach oral
language knowledge and skills. An early decision you will need to make is where
to begin the teaching, that is, which aspects of the model you will teach.
8.1 What to teach?

You can decide what to teach in various ways, depending on your purpose:
• You may be planning an intervention program for an individual student or
a small group who have oral language difficulties, based on their OLOP–D
using the assessment procedures provided in Chapter 7 or other assessment
information.
• You may be planning future teaching activities for a group of students as part
of their regular curriculum in typical classroom activities.
You can use the table Matching the ICPALER Profile with a Teaching Plan on
page 103 to identify and plan the aspects you will teach either to a class or to
individual students.
You can use the table Matching the ICPALER Profile with Teaching Activities
on page 104 to identify the teaching activities you will target. In this table, the
numbers matched with each aspect of the ICPALER model indicate the relevant
section in the following chapters that describe the reading activities. The
distinction between the expressive and receptive components has been removed;
it is recommended that you teach both.
102
Matching the ICPALER profile with a teaching plan
Vocabulary Sentence Discourse Topic

Expression Reception Expression Reception Expression Reception Expression Reception
Ideas say and use comprehend say and use comprehend and recount, retell comprehend say and use comprehend
vocabulary vocabulary sentence act out sentences use sentence spoken discourse the topic while the topic of a
correctly learn to meanings learn to links correctly in comprehend speaking discourse
learn to say new understand new learn to say comprehend speech links between learn topic
word meanings meanings various forms forms of sentence learn discourse sentences expresssion
use bound comprehend of sentence meanings; expression learn discourse actions
morphemes bound meanings; to question and actions comprehension
morphemes ask questions, to instruction forms actions
name items instruct
rapidly infer cause–
talk about effect and the
cause–effect order of events
and the order of
events
Conventions segment words recognise use grammar comprehend use discourse listen effectively refer to the topic comprehend
into sounds and segments and correctly in grammatical conventions in and comprehend of a discourse the topic of a
blend sounds into blends speech forms speech discourse while speaking discourse
words conventions
Purpose Expression Reception
Manage and direct language use manage the speaking and listening aspects of conversing and discussing topics, initiate conversations with peers, take
turns, know when to stop and respond to social cues from the audience
Listen and speak between lines talk about ideas in imaginative ways comprehend imaginative and figurative references
Adjust to context and audience judge how much information to give when speaking recognise adjustments necessary for context and audience
Goals for language use use language in a range of ways understand what other people say and mean
Stay on the topic using the words most appropriate to a context follow a conversation and stay on topic
Use the context to interpret what is use the context to inform what they say use the context while listening
said
Ability to learn Retain ideas short term retain, recognise and recall information in short-term memory activities
Use long-term memory retain between sessions what they have learnt
Use language learning actions use vocabulary extension, sentence meaning, discourse meaning and topic learning actions
Articulation patterns learn to articulate sound patterns
Perceive speech learn to use auditory perceptual skills, discrimination and sound localisation skills
Build self-confidence as a language develop positive self-efficacy as a language user and learner
user
Integrate the aspects of language produce and comprehend speech that suggests the aspects of the ICPALER model are integrated
enhancing students’ oral language in classrooms
103
Matching the ICPALER profile with teaching activities
104
Name of student / group: Date:
Ideas say, use and comprehend vocabulary say and comprehend sentence recount, retell and comprehend work out, say, use and comprehend
correctly – 9.1 meanings – 10.1 spoken discourse – 11.1 the topic of a discourse – 11.4
learn to say and understand new word learn to say and comprehend two- learn discourse comprehension
meanings – 9.2 event sentence meanings – 10.2 actions – 11.2
recall the names of items – 9.3 infer and talk about complex sentence
rapidly use and comprehend bound meanings such as cause–effect – 10.3

morphemes – 9.4
link meanings into a vocabulary
network – 9.5
Conventions segment spoken words into sounds use grammar correctly in speech listen effectively and comprehend refer to the topic of a discourse while
and blend sounds into words – 9.6 and comprehend grammatical forms discourse and use discourse speaking – 11.5
– 10.4 conventions in speech – 11.1
Purpose Manage and direct language use – 12.2
Listen and speak between lines – 12.5
Adjust to context and audience – 12.3
Goals for language use – 12.4
Stay on the topic in the most recent version of the text - 12.3
Use the context to interpret what is said - 12.3
Ability to learn Retain ideas short term – 8.4.1
Use long-term memory – 8.4.2
Articulation patterns – 8.4.3
Perceive speech – 8.4.4
Use language learning actions – 8.4.5
Build self confidence as a language user – 13.8
Integrate the aspects of language – 13.2–13.5
Ability to transfer language knowledge – 13.7
8.2 Incidental and spontaneous learning or

systematic and explicit teaching?
There will be aspects of oral language that students in your class can learn
incidentally and spontaneously. They simply need to be immersed in these aspects
and interact with them. To learn like this, they need a sufficiently well-developed
knowledge to incorporate the new ideas. They also need to know how to learn, to
see a reason for learning and believe they can learn.
There will be other aspects that you need to teach explicitly and systematically.
The students will not have the same level of existing oral language knowledge for
these. They may not have been exposed to using language in these ways. They
may not have learnt how to learn language in these ways. Whatever the cause,
their existing knowledge will not scaffold learning incidentally.
Students entering Prep vary in their existing oral language knowledge.
Aspects that can be learnt spontaneously by some students will need to be taught
explicitly to others.
The teaching activities described here are intended for those students who are less
able to learn those aspects incidentally and spontaneously. We recommend you teach
them in a systematic, consistent way with a focus on explicit student outcomes. The
goal of this teaching is always towards assisting the students to become spontaneous
language learners, able to teach themselves, as shown in the figure below.
incidental Oral Language Learning Continuum systematic

spontaneous explicit
learning learning and
teaching
Most language is learnt here Need more learning here
Given that we recommend structured, systematic oral language teaching for

some students, we need to examine how this is structured. A set of principles for
designing and implementing this teaching is described below.
8.3 Principles for designing the language teaching

Any teaching makes assumptions about how learning occurs. Teaching language
skills to young students is no exception. This section describes some of the key
assumptions made by our approach to teaching (Munro 1995). Teach language
skills and knowledge:
1 that assist young students to communicate effectively their understanding
and intentions at any time. Their understanding of their world at this time is
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changing rapidly. This is reflected in the types of ideas they intend to convey.
The teaching needs to take account of a student’s overall understanding at any
time and expect and allow it to evolve.
2 that help students to achieve their goals or purposes. Young students learn
language more effectively when they see that it works for them. You may need
to guide them to see this, through the feedback you give. Encourage them to
use language to pursue their goals and motives in a range of contexts that are
not restricted to the language teaching sessions.
3 that matches what they know about language and their world at any time.
Teaching is most effective when it begins with what a student does know. Some
students’ knowledge of a topic is better developed in non-verbal, experiential
forms rather than in language forms. To help these students use what they
know in language exchanges, teach them how to say their imagery and action
knowledge and to talk about their mental pictures in sentences.
Young students also differ in their self-beliefs as learners, in how they have
learnt to use language to note detail in situations, to label items, to imitate
what they have heard, to retain ideas briefly or to gain information by asking
questions. The teaching needs to take account of these differences.
Many students learn language more effectively and can recall what they have
learnt when they link distinctive actions, called motor mediators, with the ideas.
They recall the word ‘drink’, for example, when they act out raising a cup to their
mouth. Teaching kindergarten children to link actions with letters, for example,
by running their fingers over raised letters, helps them read words better.
Music also helps students to learn, for example, singing unfamiliar words
(Schön et al. 2008). This could be because similar areas of the brain process
music and language. Ways of using music to enhance young students’
vocabulary, grammar, awareness of rhythm and turn taking are provided by
Beaton (1995). Singing activities can assist language learning for English-as-
a-second-language students and for students learning to sign in American
Sign Language (Schunk 1999).
4 in contexts in which the students communicate interactively. Some approaches
to language teaching put students in a recipient role, in which they are
communicated upon, responding to information from others. What they will
learn has been decided earlier; it is pre-programmed. Their responses at any
time do not shape the information they receive next. Our assumption is that
students learn language more effectively when they can share their knowledge
and to receive feedback for this (Munro 1995).
5 in contexts in which the meaning of the message is unambiguous, clear and obvious
to students, for example, where they talk about events they are experiencing or
actions they have done. It is easier to learn from particular events where the features
that the language refers to are obvious and stand out clearly for the student.
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6 in natural exchanges in the student’s world where they communicate real

or authentic messages. The real world is frequently complex, with much
happening at once. Language teaching programs often simplify or reduce
its complexity. Even in these situations, however, it is recommended that the
messages the students share are authentic.
7 so that the students have the optimal opportunity to use their knowledge of
language and practise their emerging communication skills.
8 by following a pathway that is based on normal language development. This
pathway is used to decide what to teach next. Some language programs sequence
the knowledge and skills students will be expected to learn in a ‘logical’ order.
These sequences of language skills may not match the developmental path
followed by language acquisition. We recommend a sequence that is based on
how students actually acquire or develop language.
These principles are used to guide the teaching recommendations in the following
sections.
8.4 The contexts for teaching the aspects of

language
There are three components to the issue of contexts in language teaching that it
is useful to consider:
1 The different ways in which you present the language information and the
activities you will use to teach the aspects
2 The topics of themes you will use as a focus for the activities
3 The size of the learning group; whether you implement the teaching
individually with students, in small groups or in large groups.
We will examine these components in this section.
You can teach the aspects of the ICPALER framework in various information
contexts (Munro 1995), for example, in the context of:
1 action comprehension: students do action sequences with toys in play activities,
drama and other action sequences in which they can link actions and language.
This could be toy play around the theme of a farm, your street, the beach
or the zoo; acting out a group experience such as an excursion; acting out
occupations such as an office worker, a fireman or a train driver; actions in
physical education; and actions in learning school topics such as mathematics
or science. Students use oral language to talk about what they do, follow
instructions and learn new vocabulary by doing actions.
2 picture comprehension: students see a poster, a sequence of pictures that
show an event or real-life situation or a film that tells a story and describe
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and comprehend what they saw. Students use oral language to describe and
comprehend what they see.
3 listening comprehension: students listen to longer spoken prose such as a serial
narrative, a big book, a description, a set of actions or an explanation. Students
listen strategically, show comprehension by gesturing or speaking, recalling
and applying their knowledge.
4 speech and storytelling activities: students talk about experiences, tell stories
and convey ideas spontaneously. They can talk about their favourite story or
television program, recent event or a picture that no one else in the group can
see. The students communicate their ideas to others.
These contexts differ in how the students think about the information and
in how they teach each aspect of the ICPALER model. It is often useful to
teach a new aspect first in the action comprehension context, then in picture
comprehension, then in listening comprehension and finally through speech and
storytelling. Learning it first as actions helps students understand it better and
engage with it. Their actions can become their ways of thinking about the ideas.
You can select the texts you will use for the action, the picture and the listening
activities based on the oral language knowledge and needs of your students.
Examples of the types of activities that you could use in each task context for
each aspect of language are shown in the figure on page 109. They are illustrated
for a class learning about how fish, frogs and tadpoles live in a pond or creek near
the school (or in the classroom aquarium).
The aspects of language you intend to teach are for the students to:
• recall and practise listening strategies and learn new listening strategies
• review and practise the receptive and expressive vocabulary they know, learn
new vocabulary, and link synonyms and antonyms
• use and learn new sentence meanings, answer questions and learn new question
forms, follow instructions and act out sentences they hear
• learn to use new grammatical forms, act out an event and learn to say what
they did in multiple ways
• learn to use visualising and verbalising strategies, for example, ‘Imagine you
are a goldfish talking to a shark. What would you say?’
• retell what they know about an event, a picture or a story, for example,
progressive memory activities such as, ‘In the story I met …’, or make up a
play action story for peers
• organise oneself as a listener and to learn to be a disciplined listener
• on later occasions, recall what they remember about the context and the new
vocabulary, the key ideas and the images they had learnt. They can use pictures
of the new vocabulary on flash cards to name items more rapidly and to talk
about the items in sentences.
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Action comprehension context Listening comprehension context

• The students play with toy fish in a Students listen to a story about the lives of
wading pool or pretend to be fish. a family of fish presented in a serial. They:
They: • revise the words they know for key ideas
• learn new words by doing the actions • comprehend sentence meanings by
that define the words visualising the sentences they hear
• pretend they are fish and act out • say in sentences what they heard and
various sentences, follow instructions retell sentences by paraphrasing them,
from others and give instructions for example, the title
• describe in sentences actions they • suggest questions they could ask the fish
do as fish, how they live and their • recall and practise listening strategies
adventures and learn new ones
• learn to say an event using the passive • answer and ask ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’,
voice form, for example, they say ‘The ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions
shark chases the goldfish’ and then during the listening
‘The goldfish is chased by the shark’ • talk about new ideas in the discourse,
• invent stories about being fish, for retell what they remember about the
example, they hear a topic such as My text, for example, take turns to recount
Birthday Party Under the Sea, make what they know about the story
up a story and act it out. • say the things they can do to help
themselves listen better.
How fish, frogs and tadpoles live in a

pond or creek near the school
Picture comprehension context Speech and story-telling
comprehension context
The students look at a set of pictures Students:
that show how the pond changes with the • plan what they would say if they were a
seasons. They: fish living in the lake and what they do
• talk about what the pictures show, each day
using vocabulary, sentence meanings, • talk to the group about the things they
grammar and spoken discourse would do as a fish in the lake
• describe posters that show various • imagine they were a fish being
ponds and find those described by interviewed and plan what they would
peers like to say.
• ask peers questions about the pictures,
for example, ‘What can you see under
the water?’
In line with the principles of teaching language in authentic real-life contexts

in which students can learn to communicate their intentions, each of your set of
language teaching sessions can have a theme or context that evolves over one or
more weeks. Examples of themes you could use at the Prep to Year 2 level are:
• eating out, for example, going to a fast food restaurant
• keeping pets
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• common everyday experiences, for example, getting up, watching TV or what

we eat
• particular animals, for example, how possums live in the trees in a nearby park
• going shopping
• magic
• a night walk
• a bus or train journey
• playing with toys around a theme, for example, a farm, our street or the zoo
• a group experience such as an excursion, for example, the beach
• occupations and areas of work, such as working in an office, being a fireman
or a bus driver.
In these contexts, the teaching tasks you use will be based on that student’s
language learning profile at the time. This will influence how the task is framed
and the feedback you give.
8.5 Teaching the ability to learn language

You may need to guide students to improve their ability to learn oral language in
each of the contexts. Across the four contexts you can teach these abilities using the
following activities. These help the students learn new oral language more easily.
8.5.1 Short-term auditory working memory strategies

These strategies or actions help students retain and retrieve spoken information
in short-term auditory memory activities during learning. To help the students
here, you can have them listen to a short story or a conversation and, as they
listen, teach them to:
• make a picture in their head of each sentence they hear and describe their
images in a sentence, and talk about the mental video they made of what
happened in the story
• repeat in unison or by themselves sentences they have heard
• recall key words and take turns to say what has happened in the story.
You can ask them to recall events, characters in the story they heard, the actions
they did or the pictures they saw. You can gradually increase the number of things
they have to recall, for example, an Old MacDonald activity based on, ‘In our
pond there lives a …’, or an I went window shopping activity such as, ‘I was
swimming in the pond and I saw a …’
8.5.2 Long-term memory and retrieval strategies

The strategies below help students store new knowledge about language in their
long-term memory and to recall and use ideas they have learnt in earlier sessions.
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To do this, at the end of each teaching session you can ask the students to review
and talk about what they have learnt in the session. You can guide them to:
1 say what they have learnt in more than one way, for example, they can say the
new word meanings they have learnt and link them with synonyms and other
words they know
2 visualise or make a picture of the new ideas and/or link key actions with them
3 say how the new ideas fit with what they already know
4 say the questions they can answer now using the new knowledge.
They also practise recalling these ideas in later sessions. You can guide them to:
1 think back to the context in which they met the ideas, give them time to rebuild
them in their awareness and to talk about what they see
2 think about particular aspects of what they remember, using cues to direct
their attention to particular details, for example, say part of key words or show
them parts of pictures they saw in the earlier session.
One important long-term memory activity involves students learning how to
recall as rapidly and efficiently as possible the names of objects, actions and events
in the listening, picture and action comprehension contexts. You may need to
have the students develop and practise this often. Particular activities relevant to
aspects of oral language are described in the following sections.
8.5.3 Articulation strategies

Some students may need to learn actions they can use to improve how they
articulate sound patterns in words and sentences. In addition to the phonological
activities described in the next chapter, you may need to scaffold the students to:
1 listen to words they hear and to practise moving their mouths, tongues and
lips to repeat these
2 listen either to a word repeated or two words that have similar sounds
and decide if they are the same word and to discriminate between sound-
localisation skills
3 listen to words spoken softly and either imitate or decide if they differ
4 imitate intonation patterns in sentences in the four contexts
5 do action sequences, for example, pick up a toy truck, relocate it behind a doll’s
house and say in sentences what they did
6 listen to part of a sentence and decide, from its intonation, whether it is a
question, an instruction, etc.
It is important that you have procedures for assisting students when they do not
complete a particular language task correctly initially. In section 9.4, we illustrate
how you can scaffold students’ oral language learning in the listening activity.
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8.5.4 Language perception strategies

A key component of learning oral language is being able to perceive and attend to
spoken information. You may need to teach the students to:
1 continue to attend to a task or a spoken message in situations in which
distracting background information is presented. Can they, for example, listen
to a story and keep track of what is being said in the presence of increasing
background noise?
2 look at relevant visual information—for example, pictures in a story—and tell
themselves what it says
3 listen to speech when it is gradually said more rapidly. They can engage in a
listening activity such as Old MacDonald had a farm, in which the names of
the animals are said increasingly faster.
4 continue to attend to a spoken message as the speaker moves around the room.
They can practise listening to a story as the storyteller walks around the room.
8.5.5 Using language learning actions

We said in Chapter 6 that a key component of the ability to learn involves students
learning to direct and manage their ability to learn language. They do this by
learning to tell themselves to do various things, depending on the task. For
example, if they hear an unfamiliar word in a sentence, they can work out what
it might mean by telling themselves to make a picture of the sentence or to try
replacing it with other words and see what fits.
By using these types of self-talk, students can learn more about language. They
learn a self-script for each of the key language learning actions or strategies. Some
students don’t spontaneously build this awareness of how to learn. They don’t
automatically learn the most useful self-talk. Some students, for example, may not
tune themselves in to listening to a story. You may need to teach them how to do
this. For example, you may need to teach them to tell themselves what they hear, to
visualise what they hear, to work out the meanings of unfamiliar words when they
hear them and to ask themselves ‘What do I know so far?’ while listening to a story.
You can teach students any of these strategies by using the following sequence:
1 Have the students learn how to do the strategy or action when they are
speaking and listening. Through your teaching, guide or direct them to do it
through your scaffolding.
2 After they have some time practising doing the action, guide them to say the
action in words after they do it and to say how it helped them. This helps them
to build the self-talk for the action and to be motivated to use it in the future.
Once they have learnt it as self-talk, they are more able to transfer it to other
tasks and contexts.
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3 After they have practised saying the action, guide them to say that they will
use the action before they begin a task. This helps them to cue themselves in to
the task. For example, asking them to say how they will behave as they listen
to a story. You want them to say, ‘As I listen to this story I will …’
4 Have the students practise applying the action or strategy in a range of contexts
and again say how it helps them. Remind them to whisper to themselves what
they will do. Gradually guide them to say when they will use the action and
link it with other strategies. Regularly ask the students to say what they will
do in terms of the learning and thinking before they begin a task. Ask the
students to say what they get when they do each action, for example, ‘I will
make a picture in my mind as I listen to the story. This will give me a DVD of
what happens in the story.’
The sequence is illustrated in the figure below.
Students Students do and Students tell Students practise the new

learn to do learn to say the themselves to action, say what it gives them,
the new new action and do the new when they will use it and link
action. how it helps them. action. it with other actions.
You need to be clear on the thinking strategies you want your students to use
as they engage in language learning activities and be prepared to teach them,
using this sequence. You can teach this trend across the various contexts for
a particular action. You will know if the strategy teaching is going well if the
students are able to say what they are doing and how it is helping them.
In other words, each component of the ability to learn language can be
developed in each context. You can use a rubric similar to the table below to help
you to plan how you do this.
action picture listening speech

context context context context
Short-term working memory
strategies
Long- term memory and
retrieval strategies
Articulation strategies
Language perception strategies
Using language learning actions
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C h a p t er 9
Teaching word meanings

and conventions
An understanding of words for young children comprises knowing how to say the
word (that is, its phonological name), its meaning and its grammatical functions.
Your teaching needs to target each of these aspects. In this chapter we examine ways
of teaching word meanings and the phonological knowledge necessary for word use.
The grammatical knowledge associated with words is discussed in Chapter 4.
As well, you may need to guide young students to recognise words as units
of spoken language in the speech they hear (Flanigan 2007; Tunmer, Bowey &
Grieve 1983). They may need to learn how to recognise the words in a spoken
sentence, that is, to tell when one stops and another starts.
There are five aspects of teaching word meanings or vocabulary. Use
activities that:
1 stimulate students’ existing vocabulary knowledge
2 teach new vocabulary; this includes students learning new word meanings and
how to infer or speculate about the meanings of unfamiliar words
3 review and consolidate the new meanings, link them with words the students
know, store them in their memory and automatise what they have learnt so
that they recall rapidly the names of items and what the words mean
4 teach word parts that have meanings
5 teach students how to say words accurately and how to think about and use the
sound patterns within words.
9.1 Stimulate existing vocabulary

Teaching students to recall the vocabulary they know assists their learning
in several ways. It helps them to comprehend the language to which they are
exposed, to get their knowledge ready for learning new ideas and to link the new
vocabulary they learn with what they know.
You can review students’ receptive and expressive vocabulary using the same
information. You can ask students to:
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T ea c hi n g wo r d me a n in g s a n d c o n v e nt io n s
1 name items and to recognise or select named items. These can be the names of
objects, actions, events and attributes, such as colours and shapes in action and
picture contexts. For example, you can show the students a set of toy animals.
Touch an item, such as a frog, and ask them to name it, say what it does, and
do the actions that go with it, as shown below.
What is this What does a frog eat?

called?
Let’s be a frog catching flies.
Point to the frog’s feet.
Find the part of the frog that helps it to breathe.
Which frog is crouching? Which of these frogs has …?
2 name items and ask the students to find them. If a student doesn’t select the
items you say, see whether they can do the characteristic actions that go with
the items or recognise other examples. You may need to see if the student can
distinguish them from similar items.
3 link names with verbal descriptions. After reading a page to the students or
showing them a sequence of pictures of an event or real-life situation, you can ask:
• ‘One of the things mentioned on this page is something that can help people
go from place to place. It is called a …’
• ‘I am going to point to items on this page. I want you to tell me what they
are called.’
4 suggest or recognise synonyms for words in each context. After a student
responds correctly with a name for (2) above, you can ask:
• ‘What is another word for it, a thing that is like it?’
• ‘What is a good action for it? What does it do?’
5 suggest or recognise the words for a particular context. When students have
difficulty recalling the names of items or when they answer incorrectly, you
can scaffold their thinking by adding more cues. You can say:
• ‘It rhymes with fuss. It starts with “b”.’
• ‘You see them on the road. You travel in them.’
• ‘Coming along the road I saw a big …’
9.2 Teaching new vocabulary

The review of the students’ existing vocabulary will indicate the relevant words
the students don’t know or don’t recall easily. Suppose the students didn’t know
the word ‘van’. You can teach it by having them:
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• link ‘van’ with distinctive actions and act out its meanings
• match spoken synonyms with it and suggest other synonyms for ‘van’
• practise saying what it means in their own words
• say the new word in a sentence
• name pictures that show a ‘van’.
Wherever possible, teach the meanings of verbs through actions the students can
do, even if they pretend to do the actions or do them in play.
9.2.1 Teaching new vocabulary directly

You can teach students the meanings of new words by using the sequence in the
table below. The examples used here are the words ‘saucer’, ‘bounce’ and ‘in’.
Sequence Teaching activity

Introduce the word in a familiar • ‘Here are pictures of saucers Pina has at
context that clearly shows its home.’ Show the pictures. ‘Mum had her cup
meaning. Show four or five pictures on a saucer.’
or concrete examples. Ask, ‘How are • ‘Tom bounces his ball.’ Show the pictures. ‘The
these examples like each other? What ball hits the ground and comes back.’
do they all have?’ Have them say the • ‘The cat is in the basket here and here.’ Show
word by itself and in sentences about pictures of a cat in different positions in the
the context. basket and in different baskets.
Show how the examples are linked The students:
with a common action. • make their hands into the shape of a saucer.
They trace out a saucer on a larger plate.
• do the bouncing action with their arms and
bodies.
• do in and out actions with their arms and
bodies.
Show pictures of things that are • ‘Pina has some things that that are not
similar to the word but that are non- saucers.’ Show pictures of bowls, plates,
examples of it. Discuss how and why cups and mugs. ‘How are they different from
they are different. saucers?’
• ‘Tom’s ball does things that are not bouncing.’
Show the pictures. ‘The ball rolls along the
ground, falls to the ground, spins on the
ground. The ball is not bouncing here.’
• ‘The cat is in the basket here and here.’ Show
pictures of the cat in different positions in the
basket and outside the basket.
Suggest synonyms for the word. The • ‘A saucer is like a small plate. A cup sits on a
students link the word with similar saucer.’
words they know. • ‘Bouncing is like falling down and jumping
back.’
• ‘The cat is lying here in the basket.’
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Sequence Teaching activity

Show the word in other contexts and • ‘The milk the cat drinks is on the saucer.’
have the students say it in a sentence • ‘Some saucers are white and some are blue.’
that describes each context. • ‘A cup of tea is often on a saucer.’
• ‘You can see saucers in a dish washer.’
Have the students discriminate The students:
between examples and non-examples. • hear sentences and decide whether each could
They can do this by selecting and describe a saucer, for example, ‘It is a large
categorising items. plate’, ‘People use it for their cornflakes at
breakfast’, ‘Our cat drinks its milk from it’.
• describe features of the word.
• categorise or classify instances and non-
instances of the word, for example, saucers,
plates, bowls.
The students use the word in several ‘My mum puts a cup on a saucer.’
sentences that illustrate its meaning. ‘Saucers are smaller than plates.’
‘Bowls are deeper than saucers.’
9.2.2 Teaching students how to work out the meanings of new

words they hear
As well as teaching new vocabulary meanings directly, you can teach students
how to work out for themselves possible new meanings they hear.
A useful set of teaching procedures is as follows. Suppose the students are
listening to the story of The Little Red Hen and are looking at the pictures. They
hear you read a sentence that says, ‘The duck is a gossip’. You can pause the story
and ask them to:
1 practise saying the unfamiliar word: ‘gossip’
2 look at what the picture shows the duck doing and say this. They may say, ‘She
is talking and talking’
3 say how they would feel if they were there, what they would see and hear
4 say what they think what a gossip does: ‘A gossip is someone who talks all the
time’
5 say what they think gossip means
6 suggest other words for gossip: ‘The duck is a chatterbox’.
Over a period you can have the students practise following this type of sequence
to work out what new words might mean and begin to use it spontaneously.
Suppose they heard on the next page of the text, ‘The kitten was vain. All day
long she washed her head, cleaned her nails and brushed her fur’, and saw the
accompanying pictures. Most young students won’t know what ‘vain’ means. You
can scaffold their thinking to work out what it might mean. They can:
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1 recognise and say each unfamiliar word; ‘Say the word “vain”â•›’
2 say and repeat the sentence with the new word; ‘Let’s read the sentence that
has this word’
3 note any pictures that go with new word; ‘What do the pictures show us about
the kitten?’
4 say what the word does in the sentence; ‘What does vain tell us about?’
5 visualise the context with the new word and imagine what it might mean in
that context; ‘What is the kitten trying to do on the page?’
6 try to use other words or phrases in place of it and see which one/s fit best;
‘What are other ways of saying what the kitten does? She spends all her time
making herself look nice’
7 check their guess by re-reading the sentences with the other words in them
and modify their guess if necessary
8 consolidate their guess and perhaps check it with a dictionary definition.
The aim here is for students to become aware that they can teach themselves about
the new words they hear and that there are thinking actions they can use to do this.
A useful teaching activity here is to have the students regularly listen to speech
that has one or two unfamiliar words and work out what the words might mean.
Over a period of time they can:
1 practise using each of the thinking actions above when scaffolded and instructed
2 work on learning one new thinking action at a time and describe what they do
in words; this will help them to transfer it to other situations
3 start to use the thinking actions spontaneously and say how they will work out
for themselves the possible meanings of new words.
9.2.3 Teaching students to consolidate and review the new

vocabulary
Towards the end of a teaching session, guide the students to identify the new
words they have learnt and:
1 use them in sentences, for example, ‘The van has a load of timber’
2 suggest and select synonyms for the new words, ‘The van is a baby truck’
3 link an image with each key word and select pictures that show each new word
4 link a distinctive action with the new vocabulary.
Linking the new meanings in • link action with the new word
these multiple ways helps the • link image with the new word
students store them in their • say new words in sentences,
memory. It also helps them recall link with synonym
the meaning later.
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At this time, use activities in which the students:

