Oral Language

Oral language is the foundation of learning!

As James Britton famously said, “reading and writing float on a sea of talk.” Cooperative learning expert Spencer Kagan reminds us that the person doing the talking is the one doing the thinking—and the learning. So ask yourself: Who is doing the talking in your classroom? When students talk, they process ideas, rehearse language, and deepen understanding. When students remain silent, they aren’t engaging with the ideas, using the language, or processing the concepts—so the learning doesn’t stick and they lag behind. It is critical for teachers to create opportunities for intentional talk in their classrooms and support students to engage in meaningful learning conversations.

What does talk do?

Provides multiple opportunities for students to use and hear content-area vocabulary used in context (NICHD, 2000).

There is a significant relationship between oral proficiency in English and reading and writing proficiency (National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth, 2006).

Lowers the affective filter, creating an emotionally safe space.
Fosters a sense of belonging and builds community.

The presentations, links, and recordings below offer some key strategies and cultural considerations regarding oral language development

School 21, a public school in London, is widely recognized for placing oracy—the explicit teaching of speaking and listening—at the center of its curriculum. The school believes that oral language is as essential as reading, writing, and mathematics, and that students should be taught how to speak confidently, think aloud, collaborate, and communicate effectively. To build these skills, School 21 developed structured talk routines, protocols, and classroom expectations that make oral communication a daily, intentional practice rather than an add‑on.

Their work is grounded in research through a long‑standing partnership with the Cambridge Oracy Centre (formerly known as the Cambridge University Voice 21 Oracy Research Project). Cambridge researchers have shown that oracy is fundamental to cognitive development, social‑emotional learning, and academic success. Their studies indicate that structured talk improves reasoning, vocabulary, critical thinking, and long‑term outcomes for disadvantaged learners. They also provide a framework of four interrelated strands—physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social‑emotional—that describe the full set of skills involved in spoken communication.

School 21’s oracy model is built directly on this Cambridge framework. Teachers receive training to design lessons that build oral language progressively, create purposeful talk opportunities, and use talk protocols such as discussion roles, micro‑debates, presentations, and exploratory talk routines. The partnership has demonstrated that when students receive explicit teaching in oracy, they develop stronger academic language, participate more confidently, and show improved performance in subjects across the curriculum.

Learn more: Cambridge Oracy Brief, Cambridge Oracy Framework, British Council. It's Good to Talk: Oracy Lesson Plan

Why teach oracy?In this article, Professor of Education Neil Mercer argues that ‘talk’ needs tuition; state schools must teach spoken language skills for the sake of social

Importance of Oral Language

The person doing the talking is the person doing the learning. Read more about it here.

The Critical Importance of Conversation Turns

A conversation turn is a back‑and‑forth exchange between two people—one person speaks, the other responds. These turns are powerful because they give learners repeated opportunities to hear, process, and use language in meaningful ways. For multilingual learners, frequent turns build vocabulary, strengthen grammar, deepen comprehension, and support long‑term academic success.

Teachers and adults can boost the impact of conversation turns by modeling more advanced language, using richer vocabulary, and extending talk. This can be done by
• making comments that add new information or detail,
• prompting students to elaborate (“Tell me more about…”),
• asking open‑ended questions, and
• restating student ideas with more precise or complex language.

These techniques expose students to language just beyond their current level—what linguists call comprehensible input—while also encouraging them to practice and stretch their expressive abilities.

Research reinforces the importance of conversation turns. Studies from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child and MIT (Romeo et al., 2018) show that the number of conversational turns between adults and children strongly predicts language growth, brain development, reading outcomes, and long‑term academic achievement. In other words, the more high‑quality back‑and‑forth talk students experience, the more they learn—linguistically, cognitively, and socially.

Video LInk: Supporting Oral Language Development for Early Years Learners - University of Easter Connecticut

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model is a research‑based framework designed to help teachers make grade‑level content understandable for English learners while also promoting their academic language development. SIOP organizes effective instruction into eight components: lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment. It is used across content areas and helps teachers plan lessons that integrate language and content objectives, scaffold learning, and create predictable routines that support multilingual learners.

Oral language is central to SIOP. Several components specifically build speaking and listening skills:

• Comprehensible Input: Teachers make language accessible through modeling, visuals, gestures, demonstrations, and clear explanations—creating rich oral exposure students can actually understand.
• Interaction: Students participate in structured talk opportunities, partner work, group discussions, and academic conversations that help them practice new vocabulary and sentence structures.
• Building Background & Vocabulary: Teachers explicitly teach the oral language needed for lessons, linking new words to students’ prior knowledge.
• Strategies & Practice/Application: Students use oral language to process new content, share reasoning, ask questions, and clarify ideas.

SIOP emphasizes that English learners need frequent, meaningful chances to talk, listen, rehearse language, and negotiate meaning, not just complete quiet, written tasks. By intentionally weaving oral language into every lesson, SIOP supports both language proficiency growth and deeper understanding of academic content.

Session 6 - Interaction.mp4

View the recording of the presentation on Interaction

Interaction is the fifth component of the SIOP Model. This presentation contains information about this component's four features

QSSSA - More Than a Turn and Talk