1 say the target word when you describe the item in different sentences, for
example, ‘I am a little truck. I carry parcels’, ‘I am a …’ Conversely, you can
name an item and the students describe in sentences what it does, what it looks,
sounds and feels like.
2 suggest and select synonyms for the new words, ‘What is another word for a
baby truck?’
3 name pictures and images of each target word
4 link actions with the each target word.
9.2.4 Is it enough for young students to hear new vocabulary to

learn it?
Some teachers believe that students will learn new vocabulary relatively
automatically when they hear the words being used in prose, for example, listening
to a narrative. A number of studies have shown that this is insufficient for learning
new vocabulary. Listening to and reading aloud texts, by themselves, have little
effect on vocabulary (Biemiller & Boote 2006).
Young readers and listeners need to interact with the text in the ways
described earlier to benefit from the unfamiliar vocabulary they encounter (Beck
& McKeown 2007; Blachowicz, Fisher & Watts-Taffe 2005; Blewitt et al. 2009;
Lovelace & Stewart 2009). Many need systematic and explicit guidance to build
connections, particularly those who have had less past experience doing this and
a more restricted bank of word meanings. They need to work with the new words
on multiple occasions, as suggested above, to build the new meanings.
Research suggests at least ten encounters with a new word are needed for
satisfactory acquisition (Beck & McKeown 2007; Lovelace & Stewart 2009).
This allows familiarity first with its sound pattern and a general sense of its
meaning, and gradually a more complete meaning. Blewitt and colleagues (2009),
for example, describe an approach to shared book reading that focused on a set
of unfamiliar words. The young readers initially answered and asked lower-level
questions about these words and gradually moved to higher-level questions. Each
word was targeted on 12 occasions.
Biemiller and Boote (2006) used an alternative approach with read-aloud
books. Each book was read on up to four occasions. On the first reading the focus
is on the story, with one or two words targeted. On each of the following three
readings, seven to ten new words were introduced, each explained briefly as it
arose. The study showed that a month later the students showed a 40 per cent
retention in the words taught.
Which words might be targeted in early vocabulary teaching? Beck and
McKeown (2007) suggest those new words that are high frequency in mature
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language use and for which the children already have a partial conceptual
understanding, for example, ‘nuisance’. Biemiller (2005), on the other hand,
recommends those words that are known by approximately half of Year 2 students.
9.3 A
ssisting students to recall rapidly the
names of items and what they mean
Some students have difficulty recalling automatically the names of items or the
meanings of words they have learnt earlier. You may need to teach them to improve
how they do this. Useful types of teaching procedures you can use include:
1 You can put pictures of the new vocabulary on cards, mix these with words
they already know and use them as picture flash cards. The students practise:
• naming rapidly each item
• suggest synonyms for them
• play matching card games such as snap and bingo
An example of the picture and word cards is shown in the figure below.
Name each picture
flowers a happy girl a man
2 Teach students to categorise the words they are learning based on meaning,
for example, fruits, ways of travelling, clothes, ways of walking and running.
When they need to recall a specific word they also say the name of its category.
This can improve recall. You can teach this by giving them a set of cards that
show pictures of items from two or three categories they have been studying,
for example, fruit and clothes. They sort the cards into the relevant categories.
As they place each card, they say a sentence that links the item with the
category, as shown in the figure below.
Jeans are clothes. Pears are fruit.
clothes fruit
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3 After they have sorted a set of cards into two groups, say each category name
and ask them to recall as many of the items they sorted as they can.
4 Help them make and use word associations, for example, they can learn to link
opposites for the same general idea. You might say, ‘A cow moos and a dog …’,
or, ‘A dog runs and a … swims’. You can do this in a gradual way, as shown in
the figure below.
The students:
recall a range of words for learn to recall from a more learn to make logical associations, for
a target word, for example, restricted set, for example, example,
‘Cars are …’ ‘Your father can drive …’ ‘A cow moos and a dog …’
‘Lions are …’ ‘You cut an apple with …’ ‘The dog runs and the … swims’
‘You can eat …’ ‘My favourite dessert is …’ ‘Some juices are sweet and some are …’
5 Involve the students in rapid recall activities, for example, playing games
in which they practise naming the same items increasingly faster. This is
described for rapidly naming pictures of vocabulary items in 1 above. It is also
useful to have students:
• recall ideas for a topic, for example, ‘Say as many names of animals / things
you wear / games you can think of in one minute’
• playing games in which they practise naming the same sets of items.
6 Teach the students to use visualisation to assist recall. You ask students to
visualise a context or an event they have experienced recently—for example, a
visit to the supermarket—and use the imagery to see and name items.
9.3.1 When students have difficulty recalling names rapidly

When a student has difficulty recalling rapidly the names of items, you can cue or
scaffold the recall in various ways. You can:
1 say the sound or the first syllable that begins the word, ‘It starts with …’
2 say a rhyming word, ‘It sounds like …’
3 move your lips and tongue to simulate making the first few sounds
4 say a synonym or antonym for the target word, ‘Another word for it is …’, ‘An
opposite word for it is …’
5 say an associated word, for example, if the required word is ‘door’, say, ‘The
lady is leaving the house. First she opens the …’ ‘The lady opens the … and
leaves the house’
6 say the meaning category to which it belongs, for example, ‘It’s a pet’, or, ‘You
can drink it’
7 mention some of the other names if the name is in a series of names, for example,
to have the student say ‘May’, say, ‘January, February, March, April …’
8 ask the student to complete a sentence, for example, to have the student say
‘garage’, say, ‘We keep the car in a …’
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9.4 Teaching word parts that have meanings

We noted earlier a second type of individual meaning; this is the meaning that is
carried by a part of a word. An example is ‘-ed’ at the end of a verb, meaning that
an action had occurred rather than is occurring. A second is ‘-s’ that we add to a
noun to say that we are talking about two or more items. We called these word
parts bound morphemes. Both prefixes and suffixes convey meaning. Examples
are ‘dis-’, ‘trans-’, ‘un-’, ‘de-’, ‘a-’, ‘mis-’, ‘-ish’, ‘-ness’ and ‘-ly’.
We noted earlier that some students have difficulty learning to use these units
of meaning. They may say ‘doll’ when they mean ‘dolls’, or ‘stop’ when they mean
‘stopped’. Your teaching needs to take account of the possible reasons for these
errors. The student:
1 may not understand the intended meaning; for the ‘-ed’ suffix, for example, the
student may not understand the difference between a continuing action and an
action that has finished
2 may not be aware that there are two types of action words; those that talk
about actions that have finished and those that talk about actions that are
occurring, or will or could occur.
3 may not be clear about the different ways in which we talk about actions that
have finished; we add ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’ with some, while with others we change the
vowel (‘swim’ to ‘swam’, ‘eat’ to ‘ate’, ‘hang’ to ‘hung’, ‘lie’ to ‘lay’, ‘hold’ to
‘held’, ‘think’ to ‘thought’).
4 may not hear the difference in sound patterns between the present and past
forms, for example, between ‘stop’ and ‘stopped’
5 may not have had consistent exposure to the correct use of the bound morpheme
in their past. They need the opportunity to imitate correct language use in
particular contexts and to see that it works for them.
9.4.1 Teaching the bound morpheme first in the action context

As an example of teaching a bound morpheme, we will begin with the example
of adding the ‘-t’ or ‘-ed’ sound patterns to some verbs to show that an action
occurred in the past. You can use the following teaching sequence:
1 Teach this first in the action context. Suppose a toy horse is kicking a ball. Act
out two situations and have the students repeat these. Make the key difference
between the two situations stand out. In this case, it is the timing of the speech
in relation to the action, as shown in the figure below.
While the horse is kicking the ball, say The horse kicks the ball.
After the horse has kicked the ball and stopped doing it, say The horse kicked the ball.
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Make sure the students can show, through their actions with the toys, that
they are aware of this distinction. Their sentences with the present tense are
said while the action is occurring. Their sentences with the past tense are said
after the action has clearly finished.
Stress also that they say the two verb forms correctly. It may be necessary for
some students to imitate how to say ‘kicked’.
2 Apply the meaning in other action contexts. Have the students do corresponding
events with toys or in their actions to show other examples of the distinction
such as ‘hop’ versus ‘hopped’, ‘jump’ versus ‘jumped’, ‘climb’ versus ‘climbed’,
‘touch’ versus ‘touched’ and ‘move’ versus ‘moved’. They should distinguish
between saying, for example, ‘Anna hops’ and ‘Anna hopped’.
Again, stress also that they say the two verb forms correctly. Ensure that they
say the ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’ ending whenever it is appropriate. It may be necessary for
some students to imitate how to say each past tense form.
3 Act out the meaning when it is heard. Ask the students to act out sentences
they hear such as ‘We walk’ versus ‘We walked’, or ‘They sail away’ versus
‘They sailed away’. For the present tense, students say the sentence as they do
it, while for the past tense students say it after the action has finished.
Encourage the students to use the ‘-ed’ suffix when they talk about the actions
in pictures they see and also to listen for it in stories they hear and text that
is read to them.
4 Describe the meaning in words. Guide the students to say what they think is
the difference between hearing sentences such as ‘We walk’ and ‘We walked’,
or ‘They sail away’ and ‘They sailed away’. The goal is that they say that when
they hear the ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’ ending added to the action word, this tells them the
action has stopped or finished.
5 What sort of words is the ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’ added to? Would you add them to
words like ‘car’ or ‘dog’? Would you add them to words like ‘green’ or ‘little’?
Give the students various words and have them decide whether ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’
is usually added to each one. Lead them to see that they are added to words
that are actions. You can also clarify at this time that ‘-ed’ or ‘-t’ are not
added to all action words, and that some action words tell us the action has
finished in other ways.
6 How will students use this understanding when they speak and listen?
Ask the students to say how they will use this distinction when they are
speaking or listening.
/t/ or /ed/ added to an action word

means the action has stopped.
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9.4.2 Teaching other bound morphemes

You can use a similar procedure to teach other bound morphemes, such as ‘-s’
to indicate plural and ‘-s’ to indicate an action being done by another person at
present. The procedure involves the following steps:
1 Teach one example of the bound morpheme in the action context. Make the
difference between when it is and isn’t used as clear as possible. Try to show
what it means by linking it with an action the students can do. The action
is intended to teach the meaning of the bound morpheme. Have them do the
action and describe it using the bound morpheme in a sentence.
2 Teach other examples of the bound morpheme in action contexts. Have students
do the key action in each example and describe the situation including the bound
morpheme. Make sure that they clearly say the bound morpheme in their speech.
3 Have the students act out the meaning of sentences containing the bound
morpheme when they hear them. Make sure they can show the difference
between sentences that do and don’t contain the bound morpheme. Have them
use the bound morpheme when they talk about the actions in pictures they see
and also to listen for it in speech they hear.
4 Describe the meaning of the words. Guide the students to talk about the difference
between sentences they hear that do and don’t have the bound morpheme. What
does the bound morpheme tell them about the ideas in the sentence?
5 What sort of words is the bound morpheme added to? You can encourage the
students to explore this. Is it added to words that tell us what a thing is, to
words that tell us what is done or to words that tell us what things are like?
6 How will students use this understanding when they speak and listen? Ask
the students to say how they will use this distinction when they are speaking
or listening.
9.4.3 Teaching an awareness of the bound morpheme

After they have learnt two or three bound morphemes, lead the students to an
awareness of them as a part of the language they use. This awareness includes
the students:
1 seeing that there are certain sound patterns that are used in lots of words
2 recalling that a meaning goes with each sound pattern
3 knowing that each sound pattern helps us understand what the word means
4 knowing that each meaning is joined with one type of word.
As they move through primary school, students are expected to learn about other
bound morphemes such as those mentioned earlier and sound patterns such as
‘micro-’, ‘-age’, ‘-ive’ and ‘-tion’. The bound morphemes add to their understanding
and use of individual word meanings.
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9.5 What the vocabulary network model means

for our teaching
A key focus of our classroom teaching can be to assist students to build and use
their vocabulary networks. You can:
• get an estimate of the breadth of the network of meanings students have when
they are learning a topic. When you mention a topic, for example, ‘New cars’,
you can note the range of words a student or a group of students recall both
spontaneously and with prompting.
• help your students develop an awareness that their meanings are grouped
around a topic. Mention a topic and have the students suggest words that
might come up in a text about it. Guide the students to show their meanings
on a concept map.
• have students:
-- listen to part of a message and think ahead to predict what might be said next
-- suggest synonyms and antonyms for key words related to a topic they
are learning.
• assist students to enrich or build up their networks of meanings.
• help students see that a particular word or phrase can belong to particular
topics and can also be a topic for other groups of words. Give the students a
topic and have them suggest words that might be mentioned in the text. Draw
a concept map that shows how the words are linked. Select one of the words
in the map and make it the topic of the text. Guide the students to see that a
word can both be a topic and part of another topic.
9.6 Teaching students how to say words

accurately: Building phonological knowledge
We noted earlier that phonological knowledge is what you use to work out how
to say unfamiliar words and to recall them. It also helps you recognise sound
patterns in words and to use stress and intonation in sentences to communicate
meanings. To recognise and use bound morphemes, for example, you need to
recognise particular sound patterns within words, to extract these patterns and
to move them to other words to generate new possibilities.
Phonological knowledge should be taught in the following developmental order:
1 rhyming; teach students to recognise and say rhyming words and words that
alliterate
2 manipulate onsets and rimes; teach students to segment one-syllable words
into onset and rime, for example, segment ‘stamp’ into ‘st’ and ‘amp’ and blend
an onset and a rime into a word, for example ‘tr’ and ‘ain’ into ‘train’
3 strip the first and/or last sounds off one-syllable words
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4 manipulate individual sounds or phonemes; teach students to segment one-syllable

words into separate sounds, for example, segment ‘stamp’ into ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘a’, ‘m’ and ‘p’
and to blend individual sounds into a word, for example ‘t’, ‘r’, ‘ai’ and ‘n’ into ‘train’
5 combine segmenting and blending by deleting sounds from words and
swapping sounds in words.
Students learn to apply these phonological skills to words of two or three sounds
initially and gradually extend this to longer one-syllable words.
Students’ phonological knowledge can influence how well they say words and
recall them. In addition to the phonological activities described above, you can
teach students to:
• perform and practise the movement patterns needed to produce sounds, for
example, they practise mouth and tongue movement exercises
• practise imitating words of increasing length and articulatory activities.
The teaching activities here are described in developmental order. When you have
located a student or group on the developmental order, you can start to teach
phonological and phonemic knowledge and skills at the next level.
9.6.1 Teaching rhyming and alliteration patterns

You may need to teach students to detect rhymes and alliteration and to say
the patterns.
1 Have the student imitate a two-sound rhyming pattern such as ‘in, in, in’ or an
alliterative pattern such as ‘dr, dr, dr, dr’. When the student has mastered this,
ask the student to repeat words, for example, ‘pin, tin, pin, tin’ or ‘mop, top,
mop, top’. Extend to repeating patterns of three words, for example, ‘lot, cot,
pot’ and four words ‘men, hen, pen, ten’ and to sequences of longer words such
as ‘damp, camp, damp, camp’ and ‘crunch, munch, crunch, munch’.
2 Guide the student to recognise a rhyming or an alliterative pattern. Show
pictures of three familiar objects, two of whose names share a rime, for example,
a cat, a hat and a pig or two of whose names alliterate, for example, a picture of
a cat, a cot and a pig. Name each item and ask the student to repeat each name
and then: ‘Pick the pictures that rhyme or sound alike / start with the same
sound’. Repeat for sets of four pictures and for longer words. Play matching
card games such as snap or memory in which the student detects and matches
pictures of names that rhyme. Increase the complexity of the rhyming words.
3 Guide the student to continue a rhyming or alliteration pattern. Show a set of
pictures of items that rhyme, for example, pictures of a cub, a pub and a tub and
say: ‘Say these words. Now say other words that rhyme with them.’ If this is too
difficult, return to point 1 above. Repeat with sequences of longer words such as
‘slip, clip …’ and ‘lunch, crunch …’. Students can continue an alliterative pattern
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such as ‘cramp, crisp …’, ‘spoon, special …’ and ‘broom, bracelet …’

Play games in which students in small groups:
• have to take turns to think of rhyming or alliterating words. The winner
thinks of most words.
• brainstorm words that have a particular rime or alliteration.
4 Teach students to recognise and say rhyming or alliterating words in prose. You can:
• show the students pictures of three familiar objects, two of whose names
share a rime, for example, a mop, a top and a bag. Ask them to select the
pictures that rhyme and to make up a story using the words.
• say sentences and read stories that have rhyming or alliterative words and ask
them to select the rhyming words, for example, ‘I’m going to tell you a story
that has words that rhyme with coal. Every time you hear the “oa” sound I
want you to clap (or stamp, etc). “The thief stole the bowl.”â•›’ Gradually increase
to three rhyming words, for example, ‘The thief stole the bowl from the mole.’
• teach the students to say rhyming words in the context of prose. Say, ‘We
are going to make up some rhyming stories. Listen to what I say. “The
black cat chased the bat.”â•›’ As you say it, stress the two words that rhyme.
Ask students to finish the sentences in the figure below.
‘Tom rolled off his ‘My friend ‘My mother ‘The little boy
bed and hurt his …’ Paul is very …’ can bake a …’ played with his …’
• Say incomplete sentences and have the students finish them by using the
alliterative pattern to produce the final word as shown below.
‘Sue softly sang the …’ ‘Bill banged the big …’
• The students can work in small groups to see how many possible words they
can find that fit a particular alliterative pattern in incomplete sentences.
You can ask the students to make up rhyming sentences for pairs of words,
as shown below.
She put the pin in the tin. There is a pest in the nest.
1. pin, tin 2. pest, nest
Other useful activities include:

1 Show pairs of pictures of rhyming words and ask students to make up sentences
containing the two words.
2 Read a story that has a rhyming pattern such as a Dr Seuss or a Jelly and Bean
book. Students take turns to predict the rhyming word/s that fit the context.
Ask them to tell you how they decided which words to select.
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3 Use this with unfamiliar nursery rhymes. Begin reciting a nursery rhyme or
jingle and have students predict the rhyming words.
4 Students make up rhyming sentences that match their characteristics and
alliterative sentences based on personal characteristics, for example, rhymes
based on their names for the school magazine and alliterative patterns in songs
and verse, as shown below.
I am called Jack I am seven and I I am Louise and I like

and my hair is … sing songs slowly … looking for lizards …
5 Students make up verse, for example, rhymes and television jingles. They are
given the first line of a verse such as those below and continue it.
Tina tries to teach Sam is a Sam is skipping Hazel hops

us to trick others. sound speller. with Suzie. past Henry.
9.6.2 Manipulating onsets and rimes

Teach students to recognise and use the onset or the rime in one-syllable words.
Useful activities include:
1 Segment words into onset and rime. Show a picture of a familiar item such as
a bed. Ask the student to name it. Say, ‘Listen to how I say bed. B-ed.’ Say
the two parts separately, by about half a second. If necessary, use a puppet to
do this. Have the student repeat the segmenting and apply it to other words,
gradually to longer one syllable words.
2 Blend onset and rime to make a word. Model the blending: ‘Listen to how I make
these sounds into a word. St-op. Stop. You do this with pl-an.’ Repeat this with
other examples and ask the student to blend sound groups. Move to five-sound
and six-sound words. Discuss with the student how you are ‘running the sounds
together’. Students can work in pairs with one student saying an onset, the other
a rime and the first student blends them into a word. Say the onset or rime of the
name of an object in the room or playground and have the students decide what
the object is, for example, ‘What am I thinking of in this room? It starts with sp’.
They can play a version of bingo. Each bingo board has the pictures of up to 20
familiar objects. Say one onset or rime at a time and have the students see if they
can find items on their bingo boards that have that onset or rime.
3 Finish the word. The students hear a sentence and the onset or rime of a
word, suggest the complete word and say how they decided the word for each
sentence, as shown in the figure below.
‘The dog chased after the c_____.’ ‘Ann fell over and hurt her l_____.’
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4 Pick the odd one out. Show pictures of four familiar objects where only three of
the images:
• begin with the same onset, for example, ‘spoon’, ‘spin’, ‘sand’ and ‘speck’
• end with the same rime for example, ‘sink’, ‘think’, ‘hand’ and ‘link’.
The students name each picture, say the shared sound pattern and select the
picture that sounds different from the others. Repeat for sets of four pictures
and for longer words.
5 Say words that have the same onset or rime. The students take turns to think of
words that begin with the same onset or that end with the same rime. Play a
game in which they take turns to say words that begin with the same onset
or that end with the same rime. The student who can keep going suggesting
matching words is the winner.
6 Recognising the same onset or rime. Play card games such as snap or memory in
which students match pictures of words that have either the same onset or rime.
7 Dealing with onset–rime difficulties. Typical errors when saying onsets and
rimes include:
• difficulty separating the vowel from the onset, for example, ‘milk’ is
segmented as ‘mi-ilk, or ‘tent’ as ‘te-ent’. Repeat what the student said and
say how to correct it, for example, ‘You said the “i” twice, in each part’.
Have the student repeat the segmentation and use your hand to gesture
cutting the word before the vowel.
• forgetting how to say the rime part. Ask the student to say the complete
word two or three times before attempting to segment again.
9.6.3 Identifying the first and last sounds

Teach students to identify these sounds in words by (1) recognising each and (2)
saying each. Useful activities include:
1 Pick the odd one out. The students see a set of four pictures of familiar objects, for
example, a boat, a bird, a dog and a bus. They name each and select the pictures
that begin with the same sound as a selected picture, for example, the boat. If
necessary, ask, ‘Listen to how you say each name. What is its starting sound?
What sound do you hear first in each word?’ Repeat this for several sets of
similar pictures and also for the last sound in a set of pictures.
2 Recognise the first or last sound. Play card games such as snap, memory, bingo
or dominos in which students match pictures of words that have the same
first or last sound.
3 Model stripping away the first or last sound. Say a four-sound word that has a
two sound onset, such as ‘span’. ‘Listen to how I say the word span. S-pan. You
do what I did with these words: tram, stop, crash, drip’. Discuss how you are
cutting the first sound off each word. Repeat for the last sound in words.
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4 Say the first or last sound. Ask the students to suggest the first or last sound of
words, for example, ‘Say the first sound in these words: flat, ramp, slip, string,
clamp, twist’. Begin with four-sound words and work to five-, six- and longer-
sound words.
5 The students suggest words that begin or finish with a particular sound. Give
examples first, for example, ‘Grim starts with “guh”. What are some other
words that start with g?’ Repeat for other sounds. They can suggest words
for a theme that begins or ends with a particular sound, for example, food
words that begin with ‘c’ or finish with ‘d’. You can develop this activity in the
context of the games 20 questions and hangman, for example, ‘I’m thinking
of something that you eat that starts with “m”â•›’, or ‘Find all the things in the
classroom that end with “k”â•›’. They can see how many students’ names in the
class begin with each sound in the alphabet and how they need to go beyond
the alphabet sounds, for example, Anna or Irma. They can discover sounds
that are not in the alphabet.
6 The students say the first or last sound in familiar names. Collect a set of objects
(small toys, items of clothing, objects used around the house, etc.). The students
take turns to select an item, name it and say its first or last sound.
9.6.4 Manipulate the syllable-like units in two-, three- or four-

syllable words
You can teach students to do this by recognising each syllable and by saying it.
1 An awareness of syllable-like units. Say a two-syllable word and break it up in two
ways: one that has syllable-like parts and one that doesn’t, for example, ‘Listen
to how I say the word ‘pretend’. I’ll break up it up in two ways. Pr-etend.
Pre-tend. Which way sounds better?’ Repeat this for other words. Lead
the students to see that the one that sounds better has a vowel in each part.
Introduce the term syllable where each part has a vowel. Have them use ‘Does
it sound right?’ for three- and four-syllable words, such as ‘artistic’, ‘camera’
and ‘hospital’.
2 Finish the word. Say one syllable of a word within a meaningful sentence and
ask the students to suggest the complete word, for example,
The injured man was slid carefully The volcano was a dis_____
into the __bul____. (ambulance) for the country. (disaster)
Ask the students to suggest how they decided which word to say for each
sentence. What helped them to make up their minds?
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3 Pick the odd one out. Say four multi-syllabic words, where all but one have the
same syllable, for example, ‘department’, ‘particular’, ‘parallel’ and ‘partition’.
Ask, ‘What part do three of the words have?’ Ask the students to explain
how they made their decisions.
4 Break words into syllables by an action. Say a two-, three- or four-syllable word
and do a gesture for each syllable in it as you say it. You can clap, tap the table,
stamp, click your fingers or shake a musical instrument such as a tambourine.
Pause between each syllable. Say, ‘I clapped as I said each part of the word. Do
the action with me. How did you know when to clap? What do you listen for?
How do you know whether to clap twice or three times?’
5 Teach an awareness of the unstressed vowel. Say two separate syllables with equal
stress, for example, ‘hel-met’. Ask, ‘What word am I saying? Put the two parts
together. Tell me the word they make’. The students need to take the stress off
one syllable to make it into a word that they know. Repeat with other pairs of
syllables, for example, ‘frac-ture’, ‘garb-age’. Discuss how you take the stress
off one vowel when you combine the syllables.
6 Say the unstressed syllables. Say some two- and three-syllable words and ask
the students to say the unstressed syllable, for example, in ‘attract’, ‘flannel’,
‘happen’, ‘kennel’, ‘kitten’, ‘standard’, ‘sever’, ‘customer’ and ‘permanent’.
Discuss how you say the vowel in the unstressed syllable; sometimes it is
softened, sometimes it is like a short ‘er’ sound, sometimes a short ‘uh’ and
sometimes a grunt. Discuss how it can be the first, second or third syllable.
7 Breaking words into syllables. ‘Listen to how I say wander. Wan-der’. Pause
between the two syllables. ‘I said each part of the word by itself. You copy how
I say it. Wan-der’. If students find the imitation difficult, repeat it and remind
them ‘I want you to break wander into parts’. Have the students practise on
two-, then three- and finally four-syllable words.
8 Dealing with typical types of errors students make. Typical errors in segmenting
multisyllabic words and teaching suggestions include:
• a difficulty breaking the word into parts, for example, the student segments
‘sprocket’ as ‘sprock-cket’. Repeat the student’s response and discuss how
a particular sound has been repeated. Remind the student to think about
cutting the word up and saying each part.
• the student has difficulty retaining all of the sounds in each part. Have the
student practise saying each part after you.
• the student inserts or adds sounds. Repeat the student’s response, put the
two segments together and show how the student has added sounds.
• the student has difficulty with the unstressed vowel, for example, they
leave it out or don’t know how to say it. Use the activities described in
points four to six above.
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9.6.5 Segment a word into component sounds

Segmenting a spoken word into sounds is a critical foundation for learning to read
and spell words.
1 Demonstrate how to segment three-sound words. Say, ‘Listen to how I say dog.
I say each sound in the word. D-o-g. I cut the word dog up into its sounds.
D-o-g’. The students practise segmenting other three-sound words into the
separate sounds. Begin with words that have the same rime unit such as ‘mat’,
‘fat’ and ‘rat’. The students can attend to the segmentation process rather than
to coping with different sound patterns. As they segment more automatically,
move to words that have different rimes.
2 First one out. Arrange students into groups of four. Give each student in a group
20 (and then later 30) counters. Each student in turn hears a word of three or
four sounds and puts in the middle of the group the number of counters equal
to the number of sounds in the word. If a student answers incorrectly, they
take back their counters. The winner is the first student who has no counters
left. Gradually move to longer words.
3 Words that have four sounds. In small groups, students take turns to say words
that have four sounds or five sounds, etc. The winning student is the one who
can continue to suggest words that have the target number of sounds.
4 Difficulty with sounding out three-sound words. If segmenting three-sound words
causes difficulty, you can use the following activities:
• Tap or touch an item for each sound in the word and teach the student to
do this. Begin with three-sound words. Lay out a line of blocks or counters
in front of the student. Say, ‘Look what I do with the word “mat”â•›’. Say
‘m’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ and push up a counter as you say each sound. Say, ‘As I say
each sound, I push a counter. Now you do it for the word “hit” with your
counters’. Apply this to other short words. Talk about cutting the word up
into sounds. Ask the student to, ‘Clap for each sound you hear in “camp”â•›’.
• Teach the students to ‘stretch out’ how they say a word. Move your hands to
show stretching out the word and then cutting the stretched-out word into
sounds. Ask the student to listen for the separate sounds in the stretched-
out word. Repeat for other three-sound words and move to longer words.
• Count the number of sounds in a word. Ask, ‘How many sounds do you hear
in the word “cat”?’ As you say each sound, hold up a finger. ‘There are three
sounds in cat.’ Repeat for other three- and four-sound words. If the student
counts the number of letters rather than the sounds, say, ‘I don’t want you
to count the number of letters in each word. Listen to the sounds’.
9.6.6 Teaching sound blending

Joining or blending a sequence of sounds into a spoken word is also important for
learning to read and spell words.
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1 Blend a sequence of three sounds to make a word. Say, ‘Listen to these sounds.
They go together to make a word. P-i-g. What is the word they make?’ Guide
the students to run the sounds together. Repeat for strings of three-sounds and
build up to strings of four, five and six sounds.
2 Say us. Give a sound to each of four students standing in a line, for example,
‘d’, ‘f ’, ‘m’ and ‘u’. Each student says their sound. Other students take turns to
blend the sounds into a word (or non-word). Variations of this activity include:
• asking the students to change positions and repeat the activity
• seeing how many real words they can make out of the sounds
• having one sound sit down and the students blend the remaining sounds
• swapping some of the sounds (students) for other sounds (students)
• extending to sets of five and six sounds (that is, with five or six students).
3 What am I thinking of? A student selects an item in the room and, without
naming it, says the first two sounds in its name, for example, ‘s-k’. If it isn’t
named correctly after two attempts, a third sound is added, for example, ‘s-k-e’
and again two guesses are allowed to name it. If it isn’t guessed, more sounds
are added, one at a time. The student who guesses the word is the winner.
4 Blending bingo. Each bingo board has the pictures of up to 20 familiar items.
Say a string of sounds for an item on some of the boards, for example, ‘d-o-g’.
The students try to find the item on their board.
9.6.7 Delete a sound from a word and say the word left
Deleting sounds from a spoken word is an important skill when learning to read
and spell words. Useful teaching activities include:
1 How are the words different? Say two words such as ‘drag’ and ‘rag’ and ask, ‘How
are these words different?’ Guide the students to see that the ‘d’ has been removed
from ‘drag’. Repeat this for other pairs such as ‘flit’ and ‘fit’, and ‘crop’ and ‘cop’.
2 Word matching activities in which students match two words that differ by one sound.
Use pairs of picture cards, where the name of one item has one more sound
than the other, for example, a picture of a camp and a cap. The students name
each picture. They can play snap, memory or bingo with the cards. A student
can match two cards when one name has one more sound than the other, for
example, ‘car’ and ‘cart’, ‘snap’ and ‘nap’, and ‘brat’ and ‘bat’.
3 Word pairs where one word is missing a sound. The students suggest word pairs
where a word has one sound more than the other, for example, ‘clap’ and ‘cap’,
‘tram’ and ‘ram’, and ‘spit’ and ‘pit’.
4 What sound has been dropped? Say, ‘I’ll say a word and drop a sound from it.
You tell me the sound I’ve dropped’. Say the word ‘prim’ and then ‘rim’. Which
sound has gone? Repeat for other words, dropping off the first sound, then the
last sound and then the medial sounds.
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5 Dropping sounds from words. Students delete sounds from words. Introduce the
activity as, ‘I am going to say a word and then a sound in the word. I want you
to take the sound out of the word and say the word left. For example, “Trap”,
“r”. “Tap”. Tap is left’. Vary the sound to be deleted and its position in the word.
9.6.8 Swap one sound for another

Students learn to swap or substitute one sound in a word for another, making a
new word. An example of the task is, ‘Swap the “m” in “mate” with “l”. What will
the new word be?’ Useful teaching activities include:
1 What sound have I changed? Say, ‘I’m going to say a word. Then I’m going to
change one sound in it and say the new word. See if you can tell the sound I’ve
changed’. Begin by changing the first sound in words and then the last sound,
for example, say the word ‘brag’ and then the word ‘crag’. ‘Can you tell which
sound I changed?’ If necessary, have the student repeat the two words after
you. Repeat this for several pairs of words, such as ‘trim’ and ‘brim’, ‘sack’ and
‘back’, ‘till’ and ‘pill’, etc. Gradually move to changing medial sounds, such as
‘slim’ and ‘skim’ or ‘bust’ and ‘best’.
2 Changing sounds in words. Encourage the student to change sounds in words
three or four sounds long. The student hears a word, a sound in the word and
another sound and is told, ‘Put a “d” in place of the “m” in “skim”. What word
would you get?’ Repeat this in other words, for example, ‘Put an “r” in place of
the “h” in “hat”, a “b” for the “s” in “sent”, a “t” for the “l” in “slink”â•›’.
3 Word matching activities in which students match two words that differ in one
sound. Set up pairs of picture cards, where the name of one item has one sound
different from the other, for example, a picture of a slide and a picture of slime.
The students name each picture and use the cards to play snap, memory and
bingo. A student matches two cards when one name differs from the other by
one sound, for example, ‘slop’ and ‘stop’, or ‘plant’ and ‘plank’.
9.7 Working towards automaticity

In all of the activities to develop phonological knowledge, the aim is for students
to learn to do the activities described automatically. Effective communicators can
extend their vocabulary through their oral language experiences. The focus of the
teaching in this chapter has been to teach students to do this, to learn:
• new words, what they mean and how they are said
• how to link word meanings and to use these links to predict
• how to work out the topic of a message from the words they hear.
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C h a p t er 1 0
Teaching students to comprehend

and say sentence meanings
Students need to learn to comprehend and use increasingly complex sentences.

There are three key aspects you may need to teach:
1 new and more complex sentence meanings, for example, how to link ideas in a
cause–effect relationship to describe the order in which two events occur, how
to ask and answer questions, and how to give and follow instructions
2 the actions students can use to comprehend and say sentences
3 how to comprehend and use grammatical forms correctly.
In this chapter, we describe activities for teaching students to:
1 use their existing knowledge to comprehend and express sentence meanings
2 learn new sentence meanings, new sentence comprehending actions and new
grammar.
10.1 Comprehending and talking about sentence

meanings
10.1.1 Students recognise and do sentence meanings
Below are various activities in which the students can show they understand
sentence meanings. Ask the students to:
1 give and follow spoken instructions, first in action comprehension contexts. They
hear and do instructions during games and listening comprehension. You can
gradually make the instructions more complex. The students:
• do or say instructions that involve two or three steps
• move from hearing simple verb phrases such as, ‘Move the toys’ to verbs
with modals, for example, ‘Would you move the toys, please’.
• follow more complex instructions, for example, ‘Make the yellow van follow
the car’. You could play Simon says; for example, ‘Simon says the blue van
carries sticks’. Students can take turns to be Simon.
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• contextualise sentences and act out variations to them; for example, say,
‘The blue van stops behind the big van. Now do this but with the red van,
not the blue van’.
2 select the picture that matches a sentence they hear. Show two or more pictures that
show the same items but different relationships. Say a sentence that matches
one of them. The students select this one and say the sentence for the other.
An example is, ‘Touch the picture that shows:’
The girl with the

hat chases the boy.
10.1.2 Students talk about ideas in sentences

Encourage students to describe in sentences what they have experienced or seen
in action and pictures contexts or heard in a story.
1 A group of students talking about a picture. They take turns to say a sentence
about the picture, for example,
The yellow truck is driving on the road. It is carrying some wood. The driver is wearing a hat.
They can talk in this way about the pictures shown in a big book or in
photographs. You can do this in several ways:
• students spontaneously talk about items in the picture
• you can use incomplete sentence frames to probe items
• you can probe items in the picture and ask students to talk about these in a
sentence, for example, ‘Say this in a sentence’
• ask them to make a ‘photograph’ of it in their heads, obscure the book or
photograph from view and ask them to say in sentences what they see.
The man is holding …
The man is sitting on

a chair with his legs …
2 Students say in sentences what they have know so far about a story they have
heard. For the story Monster and the Little Boy Go on a Bus Trip, they can:
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T eac hi ng students to c ompr e h e n d a n d s ay s e nt e nce me a n in g s
• talk spontaneously in sentences about events that have happened, using

pictures from the text or mental images they have made to guide them, and
take turns to say in sentences what they remember happening
• answer scaffolded questioning, such as:
What was the first thing that They were waiting Say what they did
Monster and the boy did? for the bus. when the bus came.
If the students can’t do this, have them look at the picture and say each part at
a time. You may need to give them sentence frames to finish: ‘Monster and the
little boy …’. They can also finish sentences they hear to describe particular
sentence meanings.
3 Ask students to give instructions that others follow, initially in action
comprehension contexts. The students:
• say and then do instructions that involve two or three steps
• move from saying simple verb phrases such as, ‘Pick up your books’ to ‘Can
you pick up your books, please’.
• follow more complex instructions, for example, ‘Make the yellow van follow
the car’, or they can play Simon says, for example, ‘Simon says the blue van
carries sticks’.
• contextualise sentences and act out variations to them, for example, say,
‘The blue van stops behind the big van. Now do this but with the red van,
not the blue van’.
4 Have students practise asking and answering questions. Encourage them to
link matching questions (in sentences) with answers. They can ask and answer
particular who, what, where, when, how and why questions:
• about events they have done, experienced or observed in the action
comprehension context, for example, ‘Where is the blue van?’ or ‘What is
the big van carrying?’
• about items or events in pictures or DVDs they see
• while listening to a story. After listening to part of Monster and the Little
Boy Go on a Bus Trip, for example, you can guide the students to ask and
answer these questions:
Where did Monster and

Who sat near the little Why did the little boy call out to
the little boy get on the
boy? the driver?
bus?
Monster and the Little Boy go on a Bus Trip
What did the lady say to How did Monster feel when he When did Monster stand
Monster? saw the empty seat? up in the bus?
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10.1.3 Teaching students actions they can use to comprehend and

say sentence meanings
To comprehend a sentence, listeners need to retain it in their short-term memory
long enough to identify the individual meanings and note how they are linked.
They need to use the actions described in 3.4.3. To say a sentence meaning,
they need to link the individual meanings in the appropriate way. Sentence
comprehending actions you can teach your students to use include:
1 telling themselves what they heard. Ask the students to repeat aloud one or two
sentences you say. They can first say them in unison and then take turns to say
parts. You can have them play games like Old MacDonald had a farm, and I
went window shopping. You can vary the genre, for example, ‘We went to the
zoo and we saw …’ or ‘We went to the beach and we saw …’
If students find this difficult, you can scaffold their thinking by adding more
cues. You can say the first part of a sentence and have them finish it. You can
read a sentence to them twice and have them say it each time.
2 saying the sentences they hear in other ways. When they hear a sentence or see
a picture in a story book, they practise saying what was said or shown in
different ways. This helps them store and analyse the sentence they hear in
their own words.
3 visualising or making a mind picture of one or two sentences they hear and then
saying or doing it. To introduce this action, show students a picture and ask
them to make a mind photo of it. Obscure it and ask the students to say what
they saw. Have them practise this with other events. Read one or two sentences
from a story and ask them to make a mind picture of what they heard. Give
them time to do this. They should talk in sentences about their picture. Then
ask them to do it. Gradually ask them to visualise longer sentences and two or
three sentences at a time.
4 imagining the actions they hear being done.’ ‘I want you to listen to the story and
imagine you were there. What would you see / feel / hear / do?’
5 linking the sentence meaning with the topic. After listening to one or two sentences
from a story, the students suggest what is its topic or theme. ‘What other
things might be said in the story? Where might you hear someone say these
things? Who might say them?’
You can teach these sentence comprehending or listening actions in each of the
action, picture, listening and speaking contexts. Some recommendations for
teaching each action include:
1 Teach your students one of these actions at a time.
2 Have the students apply each action first in familiar contexts and practise them.
3 As they practise each action, encourage them to say what they do in words
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and also to say how it helps them, for example, ‘Making a picture of a sentence
helps me see what it says’. Ask them, ‘Did it help to …?’
4 Gradually guide them to transfer the actions to other situations.
5 Ask your students to say the listening actions they can use before they start
to listen to and say sentences. An example is, ‘What things can you do to help
you understand each sentence as you listen?’ When they can say, ‘I will say it
to myself ’ or ‘I will make a picture of what I hear’, they are more able to plan
how they will understand and say sentences.
6 Saying what they do before they engage in a speaking and listening activity
helps them to tune themselves in and to remind themselves of the actions to
do. They are more able to comprehend and say sentences when they know
the actions.
10.2 Teaching students to comprehend and say

new sentence meanings
When you have decided the types of sentence meanings a student or a group
is ready to learn to comprehend, you can teach them using the sentence
comprehending or listening actions.
Below are activities procedures to teach students to comprehend sentence
meanings that link two events in a time relationship. Suppose you plan to talk
about one event occurring while another event occurs, for example, ‘While the
bus was moving, Monster stood up’, or talk about one event starting after another
event had finished, for example, ‘Before you stand up, shake your head’.
10.2.1 Action comprehension

You can teach students to say the new sentence meanings in action
comprehension contexts. After the students act out each event separately, you
say the sentence slowly, do the two actions using toys and have the students
do them with their toys. For the ‘while’ sentence meaning, the goal is for the
students to understand the two actions by doing or experiencing them. They
learn that:
• one action begins before the second action and finishes after it
• one action goes on or lasts for a shorter time than the second.
‘While the bus is moving Monster stands up.’
The bus is moving Monster stands up The bus is moving
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The students learn that when they hear a sentence that has ‘while’ and two actions,
they need to work out which of the actions began first and which finished later.
Select two familiar actions that the students can easily do at the same time.
They do each action sequence you model and talk about it. You could say, for
example, ‘While the cat was running, the dog jumped up’, and act it out. As
students do this with their toys, you can repeat the sentence. The students repeat
the action and say each part as they do it.
What you say ‘While the cat was the dog jumped up.’
running,
What the They make their cats They make their dogs They still make their
students do run. jump. cats run.
What the ‘While the cat was the dog jumped up.’
students say running,
To help the students to generalise the sentence meaning, you can make minor
changes to the sentence and have the students in small groups act out each one in
that context, for example:
While the bus While the bus While the bus While the bus
is moving, is moving, is stopped, is turning,
Monster jumps. Monster sings. Monster stands up. Monster jumps.
Still in the action context you can vary the agent in the two-event sentences
and ask the students to do the actions, ‘Do this. While Monster is standing up,
the white van passes the bus’. Before they actually do the action sequence, you
can have them say what they will do first, plan what it will look like when it is
happening and then do it. A student can say, ‘Monster is standing up. The white
van passes the bus. Monster is still standing up’.
You can show how the two actions in each two-event sentences are linked
by ‘while’. You can have them transfer the two-event sentence meaning to other
contexts, for example:
While the girl is While the music While you are While you are
reading, the plays, the light touching your nose, standing up, you
phone rings. comes on. you stand up. touch your nose.
Ask the students to give and follow instructions that contain ‘while’ about two
events in games and listening comprehension. Gradually make the instructions
more complex.
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10.2.2 Picture comprehension

After teaching the sentence meaning through actions, the students learn to select
pictures that show what was said. The two-picture sequences can show the same
context, but with the same actions linked in different ways, for example, the student
hears, ‘Which of these sets shows: While the girl runs, Monster stands up’, and sees:
The girl is Monster The girl is Monster The girl Monster

running. stands up. running. stands up. runs. still stands.
Initially in the teaching you may need to have the students actually do the actions
shown in each sequence and say what they did to help themselves in order to
select the correct sequence. As the students learn to talk about two events in the
intended way, they can see a typical two-event sequence and describe what they
saw, without necessarily doing it themselves.
10.2.3 Listening comprehension context

You can also encourage students to develop these sentences for stories they hear.
Part of the way through a story they are listening to, they can describe what has
happened in sentences using connectives such as ‘while’, ‘after’, ‘before’, ‘because’
and other terms to link events in ways they have learnt.
10.2.4 Learning to use sentence frames for the new sentence meanings
You can teach the students to use sentence frames to help them say the relationship
between the two events, for example, you can use ‘while’, ‘fast, quick event’ and
‘longer event that started first’ cards shown below. Having done several action
sequences that show the meaning, the students describe the two possible ways of
talking about the two events and put together the two matching sentence frames
using the three sentence-maker cards:
One event happens,

while another is fast, quick event while longer event that started first
going on.
While one event is

happening, another while longer event that started first fast, quick event
happens.
These sentence-maker cards can be used in all of the contexts and they help the
students to organise or put together how they will say the two events in the sentence.
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10.2.5 Teaching students to ask and answer questions using the

new sentence meanings
For each context, the students can ask and answer particular who, what, where,
when, how and why questions for the new sentence meanings, for example:
What happened while What did Monster do while

the bus was moving? When did Monster jump? the bus was moving?
To teach a new question form:

1 introduce it in a meaningful event or picture. Help the students learn the type of
information that will answer the question.
2 help students learn how, when and why to ask questions. They can play a version
of Old maid or Have you got …? They see a set of pictures. One student has a
picture. The other students try to identify this picture by asking that student
questions about it. ‘Have you got a picture of the truck carrying the wood?’ ‘Is
the driver eating the pie?’
10.3 Teaching students to say and use more

complex sentence meanings
Students gradually need to learn to comprehend and say more complex sentences.
These are the types of sentences described in section 3.4. You can teach various
types of new sentence meanings using the types of tasks described above.
10.3.1 The types of more complex sentence meanings you can teach
Examples of the more complex sentence meanings are:
• comparative relationships: ‘Winter is colder than …’ and ‘Cats are smaller than …’
• spatial relationships: ‘The truck drove in the middle of …’
• temporal sequential relationships: ‘Dinner is after …’ and ‘Summer comes
before …’
• inclusive and exclusive relationships: ‘He eats all of his dinner except …’
• cause–effect relationships: ‘I felt warm because …’ and ‘He stayed in bed
because …’
• conditional relationships: ‘I will go home if …’ and ‘They will be happy if …’
The following sequence for teaching students new sentence meanings is
recommended (Munro 1995):
1 Introduce the sentence meaning as one or more actions are done by the students,
either with or without using toys. Demonstrate the actions for the students,
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who act out the two events and talk about them in their own language. Use
actions that are familiar to the students and for which they know the words.
2 The students hear the sequence of actions described in a sentence. They repeat
aloud what they heard and do it. They finish incomplete sentences that describe
what they did.
3 The students see two events occur and describe what they saw in the correct
sentence-meaning form. You may need to scaffold the students to talk about it
in the intended way. This will probably include using sentence frames where
you provide the types of word cards described above and where you say part
of the sentence and the students complete it.
4 The students hear examples of the sentence meaning and select picture
sequences that illustrate examples of them. As well, they say a sentence
meaning that describes what is shown in a sequence of pictures.
5 The students hear examples of the sentence meaning in listening comprehension
contexts and say the sentence meanings with other words, they:
• paraphrase the sentence meanings
• describe the images or mental pictures they make hearing an example of
the sentence meaning
• ask and answer questions about the sentence meaning.
6 Guide the students to say and use the sentence meaning spontaneously as part
of their regular communication in as many contexts as possible. Link it with
other sentence meanings they use.
10.4 Teaching students to comprehend and use

grammar
The teaching of the conventions used to comprehend and say sentences has
generated interest in recent years. Issues that have been debated include whether
grammar needs to be taught and, if so, how. Let us first look at the how.
A range of teaching approaches has been proposed. Some teach explicitly
the grammatical rules, others teach the grammatical rules through tasks that
integrate the grammatical form with its meaning or intention. Some approaches
assume these will be learnt incidentally through immersion in language use.
10.4.1 What the research says about teaching grammar

There is little research that indicates when any one of these teaching approaches
is most appropriate. Nor has their value for later language use been established.
The majority of studies have investigated the effectiveness of teaching procedures
for second-language learning, usually by adults. For second-language learning,
successful teaching of sentence conventions was explicit rather than implicit, and
focused on and synthesised meaning and form (Norris & Ortega 2000).
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The value of teaching grammar for writing has been researched more than
for oral language use. Reviews of the value—for example, the Evidence for Policy
and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre Review (Andrews et al. 2004)
of over 4500 studies—conclude that teaching grammar (syntax) in English has
little effect on the accuracy and quality of written composition by 5 to 16 year
olds. You should keep this information in mind when you are planning to teach
the sentence conventions.
The ICPALER approach recommends teaching the sentence conventions
explicitly, if necessary. Given its focus on the use of language to communicate, it
recommends that you teach grammar in ways that are meaningful to students.
Students are taught to comprehend and express new grammatical forms and to
practise known forms first in the action and pictorial contexts.
The ICPALER model does not recommend introducing new grammatical
conventions as abstract rules. Rather, the focus is on teaching students to learn a
new convention initially in specific contexts and to gradually draw out the explicit
rules for using sensible sentences based on that form.
10.4.2 A sequence for teaching sentence conventions

The ICPALER model recommends the following teaching sequence for any
sentence convention:
1 Begin with teaching the meaning described by the convention and introduce
specific instances of the convention in these meaningful contexts.
2 Guide students to see the convention as a language pattern and to use it in
their regular communication.
This is an elaborated version of the successful ‘focus on form’ intervention used
for second language teaching by Norris and Ortega (2000).
The following sequence uses teaching the passive voice to illustrate the steps:
1 Act out an event or show the students a picture and have them say it using familiar
grammar, for example, ‘The truck carries the wood. The man drives the truck’.
2 Say the new grammatical form while you act it out in the action or picture
contexts. Point to each item as you mention it. Ask the students to repeat it.
For example, ‘The wood is carried by the truck. Now you say it’. Say a sentence
frame and ask the students to complete it, for example, ‘Finish this sentence:
“The wood is carried …”â†œ’. Use events the students can see in the context.
3 Say an event in the new form. The students repeat it and act it out or select a
picture that shows it. If they find this difficult, return to steps 1 and 2. After
they have acted it out or selected the correct picture, ask them to say it again
first in a familiar sentence form and then in the new form.
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4 The students see or do events, for example, in doll or toy play in the action
context and practise saying the new form to describe what they said or did.
5 Describe some events in the old way and some in the new way. Mix up the
sentence meanings. The students decide whether each example is of the old or
the new form. After several correct responses, ask them to say how they can
tell which is the old way and which is the new way.
The dog was bitten by the cat.

Two children ate the cake.
Roberto was seen by Anna.
Tom was lifted by his mother.
A young man was driving the car.
The boat was tossed by the waves.
6 The students say how the new way of saying the sentence is different from the
old way. For example, ‘Both ways tell you something happens. The old way
tells you who did it first. The new way tells you who did it last’. They use this
to make a sentence frame for the new way. You say an idea in the old form. The
students practise saying it in the new form, as shown below. You can use the
sentence frames initially, if necessary, to scaffold the new grammar. Gradually
remove these as the students provide more of the sentence themselves.
Teacher says Students say

old way ‘do’ word The driver eats a pie. A pie is …
new way is ‘do’ word by The driver opens the door. The door is …
A dog passes the truck. The truck is …
7 The students identify examples of the grammatical form in stories they hear
and say them in the old form and then in the new form. They practise moving
between the two forms. They say when they could use each form and how they
could use the new form.
8 The students use the new grammatical form more frequently in their regular
communication with others; they are assisted to transfer and generalise the
new forms.
You can use this framework to teach any new grammatical form. It is recommended
that you teach the forms in the developmental order described in Chapter 4.
10.4.3 Teaching the prerequisites for learning the conventions

The teaching sequence assumes that students are aware of the different types of words
in a sentence, from a grammatical perspective. It assumes that they know implicitly
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that some words are the names of items, some words refer to actions, some words
describe the items and some words describe how the actions are done. To know this
you need to think abstractly. Some students have difficulty becoming aware of these
types of words and don’t extract or see the grammatical patterns and regularities.
One way to teach the simple grammatical categories is to make them more
concrete. You can use materials to represent them, for example, symbolic
pictures. You can use symbolic pictures of a person or object to stand for nouns
and pictures of actions for verbs.
Pictures for nouns
Pictures for verbs
The students can use these types of pictures to make up sentences, for example:
The boy pushes the car.
Attribute blocks that differ in shape and colour can also be used to do this. For
example, verbs can be shown by circles and nouns by squares. Different verbs and
nouns are shown by different colours. Students learn to use these materials to
make sentences.
For example, you could use the following symbols for words:
the the the

Nouns I (John) the girl
cake dog juice
Verbs eat run drink
Temporal past tense future

morphemes (-ed) (will)
Modal
want can
verbs
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To say ‘I want to eat the cake’, the student can assemble:
Ebbels (2007) found these materials useful for teaching grammatical patterns
to students with specific language impairment. The patterns taught included
using the ‘-ed’ morpheme to say past tense, showing direct and indirect objects
in sentences and asking comparative questions. You could use these types of
materials when students have difficulty learning the simple grammatical patterns.
The goal here is that the students learn an implicit awareness of simple
grammatical categories. We know that particular words can belong to multiple
grammatical categories, for example, ‘run’ or ‘drink’. Once students have learnt a
simple awareness, they can elaborate and differentiate it.
10.4.4 Using the new conventions in regular language use

Obviously, students need a lot of practice using and transferring a new grammatical
form and integrating its use. They need time to plan how they will use the form
in particular contexts.
As with other aspects of language learning, they need to see how their new
knowledge about grammar works for them and increases their capacity to achieve
their goals. Throughout the teaching, help students see that it allows them to
communicate their message more effectively. You may need to guide them to
use their new grammatical knowledge in regular language transactions and to
integrate it within their communication framework.
One type of task used in second-language teaching is consciousness raising.
Instead of teaching the grammatical rule directly, the students learn about its
features as they explore and negotiate its use in meaningful communication with
others. It is as effective as teacher-led grammar lessons and gives opportunities
for language exchange (Fotos 1994). It is one way to integrate formal instruction
within the student’s communicative framework. When students make errors
in their use of grammar that suggest an immature knowledge, help them see
how their spoken message does not convey their message effectively and say the
correct form. You may have them practise producing this form. Encourage them
to continue to communicate orally.
10.5 Teaching sentence meanings and conventions:

Where to now?
The ICPALER framework stresses the importance of sentence meanings and
conventions to the knowledge individuals have about oral language. All learning
requires that students be able to build sentence meanings. Without this capacity,
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they would know only individual, isolated items. As we have seen in this chapter,
they build more complex sentence meanings from simpler meanings.
Look at your classroom or teaching practice. Where in your classroom do
students need to use and comprehend sentence meanings? What opportunities
exist for students to improve how well they can do this? Do you expect students
to learn the new meanings and grammar incidentally and automatically, or do you
have explicit teaching to allow them to learn this? What procedures do you use to
evaluate and monitor students’ knowledge of sentence meanings?
As we noted at the beginning of this chapter, sentence meanings are frequently
overlooked in our teaching. The aim of this chapter is to provide teachers with
some tools for improving students’ knowledge and learning capacity in this area.
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C h a p t er 1 1
Teaching discourse, topic meanings

and conventions
This chapter focuses on teaching students to understand and use the meaning of
a message that extends across a set of sentences. There are two aspects you may
need to teach:
1 how to draw out the emerging meaning of a message by linking sentence
meanings in acceptable ways
2 how to work out and use the topic of the spoken message.
A simple example of a discourse meaning is the meaning of a sequence of actions or
events. Children show an awareness of this at an early age when they learn to do a
set of actions for a purpose, for example, before going to bed at night or in toy play.
To link separate sentence meanings into a discourse you may need to teach
students how to:
• use sentence connecting words such as ‘and then’ or ‘later’ to form a time
sequence when they are telling a story
• use synonyms, pronouns and verb tense correctly to link ideas across sentences:
synonyms and pronouns need to match the nouns in earlier sentences; verbs
need to agree in tense and person
• do the comprehending actions for linking two or more sentence meanings; for
example, to visualise a sequence of sentences and to imagine the actions being
done.
They may also need to learn how to work out the topic of a message they hear
and how to link to it what they say. As a message continues, its topic may change.
They need to know how to detect, respond to and manage this.
In this chapter, we will examine teaching students to use discourse meaning
and then topic meaning. We look at teaching that integrates them in Chapter 13.
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11.1 Teaching students to understand and use

discourse meaning and conventions
You can teach the discourse meaning and conventions in the action, picture and
listening comprehension contexts and then, as the students’ skills in this aspect
develop, expand this to the extended speech context.
Before you begin to teach a particular type of discourse meaning, ensure that
your students can use the necessary prerequisite meanings. As well, be clear on
the specific discourse meaning you will teach and what the students will be able
to say and comprehend when they have learnt it.
11.1.1 Learning to talk about and use discourse meaning in

action contexts
Act out a story that comprises four to six separate events in a context familiar to
the students, using toys. Say its title, for example, Sleepy Tom, and tell the story as
you do it. The students act it. They make up and tell a matching story with their
toys, for example, The rabbit or The fish escapes the shark.
Tom was sleeping. He is happy. His puppy comes into his room.
He snores as he sleeps. It leaps up on Tom’s bed.
It starts to lick Tom’s face. Its tail

Sleepy Tom brushes against Tom’s legs.
Tom jumps up. ‘Do you want a biscuit, Tom wakes up with a jolt. He is
boy’, he says. ‘I’ll get you one’. alarmed. Then he sees his pet.
You can teach students to:

1 Link sentence ideas in a time sequence. As they do a sequence of actions,
have them say what they do. Initially allow them to use immature sentence
connectors. This allows them to become aware of sentence connectors. Teach
the acceptable ways of saying the sentences, that is, how to use the conventions
as a second step. You can teach them to use linking words such as, ‘after that’,
‘suddenly’ and ‘then’ through actions.
Immature sentence Tom was sleeping on his bed and his pet doggy came in and
connectors licked him and woke him up and Tom gave him a biscuit.
Mature sentence Tom was sleeping on his bed. The puppy came in. It started
connectors to lick Tom’s face. Then it wagged its tail. Soon Tom woke up.
2 Link sentence ideas using pronouns. You can teach pronouns by using ‘he’,
‘she’, ‘it’ or ‘they’ to refer to the items in the action context. You can touch an
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Tea c hi ng di sc ourse , to pi c me a n in g s a n d c o n v e nt io n s
item and say both its name and its pronoun, for example, ‘the rabbit’ and ‘it’.
You can also use cards that link each pronoun with an item, for example, ‘he’
with a picture of a boy. You should note that many students who do not use
pronouns correctly in discourse can use these words in an immature way to
refer to specific items in their world.
Tom was sleeping on his bed. A puppy came in. It started

to lick Tom’s face. It wagged its tail. Tom woke up.
To match pronouns with nouns, teacher

directs students to look at who is doing
the action in successive sentences.
Tom was sleeping on his bed. Then the puppy came in. The puppy
started to lick Tom’s face. The puppy wagged its tail. Tom woke up.
3 Link ideas to express a consequence or a cause–effect. The students do the linked

actions and talk about them, again using language that is familiar to them first.
Tom woke up because his puppy licked his face.
11.1.2 Learning to link sentence ideas in picture contexts

Use a similar approach to teach discourse meaning in picture contexts. Show
either a picture, a sequence of pictures of an event or real-life situation, or a
set of photos from an excursion. The students say in sentences what is shown.
Alternatively, you can read a big book to the students and then ask them to take
you on a journey through the pictures and retell the story. You can teach this
using points 1–3 above.
For example, tell the story these pictures show:
The farmer dug Then he planted Now he has

the ground. some trees. fresh apples.
11.1.3 Learning to link sentence ideas in the speech and

storytelling contexts
On later occasions, ask the students to use and talk about the events they
experienced in the action or picture contexts, but without the pictures or toys
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present. The goal here is for students to learn to use the particular discourse
meaning you are teaching without the concrete or pictorial materials present to
scaffold them. You can ask students to:
1 imagine they were telling someone else about the experience and to give their
presentation, two or three sentences at a time. They can have two or three
attempts at saying each two- or three-sentence section.
Before they begin, they can say the terms they might use. If they are working
on linking the sentences in a time sequence, they can say that they might use
‘first’, ‘then’, ‘after that’ or ‘later’. They could have these key words written on
cards and select or turn over each one as they use it in their speech.
2 listen to part of a story, a recount or a discussion in which the sentence links
are used. Again work explicitly on the particular aspects of discourse you are
teaching. Before students begin, they can say the terms they might hear and
use. For pronouns, ask them to suggest the pronouns that might be used in the
story, suggest to whom or what they refer, and use pronouns and intonation to
refer to people or things.
For each section of two or three sentences, students visualise what they hear,
imagine they were in the context, say or act out what they heard in their own
words, or add to a retelling. They extend the text by saying what they think
might happen or what they might do or feel as alternatives to what is said in
the text. For example:
• If you were the little boy, how would you feel?
• What would you tell your friend about your trip on the bus?
• What do you think the other people on the bus thought about Monster?
What might they tell their friends?
If the students find this hard, ask them to look at the pictures and think of how
they might change. If there are no pictures, give them time to visualise what
they hear, talk about that they see and then have them imagine it changing.
3 listen to a story and retell what they remember about it. Each student retells
part of the story so far. One student begins and their peers take turns to
add to this. Again, work explicitly on the particular discourse meaning and
convention you are teaching.
Alternatively, you can have students retell what the picture showed. Each
student takes a picture and describes it to the group. If each student can see
a set of pictures, they can attempt to select the picture being described at
any time.
4 listen to two or three sentences from a story that don’t have connectives,
such as ‘also’, ‘then’, ‘after that’ or ‘however’. The students suggest what
words might be used to link them and why. You can do similar activities
using other discourse links such as pronouns or cause–effect indicators. The
picture and word cards of each type of discourse link are useful here.
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5 listen to a short spoken discourse that misuses the particular discourse

aspect that you are teaching. The students say how and why they would
correct the discourse. You can have puppets or other dolls saying the
incorrect and correct speech.
6 listen for, use and act out the conventions used to narrate. They learn to act
out and to say, in the appropriate sequence, ‘Once upon a time there was …
They lived in a … The cow was always … One day it …’ They learn gradually
to refer to the components of a story genre, for example, the context, the main
characters, when it happened, etc.
11.2 Teaching effective discourse comprehending

actions
What thinking actions can you teach your students to use to help them learn more
about discourse meaning and conventions? The key actions are being able to listen
and look strategically to infer the topic, to retain and integrate what they have seen
and heard in a sequence of sentences and to link this with the topic. You can teach
these comprehending actions or strategies at three phases during a listening and
speaking episode (Munro & Munro 1994):
1 Getting ready strategies: students plan how they will listen and look. You can
teach them to:
• decide what details might be mentioned when they hear the title, topic or
details, or see a picture of it
• decide the type of text they will hear, for example, a story or how to do
something
• visualise what they think it could be about and say this in sentences
• decide the purpose for listening and the questions it might answer; they can
ask the who, what, where, when, why and how questions about the topic.
Students can work on these in small group or collaborative activities.
2 While listening and looking strategies: you can teach the students to:
• make a mental picture of each sentence they hear
• put themselves into the context described and use it
• say over to themselves what they heard or saw
• try to slow down the speaker so that you can get time to do these things.
Help students to see the value of doing these actions. As they listen to an
extended prose, such as a story, a description or an explanation, pause after
particular sentences and ask them to:
• say the picture they have made of what they have heard so far and describe
it in words
• say what might happen next and what might be said next
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• retell or recount what they heard

• answer questions about what they heard
• select from either sets of pictures or verbal descriptions those they heard.
3 Review strategies: at end of the listening activity you can teach the students to
review and consolidate what they have heard, ‘What who, what, where, when,
why and how questions can you answer now?’
This is a useful point in the teaching session to have the students practise various
short-term memory actions. These activities help students learn and practise
various strategies for retaining spoken ideas briefly. The strategies are essential
for comprehending what others say, for retaining spoken and visual information,
for staying on track and managing your language use, and for planning how you
will contribute to a message. Activities include:
• Recalling events and characters in the story they heard. Remind students to
replay their mental videotape of the story and put themselves into it, imagining
they were there.
• Progressive memory activities such as, ‘In the story I met …’, a version of I
went window shopping. The first student says, ‘In the story I met Monster’.
The second student says, ‘In the story I met Monster and the little boy’. The
third student says, ‘In the story I met Monster and the little boy. They got on
a bus’. You can add to a list of items formats, for example, ‘Harry has a lot of
pets. He has a white dog’ or ‘Gina likes eating cakes. One day she eats a patty
cake …’. The students can do characteristic actions for each item mentioned.
• Memory recognition activities in which the students select from a larger set
of ideas they heard. For example, ‘Which of these vans was carrying wood?
Which driver was eating a pie?’
Students with good language learning ability use these strategies spontaneously
in order to learn. Those with language difficulties don’t use them as easily and are
less likely to improve their oral language knowledge by listening.
You can teach each listening and looking strategy by:
• teaching students to apply it to two sentences they hear and then to more
• giving students time to practise using it on several occasions
• asking students to say how they do the action and how it makes listening easier
• asking students to say the action before they begin to listen and then do it
• linking it with other listening strategies; they can keep a list of the things they
do when they listen.
To teach visualising and verbalising strategies, for example, students look at a
picture, make an image of it in their heads, obscure the picture from view and
then talk about it. ‘What colour was the driver’s cap? Was there a lot of wood or
a little bit of wood on the truck?’
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11.2.1 Is the text too complex for your students?

You may need to check the level of difficulty of the listening text you are using.
Features you can examine are:
• How is the information organised? Is the story line, narrative or instruction
likely to be familiar to your students? You need to look at how the events are
presented and the information is organised.
• How familiar are the students likely to be with the topic?
• How clearly differentiated are the key ideas? Key ideas that are similar are
more likely to confuse comprehension.
• Does the text contain visual support for the ideas?
11.2.2 Helping students who lack the confidence to contribute

Engaging in communicating the discourse aspects requires students to engage
in exchanges that involve two or more sentences and frequently two or more
people conversing. Some students may not feel confident about using language.
They may be reluctant to initiate a conversation when they don’t understand
another speaker or when they realise that they have not been understood.
They may not know that not understanding an issue at one point in time is an
accepted part of language exchange and that you continue with the exchange
to resolve this.
You may need to take steps to build their self-confidence and self-efficacy as
language users. This may include helping them see that:
1 they can communicate effectively and they can be understood by others
2 using language can work for them and they can achieve their goals more easily
by using it
3 they can learn things to say that will help them communicate better. You can
teach them how to seek clarification in language exchanges and the scripts
they can use to achieve this.
11.3 Teaching students to say and use the topic of

a message
This section focuses on teaching students to use the meaning of the topic of
an oral presentation. Students need to be aware of how knowing the topic can
help you:
• link what you hear and say, and understand the meanings of words
• anticipate what might be said.
The teaching needs to guide the students to say and use the topic of a discourse,
how to look for it in the speech of others and to comprehend how to use it.
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11.3.1 Use the topic to decide what the presentation will say
To help students to infer what a text might say, you can help them to link particular
events with a topic and to work out the possible topic from what they hear.
1 Recognise examples of a topic. Students need to learn how to use the topic or its
theme as a coat hanger for the ideas. Suggest a topic, such as playing on the
beach and give students a set of pictures that include the topic and others, such
as things I do in the park. They should sort the cards into two sets.
Things I do at the beach Things I do in the park
This is similar to the activity teaching students to categorise the words they
are learning based on meaning (point 2, section 9.3), used to assist students
to categorise word meanings in long-term memory. The focus here is on
identifying the category or topic. As students categorise each card, they can
say a sentence that links the item with the category name or topic.
2 Work out the topic. Many young students will need to learn and practise how to
work out the topic when you are speaking and listening. You can give them a
preview or forward glimpse of what they might hear and ask them to anticipate
what they might hear. You could tell them, for example, ‘We are going to read
about a group of children going to the zoo. What might it tell you? What
things might you hear?’
You can have the students work out a topic in each of the contexts:
• You can do a series of actions, for example, act out driving a car or putting
items in a dishwasher. The students need to guess the topic. This is a
version of charades. Groups of students can present a charade. The audience
is encouraged to talk about what they say and do to work out the topic.
• You can show the students a set of four or five pictures on cards that belong
to a particular topic, for example, playing at the beach, and ask them to
work out the topic.
• You can read out five or six words from the first page of a story and ask the
students to guess what it is about. Help them retain what was said. You can
give them three or four choices from which they can select.
• You can have them listen to part of a conversation or a story and guess
its topic or theme. Help students retain what was said and pick out the
main ideas. You can draw a concept map of the ideas mentioned in the
conversation. This helps the students keep track of what was said. Ask,
‘What did you do to work out the topic of a story?’ You can guide them
to use the first one or two sentences to make an informed guess about the
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possible topic, then test their guess and modify it if necessary. Guide them
to say what they do to work out the topic of a text from what they hear and
record it as a set of steps, for example:
Students listen to one or two sentences Students listen to more of the text
Where do these things fit in with What is the main idea for them?
my experiences? What do they What is the title? What else might
remind me of? What are they about? they tell me?
First I make a picture in my mind Do I need to change what I thought

of what I hear and act it out. the topic was?
• You can make word or picture cards that specify a topic. Each group of two
or three students takes a card and makes up a small speech about the topic.
Their peers need to guess the topic. Examples of the topics could be: fast
food, pets, watching TV and the park.
• You can ask the group that worked out the topic for a speech, ‘How do you
work out what it was about? What were the clues?’
11.3.2 How does knowing the topic help you?

Mention a topic and ask the students what ideas might be mentioned. You could,
for example, show them a big book titled The Farm Concert (Cowley 2006) and
ask them to:
• make a picture in their minds about what it might tell them and then say in
sentences what they picture
• think about what might be done in the story, ‘Imagine you were at the animal
concert. What would you see or hear? How would you feel?’
• suggest the who, what, when, where, why and how questions it might answer
for them
• suggest words that might come up in the text
• say how it might start and what it might tell them early in the story
• say how it might finish.
Guide the students to bring together what they know now and to see that knowing
or guessing the topic helped them know this, for example:
It is about how some farm It might tell us the names of the

animals had a concert. animals and what they sang.
Knowing the topic of a message can also help communicators to stay on the topic
and say things that are relevant to the direction of the exchange. A useful activity
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is story completion in which you give the first few sentences in a story and the
students take turns to add to it. Sometimes you can tell them the topic and on
other occasions not. Record the presentations and have the students listen to
them. Ask them to select the ones that seemed to flow better.
A second useful activity that encourages students to listen for the topic is
a version of the radio station switching activity. Three messages, for example,
bathing your baby, changing the oil in your car and planting vegetables, are
mixed up. The students listen to the mixture and categorise each sentence as
coming from one of the messages. They can make up their own versions of this.
Throughout these activities ask the students to say what they did to work out
the topic of the actions, pictures or the spoken message.
11.3.3 How the topic influences the ideas in the text

When you begin to engage in an oral language exchange, you believe that
some words, sentences and discourse ideas are more likely than others. Give the
students the topic of a text and then ask them to suggest words and phrases, and
sentences that could be in the text. List the students’ suggestions. Then ask them
to rate the words and phrases that would be more likely. Say each word and ask
them to suggest whether it is more or less likely. Repeat this with the sentences
they suggest. Read the text and have them check their predictions.
Help the students see that whenever they hear the title or topic of a text, some
words or sentences are more likely than others. Ask, ‘How does this affect how
you will listen to a text in the future?’
11.4 The conventions for using the topic

Speakers of English signal the topic of a message in various ways, for example:
• They mention it at the beginning of the message, ‘ Today I am going to tell
you about my …’
• They repeat it, often with added emphasis, ‘and so the little red hen did it herself’
• They refer to aspects of it at a time, ‘The first thing the King’s cat did … the
second thing the King’s cat did …’
11.4.1 Referring to the topic when you speak

You can teach students to use the topic conventions in their speech in a range of
ways. It is useful to give each convention a descriptive name:
• mentioning the topic at the beginning of the message is the introductory
sentence rule
• repeating it throughout the message is the saying again rule
• referring to aspects of it at a time is the bit at a time rule.
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One useful activity is based on the topic cards described earlier. Each group of two
or three students takes a card and makes up a small speech about the topic. They
practise using each topic convention in turn. For the fast foods topic, for example,
they can practise using:
• the introductory sentence rule, ‘Today we are going to tell you about our
favourite fast foods’
• the saying again rule, repeating ‘We love our fast foods’ throughout the message
• the bit at a time rule, ‘The first favourite food we love is …’, ‘Our second
favourite fast food is …’
11.4.2 Learning to listen for the topic

You can teach students to listen for the topic conventions in messages they hear. You
can have them listen to a conversation or a story and use the conventions to guess
its topic or theme. You can also ask them to name each convention they hear.
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C h a p t er 1 2
Teaching students how to use

language to achieve their purposes
and to interact socially
The third aspect of the ICPALER model relates to what language users know
about how to use language to achieve their purposes. In other words, it is how
they make language work for them. Examples of the range of purposes for which
we use oral language are discussed in Chapter 5.
There are two related areas of learning and teaching where the P component
is important. The first is students learning to manage and direct their thinking
and behaving appropriately in the classroom and other contexts. A goal of
contemporary education is that students learn to be autonomous learners, able to
manage and direct their learning activity. This requires the development of self-
talk or inner language. Students who do not develop the P aspect of the ICPALER
model are less able to develop as independent, self-organising learners. Instead
they need to be managed and directed to learn by others, usually the teacher.
When the external direction is not present, they are disorganised, impulsive and
less likely to attend and remain on task.
A second area where the P component is important is students behaving
in negative, disruptive ways that require the use of classroom management
procedures. Teachers generally communicate the rules of acceptable social
interactions in classrooms through speech. Discipline problems arise in a class
when the student doesn’t either understand how language is used in social
interactions or when the goals of the student clash with those of the teacher.
Many students need to be assisted to improve how they use oracy to work
for them and to achieve their purposes and goals. A student may want to make
friends with peers. To do this they need to use oral language in a range of ways: to
initiate and maintain conversations with peers; to speak in ways that their peers
understand; to respond and adjust to what others say; to extend a conversation; to
judge how much information to give; and to express their goals or motives. If they
can’t do these things effectively, they are more likely to be rejected by their peers.
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using language to achieve students’ purposes and to interact socially
12.1 Teaching to scaffold purpose learning

The teaching for this aspect aims to optimise students’ ability to use their
knowledge of the meanings and conventions of language in social contexts so
that they are empowered to speak and listen most effectively. This includes
teaching them to share their thinking and feelings, to use their language
selectively according to the context or situation at any time and to express
their goals and intentions.
12.1.1 Scaffolding students to recall what they know

The P aspect requires students to use what they have learnt about the ideas and
conventions aspects of knowledge in an integrated way. They need to recall and
use the appropriate word and sentence meanings and conventions, for example, for
different purposes. To learn to use language to play with peers or to participate
in group learning in their classroom, they need to recall what they know about
relevant ideas and conventions.
Your teaching may need to help some students to recall this knowledge.
Immature or ineffective recall or application of what they have learnt may
explain why some students haven’t learnt it so well in their past. Your teaching
needs to help them recall the relevant aspects of what they have learnt and
guide them to apply it. Put bluntly, you may need to pull or draw out from their
memory what they know and guide them to link it with the present situation.
You may need to remind students of what they have learnt earlier, and how and
where it fits in the present context.
12.1.2 Scaffolding students to retain what they know

A second key issue for your teaching is to support the students to retain what they
know long enough to use it in the present situation. Having recalled what they
know, you need to keep it in their awareness or thinking space long enough for
them to link it with items in the current context, such as their goals. This could be
playing with peers at recess time or taking part in a classroom discussion. Some of
your students may not have learnt this aspect of the ICPALER model effectively
in the past because of short-term memory difficulties.
Your teaching needs to keep the ideas alive in the students’ minds, that is,
to scaffold them to use various short-term memory actions or strategies so that
they retain briefly the relevant knowledge and make relevant links. You may need
to ask them to repeat sentences they have just heard, link key words they are
using with their images or to recall in order the events that had just occurred by
visualising them. This teaching will assist students to link what they know with
particular situations and goals they have.
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12.1.3 Scaffolding students to attend to the auditory information

A third issue for your teaching is assisting the students to deal with the auditory
perceptual demands of teaching contexts. The P aspect of the ICPALER
framework requires students to learn in a range of real-life contexts that may have
multiple distracting sources of information. To learn effectively in these contexts,
students need skills for attending and discriminating relevant from irrelevant
auditory and visual information.
Some of your students may have had difficulty learning the P aspect earlier
due to difficulties in this area. Your teaching may need to scaffold them to attend
selectively and stay focused on particular information, to attend to a message in
the presence of interfering information such as background sounds, to discriminate
effectively between information sources, and to perform specific auditory skills
such as localising a spoken message.
12.1.4 Teaching purposes from simple to complex

For the convenience of teaching, a knowledge of the purposes of language use can be
divided into several areas. In each area, the teaching needs to allow this knowledge to
be acquired developmentally. For managing and directing language use, for example,
students learn these skills initially for short, spoken episodes about concrete, familiar
topics that involve one or two others. Over a period of years, they learn to apply this
to more complex speech about more sophisticated topics for longer periods and in
more complex social interactions. Your teaching needs to take this in account.
For any text, the sequence for teaching the four aspects is:
Teaching students to manage and direct their language use
Teaching students to adjust Teaching students to use

to context and audience language for different goals
Teaching students to listen and speak between lines
12.1.5 Teaching students to link the oral language with their

body language
The P aspect of the ICPALER model involves students linking their feelings and
emotions with what they say and hear. A key part of the teaching is to help them
link their speaking and listening with the body language and actions they use.
How they move their heads and hands, how they stand or sit, and the expressions
on their faces are all as important as what is said.
The teaching needs to help the students to link these two ways of sending a
meaning. Teaching the components of the P aspect in the action context, having
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the students imagine themselves in a scenario and acting out what they say, and
linking actions with people’s expressions in the picture comprehension contexts
will be important for each component of P.
12.2 Teaching students to manage and direct

their language use
The four components you need to teach here are how and why to:
1 start, maintain and end a conversation
2 take turns in an exchange
3 stay on a topic
4 use the context to interpret terms such as personal pronouns.
You can teach each of these components at a time and allow the students to
gradually automatise how they use each. You can teach each component in the
following sequence:
Teach in an action Teach in a listening Teach in a

or picture context comprehension context speaking context
12.2.1 Teaching in an action or picture context

You may need to teach students the four main ways in which they manage and
direct their use of language. You can teach each way first in action contexts
using toys to act out two short scenarios involving a language exchange: one in
which the exchange is effective and one in which it isn’t. The students watch each
scenario, identify the unacceptable parts, show how these could have been done
more effectively and act out acceptable ways of using language with their toys.
You can have your students act out effective ways of:
1 starting, maintaining and ending a conversation: act out situations in which an
attempt is made to start a conversation by a doll that (1) physically challenges a
second doll, (2) begins by shouting ‘Hey you’ to a second doll, and (3) politely
approaches a second doll.
2 taking turns in an exchange: act out situations in which turns are and are not
taken in exchanges.
3 staying on a topic: act out short exchanges in which two dolls do or don’t
stay on a topic and discuss how this helps or doesn’t help the speakers to
understand each other.
4 using the context to interpret terms: act out a short exchange that includes
personal pronouns such as ‘he’. The students say who or what is being intended
by each pronoun.
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12.2.2 Teaching in a listening comprehension context

You can also teach students to listen to language exchanges and analyse how
communicators use one or more of the four ways of managing and directing their
use of language. Useful types of activities include the following:
1 Record short conversations between two or more speakers. Include positive
and negative examples of points 1–4 above in each conversation. Students
listen to each conversation and decide how it can be improved in points 1–4.
They can suggest what particular characters may do or say to improve their
communication.
2 Record short segments of a story and ask students to say what or who is
intended by particular pronouns. Include segments that:
• contain errors, such as misuse of pronouns and errors in verb tense
agreement. Ask students to detect and correct these.
• use nouns where pronouns could be used. Ask students to detect where
pronouns could have been used and to suggest what they could be.
3 To teach students to stay on the topic, have them listen to:
• a conversation that is actually two conversations you have run together.
The students decide where the topic changes and what might have been said
that was on the first topic
• an incomplete story and suggest how it might be continued
• a topic or a name of a story and take turns to say sentences that allow the
story to build. They need to say sentences that retain the topic.
12.2.3 Teaching in a speaking context

Students practise initiating, maintaining and ending a short conversation with
peers. They begin by imitating particular expressions and then vary these. They
apply this in doll play or suggest how a person in a story they are listening to
might converse about a topic.
Explicit teaching here is necessary for many students. They need to be
scaffolded to implement the four components and to use each independently. Some
students will learn to implement these in familiar situations and then to transfer
them. The students say how they can manage their speaking and listening. Teach
them to use self-talk if necessary to tell themselves how to behave effectively
while listening and during conversations and language exchanges.
When I am talking with other people,

I will listen to what they say. I won’t
interrupt them. I will let them say
what they want to.
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12.3 Teaching students to adjust to context

and audience
Your teaching here needs to help students to:
1 see the world from the perspective of others and be aware of the need to take
account of their audience, for example, what the listeners know about the
topic, how interested they will be in the topic and how well they can attend,
focus and listen
2 take account of the context in which they speak, for example, how long they
will have and if the audience can interact and interrupt them as they present
3 select words and conventions that are appropriate to their audience and
context
4 understand that when they are listening to an exchange, the speaker
has selected the words they are using and how they are speaking, either
intentionally or intuitively.
To teach students to judge how much information they need to give in a language
exchange, such as conversing or discussing, you can use the activities below.
1 Students listen to a three-minute recount about a familiar topic given by a
student, for example, my pet. When the recount is finished, they say what else
they need to know about the pet. The speaker provides the additional information
and says what additional things they might need to say in the future.
2 Students listen to three-minute recorded recounts of familiar topics. The
recounts differ in how they take account of what the students know. They
range from providing largely redundant information to information that is
beyond the comprehension of the students. The students evaluate each in terms
of how well it accounts for what they know and how they would improve it.
They develop a checklist for evaluating an exchange in this way.
3 While listening to a story, students discuss how different characters see the
same event differently. In The Little Red Hen, for example, they can discuss
what the cat, the hen, the dog and the goose may have thought about the
goose’s gossiping or the hen’s need to work all the time. Introduce sentence
frames that focus on this, for example, ‘How does the cat see this event? Put
yourself in the shoes of the goose. How does the goose see it?’
As well, encourage the students to discuss topics for which different students
have different and often opposing views. Have them recognise the multiple
views. The focus here is on students seeing the world through other people’s
eyes and understanding that others can think differently. Encourage them to
put themselves in the shoes of other people. Being able to understand topics
from the perspective of others is important for effective social interactions and
for participation in classroom learning.
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4 Prior to giving a three-minute recount of a familiar topic to a group of peers,

the student says how they could decide what the peers already know and how
this could change what they will say. For the topic visiting a dairy farm, for
example, the student might say they want to know whether peers have had a
similar experience. They might discover this by asking the group initially:
• Where do milk, cheese and cream come from?
• How do farmers get the milk from the cows?
5 Students listen to or watch short conversations between two students about a
familiar topic. As they listen to each, they decide how well each speaker took
account of what the listener knew. They note whether the listener lost interest
or became bored. They can modify the evaluation criteria they used in point 2
above. ‘How often did the speaker say things that the listener knew? How often
did the speaker say things that the listener didn’t know at all?’ The students
suggest how they would speak differently. Different pairs of students show
how they would have a conversation on the same topic.
6 Students engage in short conversations in which they practise being interested
in and responding to topics chosen by others. You can teach them to respond
actively to topics initiated by others, for example, to anticipate and to ask
themselves ‘I wonder what they will say or what will happen next?’
7 Teach students to modify the ways in which they talk to take account of the
roles of significant others. They can practise, for example, recounting an
experience to peers who are acting as parent, teacher, policeman or friend.
When they communicate in each context, have them discuss what would be
appropriate or inappropriate things to say and how to say them.
8 As well, students listen to short conversations between a child and a significant
other. They are told who the significant other is and decide whether the
language used is appropriate. Where it is inappropriate, they suggest more
acceptable ways of communicating.
9 Students practise modifying how they will talk briefly to a small group
about a topic, depending on whether the group knows it well or not well.
They can practise planning what they will say and how they will guide
the group along with them. They can practise using relevant opening
sentences, for example, ‘You all know about … Well I’m going to tell you
about something I …’
10 Students say the actions they will take to make a presentation about a familiar
topic fit an audience and a context, as shown below.
When I am asked to make a short presentation, I will try
to work out how much information I need to give.
Would these listeners know about this topic? Would they have had
the experience I will talk about? Will they have heard the story?
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11 Students say how they can adjust to different audiences and contexts. Before
they enter an unfamiliar context or one in which they feel uncomfortable—for
example, new play situations, a large space with several sources of distracting
information, meeting people they don’t know, learning new knowledge or
skills—they say what they could do to be most successful.
When people are telling me what to do,

I will listen carefully. I will tell myself
what they say to do and think of doing it.
I will watch what other people do.
When I am playing with Ava I will share and

wait for my turn. I won’t boss Ava around.
12.4 Teaching students to use language for

different goals
Your teaching here needs to help students to comprehend the goals of others for
speaking and listening, and to use language to achieve their goals. Sometimes the
goals will be explicitly stated and the speakers and listeners need to identify them.
In other exchanges, they will need to infer the goals for communicating.
Most children have goals for communicating long before they begin school.
Their goals are usually egocentric. They speak or listen, for example, in order to
get something that they want or to do something they would prefer. Around the
age they begin school, their goals for communicating become more sophisticated.
Their goals can include:
1 to tell you how I feel (scared, happy, sorry, interested, angry)
2 to tell you what I would like to do
3 to avoid appearing to be (wrong, silly, slow, unpopular)
4 to make you feel (scared, happy, sorry, interested, angry)
5 to play with you
6 to be your friend
7 to show you that I know that …
8 to make you believe I am (clever, strong, fast, good, bad) at …
9 to know more about …; or to be able to do …; or to be able to (touch, feel, see) …
10 to change what I am doing.
You may need to teach students not only to communicate these types of goals
orally but also to recognise and comprehend them in the exchanges of others. To
teach students to recognise and comprehend the goals of others in oral exchanges
and to communicate their goals, you can use the activities following.
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12.4.1 Teaching in an action context

You can teach students to use language to communicate goals in action contexts.
1 Select one of the goals in the list of 1–10 on page 167, for example, to tell others
you feel scared. Act out the conversation of a doll that tells listeners this. Act
and speak in a way that stresses or over-emphasises the goal. ‘What does
the doll say and how might the doll say it? What words might it use?’ The
students act out this and other goals. They suggest why particular actors in
videos said what they did say and what their goals or motives might have been.
2 Select one or two of the goals from the list. Tell the group the goals you have
selected. Ask the students in groups of two or three to act out—in their speech
and their actions—one of the goals in a short conversation. The other students
need to decide which goal is being enacted. They say how they made the decision.
3 What are useful ways of getting what you want? Have students practise acting
out and saying how they would use speech to achieve goals 1–10 from the list
in acceptable ways; for example, to invite someone to play with them or to
ask someone to share an object with them. Develop these as self-scripts or as
sentence frames that students can use to communicate their goals.
12.4.2 Teaching in a speaking or listening comprehension context

You can teach students to use language to communicate goals in speaking–
listening contexts. They infer the goals of others and express their goals. Useful
activities include:
1 Students listen to part of a big book story, such as The King’s Cat (Tarlton
1974). After the first few pages they are asked:
• How they think particular characters felt, for example, how did the King
or the cat feel?
• Why they think the King or the cat felt like this?
• What the King or the cat wanted to happen?
• Why did the King or the cat say or do what they did?
The aim is for the students to put themselves in the positions of characters in
the text, and infer how they felt and their motives for saying and doing what
they did. Repeat this activity with several stories.
Why do you think the cat climbed up the How do you think the King felt when he knew the
tree and wouldn’t get down? cat was up the tree? What did he want to happen?
Why do you think the King begged the Why do you think the Queen ordered the cat
cat to get down from the tree? to get down from the tree?
Why do you think the cat stayed up the tree? What did the King want to happen?
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2 Students listen to recordings of short conversations (up to three minutes long)

between peers or between you and one or more peers. They discuss:
• each speaker’s goal, what the speaker wanted to happen and how they
showed this
• each listener’s goal, what each listener wanted to happen and how they
showed this
• how they worked out each goal
• other ways of speaking and listening, if appropriate, in that situation.
3 Students select a situation in which they engage regularly, for example,
eating breakfast, playing with friends, getting ready for bed, or going
somewhere in the car. They identify in the situation:
• some of their goals and how they try to make them happen by speaking
and listening
• the goals of others in the situation
• how they feel when their goal doesn’t happen
• how they could let people know their goal more effectively.
4 Prior to beginning a particular activity or going on an excursion, have
the students think ahead to the goals they might have in the context, for
example, ‘What sorts of things might you want to do or say?’ Students
suggest possible goals and say how they might achieve them and the ways in
which they will talk and act.
5 Gradually build up a list of the goals that occur in the lives of students and the
ways of speaking, listening and acting that go with each. What would each
goal sound like in how a person talks and what they say? Lead them to answer
questions about how you can decide the goal of speech.
6 Students say the actions they will take so that what they say will help them to
get what they want.
When I am listening to what others say, I will

try to work out why they are saying it. What
do they want to happen?
When I am talking and listening, I will

think about what I want to happen.
12.5 Teaching students to listen and speak

between the lines
To teach students to recognise and comprehend language being used in non-
literal ways, you can use the following activities.
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12.5.1 Teaching the students to recognise and respond to non-

literal language
In your teaching, you need to give students the opportunity, tools and time to
reflect on and to use:
1 humour and to invent and tell jokes for peers
2 sarcastic remarks, where what is said is the opposite of what is intended; for
example, ‘That was very clever of you!’
3 non-literal comments that are relevant to the speaking–listening context,
when a student gives an unexpected response and the teacher asks, ‘Where did
that come from?’
It is necessary that in your teaching here you help the students:
1 recognise that the person doesn’t mean exactly what they said and that you
need to think about why they said it
2 work out what it could mean; for example, did the teacher say it when they
meant the opposite, did they say it to be silly or to make you laugh?
3 work out the difference between literal and non-literal language. One way of
doing this is to follow the non-literal statement immediately with the literal
statement and ask them to work out what the non-literal one means; for
example, to follow, ‘That was very clever of you!’ with ‘It was a silly thing to do’.
12.5.2 Teaching the students to talk about ideas in imaginative

ways and comprehend imaginative reference to ideas
For a story that students have heard, or events that they have seen, ask the
students to suggest how the outcomes may have been different:
• if the events had occurred in other contexts, for example, what if the animals
in The Little Red Hen lived in the city, where you wouldn’t find wheat seeds?
• if the key characters were different in particular ways, for example, what if the
cat in The Little Red Hen hadn’t been so lazy or if the wheat hadn’t grown?
• if key elements of the story were changed, for example, what-if the wheat in The
Little Red Hen hadn’t grown and the little red hen couldn’t have made the cake?
Ask the students to engage regularly in this type of what-if thinking when they
listen to or read a story.
12.5.3 Teaching in the pictorial context

Have the students look at pictures that show particular events and have them
‘dig under’ the pictures to infer why the events occurred. Scaffold their thinking
and point out options that they could ask themselves. Examples are the goose
gossiping to neighbours in The Little Red Hen and the King begging the cat to
come down from the tree in The King’s Cat:
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• Why do you think the goose gossiped? Could she have been unhappy? Could
she have thought she didn’t have many friends?
• Did the King think if he shouted at the cat, that it would make it more scared?
Teach the students to move from the observable features in a picture to the
implied underlying meaning, to infer people’s thinking and intentions, and to
make sensible predictions.
12.5.4 Teaching the students to use and comprehend common

idioms and metaphors in speech
Students hear idioms such as ‘by the skin of your teeth’, ‘he’s pulling your leg’,
‘don’t drag your feet’ or ‘keep your nose to the grindstone’. They are often used
by teachers for classroom management and control purposes. Some students need
to be taught what these mean.
In your teaching you may need to:

1 ask the students to describe the picture they make in their minds of the idiom
2 discuss what each might mean and to point out it doesn’t mean exactly what it
says, ‘The image they tell us is not what we are meant to do’
3 discuss why it is used and when they might expect to hear other people saying it
4 have the students practise using each of the common idioms.
You can teach one or two of these each week. Students can draw a picture of what
each one says and a picture of what it means. They can practise using it in their
dialogue with peers. Other examples you may want to include in your teaching
are:
1 can’t make heads or tails of it
2 down in the dumps
3 keep an eye out for me
4 you’ve got your wires crossed
5 be here on the dot
6 keep your chin up
7 it’s raining cats and dogs
8 she knows it backwards and forwards
9 you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill
10 give me a hand.
12.6 Teaching an integrated purposes aspect

Learning to comprehend and use the purposes aspect of the ICPALER framework
is critical for effective communication. It also provides a critical foundation for
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learning generally. Students need as much practice as possible in learning the

components and using them in an integrated way. Some key suggestions for
helping the students practise the planning and see how it works for them include:
1 Let students know they have time to plan what they will say about how to
achieve their social outcomes.
2 Stop the world for five minutes. Allow students to ‘take back’ what they said,
to ‘stop the world’ and to follow an alternative pathway. This allows them to
learn how to modify their language to achieve an alternative goal or to follow
an alternative pathway to the goal.
3 Ask the students to tell you what they see in their minds about a situation.
Sometimes students feel they can use language effectively to deal with a social
situation or problem. When they think there are situations in which they can’t
communicate effectively, allow them to say what they see in their minds and
what they see as a solution or what they would like to achieve as a solution. This
often acts as a bridge to them communicating effectively about the situation.
We noted at the beginning of this chapter the negative outcomes when this aspect of
oral language teaching is neglected. Students are less able to use language effectively
to communicate their thoughts and feelings or to manage and direct their learning.
They are also more likely to behave in ways that warrant behaviour management.
The focus of this chapter is on the explicit teaching of this knowledge and also
its explicit learning by students. The ICPALER model recommends teaching each
of the components described here in an explicit, systematic program. A weekly
teaching plan would specify those parts of the purposes you would teach, the self-
talk you would teach to help the students to learn each purpose, and the student
behaviours or outcomes you would be targeting.
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C h a p t er 1 3
Teaching that integrates using

the meanings, conventions
and purposes
So far we have focused on teaching separately each type of meaning, and its
conventions and the purposes for communicating. Communicators use these
aspects in an integrated way. A listener makes decisions about all of the types of
meaning at once; young language users learn to do this. It is part of the AL aspect
of the ICPALER model, the ability to learn language.
Some students do not show this integration. They may concentrate or draw
on some types of meaning more than others. Each type of meaning contributes
separately to their overall understanding. Students who use only part of the
information do not form an overall meaning.
The need to teach students to integrate what they have learnt is often ignored
or neglected in language programs. Sometimes teachers assume it will happen
automatically. For many students, it doesn’t. Many will need teaching that guides
them to synthesise the various aspects and to build a model of the spoken text in
which they are participating. In this chapter, we look at how to teach readers to
integrate and use the various aspects. They need to be guided to integrate what
they have learnt and to learn how to do it for themselves.
These types of activities in which students practise using all of the language
knowledge they know in real-setting situations are sometimes referred to as
communicative output activities. They frequently involve students working
together to plan and complete a task or to resolve a problem. They may, for
example, tell a story or present a discussion.
To foster integration, the teaching strategies need to:
1 guide and direct students to link together or integrate various aspects they
have learnt separately; the teaching cues or directs them to link aspects in
particular ways. It guides them to see that word meanings are determined by
sentence meanings and that the topic helps you interpret sentences.
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2 give the students time to do this and to reflect on what they did
3 scaffold them to recall knowledge from their long-term memory, to retain
knowledge in their short-term memory and to use the auditory processing
strategies described in Chapter 6
4 encourage them to think about, talk about and use the integrated outcome and
the process of integrating.
When do you teach integration? It is recommended that you do it regularly,
with almost every oral language session having time set aside for integration.
This ensures that students are forming a synthesised oral language knowledge
in small increments.
The integration can be done using a range of oral language genres. The most
useful for younger students are the narrative, the recount, the expository and
the conversational genres. In this chapter, we examine initially how you can
teach students to comprehend and use the narrative genre. Comprehending and
expressing narrative text will be used to bring together the meanings, conventions
and purposes you have taught as part of the ICPALER framework.
13.1 How the narrative genre contributes to learning

The narrative genre is recommended here for several reasons:
1 Thinking in narrative ways is important for living generally. Students learn
to look for and to use the context, main characters and plot, and to detect the
gradual emergence of a problem or issue, its solution or resolution and its
ending. To do these things they need to link ideas in time and location, and to
recognise consequential and causal relationships.
2 Some of the language actions they need to use include checking and monitoring
how well they understand what they hear and say, and modifying it where
necessary. They link the theme with the dialogue, think ahead and back
track over what was said earlier. They infer about characters, their goals,
characteristics and actions, and link them.
3 Young children meet the narrative genre in a range of contexts: in listening
to and telling stories; television viewing; and in structured and unstructured
play. Teaching the genre assists them to structure information and to improve
their recounting and conversing.
4 It scaffolds early literacy comprehension (van den Broek et al. 2005). A young
student who can understand narrative text knows what to look for as they read
a text. They can use this knowledge to organise and link the ideas they read.
5 Some children begin school with an immature narrative knowledge of
English. They may need more learning opportunities in the action and
picture contexts with the additional sources of meaning. Some may need the
teaching to proceed in smaller steps, with more feedback.
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integrating the meanings, conventions and purposes
13.2 Teaching an understanding and use of

narrative text
Young children’s understanding and use of narrative text can be improved by
directed comprehension teaching. Useful teaching activities for students in the
early years include story mapping (Baumann & Bergeron 1993), explaining how
to use the main story elements (Garner & Bochna 2004), retelling activities
(Morrow 1985), and direct-narrative comprehension strategy instruction (Paris
& Paris 2007). You can implement the teaching in the action, picture, listening
and speaking, and speech and storytelling contexts.
13.2.1 What do you need to teach?

The teaching uses the key elements of a narrative text structure as the locations
where the integration occurs, as shown in the figure below.
The context or
The initiating The issue How it The
setting and the
event or problem is resolved ending
main characters
The goal of teaching is that students learn to use these elements. Initially, you will
probably need to scaffold them to do this. You can gradually guide the students to
use each element independently by working through the teaching sequence below.
Scaffold students
Model how to The students say
to integrate the The students
integrate the aspects. what they will do to
aspects of the apply this
The students practise integrate the aspects
ICPALER model broadly.
it, saying what they do. and practise doing it.
around the element.
You can teach the scaffolding and the actions the students will tell themselves to
do for each element by working through the questions in the figure below.
The context or The

setting and the initiating The issue How it The
main characters event or problem is resolved ending
Where does the What causes What is the How is the How does
story happen? the problem problem? problem it finish?
Who are the in the story? fixed?
main characters?
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To teach the students to integrate around the context or setting and main
characters, for example, you can:
• tell them to answer the questions shown in the diagram below
• model asking them and have them repeat the questions and then answer them
• guide them to ask and answer the questions
• practise asking and answering them.
What sort of story is it: What words could I use to describe where
scary, funny, happy or sad? it happens or the main people in it?
The context and the main characters
How will I describe the How will I say the story to make it (scary …)?
main people in sentences? What do the listeners know about the topic?
Students can use these questions to draw together what they know about the
various aspects of oral language for each element in a narrative. For each element,
they can plan what they know for each aspect and then bring them together.
You can teach them to integrate their oral language knowledge for speaking
and understanding in each of the contexts. For each element of a narrative, you
can begin in the action context where you scaffold the students’ activity, and move
gradually towards the listening comprehension and extended speaking contexts
where they practise using them independently.
13.3 Teaching integration in the action

In this context, you teach students to tell and listen to narratives presented with
accompanying actions that support the meaning. The actions assist the integration
process in several ways:
1 They provide a second source of meaning for the listener or observer and for
the speaker.
2 They assist the speaker in recalling key words; we discussed in Chapter 9 how
doing meaningful actions can assist you to recall the words that are linked
with them.
3 They assist the speaker to link individual meanings into sentences and they
assist listeners to comprehend them.
4 They help the speaker retain the ideas in their short-term working memory.
5 Doing actions can often slow down the communication so that the speaker has
time to plan and consolidate what they will say next and so that listeners have
time for processing the language.
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Act out a story as you tell it to your students. In addition to this, focus on guiding
the students to bring together key aspects of oral language you have been teaching.
13.3.1 The context for the action stories

Your action story can take the form of a role play in which you act out what each
character does. The action stories the students create can be about a person on
TV, a favourite story or a film, a pet, a fireman going to a fire or a lion in the zoo.
Students work on each action story in groups of two or three. Each student
takes on the role of one or more characters as they retell part of it.
13.3.2 Pre-listening strategies

Before you begin, tell the students the story’s title and show them one or two of
the toys that you will use to tell the story. Ask them to:
1 predict words that may be in the story
2 say in sentences what the animals suggest and use in sentences some of the
words they predicted
3 talk about the events that might happen. You can encourage them to put
themselves into the context and imagine they were there. What would they
feel, see, hear or do?
4 suggest how it might be read to them; what the story might sound like
5 put all of this into a possible story; different students suggest what the story
might say.
These actions help the students to draw together what they already know about
this topic in an integrated way. They can link and integrate new knowledge into
this. It provides a starting point.
13.3.3 While-listening strategies

It is also useful for the students to say what they will do as they listen to and
watch a story being acted out. Ensure that they mention actions that will help
them to integrate the ideas they hear, for example, they will ‘say sentences over
to themselves’, ‘watch what is going on when they hear new words’ and ‘make a
picture in their minds of what they are hearing’. If they say what they will do, they
will be more likely to do it.
13.3.4 Modelling the storytelling

Modelling the storytelling is acting it out for the students. Decide the elements of the
narrative you will scaffold, the element/s for which you will teach student self-talk
and the element/s the students will use independently. As you go through the story:
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1 Remind the students to use their while-listening actions.

2 Review what the students know so far and predict what might happen next to
link what they are hearing and seeing with what they know, to link ideas and to
attribute feelings, goals and motivations. As the students listen to The King’s Cat,
for example, you can cue them to think about ‘How would you feel if you were the
King’s cat or the King? What would you want to say? Why do you think the cat
climbed up the tree? Why do you think it didn’t want to come down?’
13.3.5 Teaching the students how to ‘do’ an action story

The teaching here guides the students to convert a story they hear to a sequence
of actions or events. They actually ‘do’ the story. The following are useful teaching
recommendations:
1 The first action stories you can work on could be retellings of stories students
have heard recently. Over a few sessions, small groups could retell a story,
either with the students taking turns to be the narrator and doing the actions
simultaneously or with each student being a major character and saying what
the character did as they acted it, for example, the student acts out as they say,
‘The cat climbed up the tree and sat on a branch. He wouldn’t come down.’
2 Set a goal or outcome for the action story. Be clear on:
• the element of a narrative you are targeting at any time and have the
students work on this
• the learning outcomes you want to teach, for example, how to plan an
action story, how to take account of what the audience knows or how to say
interesting sentences
• how you will give feedback during the planning, the implementation
and the follow-up. Decide for each student what you will comment on or
want to correct. Ensure the students see this as an important gradual
learning activity and not one in which they need to get everything right
on the first attempt.
3 Use small groups and keep each presentation manageable and short. Following
the listening comprehension activity using The King’s Cat, one group could
retell the King and Queen trying to get the cat down, while a second group
retells how the magician and cook tried. Each could be up to five minutes long.
This allows all students to participate during a week. It also allows you to
guide the planning and give effective feedback that leads to further learning.
4 Use the students’ preparation time for them to learn how to plan what they
will say and how they will say it. You can guide each group to brainstorm the
vocabulary, sentences and discourse expressions they might use.
5 Allow students’ personalities and individual ways of doing things to emerge
and be valued. If necessary, use cue cards that can help them to remember
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what they might say. Some students might prefer to draw pictures showing the
actions they will do and talk about.
6 Have procedures for supporting less-confident students, for example,
opportunity for additional practice and reduced need to compete with peers
for their turn.
7 Decide how you will provide follow-up teaching, either individually, in small
groups or for the class.
You can embed ‘doing the action story’ in play activities. Suppose the students are
playing with small vans. Types of activities could include:
1 Each student makes up a short action story for the group about their van. They
tell it to the group and their peers act it out.
2 The group is given a topic, for example, taking care of my van. Each student
makes up a story and shares it with the group.
3 Two vans have a conversation. What would each say to the other? One
student’s van can interview another student’s van about what its driver is like.
13.4 Teaching integration in the picture

In this context, students learn to tell and listen to narratives based around one
or more pictures. The pictures require the students to respond to a sequence of
ideas prepared by someone else. In this way it is easier (in that they don’t need
to generate the ideas themselves) and more difficult (because they need to align
their language use with the ideas developed by others). You will need to model
converting a set of pictures to a story before you ask your students to do it.
13.4.1 The context for the picture stories

You can use a picture book about topics you are studying with the class. Wordless
picture books are often useful for teaching narrative meaning-making skills
because they tell a coherent story without text, using an obvious sequence of
events and the main elements of stories. Alternatively, you can use a sequence
of three or four pictures that show the character, setting and action information
about a story or a single picture showing a familiar event. The picture could be a
photograph of a mid-morning street scene in a city. The students create a story
that integrates the various individual events shown and imagine how they are
related and how they might change over time.
13.4.2 Pre-listening strategies

Before you begin to model your story for a set of pictures, you can show students
the set and ask them to suggest its title and to:
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1 suggest words you might say in your story

2 say ideas shown in the pictures in sentences and predict other sentences in
your story
3 talk about the sequence of events; you can suggest they put themselves into the
context and imagine they were there. What would they feel, see, hear or do?
4 suggest how the story might be said
5 practise suggesting their story for the pictures.
13.4.3 While-listening strategies

Again, have the students say what they will do as they listen to a story about
the pictures. They can mention some of the while-listening strategies they used
in 12.3.3. For example, they can say that they would tell themselves what the
pictures showed and link it with what they heard. They might also imagine what
the next pictures might show or what the story might say next.

Show the picture/s to the group. Model the storytelling as outlined below.
1 Introduce the task, ‘I am going to make these pictures into a story. I will make it
sound like a story from a book’. Say what you will tell yourself to do, ‘I will tell
myself what the story is about, where it is happening, who the main people are,
what is happening in the first picture and I will make up a name for the story’.
2 Ask the students to apply the pre-listening strategies and suggest some while-
listening strategies.
3 Tell your story. Draw attention to features of each picture as you say it in
sentences by pointing or indicating aspects.
13.4.5 Teaching the students how to tell a picture story

In small groups, students plan how they will tell a picture story, initially for a two-
or three-card sequence that builds on the story you told. Guide them to focus on
one element of a narrative at a time, for example, its context and main characters,
by bringing together the various aspects of the ICPALER framework. Students
suggest vocabulary and link information about characters and actions into sentences
and discourse. They talk about the main ideas and infer, for example, what might
happen next, how it might be said or how the main characters might feel.
Spend a few teaching sessions guiding the students to tell picture stories
independently. First focus on the context and main characters, then the issue or
cause of the problem, and so on. Scaffold the other elements where necessary. You
can use the conditions described for telling action stories on page 178.
As the students’ competence develops in this context, one useful activity
is to have a student tell a story about a picture that no-one else in the group
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can see. The other students either talk about or draw their impression of the
picture. Alternatively, students can select from a set the picture that matches
best the one described. Students can gradually improve their precision in
telling a story about a picture.
13.5 Teaching integration in the listening

comprehension and extended speaking contexts
In these contexts, teach students to tell and listen to narratives without the
scaffold provided by an action sequence or a picture sequence, even though these
information sources may be included. The teaching assists the students to tell or
to retell the narrative.
Students often make verbal presentations to their peers, for example, during
morning talks or show-and-tell. However, these presentations are not always used
to teach students in a systematic way the particular aspects of language or to
practise what they have learnt about speaking and listening.
13.5.1 Teaching the students how to integrate their language use

These activities should be used to teach explicitly how to integrate the aspects of
the ICPALER model. As with the action and picture contexts, the students need
to be taught how to:
1 plan how they will listen and what they will say
2 recall and link the ideas, for example, to practise sequencing the ideas
3 present in an interactive way with peers, for example, guiding students to
decide how much information to give, how to stay on the topic and follow the
path set by other speakers, and how to work out why other people are saying
what they say.
You can also teach them to listen to and think about the ideas in a story, for example:
1 to tell themselves what they hear in part of the story, possibly in their own words
2 to predict and infer events and what characters might say given the topic or
theme
3 to link dialogue, feelings, motivations and ways of thinking to characters
in the story
4 to sequence events in a story, to use words that connect events in time and
place, for example, how to use conventional expressions such as ‘Once upon a
time’ or ‘What does this tell you about the story?’
5 to recognise and use causal or consequential relationships
6 to link sentence meanings into larger units using linguistic means that are
coherent between sentences and with the topic
7 to summarise and review what they heard.
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The ways of thinking that relate to details in the story (points 1–3 above) are often
referred to as the local structure of the story; the ways of thinking that relate to
the overall ideas, its theme, organisation of ideas and causal or consequential
relationships are referred to as its global structure (points 4–7 above).

Introduce integration in the listening and speaking contexts by referring to a big
book that you have read recently to the group, for example, The King’s Cat. Show
the group the book again and tell them that:
1 you are going to tell the story in your own words
2 you will use the pictures you have made in your mind about it to help you.
Describe some of the early mental pictures you have of the story and then structure
them into a story. Use each narrative element as a coat-hanger question, for example,
‘First I have to tell you who the main people in the story are and where it happens’.
Then describe the element in sentences. Repeat for other elements.
13.5.3 Teaching the students how to tell a story in the listening-

speaking contexts
You can use here the teaching ideas used in the action and picture contexts. It is
useful to begin with a story familiar to the group. The students in small groups
can plan how they could extend the story or create a similar one. Following the
planning, each student tells their part.
Again, guide students to combine the ICPALER aspects for each element of a
narrative. One student can say its context and main characters, a second student
can say the issue or problem, and a third can say how the problem gradually
evolves. For each element, teach them explicitly to:
1 talk about a set of ideas. Ask them to describe how they will plan what to say,
how they will put the ideas in order and how they practise their retelling. Your
teaching, for example, may need to guide students to say how they will:
• link the ideas, use the appropriate pronouns, verb agreement and intonation
• decide how much information they need to give
• stay on the topic and follow the path that other speakers start
• work out why other people are saying what they say.
2 listen effectively to discourse, and to remember and respond to what others say
3 use body language effectively while they are speaking and listening.
You may need to teach students to achieve independence for each element. Scaffold
the other elements where necessary for this. You can use the conditions described
for telling action stories on page 178.
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Facilitate the integration by asking various comprehension questions following each

retelling. Ask students to say both the response and how they worked it out, for example:
• ‘What is a good topic for the story?’
• ‘What do you think might happen next? Why do you think so?’
• ‘What are the main points in the retelling we heard?’
13.6 Assessing students’ ability to integrate the

aspects of language in the narrative genre
Monitor how well the students integrate the various aspects of the ICPALER
framework in their comprehension and production of narratives. To assess this,
you can score narratives they say and comprehend in terms of:
• the number and order of story elements they produce, comprehend or recall;
for example, their reference to the setting and main characters, the initiating
event, the emerging problem and its resolution
• how well they include each aspect of ICPALER in their production and
comprehension; this includes the range of ideas they mention, their ability to
order and link them using the appropriate conventions (for both local and global
coherence), their relevance to the topic and the purposes for communicating
• their ability to display narrative thinking in the action, picture and listening
comprehension and speech contexts
• their ability to infer ideas such as how characters feel, what they might say,
cause and consequence, the theme or topic and to predict in various ways.
When your assessment suggests that the students are generally integrating
well the various aspects for narrative genre, you can move on to targeting the
integration for other genres.
You may also want to know what your students know about how to listen
strategically to a narrative. A questionnaire for assessing students’ awareness
of metacognitive listening strategies—the Metacognitive Awareness Listening
Questionnaire (MALQ) developed by Vandergrift et al. (2006) and intended for
use with second language learners—provides us with options for doing this.
These investigators analysed what listeners say they do when they listen and
identified five factors in knowing how to listen:
1 planning and evaluation; knowing how to plan how you will use your listening
resources before, while and after listening, and how to change your listening
activity if you lose track of the meaning
2 mental translation; actions you can use to assist yourself to make sense of what
you hear
3 problem solving; knowing how to deal with problems that might arise while
listening, for example, how to work out unfamiliar words you hear, how to link
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what is said with what you know, how to adjust or modify your interpretation
if you realise it is incorrect, and how to use the topic to assist understanding
4 directed attention; knowing how to re-direct your attention when listening
becomes difficult
5 person knowledge; your disposition or attitude to the listening activity.
13.7 Teaching students to transfer and

generalise their integrated oral language
When you judge your students have mastered the narrative genre, you can teach
them to integrate their language use for other genres, such as the recount and the
explanation genres. Your teaching for each of these genres can be similar to that
of the narrative genre. You can:
1 begin with the action context and move through the picture context to the
listening and speaking contexts
2 focus on teaching the students to integrate around the key elements in each genre
3 integrate the aspects of the ICPALER framework by teaching the students to
use explicit self-talk for drawing in each aspect
4 build in the planning and while-speaking and while-listening components as
explicit teaching phases for drawing together the various aspects
5 have a clear set of procedures for modelling: having the students apply,
develop the relevant self-talk, practise and automatise each step in the learning
6 have a clear set of procedures for monitoring student outcomes and for
providing feedback.
The types of activities you can use include teaching the students to:
• recount or describe a recent event or experience, such as an excursion, by using
photographs to assist
• imagine they were participants in a story they hear or a film they see and
practise conversing with peers who are also pseudo-participants
• imagine they were someone or something else and talk about what it would
be like
• gain information from others through directed dialogue. Students complete a
task by asking for discourse information:
-- in information closure, two or more students have incomplete data
about the same topic, for example, a menu or an evening TV program.
The information that is missing from each student’s data differs. They
can’t see each other’s data. Their goal is to fill in the missing items by
asking another student appropriate questions. You can also do this with
incomplete pictures. All of the students have the same pictures, but each
is missing particular details.
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-- in jigsaw activities, each student has a few pieces of a puzzle, and the
students co-operate to fit the pieces together. The puzzle can be a picture or
photo from a set that make up a story, a sentence from a written narrative
or part of a sentence from a conversation, for example:
The boy covers him with sand. Monster lies on the sand.
The students’ task is to suggest the title of the story.
13.8 Helping students who lack the confidence

to contribute
So far we have assumed that all students are prepared and confident enough to
engage in the integrating activities, and to say and interpret the ideas they hear.
Some students don’t have this confidence. They may be reluctant to act positively
when they don’t understand what was said or when they realise they have not been
understood. They need to realise that by continuing the conversation, they will
probably understand more. They are often the silent students, who tend to speak
less in classroom discussions.
You may need to teach them:
• how to seek clarification in language exchanges and the self-talk and scripts they
can use to do this. You may, for example, need to teach one student to ask: ‘Could
you say that another way, please?’ You may need to help them learn how to deal
with situations in which they have incomplete knowledge at one point in time.
• typical responses they can use in various interactions. These are scripts they
can use to convey intentions such as ‘I understand’ or ‘I agree’. They enable the
student to attend to what others are saying, without needing to simultaneously
think about planning how to answer.
• what to expect people may say in everyday situations and scripts they might
use for dealing with these.
13.9 Providing time to integrate

Some students participating in classroom dialogues will be able to manipulate the
various aspects and integrate them relatively automatically. They will respond to
what others say coherently and quickly. Others will need time to bring together
what they know about an issue that is being discussed. Before answering a question,
they may need time to think about what they will say, how they will link the aspects
and the conventions they will use. In other words, they need to be given wait time.
Some students will also need wait time or think time to absorb or encode what
others have said; they will not process the information they heard automatically.
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They need time to convert the information to knowledge, to link it with what they
know and to analyse it. The ease with which a student can do this integrating
and, therefore, the time they need to do it will depend on what they know about
the topic, their knowledge of the conventions used to convey the ideas and their
self-efficacy as thinkers in the domain.
Some students will need to learn how to use the wait or think time most
effectively. They may not have learnt to use getting ready strategies to structure
and organise what they want to say. The possibility of negative feedback from
others may concern them. They may need to learn how to do the relevant thinking
actions and have time to practise each one.
13.10 In summary
Building, through explicit teaching, the ability to synthesise the various aspects
of the ICPALER model so that they are used in an integrated way is a critical
aspect of early language education. The approach described in this chapter does
this through teaching students to direct and manage their linking and their use
of the various aspects. The focus is on the students learning to be increasingly
metacognitive in their use of the various aspects.
The approach to explicit teaching does this in a scaffolded way, with the
scaffolding gradually removed as the teaching moves from integration in the
action context to integration in the listening and speaking contexts. Through
the repeated use of the various aspects of oral language in increasingly less
scaffolded and more complex ways, students are guided to automatise the use of
oral language in global, contextually appropriate ways.
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C h a p t er 1 4
Implementing a speaking and

listening teaching unit
Teachers need to integrate the various oral language activities into speaking
and listening teaching sessions for a small group or whole class. This chapter
describes a speaking and listening unit of five separate sessions based around
Year 1 students listening to and speaking about the big book A nice walk in the
jungle (Bodsworth 1989).
The five sessions show how some of the aspects of the ICPALER model can
be taught using the action, pictorial, listening and speech contexts. The sessions
assume that you haven’t already read the story to your class in its entirety prior
to this language study.
During the first session, the focus is on guiding the students to get their
knowledge ready for listening to and speaking about the text and for using its
pictorial information. You may read only the first few pages, scaffold the students
to visualise and talk about the ideas mentioned, and answer questions about them.
At the end of the session, they review the new ideas they have learnt.
In Sessions 2 to 4, as well as working through more of the text, you teach
particular aspects of oral language. The students add their new understanding
of the text to what they recall from earlier sessions. They learn new aspects of
the ICPALER model and practise aspects they have learnt. This may include
new word meanings, new grammatical or genre conventions, how to think about
purposes, as well as how to listen strategically. The three sessions differ in the
context in which the oral language is taught:
1 Session 2 uses the action context; the students act out the ideas met early in
the big book
2 Session 3 uses a largely listening comprehension context; the students respond
to spoken information from the big book
3 Session 4 focuses on students expressing their comprehension of the big book.
Session 5 is largely an integration session. The students draw together or integrate
what they have learnt about the big book and about speaking and listening in
Sessions 2–4. Scaffold the students to store this knowledge in their memory.
All of the sessions have a similar three-phase format for learning. The teaching
scaffolds and guides students to:
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1 get ready or orient what they know for speaking and listening (the getting
knowledge ready phase). The teaching guides them to focus and collate what
they know about the relevant topic and activity. This helps them to make sense
of what they hear and to communicate their intended message. During speaking
activities, they collate and organise the relevant topic knowledge or, if necessary,
acquire new aspects. They plan how they will speak or listen strategically.
2 learn new speaking and listening knowledge and skills as they engage with
others in the learning speaking and listening phase. They listen to the part
of the story, practise their oral language skills and learn new aspects of the
ICPALER model. They attend to and interpret a message, express their ideas
during speaking and learn new speaking and listening genres.
3 consolidate or review their new speaking and listening knowledge, link it
with what they already know, automatise aspects of it to achieve fluency in
its use and to respond with a positive attitude to it. This is the consolidate,
review, automatise phase. At appropriate times during this activity, that is,
at natural pauses in the story, guide the students to review and consolidate
what they know about the story. This assists the students to stay focused on
the developing story and what they are learning about it. Part of this involves
the students learning to monitor and reflect on their speaking and listening
knowledge and to update what they know.
Each phase involves various types of student learning activities. Some of these are
shown in the template Designing speaking and listening teaching activities on page 189.
You can use this framework to:
• plan and organise the teaching and learning activities in your classroom in a
systematic, explicit and integrated way. The three phases provide continuity
in directing the learning.
• help students to learn to organise their speaking and listening knowledge and
themselves as learners; for example, how to:
-- focus on the activity, collate what they know about the topic and decide a
purpose for communicating
-- learn the new knowledge
-- consolidate or review the new knowledge, link it with what they know,
automatise it to achieve fluency in its use and respond with a positive
attitude to it.
Examples of the teaching and learning activities for the text A Nice Walk in the
Jungle are shown in the table on pages 191–211. Each session described here
contains much more content than you could cover in a ‘real-time’ session. It is
included here to show the range of possibilities and options available to teachers.
The actual content, developed with several big books, could be spread over one
or two school terms. The five sessions illustrate a weekly organisation schedule.
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Imp lem enti ng a s p e a k in g a n d l ist e n in g t e ach in g un it
Designing speaking and listening teaching activities template
Getting knowledge ready phase ICPALER aspect

Students:
1. decide the possible topic of the oral presentation and say how I – topic
they do this. AL – work out topic
2. collate what they know. They ask themselves, ‘What ideas I – word, sentences,
might I say or hear? In what directions might the talk, story discourse
or debate go?’
3. decide the purpose of the talk. They ask themselves, ‘What I – sentences
are some who, what, where, when, why and how questions it P – goals
might answer?’
4. decide how the ideas might be said in different ways in I – sentences
different situations and might be interpreted differently by P – goals
people from different context and cultures.
5. decide the words that might be said or heard and consider how I – words
different words and language are used according to the context. P – goals
6. decide the actions or strategies they will use as speakers and AL – actions
listeners; for example, how to say an idea to make it sound
funny, ‘How will I work out the meanings of new words I hear?’
7. focus on their self-efficacy as a speaker or listener, ‘Am I AL – self-efficacy
ready to speak or listen? What more do I need to know before
I begin to read?’
Learning speaking and listening phase ICPALER aspect
Students:
1. learn new speaking and listening skills for sentences, for AL – sentence
example, how to: actions
• chunk what they hear or to organise what they want to say I – sentences
in sentences C – sentences
• say new sentence intonation patterns
• use more complex sentence meanings, for example, to
say two or more events in a sentence, to understand
generalisations or to express possibilities or exceptions
• use more complex grammatical or morphological forms
• use speaking and listening strategies for sentences, for
example, visualise what they want to say and paraphrase
what they hear
• monitor the meaning of sentences while listening, ‘Does it
make sense or fit in?’
2. learn new oral language genres and when and why to use C – genres
each, for example, to persuade listeners
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3. learn how ideas are said in different ways in different I – topics

situations and how to interpret them in multiple ways
4. learn how to maintain meaning and grammatical cohesion C – genres
across sentences (how to use conjunctions, pronouns and verb
tense), and how to sequence and prioritise ideas in speech
5. learn to use communication conventions and styles for P – manage and
particular contexts and purposes; for example, how voice is direct language use
used, pausing patterns, communicative sharing, etc.
6. learn to summarise, infer and evaluate what was heard; for I – discourse, topics
example, for listening, how to:
• remember the key ideas mentioned earlier in an oral
presentation
• review and consolidate, ‘What have I been told so far?
What do I know now?’
• record ideas heard or to be said, draw pictures of them and
note useful information
• infer, ‘Why did that happen?’, and relate to what they
expected
• think ahead, predict and anticipate, ‘What might happen
next?’
7. work out unfamiliar word meanings while listening. I – words
Consolidation, review, automatise phase ICPALER aspect
Students:
1. link positive feelings or emotion with speaking and listening, AL – build self
build self-confidence and self-efficacy as a communicator and confidence
are motivated to learn more effective oral communication
skills
2. review their understanding of: what was said and heard; I – words, sentences,
word, sentence and discourse comprehension; the reasons and discourse and topic
intentions of both speakers and listeners for engaging in the
communication
3. consider the purpose of the text, ‘Why was the text written? P – purpose
How well did it achieve its purpose?’
4. review and evaluate the speaking and listening strategies they AL – integrate the
used, particularly those strategies learnt at the time aspects of language
5. store in memory what has been learnt, ‘What key new ideas I – words, sentences,
have I learnt? How has my knowledge changed? How do they discourse and topic
fit with what I know already?’
6. identify the new language knowledge they have learnt, ‘What C – phonological,
new ways of saying things have I learnt? What new words syntax and genre
were in the text?’ conventions
7. automatise and practise speaking and listening skills to I, C, P and AL – all
improve their fluency and self-confidence. aspects.
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Session 1: A stronger focus on the getting knowledge ready phase
During this phase, students are guided to get themselves ready for the listening and speaking activity. They collate what they know about
the relevant topic and focus their learning and thinking activity. For speaking activities, they may need to acquire new knowledge. They
plan how they will speak or listen strategically.
Getting knowledge ready for Session 1

This phase provides the foundation for the listening and speaking activities for the subsequent sessions.
Aspects of Student speaking and Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle (Bodsworth 1989)
ICPALER listening activities
targeted
The ideas Students: Say, ‘You are going to listen to a story. It is about some children going for a walk with
that could be • collate what they know their teacher. Some dangerous things happen to them. Look at the front cover. Who or
said in the about the topic by what can we see?’ Point to items in turn. ‘Look at what each person is wearing. What is
text and the putting themselves into the colour of this boy’s jumper / this girl’s dress / the snake?’
conventions the context, ‘What ideas
The teacher was wearing jeans through the forest. The snake was yellow and green.
for saying might I say or hear? In
them what directions might
the story go?’ Point to items on the cover and ask students to name them. Point to two and then three
• use and comprehend items at a time and ask them to say a sentence that links them.
sentences that refer
The children are walking with their teacher through the forest. A large snake is watching them.
to events and include
verbs, adjectives and
adverbs Ask the students to imagine they were in the context. ‘Imagine you were one of the
• recall the names of children. Put yourself into the story. Look around you. What do you see or hear? How
familiar, everyday items would you feel?’ Ask them to describe what they would see and hear.
and identify or locate Tell the students to make a mental picture of the cover. Obscure it from their view and ask
the named items. them to talk about what they see. After they have responded, show them the cover again.
The students hear the title, A Nice Walk in the Jungle, and say it in other ways, for
example, ‘A happy stroll through the trees’.
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Session 1 (continued)
192
Aspects of Student speaking and Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle (Bodsworth 1989)
ICPALER listening activities
targeted
The purposes Students: The students ask questions the story might answer, for example, ‘What are some who,
for which it • guess the purpose for what, where, when, why and how questions it might answer?’
was written: which the story was
• the goal of written, ‘What questions Who are the main people in When does it take place? What happens in the story?
the author might it answer?’ the story? What are the children’s
• how to • guess how it might be names?

adjust it read, ‘How do you think A Nice Walk in the Jungle
to suit the I will read it? When will

audience I say it softly? When Will the snake attack Where do they live? Why was the story written?
so that will I say it loudly? them?
it sounds When will I say it fast?’ They suggest possible answers to these questions.
interesting The students visualise again the picture on the front cover. ‘Who are the people shown on
the cover? What are they doing? How did they get where they are? What might the story
tell us?’ Students discuss their answers to these questions.
Knowing the Students: The students suggest words for:

topic and • say possible words that • how the snake might move, for example, ‘slither’, ‘slide’ or ‘slink’
vocabulary they might hear in the • what they might do as they walk through a jungle, for example, ‘tip-toe’ or ‘look for
network to story. dangerous animals’
say words that • suggest synonyms for • saying how they would feel.
might be in the the words they suggest.
story and what
they mean
Ability to Students: Say, ‘You are going to listen to a story. It is about some children walking through a jungle with
learn • say the key actions or their teacher. Some dangerous things happen to them. What will you do as you listen to the
strategies they use while story?’ They say what they will do while listening, by responding to the following questions:
speaking and listening
• begin to organise Question Students’ response
themselves as listeners What will you be doing? We will sit quietly and listen to what you say.
and speakers.
How will you feel while you are listening? I’ll listen to what happens. I’ll try to feel
about what the story tells me.
What might your face say as you listen to It might say that I am scared.
the story?
What might you think as you listen to the We will listen carefully and we won’t talk.
story?
Ask the students to 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 the new word and try to see what it fits’
• ‘Wait my turn to talk by waiting 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’.
Learning speaking and listening for Session 1:

With the focus in Session 1 on getting knowledge ready, the learning speaking and listening activities are on learning the new ideas in the
193
first few pages by looking and listening.
194
Aspects of Student speaking and Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle
ICPALER listening activities (Bodsworth 1989)
targeted
Learning the Students learn the new Read aloud the first six pages (up to ‘ “Please, Miss”, cried Tim’.)
new ideas and ideas by listening and then Before beginning each page, have the students talk literally about the picture, ‘Who
talking about responding to what they heard. can we see in the picture? Where are they?’ They describe the images. Where
them using the They show their appropriate, have the students:
conventions they understanding in various • review existing vocabulary, ‘What do you call this animal?’
already know ways. They can: • answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about items or events
Practising their • retell events in the story shown in the picture
ability to learn in sentences, say them in • say in sentences what the picture shows, for example, ‘The children are walking in

actions order using the pictures or line behind their teacher’ or ‘An owl is watching them’.
Practising their other supports, use pauses Ask the students to visualise each paragraph and describe their images.
expression skills and intonation patterns Periodically remind them to add the ideas they have just heard to the sequence of
Practising their • link the events with images they have formed. To direct this, ask literal questions, for example, ‘What
knowledge of personal experiences and are the children’s names? Where are they going now? What has happened so far in
the purposes for topics the story? Why was Tim calling out to his teacher?’
communicating • use the context of the story, You can teach the meanings of unfamiliar words. In the first six pages, two unfamiliar
and for using including the pictures, to words may be ‘jungle’ and ‘boa constrictor’. After you have read the sentence that contains
language work out the meanings of each of these words, ask the students to suggest what each might mean. For example, for:
unfamiliar words • ‘jungle’, have the students look at the picture and ask them, ‘What would it be
• ask and answer simple like in the jungle? What would you see, hear or smell? What are other words for
questions about ideas jungle?’ The students might suggest ‘bush’ or ‘forest’.
mentioned, for example, • ‘boa constrictor’, have the students look at the picture, find the animal that Tim
who, what, where, when, said is following them and ask the students to say what sort of animal it is, for
why and how questions example, ‘a big snake’.
• tap into what peers say, Have the students repeat saying each new word after you. Guide them to say each
link what is said with their word accurately. Show the pictures on the third double page, ‘What can we see in
experiences and say ideas these pictures?’ The students name some of the animals the children are going past.
that are on track They imagine how they would feel if they were one of the children. What would they
• use early speaking do, feel, hear or see? The students pretend to be one of the children walking along
strategies, when reminded. the track past the tigers. How would they walk? What actions would they do?
Consolidation, review, automatise phase for Session 1
This phase scaffolds the students to review and synthesise what they have learnt in the session.
targeted
Review the ideas Students review their Students integrate and show what they know about the story so far. They:
and conventions understanding of the new • retell what they heard and remember about the children’s nature walk in the jungle.
ideas and their literal and They can answer the questions, ‘What have I been told? What do I know now? What
inferential comprehension. pictures have I made in my mind about the story?’
They use their enhanced • act out the events that have happened so far, for example, act out what each animal does
speaking skills to show • infer and predict, for example, ‘This section of the story finished when Tim saw the
their new knowledge. snake. His teacher was not listening. What might happen next? Why might that
happen?’ The students say what they think might happen to the children.
Self-efficacy Students link positive Students discuss how enjoyable or interesting the story is so far, what made it interesting
as oral feelings with the speaking and how it could be made more enjoyable or interesting. They can use the criteria they
communicators and listening activity and used earlier (page 166) for judging a story they are listening to and can add to it.
build their self-confidence
as oral communicators.
Purposes for Students reflect on how Ask the students, ‘How did talking and listening help you to understand the story, enjoy
speaking and talking with and listening the story or remember what happened?’ Guide them to talk about how listening to
listening to others helped them to other students:
learn new ideas and share • helped them learn new things
enjoyable experiences. • made them feel happy or amused
• helped them know what to say.
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196
targeted
Review the ideas Students identify the new Students say the new language they have learnt. They can, for example, identify the
and conventions language they have learnt. different ways of talking about an action using the active and passive voices. The
students ask themselves:
• ‘What new words were in the story?’, for example, ‘I have learnt that the jungle is like
a forest and that a boa constrictor is a big snake’.
• ‘What new ways of saying things have I learnt?’

Self-efficacy Students review and Students answer the cueing questions:

as oral evaluate the speaking and • ‘What did I do that helped me to say what I wanted to say?’
communicators listening strategies they • ‘What did I do that helped me to listen to what others said?’
used.
Review the ideas Students store in their Students talk about the new ideas and ask themselves:
and conventions memory the new ideas • ‘What new ideas have I learnt, how has my knowledge changed?’, for example, ‘Ants
they have learnt. drag beetles to their nests and eat them’
• ‘How are these like what I already knew? How do they fit with what I know already?’
Sessions 2–4: A stronger focus on learning new speaking and listening skills
Getting knowledge ready for Sessions 2–4
This phase is shorter and draws together what students have learnt about the text in earlier sessions.
Aspects of Student speaking Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle
ICPALER and listening (Bodsworth 1989)
targeted activities
The ideas, Students collate what Before the students begin to listen to the next reading, you can select from the following
conventions, they know from their activities. Ask them:
purposes and earlier speaking and • to say in their own words, or paraphrase, the story so far and to say the pictures they have
ability to learn listening activity. You in their mind from the story, ‘Put yourself into the story of A Nice Walk in the Jungle.
aspects that can guide them to: What has happened so far?’ If they have difficulty recalling the ideas, use the pictures as a
have been • talk about their set of memory prompts. You can point to each picture and have them say what it is about.
learnt in earlier mental images of They can say, draw or act out what they recall about the pictures they see.
sessions the story so far, • to review the vocabulary so far. For Session 2, for example, you can ask what is another
way of saying each of the words in the table below:
and recall and
use the names of
New vocabulary Students’ answer
familiar objects
and events jungle forest
• recall new words or nature study learning about animals and plants
ways of speaking,
what these meant boa constrictor snake
and why they were furry hairy
used wonderful things great things
• say the questions
they can answer • to talk about what the key characters were like, and recall the key words that describe
now about the text them and the events in which they engaged. Briefly show the cover of A Nice Walk in the
• say what they did Jungle or some pictures from pages you have already read to them. Ask, ‘What do you
in order to listen remember about it, and who and what is in the story?’
• predict the next
part of the story.
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Sessions 2–4 (continued)
198
targeted activities
• questions about their knowledge of the story, ‘What are some who, what, where, when,
why and how questions you can answer now about A Nice Walk in the Jungle?’
• to talk about their while-listening strategy— what they have learnt about how to listen and
speak effectively, ‘What did you do to help you listen and put together what you heard in
our last session? How did these things help you to talk about it?’
• to talk about their recall strategy, ‘What things did you do to help you to remember what
we talked about last session?’

• to talk about their planning or pre-listening strategy. This is what they will tell themselves

to do while they listen to this session. Over the sessions, encourage them to say aloud what
they will tell themselves to do. They can practise using these during the rest of the week,
‘What things will you do to listen well?’
• to predict what they think the next part of the story might tell them. This is often done
well in small groups.
Learning speaking and listening for Sessions 2–4
The focus is on the students learning new aspects of ICPALER and applying and practising aspects you have taught recently, as they
move through the text.
Learning speaking and listening for Session 2
This phase illustrates how you can use an action context in parallel with the text to: teach a new grammatical form; teach a new sentence
meaning; teach a morphological convention; or to apply a grammatical form taught recently. It is unlikely that you would teach all four in
an actual session. You would usually expect to teach one in a session.
Aspects of Student speaking and listening Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle
ICPALER activities (Bodsworth 1989)
targeted
Sentence Students practise their sentence Read the next few pages (pages 7–13). Discuss the pictures as you go. Then go back
meanings comprehension and expression over these pages, using the activities below.
and knowledge and skills. They: 1. Make up a concrete or action model of the path through the jungle and use the
sentence • practise comprehending and using students or dolls for the people and animals. Enact the story so far. Ask the
conventions one-event sentence meanings students to put themselves in the context and say how they would feel, what they
• say and comprehend see, hear or smell, and what they would do.
grammatically simple sentences, 2. Describe particular events in the story and have the students act them out. Ask
for example, simple active-voice individual students and the group to act out events.
sentences, imperatives and 3. You can use the action context to teach new grammar. The students act out
simple question forms an idea or see it acted out, describe it in familiar ways and then learn the new
• learn more complex grammatical form. The text uses the sentence form, ‘There’s a …’, to comment on
grammatical forms, for a specific event that is occurring. Have the students repeat Miss Jellaby saying it
example, the passive voice and have them practise using this form for several of the pictures, for example, the
• learn to comprehend and say sentences on page 10.
two-event sentences by using 4. You can have the students transfer and apply grammatical forms that you have
conjunctions to link two one- taught recently in the action context. Suppose you have taught recently the
event sentences passive voice form. Students can say an event in the active voice as they see or do
• learn to use increasingly it and then practise saying it in the passive voice:
complex grammar such as • A tiger was watching the children. The children were … by a tiger.
adding ‘-ed’ to verbs. • A snake was watching the children. The children were … by a snake.
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200
Aspects of Student speaking and listening Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle
ICPALER activities (Bodsworth 1989)
targeted
Use gestures to point to each item in the event as you say the passive voice
sentence. Act out an event, give them a passive voice frame and ask them to
finish it, for example, they see a monkey climbing a tree and complete the spoken
sentence, ‘The tree is …’
5. You can use the action context to teach students to comprehend and say sentences
that refer to two events. You or the students act out two events using dolls and
other items; or describe the two events, model how to describe each and have the
students act and say them, for example,

• Before Miss Jellaby pointed to the spider, she waved.
• After Tim saw the snake, he pointed at it.
Have the students observe pairs of actions being done and ask them to talk about
them using ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘when’, ‘while’, ‘first’, ‘last’ and ‘then’. Use gestures to
scaffold this.
6. Have the students practise using grammatical rules such as adding ‘-ed’ to verbs.
Show them the picture on the third double page and say ‘The snake watched the
children. What did the snake do? The snake …’ Guide them to apply ‘-ed’ to other
actions they did in the action context.
This phase shows how you can use a mainly listening context with the short expression of ideas to: teach the use of pronouns for discourse
conventions; work out word meanings; practise phonological conventions; and literal and inferential comprehension. Again, it is unlikely
that you would teach all four in one session; you would usually expect to teach one.
Aspects of Student speaking Teaching and learning activities for A Nice Walk in the Jungle (Bodsworth 1989)
ICPALER and listening
targeted activities
Ability to learn Scaffold the Read the next few pages (pages 14–21). Cue the students to practise remembering what they
language students to practise heard, for example, to visualise the events and characters in the story. At the end of listening
retaining what they activity, have students play the game I went story listening. This is a version of I went window
hear in their short- shopping. The first student recalls the first event in a story, the next student recalls the first
term memory. two events in the story, the third student recalls the first three events and so on.
Comprehension Students show Ask students to answer who, what, where, when, why and how literal questions about it to
and short literal and review what they have heard, for example, ‘Who saw the snake?’ or ‘What did Miss Jellaby ask
production inferential the students to do?’
of sentence, comprehension If the students answer in single words or incomplete sentences, guide them to answer again in
discourse and of text they hear. sentences. Use incomplete sentence frames to assist. For the question, ‘Who was watching the
topic meanings They express their children?’, you can use the frame, ‘The snake …’
and sentence understanding in Point to the animals in the pictures. Students say in a sentence what each is doing. They can
conventions sentences. practise using the grammatical forms you taught in Session 2. If one student says the event in
a simple active voice sentence, ask a second student to say it in a passive voice sentence. Say
events in both voices and ask students to decide if a picture matches what you said.
Cue the students to infer, using the pictures; for example, visualise forwards and backwards in
time and talk about it such as, ‘Where might the snake have been a few minutes earlier?’
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202
targeted activities
Comprehension Students practise Re-read pages 8–9, but replace the pronoun with the noun, that is, say, ‘Watch the ants as the
and short using pronouns ants drag this beetle away’. Guide them to see that it sounds better if we don’t repeat ‘ants’
production to refer to items but replace it with ‘they’. Repeat replacing the pronouns with nouns for other sentences in the
of discourse mentioned earlier. story. Discuss how we can say it better without repeating the nouns. Have the students suggest
conventions what could be said instead of the nouns. Make up similar pairs of sentences that have repeated
nouns about some of the pictures. Each pair of sentences should not have pronouns. Ask the
students to replace the repeated nouns with pronouns.

Word meanings Students Teach new vocabulary explicitly by guiding students to link actions with the new vocabulary or
in context • work out what to use the context of the events to work out their meanings. They link the new meanings with
and word unfamiliar what they know. Examples of activities include:
conventions words mean, say • ‘The story said lizard snapped up the cricket. How do you snap? How is this different from
them and make saying the lizard caught the cricket? Why did the writer use this word?’ Students act out the
analogies differences.
• practise relevant • ‘The story said you have to be quick to survive in the jungle. What does survive mean?’
phonological • ‘What do you call the thing the ants are pulling? What does a beetle look like? What does it
knowledge. do? What things do we have that are like what a beetle has? Where would you see a beetle?’
Make pictures of the new vocabulary items and have the students name the items rapidly.
Use activities that help the students develop their relevant phonological knowledge and combine
it with word meanings, for example, ‘What am I? I am an animal in the jungle. My name starts
with “k” ’.
In this phase the students plan and practise expressing ideas in oral language. It shows how you can use a mainly extended speaking
or production context to teach students to generate and express narratives, to express sentence, discourse and topic meanings, and to
achieve purposes for communicating.
targeted activities
The Students detect Read the next pages 22–28. Read one or two paragraphs with poor expression and mumble
purposes of features of speech some of the words or say them softly. Pause at inappropriate times. Ask the students, ‘Was
communicating that make it more or this interesting or good to listen to? How could I have said the story better? Note down the
less interesting and students’ suggestions: ‘Say it so we can hear it’, ‘Say it so it is exciting’, ‘Say some parts fast
enjoyable to listen to. and some slow’ and ‘Stop at the right places’.
Read the text again with correct intonation, volume, pace and voice. Repeat some of the key
ideas for emphasis. Ask, ‘Is it better or easier to listen now?’ Use their comments to guide
their speaking later.
Production Students practise Ask the students to suggest who, what, where, when, why and how literal questions that the text
of sentence, talking about the ideas they have just heard answers, for example: ‘What did Miss Jellaby do to the boa?’, ‘Who came
discourse and in the text. out first?’, ‘What question did Miss Jellaby ask the boa?’ and ‘Why did the boa burp?’.
topic meanings Ask them to answer the questions from their peers. Have them practise talking about the ideas
and sentence in simple active-voice sentences and then in the passive voice.
conventions Show each double page in turn and ask students to review and summarise what is said and to
say the main idea. Give them key words from the story, for example, ‘How dare you …’ that
they say in a complete sentence.
Encourage the students to listen for how the story is being told, for example, ask them to say:
• the words that tell us Tim was worried (for example, ‘cried’)
• what told them Miss Jellaby wanted the children to learn about the animals.
203
Session 2–4 (continued)
204
targeted activities
Production of Students learn to Show the picture of the anteater. Ask the students, ‘What is happening? The anteater ate the
sentences using combine two events ants, the snake started to smile and the anteater keeps eating ants’. Remind the students, ‘We
more complex using conjunctions can say this in another way, using the word while. The snake was smiling while the anteater ate
conventions such as ‘while’. the ants’. Repeat this for events shown in other pictures that show ‘while’.
Show a picture of two events and have the students say the two events in a sentence using
‘while’. You may need to use incomplete sentence frames, for example, ‘While Miss Jellaby
talked to the snake …?’, or ‘The snake burped while …’ The children say the complete sentence,
including the frame.

Production of Students invent In creating their own story, the students decide:
discourse stories that they will • the questions they would need to answer. Encourage them to use the who, what, where,
share with class peers. when, why and how questions to organise what they will say
In pairs or small • the key vocabulary and sentences they will use
groups, for example, • how they will tell their story (how they will use their voice to make their story more
they create: interesting, more scary, etc).
• a play or a story Pairs of students develop their own scripts. They:
about what the • decide how they say each event, who is in their story, where it takes place, what happens
children might do if and what each person does
a tiger came close • use pronouns to link ideas across sentences
to them • practise telling their story before speaking to the larger group.
• a park story, for
example, the class
goes for a nature
study walk to a
nearby park.
The The students learn In small groups, they practise taking turns, sharing what they know and using appropriate
purposes for how to achieve speaking procedures. Before they present their story to the group, they rehearse it and
communicating their purposes by decide whether it sounds interesting and engaging. If not, how will they will modify it? Draw
using particular attention to their earlier suggestions and remind them of the good things to do when telling a
communication story. They reflect on what they looked for to decide if it was interesting.
conventions and styles They plan how they will tell the story to their peers and use the features they have noted
(for example, how to already, for example,
use their voice and • say it so that everyone can hear it
pausing patterns). • look at the people we are talking to
• say it so it is exciting
• say some parts fast and some slow
• stop at the right places.
When a pair has told their story, either the story tellers or other student pairs ask the who,
what, where, when, why and how questions.
205
Consolidation, review, automatise phase: Sessions 2–4
206
The consolidation, review, automatise phase activities used in Sessions 2–4 are similar to those used in Session 1. These activities review
what has been learnt about the story and about speaking and listening in each session.
Aspects of Student speaking and listening Student speaking and listening activities
ICPALER activities
targeted
Ideas and Students show their comprehension Students retell the story they heard or answer questions about it.
conventions of what was said.
Ability to Students link positive emotional Students say how they felt while they were listening to the story, what they know
learn response with the speaking and now that they didn’t know earlier and how the story made them feel.
listening activity.

Purposes for Students reflect on how talking about Students talk about their reasons for listening to the story and why they think
speaking and their ideas with others and listening the writer wrote it. What did the writer want to tell them? How did the writer
listening to what others say helped them. want them to feel?
Ideas and Students say the new ideas they have Students say the new ideas they have learnt, for example, what they know now
conventions learnt and how these fit with what about the animals that live in the jungle and their colours.
they knew already.
Ability to Students identify the new language Students say the new words they have learnt and what they mean.
learn and knowledge they have learnt.
Ideas and Students review and evaluate the Students say what they did to help them to listen better. They say how they
conventions speaking and listening strategies they thought about the ideas in the story so that they could talk about them.
used, particularly those strategies
learnt and practised at the time.
Ideas and Students store in their memory the Students say what new ideas they have learnt. They say how the ideas are
conventions new ideas they have learnt. different from what they already knew and practise storing in their minds what
they learnt from the story.
Session 5: Drawing together or integration session
Getting ready or orienting for Session 5
This phase is shorter in these sessions and draws together what students know about the text for the next learning activities.
targeted activities
Review the Students review Students draw together what they know about the story so far. They:
ideas they their understanding • retell what they heard and remember about the story by answering the questions, ‘What
have learnt of how to speak and have I been told? What do I know now? What pictures have I made in my mind about the
from the listen. They show story’.
story their comprehension • record the ideas heard in various ways, for example, in pairs they can draw pictures of
of what was said, ideas said. The students in small groups can be asked to visualise each picture they saw,
for example, their say what was in it, describe it in sentences, act it out and then draw it.
literal and inferential • act out the ideas. In small groups, they plan and perform a play based on the text. The
comprehension of students rehearse their roles and are guided to adapt their character and show in their
what they heard. voice how the character felt at the time.
They use their • infer and predict, for example, ‘What might have happened if Miss Jellaby had listened
enhanced speaking to Tim?’ In small groups, the students can think ahead to the trip to the zoo. What might
knowledge and skills to happen there? The group can prepare a talk describing ‘our trip to the zoo’.
communicate the new • talk about the new ideas the story has told them about, for example,
knowledge. -- walking through the jungle
-- the animals you see in the jungle
-- big snakes
-- having a teacher like Miss Jellaby.
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208
targeted activities
Ability Students link positive Students answer the questions:
to learn feelings with the • Did I like listening to the story?
speaking and speaking and listening • Did I like making up a story and telling it to others.
listening; activity. They build Students can be encouraged to reflect on how talking about their ideas with others and
their their self-confidence listening to what others think can help them to share ideas and enjoyable experiences, can
attitudes and self-efficacy as amuse other people and can help them achieve particular goals they want.
towards it oral communicators.

Ability Students reflect on Students reflect on how engaging in the various activities, sharing their ideas with others and
to learn how speaking and listening to what others think helped them in various ways. They can collate a group list of
speaking and listening helped them values of speaking and listening. Speaking and listening helped us to:
listening; and on the value of • know more about each other
the actions engaging in these • make other people feel good
for effective activities. • make other people laugh
speaking and • make other people feel happy
listening • learn new things
• feel sad or scared
• share enjoyable experiences
• know how our friends feel
• help people know what to do.
Students can gradually add to this list as they identify other ways in which speaking and
listening helps them. Teachers can use this list to help students understand how speaking and
listening effectively can help them solve problems.
Achieving Students reflect Students in small groups reflect on what helped them learn by listening and speaking and
their purpose on the behaviours share their ideas. They can make a list with two columns: good communicating behaviours
for speaking that allow effective and bad communicating behaviours. Their list of good communicating behaviours could
and listening; communication in include:
the actions groups. • speak loudly and clearly
they can use • listen to what others say and wait for them to finish
for this • respond to what others say politely
• take turns to speak
• pause to allow others to comment and to ask questions
• listen to others’ suggestions
• take turns when you are talking with others
• don’t speak too fast
• change your speed to help others understand what you mean
• keep people interested in what you are saying.
Students can add to this list as they discover other communicating behaviours. You can use
this list to help students understand how to communicate effectively.
Achieving Students reflect on the Students say why their teacher told them the story of A Nice Walk in the Jungle, ‘You told us
their purpose reasons why speakers the story to:
for speaking and listeners speak • help us see what it is like walking through the jungle
and listening; and listen. They can • make us laugh and think about what could happen
the goals be asked, ‘Why do you • tell us we should listen to what other people say’.
speakers and think I told you this They can also comment on how well they think the story did its job.
listeners have story? Why do you think
for speaking it was written? How
and listening well did it do its job?’
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210
targeted activities
Ability Students review and Students reflect on the speaking and listening strategies they used while listening and
to learn evaluate the speaking responding to the story. They record the actions they used while speaking and listening.
speaking and and listening strategies They talk about each action and evaluate how well it worked for them. They can collate their
listening; the they used, particularly speaking and listening strategies on a chart.
actions that those strategies learnt
worked for at the time, ‘What did Things I do when I speak and listen
them I do that helped me to I think of what I will say before I say it.
say what I wanted to I tell myself what I will say before I say it.

say? What did I do that
helped me to listen to
what others said?’
Ability Students store in their Students talk about the new ideas the story has told them and the images they have made
to learn memory what they of the story. They discuss their images of the main characters, what they were like and what
speaking and have learnt. They ask they did.
listening; themselves, ‘What Students talk about how these new ideas added to what they already knew, for example, what
their key new ideas have I they already knew about:
actions for learnt; how has my • the animals in the jungle
storing new knowledge changed? • big snakes.
knowledge How do they fit with
in long-term what I knew already?’
memory
The Students identify the Students review the new words and phrases they have learnt during speaking and listening,
conventions new language and and link them with synonyms they know, for example:
literacy knowledge that • nature walk
has been learnt. They • boa constrictor
ask themselves, ‘What • being followed
new ways of saying • snap up.
things have I learnt? They review the words they had learnt to describe the main characters, for example, ‘scared’,
What new words were ‘focused’, ‘care about others’ and ‘knew what to do’.
in the text?’ They practise recalling:
• how to ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about the topic
and the images they have made of it, for example, ‘Who went on the walk? Where were
they going?’
• what things they will say when they are telling a story, for example, ‘where did it happen,
who was in it, what happened’
• how they can say an idea in different ways, how they can say two events (using ‘before’,
‘after’, ‘when’, ‘while’, ‘first’, ‘last’ and ‘then’), and how they can refer to a person a
second or third time (using pronouns)
• what they will remember about the good things to do when telling a story.
Using the Students automatise Students engage in a systematic transfer program in which they practise applying the new
ICPALER and practise speaking speaking and listening knowledge and skills they have learnt in Sessions 1–4 in a range of
model in an and listening skills to contexts. As part of this, they:
integrated improve fluency and • say the speaking and listening actions they will use before they begin to apply them
way self-confidence. • practise recalling key ideas and conventions more rapidly in a range of activities
• practise applying each new speaking and listening skill in more complex contexts.
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pa r t 3
ICPALER in context
213
C h a p t er 1 5
Language learning,
the culture and the brain
Learning and using language are complex activities. The complexity is multi-
faceted. We have seen one facet in our analysis using the ICPALER model. We
identified five major aspects: the I, C, P, AL and ER. Each of I, C, P and AL is
itself made up of several components. Further, it is not sufficient to look at each
aspect individually. We also need to look at how the aspects work together, in an
integrated way.
A second facet is that the language being learnt is constantly changing, in both
predictable and unpredictable ways. The ways in which we use English today are
different from how it was used 200 years ago and even how it was used 50 years
ago. Each version of English had the five aspects and their components. However,
the contents of each component have changed.
Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs have come and gone. Others have stayed
but have different meanings and are used in different contexts. Words such
as ‘awesome’ or ‘terrific’ illustrate this. Their meanings in modern use differ
substantially from their earlier use. In recent years, we have seen further changes,
for example, in the language we now use to communicate on the internet and in
text messages.
15.1 The linguistic culture

These are aspects of the linguistic culture of language learners and users at any time.
The linguistic culture for any individual is the totality of the language milieu: the
synthesis of the ideas that are valued and communicated within it; the conventions
that are preferred for this; the purposes for which communication is used; and
the opportunities individuals have for learning to use language. An individual’s
interactions in the linguistic culture provide the data for the individual’s I–language.
Linguistic cultures differ in a range of ways. These differences can be
conceptualised in terms of the developmental assets (Weigel, Lowman & Martin
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L anguage le a r n in g , t h e c u lt ur e a n d t h e b r a in
2007) any culture affords language users. Developmental assets refer to ‘the set
of interrelated experiences, relationships, skills and values’ (Weigel, Lowman &
Martin 2007, p. 721) associated with enhancing a child’s knowledge and use of
language. For young children, the two main contexts in which these linguistic
cultures operate are the home and child care situation. The developmental assets
include: (1) the quality of the language used and the richness of the ideas linked
in dialogue; (2) the extent to which oral language is shown to be valued and that
young children are encouraged to use it and to enhance this use; and (3) access
to scaffolding and teaching that fosters this learning, the range of early language
opportunities and activities in the child’s environment and the provision of a
functional two-way feedback network that supports this learning.
This book focuses on the linguistic culture in the classroom. Many of the
influences noted by Weigel, Lowman and Martin (2007) can be transferred to
the classroom.
15.1.1 The linguistic culture constructed by the family

Weigel, Lowman & Martin (2007) provide a valuable review of contemporary
research examining the developmental assets in the family context for young
children. The key assets in the family context they identify that influence early
oral language development are reviewed below.
Demographic and situational family characteristics influence early language
development. One key variable is the parents’ and, particularly, the mother’s level
of education. A second is the number of children in the family. This is a complex
variable; while the language interactions with a parent may decrease with increase
in family size, the interaction with siblings increases. A third factor is the well-
researched socioeconomic status of the family.
Linguistic cultures are characterised by the language that is used and the
characteristics of the style of the conversations the young child has with significant
others. The following influences on early language development are noted by
Weigel, Lowman & Martin (2007):
1 Dialogue that focuses largely on entities and ideas present in the immediate
situation is less likely to promote language development than dialogue that
encourages children to link the entities and ideas with earlier experiences, to
think about how the ideas could be used in other contexts and to extend them
into their future experiences and thinking.
2 The length and grammatical complexity of sentences used by others facilitates
language development.
3 The extent to which young children are encouraged to reflect on and to extend
what they have said through comments or questions from others (that is, they
are encouraged to engage in metalinguistic activities).
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4 Exposure to multiple narrative and exploratory styles facilitates language

development.
5 A supportive conversational style helps children to embed their language in
particular situations and to have or make the opportunity to use it.
Linguistic cultures are also characterised by the opportunities they provide for
young children to engage in specific language activities. They differ in the extent
to which they encourage activities, such as singing, reciting rhymes, telling
stories, describing their toy play and playing language games. The frequency of
these types of activities is linked with higher oral language outcomes.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the extent to which a linguistic culture fosters oral
language learning depends on the parents’ beliefs about language development
and their role in it. Children’s oral language development is influenced by the
extent to which their parents believe they can have a significant role to play in it
and value this role.
15.1.2 The linguistic culture constructed by the child care

environment
Although not studied as frequently as the home, Weigel, Lowman & Martin
(2007) note that following factors in the child care environment influence young
children’s language development:
1 the level of education, experience and language skills of teachers and teacher–
child ratios
2 teachers’ conversational style and the type and quality of teacher–child
interaction; supportive and verbally stimulating teacher–child interactions
(for example, using unfamiliar words); increased opportunities for children
to speak and speech that commented on what the children said and did; and
extended or questioned this facilitated oral language development
3 language activities such as shared book reading, singing songs, telling stories,
listening games, group games, dramatic play, and the opportunity to explore
sounds, build vocabulary and ask questions.
In summary, it appears that critical assets in the child care setting can enhance
the language skills of children before they start formal schooling. These findings
parallel those found regarding the home setting. What we don’t know is how
these home and child care assets combine to enhance young children’s speaking
and listening abilities.
The notion of developmental assets in the school context and culture is a
relevant consideration for all schools and teachers. Teachers and schools can
examine how well they recognise and use their assets and whether they make
optimal use of them.
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15.2 The technological culture interacting with

the linguistic culture
The linguistic cultures in which any of us communicate are influenced by
technological cultures that co-exist with them. The recent phenomenon of cyber
bullying could be an example of these changes. In recent years, text messaging
has replaced spoken exchanges for some people. In spoken messages, you can hear
the emotion, work out the speaker’s purpose and respond to it. Whether a spoken
message is bullying or intimidating depends in part on the listener’s response to
it. Suppose someone says two or three sentences to you that could be potentially
threatening. You can immediately make a spoken response that can redirect or
defuse the situation and reduce or remove the threat.
In written messages, it is harder to hear or read the emotion and, therefore, to
change it, if you believe it is threatening. Even though text messages can contain
symbols intended to communicate emotions, it is often harder for the reader to
integrate these with the written words in the message. Further, it is much harder
to make a response during the message that can re-direct the direction of the
discourse and allow the purpose of the communicators to be modified. The person
receiving the message cannot intervene to change its focus. Once it has been sent,
it is often seen as final!
15.3 The ICPALER framework in any culture

Whatever the actual contents of the language used at any time, the ICPALER
framework directs our attention for any culture. It recommends we look at the I,
C, P, AL and ER aspects. It also recommends we look at how the components are
used in an integrated way.
We have seen how you can compile an ICPALER profile to describe a child’s
language knowledge at any time. As the child develops and interacts with a broader
range of more spoken texts, the profile elaborates and differentiates. This emerging
profile is linked with each child’s brain development and with the linguistic
environments in which the child has participated. One issue that has not been
examined so far in this text is the three-way link between brain development, the
linguistic environments and the emergence of oral language competence.
The relationship between these three factors can be conceived in various ways.
A common view is that a child’s level of brain development gives the child the
means for interpreting the linguistic environments in which they participate. Oral
language competence is assumed to be the outcome.
The present approach sees the relationship differently. It assumes that the
three factors operate interactively and reciprocally. Each is shaped by, and shapes,
the other two. Each language interaction by a child in a particular context has the
potential to change the child’s neural structure. This change can then affect how
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the child sees the linguistic environment or culture in the future and this leads to
new language knowledge.
In other words, a child’s brain is shaped by the linguistic cultures or
environments in which the child participates. The ways in which each culture uses
the aspects of the ICPALER model determine the aspects of language the child
learns and the neurological changes that support these. An enriched linguistic
environment leads to increased numbers of cell connections (that is, number of
synapses per neuron) that a child has available for language learning and use.
15.4 ICPALER and brain processing

Why should we bother to look at how our brains process language? Imagine
yourself in the context of a recent conversation. You and your fellow conversers
were probably in a continuous flow of information, from one person to another.
The I, C, P, AL and ER were being used in a synthesised way. They were mixed
together like the ingredients in a cake.
Your brain performs two critical purposes during the conversation: it allows
you to unpack spoken information from another speaker; and to synthesise your
message. It tells you the Ideas intended by the speaker and the speaker’s Purpose
for communicating. It can also tell you how the speaker used Conventions. In
a corresponding way, it allows you to integrate your Ideas, Conventions and
Purposes into what you will say.
It is possible that your brain finds it easier to unpack some messages more than
others, because they are more aligned with how your brain does the unpacking. A
corresponding point can be made with packing. We can all remember messages
that made our brains work harder, in order to comprehend them. If we have even
a basic idea of how our brains do the packing and unpacking, we may be able to
say things in ways that make it easier (or harder) for others to comprehend. This
is particularly important when we are teaching students oral language.
When you engage in an oral language exchange, activity is stimulated across
your brain. So complex is this activity that most sections or regions of your brain
play at least a partial role. There is also, of course, danger in linking particular
brain areas with specific functions in an invariant way because we know that
the brain has an element of plasticity and can re-organise after injury so that
uninjured regions can take on new functions.
As well, individuals differ in how their brains are organised to process language.
These differences begin with the hemisphere that is dominant for language; some
individuals are left-hemispheric dominant, some right-hemispheric dominant and
others fluctuate between both. From this difference there is further variability in
how language processes are handled in each hemisphere.
However, there are some regions that play a major role. The reference to left
or right hemisphere is based on the hemisphere used by right-lateral dominance.
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The evidence for the functions handled by regions has a long history that began
with autopsy studies. More recently, neuropsychological evidence has been
gathered using neuroimaging, magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic
resonance imaging. In the following discussion, I have used comparisons between
able language users and those who have language difficulties to help understand
the brain processes involved.
Cortex of the Cortex of the

Frontal Lobe Partial Lobe
Cortex of the
Occipital Lobe
FRONT BACK
Hippocampus and
BRAIN
Amygdala deep CORTEX
within brain
Cortex of the Cerebellum Spinal Cord
Temporal Lobe
As you read through this review, reflect on what it means for your teaching. If
my teaching matches how a student’s brain processes the language information,
new links between ideas are more likely and learning is facilitated. However, if my
teaching doesn’t match how a student’s brain operates, the individual will need
to do more work to unscramble or re-organise the information so that it can be
assimilated more easily.
15.4.1 Word processing

In order to learn new words, the learner needs first to retain what they heard.
You can tell whether a person has retained a spoken word by seeing if they can
tell when it is repeated. Average language learners use the left and right superior
temporal cortex areas, with the left showing a stronger activation (Helenius
et al. 2009) to do this. Learners who have specific language disabilities show
lower and shorter activation in both temporal areas. This is consistent with them
retaining the spoken or phonological form of the word much more briefly. In other
words, they have a much shorter short-term memory for sound or phonological
information. This rapid decay of speech-evoked activation is likely to restrict their
vocabulary development.
The individual also needs to learn how to say the sound pattern. They do this by
imitating the actions used by the speaker, for example, how their lips moved. The
part of the brain that manages the production of speech has been known, for over a
century, as Broca’s area and is located in the left frontal hemisphere. This area allows
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the individual to learn new actions by imitating body movements they observe others
doing to make the sounds. It allows us to plan our motor activity. The developing
infant learns how to move their lips, their tongue and their mouth through imitation.
Our teaching needs to take account of these observations. The shorter
retention of the sound patterns may mean that we say them longer and also
that we pause between sound patterns so that there is less interference between
patterns. We can also encourage the students, as an intermediate self-teaching
strategy, to say each pattern after they hear it and we give them time to do this.
Learning language requires us to imitate various types of information,
including what we see or hear being done. Modern neuropsychology has identified
a particular type of neuron that allows us to do this. These are called mirror
neurons. They occur in several parts of the brain and allow us to hold what we
see or hear being done. Broca’s area has mirror neurons for helping us learn how
to imitate the actions for speaking.
This is not all that Broca’s area helps us do. Talking is not only useful for letting
others know what you want to say. As well, we speak aloud to teach ourselves new
language ideas, as discussed in Chapter 3. We use self-talk to manage and direct
how we learn and use language, as noted in Chapter 6. Expressing words plays a
role in other aspects of language learning. It is not surprising then that Broca’s
area has several additional functions, such as grammatical analysis and language
comprehension.
Also linked with learning how to say new words is a person’s phonological
awareness. This is your ability to recognise and use sound patterns within and
between words. Again, particular parts of the temporal areas (the superior temporal
and occipito-temporal regions) are stimulated during this activity (Frost et al. 2009).
We use these areas first to process speech and later to handle written language.
You can detect some difficulties here at a young age. Two-month-old children
at risk of later language difficulties take much longer neurologically to distinguish
between vowels of different durations (Friederich et al. 2004), while four- and
five-month-old children show a smaller brainwave response when discriminating
between stress patterns in two-syllable words (Weber et al. 2004). These studies
point to problems in auditory processing present from the first months of life.
These data suggest a reduced capacity to process sound patterns at a young age.
Learning new vocabulary involves combined activity between the left
temporal region and an area of the brain that deals with storing experiences,
the left hippocampus. In a vocabulary learning task, young adults learnt a set of
novel concrete nouns through an associative learning procedure (Breitenstein et
al. 2005). The vocabulary learning was linked with interactive activity between
that part of the temporal lobe where sound and visual information is integrated
(the left fusiform gyrus), the left hippocampus and the part of the left parietal
cortex that stores phonological associations. Individual difference in the ability to
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learn the new vocabulary was associated with differences in hippocampus activity.
Those learners who suppressed hippocampal activity less over the set of learning
trials learnt vocabulary more efficiently.
Again, the implications for teaching are clear. To help students learn new
vocabulary, teach the new meaning initially in particular contexts that show clearly
what the word means and encourage students to talk about what the word means.
15.4.2 Linking actions and language to make meaning

In earlier chapters I suggested that we can teach students to learn language by
linking it with matching action sequences in particular contexts. The modern
brain monitoring procedures support this. They show that the meanings of
language and actions are processed by the same neural mechanisms (Reid et al.
2009). This shows the close link between meanings in actions and the language
used to describe them.
Individuals who have severe language disorders also have difficulty encoding
correctly actions they have observed (Fazio et al. 2009). They have difficulty, for
example, watching a short movie showing an action sequence and then ordering
four pictures that show the sequence. They were able to recall the physical events.
A key aspect of learning language through actions is being able to link an action
sequence and the language that goes with it. We have seen that language learning
involves doing this: integrating what we see, hear and do. This is done in the left
hemispheric temporo-parieto-premotor areas (Gazzola, Aziz-Zadeh & Keysers
2006). In this area, again, we have mirror neurons that copy or imitate what we
perceive. These allow us to represent and to synthesise auditory, visual and motor
information. The mirror neuron system can be extended to learning language and
communication through imitation (Oberman & Ramachandran 2008).
This system explains how children can learn actions and language, through
observation and imitation. Listening to action-related words and sentences
such as ‘to catch’ or ‘she picked up the doll’ stimulate mirror neuron activity
in language processing and comprehension (Buccino et al. 2005; Gazzola et
al. 2006). Le Bel, Pineda and Sharma (2009) suggest that it may be useful in
explaining why some children have oral language difficulties. They note that ‘in
general, action-related language may play a useful role in language development
because it provides a capacity for children to not only observe, embody, and
perform the actions, but to communicate the meaning and intentions behind such
actions using a symbolic language’ (p. 301).
You can see why the ICPALER approach to oral language teaching
recommends teaching new ideas, conventions and purposes in action contexts
initially. Doing meaningful actions in context and talking about what was done is
a key language-learning strategy. It is consistent with contemporary research in
the neuropsychology of language learning.
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15.4.3 Sentence processing

As well as processing words, recent studies have investigated how the brain
comprehends sentences. One question that has been examined is whether this
process is handled more by left- or right-hemispheric processes or bilaterally.
This was investigated by comparing the comprehension patterns for children
with left- and/or right-hemispheric damage sustained prior to language learning
with those of typically developing children (Feldman et al. 2002). The children
were asked to work out the agent of the action in sentences that varied in their
grammatical form.
The study showed that children with either left- or right-hemispheric damage
showed similar developmental delays in using syntactic cues to comprehend
sentences. Both groups learnt to use the word order strategies also used by typical
peers, but at an older age.
Comprehending sentences and using syntax are not localised in one area of the
cortex, but instead involve multiple cortical regions that are discontinuous and
that do not share patterns of connectivity (Caplan et al. 2007). The regions include
parts of the perisylvian association cortex (the anterior inferior temporal lobe and
the superior and the inferior parietal lobe, Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area) and
regions outside the perisylvian cortex. As well, they showed that different brain
areas in different individuals supported the same syntactic processes.
A sentence can have multiple grammatical relationships, for example, two main
clauses and grammatical relationships within each clause. Individuals process
these different types of relationships using different parts of the brain (Opitz &
Friederici 2007). The hierarchical relationships between main ideas are processed
by Broca’s area and the syntax of individual phrases is processed by premotor
areas. In other words, the brain’s involvement in processing syntax is determined
by the type of grammatical rule used.
These distinctions can be taken into account in how we teach students to
comprehend sentences. We can guide them to segment a sentence into its main
parts (the phrases and clauses) and work on the meaning of each. For single-event
sentences, they can break at the verb. Students can then synthesise the meanings
of the parts.
It is not surprising that the comprehension of sentences draws on several areas
of the cortex, more than needed either to detect and recognise sound patterns or to
plan how to say words. The language functions needed to comprehend sentences are
more abstract operations. Meanings need to be retrieved and linked in particular
sequences or orders. They involve more than simply analysing perceptually what
is heard or saying it. The simpler functions are localised in specific areas of the
primary sensory cortex or the motor cortex. Sentence comprehension, on the other
hand, involves the association cortex. How it is done by any individual depends on
factors within the individual and in the individual’s environment.
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It is important to note that difficulty manipulating word order in sentences does

not necessarily restrict a person’s ability to engage functionally in conversation
and in general language use. In these contexts, sentence comprehension can be
scaffolded by the redundancy of information and contextual support.
15.4.4 How the brain supports inferring in language

The ICPALER model also draws attention to the need for communicators to
use context of an exchange to integrate the separate ideas around the topic. We
discussed in Chapter 3 how individuals learn to use context to infer the topic of
an exchange, how they integrate the ideas into a discourse meaning and how
they decide what ideas might be said next. Evidence suggests that this activity is
associated with right-hemispheric processing. Individuals with right-hemispheric
brain damage are less able to infer during a narrative than peers who do not have
this damage (Blake 2009). They can generate inferences and do this better for
text that has high predictability. As well, they take longer to do this. They are
especially disadvantaged when the text has lower predictability.
They are also less likely to integrate the inferences they form. This is
obviously important for working out the discourse meaning of a text. Their
performance is consistent with verbal semantic networks that are less elaborated
and differentiated. This, in turn, influences how they use working memory while
engaging in text processing.
Right-hemispheric processing while inferring is consistent with teaching
students to visualise in order to infer and predict.
15.4.5 How the brain supports using language to achieve social goals
The ICPALER model draws attention to how individuals use language for a range
of purposes. We noted earlier that in order to do this, communicators need to make
various inferences about those they are communicating with. They may infer a
speaker’s age or gender, what a speaker knows about the topic and a speaker’s
goals for communicating.
These inferences are relevant to social interaction in everyday living.
Individuals make decisions about other communicators from what they say and
how they say it. People who have autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) usually
have difficulty doing this. Individuals without ASDs integrate what is said with
what they had noted about a speaker using left-hemispheric language processes.
They interpret the social aspects of what is said and judge others by using
themselves as a reference point. These judgements involve self-talk and are
believed to be mediated by activity in the right prefrontal cortex (right ventral
medial prefrontal cortex).
ASD individuals are more likely to show higher right-hemispheric activity in
the right inferior frontal gyrus (Tesink et al. 2009). They have more difficulty
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synthesising speaker characteristics and the content of a spoken sentence. They

also are less able to manage the self-referential activity.
As noted earlier, this type of language processing is required constantly in
classroom interactions. It is not surprising that a large proportion of students
who have social, emotional and behavioural problems also have speech and
language difficulties (Tommerdahl 2009).
An implication of these observations is that the likelihood of autistic behaviours
may be reduced by encouraging children who show these behaviours to ‘tell
themselves’ about other people in the exchange and what is being said.
15.4.6 How the brain manages the ability to learn language

The remaining aspect of ICPALER is the ability to learn language. This refers
to the foundational prerequisites for learning language and to the capacity for
continuing to learn it.
We have already talked about how the brain handles parts of the ability to
learn language. These include being able to perceive oral language, to categorise,
to use words as symbols for items in experiences and to link ideas—for example,
cause–effect—and to begin to store both language and the events to which it refers.
Other components of the ability to learn language involve how children reason
about verbal information, identify patterns and manage their learning. The area
that mediates this activity is the prefrontal cortex. This region manages and
directs a range of cognitive activities associated with learning to use language. It
mediates how individuals plan how to use language, focus their learning attention,
retain knowledge in their working memory, form concepts, solve problems, self-
monitor and evaluate how they are using it, select the most appropriate goals at
any time and generally direct their thinking. We referred to this knowledge in
Chapter 6 as the cognitive part of metacognition.
Children learn to monitor, manage and direct their thinking activity in these
ways during the fourth and fifth years of life. This change in ability directly parallels
changes that have been observed to occur in the prefrontal cortex (Ramscar &
Gitcho 2007); a rapid increase in the number of a particular type of brain cell called
the Von Economo neurons (Allman et al. 2005). These cells assist the anterior
prefrontal cortex to integrate the outcomes of two or more cognitive processes (or
subgoals) and to form more complex relational representations and relationships.
They also assist in explaining how we learn linguistic conventions. These changes
lead to the child having much greater control of how they learn and use language.
We noted that the vehicle for metacognitive thinking is our inner language
or self-talk and that this is learnt by interacting with others. In other words,
a person’s metacognitive thinking is influenced by the cultures they belong to.
Cultures teach their members how to prioritise and organise their experiences,
and how to define words and create concepts. These aspects of metacognition
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are handled by a particular part of the prefrontal area: the dorsolateral

prefrontal region (Ardila 2008).
Knowing how to use the thinking aspect of metacognition is not sufficient
for a child to actually use it. The child also needs to be motivated to use it and
be committed to wanting the outcome of, for example, solving a given problem.
As well, the child needs to know when it is useful, for example, to plan and why
planning is most useful at that time. This is the second part of metacognition:
the emotional/motivational part. It is also mediated by the prefrontal area, in this
case the orbitofrontal and medial frontal areas (Ardila 2008). Solving everyday
problems requires both aspects of metacognition and therefore both regions of
the prefrontal cortex.
The role of prefrontal cortical activity has been shown in various studies of
how children use oral language. One study compared differences in activity when
young teenagers listened passively to a story as opposed to when they actively
responded to a story they heard (Vannest et al. 2009). Both tasks stimulated
the temporal gyrus bilaterally (the language processing area, as we saw above)
and the left inferior frontal gyrus. The active response task also stimulated the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Planning and setting goals exemplify using language in purposeful ways. We
have noted in earlier chapters that, while engaging in a conversation, we anticipate
where it will go next and this gives us goals for engaging in it. While listening
to a story we anticipate what might be said next and so we develop expectations.
We make these decisions based on what we already know about the topic and our
ability to detect reference to sequence or cause in the language text.
Oral communication is not the only domain in which we process information in
this sequential way. We may need to think in similar ways when we are engaging
in an action context. We see actions being done and, in order to achieve our goals,
we plan how we will act next. The actions we decide to do are determined by what
we know about the sequence of events.
Neuropsychological evidence shows that the processing of sequential event
relationships, whether expressed in language or in actions, is mediated by the
same areas: the prefrontal cortex and Broca’s area (Carota & Sirigu 2008). In
other words, it suggests that planning to be involved in a sequence is mediated by
a single neurological process, regardless of whether the sequence is expressed in
actions or in language.
This notion raises interesting possibilities for identifying oral language
difficulties and for teaching. One is that we may be able to assist students to
improve their planning and metacognitive ability in part through engaging them
in relevant action activity.
We have already seen that the capacity for metacognitive thinking develops
in the fourth and fifth year, when children have begun to internalise as self-talk
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what they have learnt about language. Is there evidence that components of
metacognition for oral language develop earlier than this? We are likely to use
metacognitive thinking when we are in a situation in which we hear or see things
that we didn’t expect.
One recent study examined this with the ability to detect rhythm in spoken
sentences (that is, prosodic processing) by infants who are not yet able to speak
(Homae et al. 2007). Infants aged three months and ten months listened to two
types of speech patterns: a normal pattern and one in which the sounds had
been flattened. The infants’ cortical activation patterns were monitored as they
listened. The unusual flattened speech was associated with stronger activation
than normal speech in the right temporal and temporoparietal regions for both
ages. However, the older infants also showed bilateral prefrontal activity. This
suggests they were more able than their younger peers to detect speech patterns
that did not match their native language. Thus, while both infant cohorts could
analyse pitch information per se, the older group could also recognise prosodic
patterns that did not occur in their language environment.
15.4.7 How the brain helps us remember what we have learnt

So far we have looked at how children learn new language and use it. We also need
to examine how they store and remember what they have learnt. A key region for
this is the hippocampus, which is part of the limbic system and is located inside
the temporal lobe, under the parts of the cortex with which it works closely.
We remember oral language knowledge in different ways. We store individual
experiences we have had, what we know about patterns and rules about regularities
in language, how to do actions in generalised ways, and our emotions, attitudes
and ways of thinking. The hippocampus plays a key role in forming new memories
about events we have experienced. This is our episodic or autobiographical
memory.
Some researchers believe also that it is part of a larger medial temporal lobe
memory system that stores knowledge that can be said explicitly (Squire 1992).
This would include, for example, rules, patterns and factual knowledge, as well
as our experiences. It is also believed to be involved in converting ideas we are
thinking about in short-term memory to a more permanent form.
Recent brain imaging studies have shown that as an individual learns more
about a grammatical pattern as a stand-alone rule or a relationship, there is a
change in how the brain processes the information. While the hippocampus deals
with information initially, as learning and remembering continues, the prefrontal
cortex becomes more involved. An example of this is adults learning to use an
artificial grammar system and to abstract the rules (Opitz & Friederici 2003). As
they learnt to use the artificial grammar more proficiently, their left hippocampal
activity decreased and activity increased in both the left inferior frontal gyrus
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(Broca’s area, a region that contributes to syntax processing in natural language)

and the language-related processing system in the left prefrontal cortex.
Again, the implications for teaching are clear. To help students to store in
memory what they have learnt about oral language, we can encourage them
initially to learn the new ideas in specific contexts. We can use the contexts to
help them to recall the ideas they learnt on the earlier occasion. We can allow
them to use the earlier context to help them apply or use the idea. Dialogue such
as, ‘Think of how we did it last time’, can help here.
As they continue to recall the ideas on subsequent occasions, we can encourage
them to recall the ideas more as a rule or a pattern. Gradually, we can guide them
to apply it as a rule.
15.5 Neuropsychological studies and the ICPALER

model
In summary, the neuropsychological studies reviewed in this chapter support the
ICPALER model. The processes they study match the aspects and components
of ICPALER. They also support the recommended approach for teaching oral
language. Examples of this include: teaching children to learn language by linking
it with matching action sequences in particular contexts; teaching explicitly
sentence-comprehension strategies that involve segmenting a sentence first into its
main parts and working on the meaning of each; and storing patterns and rules in
memory by retaining them first as experiences and gradually extracting the rule.
The neuropsychological studies can also fine-tune or increase the effectiveness
of our teaching. We can make sure we organise the teaching information in ways
that match how the brain processes it. We can avoid providing information that is
more likely to impose an additional load on neurological processing. If, for example,
we know that those who have specific language disabilities retain the spoken form
of words they are learning more briefly or have trouble distinguishing between
vowels of different durations, we can teach in ways that take account of this.
We can provide tasks that stimulate the use of the mirror neurons for imitating
the actions and the sounds for speaking. We can make sure that we teach new
language meanings initially in the presence of accompanying meaningful actions.
Undoubtedly in the future the study of how the brain processes language will
continue to enhance our knowledge of language learning. The input for the brain
is interactions in which each child engages with their linguistic environment. We
have already seen that the linguistic environment is constantly changing and so
are the child’s interactions in it.
227
A final message
All living languages change over time. They change in the ideas people
communicate, the conventions they use to do this and the purposes for which they
speak and listen. Changes in English over the last 50 years illustrate this. People
in the 1960s were not likely to be talking about ‘surfing the net’ or ‘buying a new
mobile’. You can imagine time-travelling to an English village 500 years ago or
perhaps to a community 500 years in the future. Our language competence and
performance would be sorely tried.
One recent change, which we noted in the last chapter, is in the use of text
messages. Texting has replaced a lot of oral communication. However, as a means
of communication, texting sits between communicating orally and writing a
letter. The visible text message has more of the qualities of spoken language than
a formally written letter. We also noted earlier that the accurate communication
of emotions can be more problematic in a text message compared to a spoken
message. Although the author may use symbols such as :), the reader does not
necessarily link the intended feelings or emotion with the other aspects of the
message as easily as when speaking and listening.
These changes in turn require changes in an individual’s ability to learn
language. The language of the super future will be a symbolic system that will
require, for its use, the types of learning capacities we have needed to learn
English. However, you would expect that each of these types would be quite
different from those we used to learn English.
The focus of this book has been on educators using the ICPALER model
as a way of thinking about language, how it is learnt and used and how it
can be taught. Will it be an adequate model for guiding your thinking in the
future? Undoubtedly it will. As we have seen above, all languages involve ideas,
conventions, purposes and the ability to learn. We can think about any language
by reflecting on these aspects.
Any language education we provide needs to encourage students to be active,
strategic language users and learners. We can enhance their capacity to do
this by guiding them to develop an awareness of the aspects of the ICPALER
framework. A language learner who is aware of each aspect, what to look for
and how to integrate the aspects is more likely to be able to manage and direct
their language learning.
We can encourage our students to be sensitive to how language is used in the
cultures they belong to. We can guide them to reflect on how they use language
228
A FINAL MESSAGE
and how they see it being used by others. They can reflect on how best they
learn new words, new ideas and new conventions. They can think about how they
see English being used in different contexts or cultures, and compare English
with other languages and note similarities and differences. This thinking will be
mediated by the self-talk they learn to use about language.
Perhaps the most important awareness to foster in this changing context is the
child’s self-concept as a language user and the child’s self-efficacy as a language
learner. Children who can see their language at any time working for them and
who can feel confident about trying out their linguistic competence and taking
risks will learn language more effectively.
Teachers, parents and peers are the main influences on this. The corrective
feedback students receive for their use of language, the encouragement and the
supportive modelling to which they are exposed are important factors. Schools
need to ensure they have in place the curriculum and pedagogy necessary for
students to progress on their developmental language-learning pathway.
It is critical that as educators we scaffold students to build their self-confidence
and self-efficacy as oral communicators. Our teaching needs to assist them to link
positive emotional response with the speaking and listening activity and to build
their intrinsic motivation to learn more effective oral communication skills. It
needs to help them see how oral communication can empower them and others,
and how they can use it to enhance the future, both theirs and others.
The trajectory of oral language in the future is both unpredictable and
exciting. Are we travelling towards a global world that has one language or
will each of us live in a multiplicity of cultures, each with its own language?
Whichever outcome eventuates, children who are individual ‘ICPALERers’
should be able to use oral language to optimise their own life options and those
of others. The journey continues.
229
App e n d i x 1
Oral language screening profile – brief
Name of student: Date:
From your observations, how often does the student show each language behaviour
below? Rate each one on a five-point scale from never (1), not often (2), sometimes
(3), often (4) and very often (5). The rating here is comparative; you are comparing
the student’s language use with that of their same-year typical peers.
Ideas: Vocabulary
How often does the student:
1. recall and use the most appropriate words for a particular context 1 2 3 4 5
or purpose?
2. recall the meanings of words and phrases effectively? 1 2 3 4 5
3. show a restricted or immature vocabulary, uses baby words? 1 2 3 4 5
Ideas: Sentence comprehension and production

1. say and understand most sentences that describe one event? 1 2 3 4 5
2. say and understand sentences that describe two events? 1 2 3 4 5
3. say and understand sentences that link two events using words such 1 2 3 4 5
as ‘while’ or ‘because’?
Ideas: Discourse and topic comprehension and production
1. act out what they are told and follow correctly two or more spoken 1 2 3 4 5
instructions in class?
2. describe accurately the sequence of events in an experience they 1 2 3 4 5
have had?
3. recall and keep track of the ideas mentioned in a story they have 1 2 3 4 5
heard?
230
Appe n d i c e s
Conventions: Phonological
How often does the student: 1 2 3 4 5
1. say most or all sounds accurately? 1 2 3 4 5
2. use and comprehend stress patterns to communicate? 1 2 3 4 5
Conventions: Sentence
1. say and understand sentences that are grammatically correct, for 1 2 3 4 5
example, say words in a correct order?
2. use various types of words correctly, for example, prepositions, 1 2 3 4 5
adverbs and pronouns?
3. respond to and use a range of sentence types, and recognise and use 1 2 3 4 5
questions, instructions and descriptions?
Conventions: Discourse and topic
1. use and comprehend connectives such as ‘also’, ‘first’ or ‘but’ in 1 2 3 4 5
speech to connect sentences?
2. use and comprehend the link between nouns, pronouns and verb 1 2 3 4 5
agreement across sentences?
3. sequence the main ideas in a story or a recount in an appropriate order? 1 2 3 4 5
Using language to achieve purposes

1. use language appropriately in social contexts to achieve their 1 2 3 4 5
purposes, for example, know how to engage effectively in a
conversation or speak politely?
2. interpret non-literal language correctly rather than literally, for 1 2 3 4 5
example, ‘Pull up your socks’?
3. take account of their audience and what listeners know? 1 2 3 4 5
Ability to learn language

1. learn how to say new words without delay rather than needing 1 2 3 4 5
excessive teaching and practice?
2. learn successfully from auditory information and doesn’t need 1 2 3 4 5
accompanying visual cues to learn?
3. retain auditory information well and not ask for instructions to be 1 2 3 4 5
repeated?
231
Appendi c es
Articulation
1. speak with natural oral language fluency? 1 2 3 4 5
2. show they can speak across all situations (rather than show 1 2 3 4 5
selective mutism)?
3. Work out an average oral language rating for each student as per 1 2 3 4 5
the table below.
Total score:
Average oral language rating (divide total by 25):
An average rating of 2.5 or above suggests average or above average oral language
use. A rating of less than 2.5 may suggest immature oral language development.
In this case, you may decide to use the Oral language observational profile – in
depth (Appendix 2) to see the actual problem areas.
232
App e n d i x 2
Oral language observational profile

– in depth
Name of student: Date:
From your observations, how often does the student show each language behaviour
below? Rate each one on a five-point scale from never (1), not often (2), sometimes
(3), often (4) and very often (5). The rating here is comparative; you are comparing
the student’s language use with that of their same-year typical peers.
Vocabulary expression
1. show a limited expressive vocabulary and recall comparatively few 1 2 3 4 5
words?
2. have difficulty recalling and using synonyms? 1 2 3 4 5
3. take a comparatively long time to recall or say most words? 1 2 3 4 5
4. have difficulty recalling and using the most appropriate word, and 1 2 3 4 5
use simple generic words, for example, ‘good’, ‘big’, ‘sort of’ or
‘stuff’?
5. take a long time to learn how to say new words and frequently 1 2 3 4 5
mispronounce them?
6. misuse bound morphemes, for example, not refer correctly to the 1 2 3 4 5
plurals of nouns or the past tense of verbs?
233
Appendi c es
Vocabulary reception
1. have difficulty recognising examples of the words typically known 1 2 3 4 5
by same-age peers?
2. show a limited receptive vocabulary and have difficulty matching 1 2 3 4 5
pictures or items with words?
3. have difficulty learning to recognise what new words mean and 1 2 3 4 5
need more teaching to learn them?
4. misinterpret bound morphemes, for example, not distinguish 1 2 3 4 5
between reference to present and past tense, or singular versus
plural forms of nouns?
Phonological and phonemic expression
1. articulate sounds or words inaccurately and say sounds in incorrect 1 2 3 4 5
orders?
2. have difficulty saying in order the sounds they hear in a spoken 1 2 3 4 5
word?
3. have difficulty blending a sequence of sounds into a word? 1 2 3 4 5
4. find it hard to suggest rhyming words? 1 2 3 4 5
Phonological and phonemic reception

1. misinterpret words that have similar sound patterns? 1 2 3 4 5
2. have difficulty recognising a sound pattern that is shared by two or 1 2 3 4 5

three spoken words?
3. have difficulty acting out the sounds in a spoken word by tapping 1 2 3 4 5
once for each sound in the word?
4. have difficulty recognising words that rhyme? 1 2 3 4 5
234
Appe n d i c e s
Sentence conventions expression

1. say mainly comparatively short sentences? 1 2 3 4 5
2. misuse prepositions and/or adverbs and substitute incorrect words? 1 2 3 4 5
3. have difficulty using pronouns that peers use, such as ‘it’, ‘that’ and 1 2 3 4 5
‘which’ in spoken sentences?
4. make grammatical errors, for example, say words in an incorrect 1 2 3 4 5
order?
5. use speech that has immature grammar? 1 2 3 4 5
6. have difficulty imitating or accurately repeating sentences that 1 2 3 4 5

were heard?
7. omit key grammatical categories, for example, ‘I go toilet’? 1 2 3 4 5
8. use tense incorrectly, for example, have difficulty with verb–tense 1 2 3 4 5

agreement?
Sentence conventions reception
1. understand comparatively short sentences only? 1 2 3 4 5
2. have difficulty comprehending relationships that use pronouns, such 1 2 3 4 5

as ‘it’, ‘that’ and ‘which’?
3. miss or fail to recognise sentences that have incorrect grammar? 1 2 3 4 5
4. misunderstand prepositions and/or adverbs? 1 2 3 4 5
Sentence meanings expression

How often does the student have difficulty:
1. saying sentences that describe more than one event? 1 2 3 4 5
2. saying variations of one-event sentences, for example, asking a 1 2 3 4 5

question or instructing?
3. describing in a sentence two events that occur in sequence or using 1 2 3 4 5
a linking word such as ‘while’?
4. saying more complex sentence ideas such as inclusive or exclusive 1 2 3 4 5
relationships linked by ‘all’, ‘except’ or ‘but’?
235
Appendi c es
Sentence meanings reception

How often does the student have difficulty understanding:
1. simple sentences that describe one event? 1 2 3 4 5
2. variations of one-event sentences, for example, recognising a 1 2 3 4 5

question or an instruction?
3. sentences that describe two events using a subordinate clause? 1 2 3 4 5
4. the relationship between two events in a sentence that are linked by 1 2 3 4 5

words such as ‘while’ or ‘before’?
5. sentences that use inclusive or exclusive relationships such as ‘all’, 1 2 3 4 5
‘except’ or ‘but’?
Discourse conventions expression
1. using connectives such as ‘also’, ‘first’ or ‘but’ in speech to connect 1 2 3 4 5
sentences?
2. linking nouns, matching pronouns and making verbs agree in their 1 2 3 4 5
tense across sentences?
3. sequencing the main ideas in a story or a recount in an appropriate 1 2 3 4 5
order?
Discourse conventions reception
1. understanding connectives such as ‘as well’ or ‘however’ within 1 2 3 4 5
sentences?
2. linking pronouns with their matching nouns across sentences? 1 2 3 4 5
3. using verb tenses to understand how events occurred across 1 2 3 4 5

sentences?
Discourse meaning expression
1. describing accurately the sequence of events in an experience they 1 2 3 4 5
have had?
2. mentioning the context and the main characters in a story early in a 1 2 3 4 5
presentation?
236
Appe n d i c e s
Discourse meaning reception

1. acting out what they are told and correctly following two or more 1 2 3 4 5
spoken instructions in class?
2. recalling and keeping track of the ideas mentioned in a story they 1 2 3 4 5
have heard?
3. knowing how to use the context and the main characters in a story 1 2 3 4 5
they heard?
Topic meanings expression
1. when asked to talk about a particular topic, for example, when 1 2 3 4 5
asked ‘Tell me about your pets?’
2. staying on an agreed or a specified topic when contributing to a 1 2 3 4 5
spoken message and is more likely to say ideas that are irrelevant?
Topic meanings reception
1. saying what a spoken message is about, for example, saying the 1 2 3 4 5
topic of a story or a conversation?
2. recognising when an idea they hear does not fit with the topic of a 1 2 3 4 5
spoken message?
Articulation, speech and speaking patterns
1. speak hesitantly or without natural oral language fluency? 1 2 3 4 5
2. use stress patterns ineffectively? 1 2 3 4 5
3. speak either excessively slowly or rapidly? 1 2 3 4 5
4. show stutter or stammer patterns? 1 2 3 4 5
5. show an influence on speech of a language background other than 1 2 3 4 5

English?
6. have difficulty putting into words what they want to say (show 1 2 3 4 5
selective mutism)?
7. prefer to communicate in other ways rather than to talk? 1 2 3 4 5
237
Appendi c es

1. interpret incorrectly non-literal language such as idioms, for 1 2 3 4 5
example, ‘Pull up your socks’?
2. use language in a range of ways, for example, to express feelings, 1 2 3 4 5
rather than in restricted ways, for example, speak only when they
want something?
3. understand what other people say and mean? 1 2 3 4 5
4. have difficulty using the words most appropriate to a context, for 1 2 3 4 5

example, to be polite?
5. have difficulty with the rules of conversation, for example, initiating 1 2 3 4 5
conversation with peers, taking turns, giving and taking, knowing
when to stop, or responding to social cues from the audience?
6. have difficulty following a conversation, for example, go off the 1 2 3 4 5
topic or forget what has been said?
7. have difficulty keeping a conversation going or communicate in 1 2 3 4 5
grunts?
8. talk a lot but convey little meaning? 1 2 3 4 5
9. make inappropriate assumptions about what the audience knows or 1 2 3 4 5

is egocentric?
Use of language to learn
1. learning to use new words to label unfamiliar events or items? 1 2 3 4 5
2. having their attention directed through language? 1 2 3 4 5
3. actually doing actions that match what they say they will do? 1 2 3 4 5
4. retaining what they heard and request a repetition? 1 2 3 4 5
5. converting instructions they hear into self-talk for themselves? 1 2 3 4 5
6. internalising oral language and forming sub-vocal patterns? 1 2 3 4 5
7. learning in group situations and learns better in one-on-one 1 2 3 4 5

situations?
238
Appe n d i c e s
Perceiving and attending to spoken information

1. become inattentive or easily distracted, especially when background 1 2 3 4 5
noise is present?
2. learn better when visual cues accompany auditory information? 1 2 3 4 5
3. have more difficulty learning when two or more speakers 1 2 3 4 5

participate in the talk?
4. misunderstand what is said, especially if it was said rapidly? 1 2 3 4 5
5. have more difficulty understanding the teacher when the teacher 1 2 3 4 5

moves around the room than when remaining stationary?
6. have difficulty understanding speech when it is said at a normal 1 2 3 4 5
level?
7. seem unaware of their language difficulties and not seek 1 2 3 4 5
clarification?
To work out the profile for a student, add up the ratings in each category and
write this in the second column of the table on page 240. Then divide each total
by the number of items in each category, as shown in the third column. Write the
average rating score for each category in the fourth column. Any category that
has an average rating score of more than three needs further attention. These
categories may require further teaching. The entry in the fifth column allows
you to locate each score in the ICPALER profile on page 241. The recommended
teaching activities are in Chapters 8–13.
You can collate these results on the table on page 241.
239
Category Total Divide Average Need for ICPALER profile entry
240
score by rating score teaching
Vocabulary expression 6 Ideas: vocabulary expression
Vocabulary reception 4 Ideas: vocabulary reception
Appendi c es
Phonological and phonemic expression 4 Convention: vocabulary expression

Phonological and phonemic reception 4 Convention: vocabulary reception
Sentence conventions expression 8 Convention: sentence expression
Sentence conventions reception 4 Convention: sentence reception
Sentence meanings expression 4 Ideas: sentence expression
Sentence meanings reception 5 Ideas: sentence reception
Discourse conventions expression 3 Convention: discourse expression

Discourse conventions reception 3 Convention: discourse reception
Discourse meanings expression 2 Ideas: discourse expression
Discourse meanings reception 3 Ideas: discourse reception
Topic meanings expression 2 Ideas: topic expression
Topic meanings reception 2 Ideas: topic reception
Articulation and speech patterns 7 Articulation and speech patterns
Using language to achieve purposes 9 Using language to achieve purposes
Use of language to learn 7 Use of language to learn
Perceiving and attending to spoken information 7 Perceiving and attending to spoken information
ICPALER profile
Ideas
Conventions
Average score for category
Articulation and speech patterns
Use of language to learn
Perceiving and attending to spoken
information
241
Appe n d i c e s
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247
Index
A F
active voice sentences 48, 49, 196, 201, 203 figurative expressions 62, 71, 103
attitudes 3, 78, 208, 226 free morphemes 16
autism spectrum disorders 223, 242 (ref), frontal hemisphere 219, 223, 225, 226
246 (ref) function words 19, 96, 98
B G
bound morphemes 16, 19, 20, 48, 50, 98, genre conventions 29, 37, 38, 46, 48, 51–53,
103, 104, 122, 124, 125, 146, 147, 233, 55, 138, 174, 183, 184, 187, 189, 190
234 grammatical functions 15, 29, 114
Broca’s area 19, 219, 220, 222, 225, 227, 243 grammatical rules 13, 37, 38, 45–53, 55,
(ref) 64–66, 68–72, 75, 89, 90, 92, 96, 103–4,
108, 114, 135, 143–147, 187, 199, 200–
C 201, 215, 222, 226, 231, 235
clause 48, 68, 70, 71, 72, 222, 236
complex sentence 23, 24, 25, 135, 142 H
compound sentence 24, 25, 26, 67, 70 hemisphere – left, right 46, 218, 219
conditional relationship 25, 75, 142 hippocampus 220–1, 226
connectives 52, 71, 141, 152, 231, 236
content word 19, 98
convention vii, viii, 1, 36–39, 45–48, 50–53,
I
55, 59, 61, 96, 103, 144, 147, 150, 152, I-language 2, 5, 34, 37, 214, 244 (ref)
153, 158, 161, 181, 196, 199, 201, 206, ICPALER 1, 10, 11, 15, 21–22, 55, 73, 83,
231, 240, 241 85, 87, 97, 99, 101, 102, 144, 160, 162,
cultural effects 33, 34, 82, 245, 246 (ref) 175, 181, 183, 187, 189, 214, 217, 218, 223,
227–229, 239
D inclusive relationships 25, 72, 142, 235, 236
inner language 4, 80, 160, 224
developmental sequence for ideas, purposes intonation patterns 45, 59, 60, 111, 125, 152,
and conventions in oral language 65–72 182, 189
see also DSIPC table
discourse meaning 27–29, 35, 37, 70, 90,
92, 95, 98, 103, 104, 149–153, 155, 190, L
236, 240 linguistic competence 229
DSIPC table 87–8, 98 linguistic culture 214–218, 227
dyslexia 45, 244 literacy vii–viii, 3, 6, 26, 45, 174, 211
E M
E-language 2, 6, 34 metacognitive 4, 80, 81, 183, 186, 224, 225,
egocentric speech 66, 68, 70, 79, 80, 81, 238 226
248
In d e x
mirror neurons 220–221, 227

modal verbs 50, 135, 146
R
morpheme 16, 19, 20, 48, 50, 98, 103, 104, rime 43, 44, 67, 69, 77, 78, 125–129, 132
122, 124, 125, 146, 147, 233, 234
morphological 47, 50, 66, 96, 189, 199 S
schwa 41, 44, 45
N self-efficacy 78, 82, 103, 155, 186, 189, 190,
noun 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 48, 51, 52, 65, 67, 195, 196, 208, 229
122, 146, 149, 164, 220, 231, 234, 236 self-management 4, 64, 80, 160, 172
numeracy 3, 6 self-talk vi, viii, 4, 64, 68, 75, 77, 79–82,
103, 104, 106, 108, 112, 139, 160, 164,
O 172, 177, 180, 184, 185, 189, 191, 193,
195–197, 208, 210, 220, 223, 224, 229,
Observing oral language behaviours
238
(OOLB) 87–88, 94
semantic v, 10, 21, 35, 56, 223, 244 (ref),
occipito-temporal 220
245 (ref)
OLSP-B 97–99, 230–232
sentence meaning 13, 14, 15, 19–29, 32,
OLSP-D 97–99, 233–239
onset 43–44, 125–129 34–37, 45–46, 48–49, 59, 65–72, 75, 76,
OOLB group checklist 87–88, 94–95 96, 99, 103, 104, 108, 109, 135–151, 161,
Oral language observational profile – in 173, 181, 189, 190, 222, 227, 235, 240,
depth 97, 233–239 246 (ref)
Oral language screening profile – brief 97, short-term working memory 31, 84, 110,
230–232 113, 176
simple sentence 19, 23, 25, 26, 42, 48, 65, 75
P specific language impairments 19, 20, 50,
243 (ref)
parietal lobe 220, 222, 226 speech disorders 86, 242–244 (ref), 246
passive voice sentence 48–49, 109, 144, 196,
(ref)
199–201, 203
subject 21, 22, 25, 26, 69, 71, 72
phoneme 40, 41, 44, 68, 126
suffix 16, 19, 51, 122, 123
phonemic vii, ix, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 86, 126,
syllable 10, 38, 41, 43–45, 67, 68, 121, 125,
234, 240
126, 128, 130, 131, 220
phonemic awareness 43, 44
syntax 10, 21, 144, 190, 222, 227, 242
phonological 15, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 53,
64–66, 68, 70, 72, 86, 87, 114, 125, 126,
190, 201, 202, 231, 234, 240, 244 (ref) T
phonological awareness 3, 43, 65, 70, 111, temporal cortex 219–222, 226
125, 220 topic meanings 13–15, 30–32, 35, 59, 103,
phonology 10, 38, 244 (ref) 104, 121, 125, 138, 149, 153, 155–159,
pragmatic 10, 56, 63, 243 (ref), 244 (ref), 173, 177, 181, 183, 189, 190, 201, 203,
246 (ref) 230, 237, 240
predicate 21, 22, 25
prefrontal 223–227, 245 (ref)
pronoun 24, 37, 40, 42, 48–50, 52, 53, 65– V
72, 86, 87, 96, 149–152, 163, 164, 182, verb 3, 16, 19, 20, 21–27, 47–52, 65–69, 71,
190, 201–204, 211, 231, 233, 235, 236 72, 74, 116, 122, 123, 135, 137, 146, 149,
prosody 45, 46, 60, 243 (ref), 245 (ref), 246 164, 182, 190, 191, 199, 200, 216, 222,
(ref) 231, 233, 236, 244 (ref)
249
Index
vocabulary v–vii, ix, x, 3, 5, 15, 20, 31, 33,

34, 66–69, 74, 83, 89, 91, 93, 94, 103,
104, 106–109, 114–121, 125, 134, 178,
180, 192, 194, 197, 202, 204, 216, 219–
221, 230, 233, 234, 240, 241, 244 (ref),
245 (ref), 246 (ref)
voiced sound 42, 43
voiceless sound 42, 43
W
Wernicke’s aphasia 19, 222
250
Powerful Learning
A strategy for systemic educational improvement
Edited by David Hopkins, John Munro, Wayne Craig
ACER Press 2011
Powerful Learning: A strategy for systemic educational This breakthrough book helps identify and, importantly,
improvement delivers an evidence-based, results-driven adapt appropriate teaching strategies, organisational
approach to large-scale educational reform in schools. structures and policy options to support improvement
Pre-eminent educationalists David Hopkins, John Munro plans in any given school. Ultimately, school principals,
and Wayne Craig, together with expert contributors, administrators, policy makers and the teachers themselves
explicate a ‘grand theory’ of system change that leads to will see a discernible reduction in the variance of student
measurable outcomes in enhanced student learning and performance, an overall rise in school standards, and a
accelerated achievement over time. narrowing of the educational divide.
Premised upon an intensive program in the Northern David Hopkins is Professor Emeritus at the Institute
Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, Australia, Powerful of Education, University of London, and consults
Learning demonstrates the compelling impact of radical internationally on school reform.
reform in an area of high socioeconomic disadvantage. Dr John Munro is Head of Studies in Exceptional
This in-depth case study approach, bolstered by reference Learning and Gifted Education in the Graduate School of
to the broader international experience, provides an Education at The University of Melbourne.
‘inside out’ perspective on school improvement, with the
Wayne Craig is Regional Director of the Northern
central tenet that every student will reach their potential.
Metropolitan Region, Melbourne.
While the essential standards of literacy and numeracy
are addressed, instilling the desire to learn in students is
paramount.
To order Powerful Learning: A strategy for systemic educational improvement

w: http://shop.acer.edu.au
e: sales@acer.edu.au

Teaching
Teaching Oral Language Oral Language
Building a firm foundation using ICPALER Building a firm foundation using ICPALER
Teaching Oral Language

Oral language is widely recognised as an essential foundation for successful school learning.
However, until recently, the acquisition of oral language skills has been largely overshadowed
by reading, writing, spelling and numeracy, and has not been considered a key component of
school curricula.
In Teaching Oral Language, Dr John Munro redresses this imbalance through the delivery of
his step-by-step model, ICPALER. The Ideas–Conventions–Purposes–Ability to learn–Expression
and Reception framework describes the various aspects of oral language from a classroom
perspective, and demonstrates how teachers can best guide students to become effective
communicators and language users. Designed to facilitate teaching and assessment, and to
equip teachers to hear and see students’ speaking and listening skills, ICPALER promotes the
use of self-talk and empowers students to become self-teachers of oral language.
Representing the culmination of Dr Munro’s research and practice over many years, Teaching
Oral Language explicates the ICPALER model for classroom implementation. This breakthrough
program has been used to inform several major oral language projects commissioned by state
and federal education departments, and is an indispensable resource for teachers and their
students in the early primary years.
Associate Professor John Munro is Head of Studies in Exceptional Learning
JOHN MUNRO
and Gifted Education in the Graduate School of Education at The University of
Melbourne. A trained teacher and psychologist, his research interests include
literacy learning and learning difficulties, maths learning disabilities, learning
internationally, gifted learning, professional learning and school improvement. He
is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and a Life
Member of Learning Difficulties Australia.
ISBN 978-0-86431-920-3
9 780864 319203
JOHN MUNRO

Teaching Oral

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Teaching

Teaching Oral Language Oral Language

Teaching Oral Language

Associate Professor John Munro is Head of Studies in Exceptional Learning

Text copyright © John Munro 2011

This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except under the

Edited by Amanda Pinches

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Chapter 1 Why a focus on oral language?............................................................. 2

Chapter 2 A framework for describing language................................................. 7

Chapter 3 Analysing the types of ideas or meanings communicated.......... I..... 13

Chapter 4 Analysing the use of the conventions of language....................C..... 36

Chapter 5 Analysing how language is used to achieve

Chapter 6 Analysing students’ language learning capacity..................... AL... 73

Chapter 7 Screening procedures to identify oral language knowledge

Chapter 8 A teaching framework for enhancing students’ oral

Chapter 9 Teaching word meanings and conventions......................................114

Chapter 10 Teaching students to comprehend and say sentence meanings...... 135

Chapter 11 Teaching discourse, topic meanings and conventions.................. 149

Chapter 12 Teaching students how to use language to achieve their

Chapter 13 Teaching that integrates using the meanings, conventions

Chapter 14 Implementing a speaking and listening teaching unit..................... 187

Appendi x 2 Oral language observational profile – in depth.............................. 233

(DEST 2005) commented on the success of this training:

Some children have a communication disability that restricts severely their

Why a focus on oral language?

I–Language E–Language I–Language

1.1 Oral language as a key foundation to

1.1.1 Oral language and academic achievement

1.1.2 Oral language and learning to think

1.1.3 Oral language and interacting with others

1.1.4 Oral language and learning in groups

might happen next. She periodically instructs students to behave in acceptable

1.2 Oral language: what is learnt and how?

1.3 Why this book?

In this chapter we examine a framework for understanding how young children

2.1 A conversation between some four-year-olds

You can look for these aspects of language in the conversation.

2.2 How is the ICPALER framework similar to other

Ingram (2007) approached the development of a framework from an alternative

2.3 ICPALER in context

model is determined by the context. We need to collect information about

Analysing the types of ideas

In this chapter we examine the types of meaning typically communicated in

3.1 The main idea in any communication

first overall idea second overall idea third overall idea

words sentences discourse topic

An effective communicator can integrate automatically the information from the

3.2 The four types of meaning in

individual sentence discourse topic

3.3 Individual meanings

Tom’s word bank

3.3.1 The two types of individual meanings: A morpheme

‘Free’ morphemes ‘Bound’ morphemes

3.3.2 Morphemes have a sound address

3.3.3 What do word meanings look like?

3.3.4 How word meanings gradually develop

3.3.5 Content words and function words

3.3.6 Parts of words have meanings

3.3.7 Helping students know the value of a knowledge of words

3.4 Sentence meanings

3.4.1 Sentences have meaning

D: The girl eats the ice-cream,

3.4.2 How to describe the elements that make up a sentence

Chapter 5 Analysing how language is used to achieve

Chapter 7 Screening procedures to identify oral language knowledge

Chapter 8 A teaching framework for enhancing students’ oral

Chapter 12 Teaching students how to use language to achieve their

Chapter 13 Teaching that integrates using the meanings, conventions

1.1 Oral language as a key foundation to

2.1 A conversation between some four-year-olds

2.2 How is the ICPALER framework similar to other

3.9 Review of the types of ideas in a spoken

4.2.3 How do children develop the ability to say the sounds

4.3.2 What develops in the children’s knowledge of sentence

4.3.4 Using conventions that make the meanings agree:

4.3.5 What do students know when they comprehend

4.3.6 Useful tasks for examining students’ understanding

4.5 The conventions are learnt and used in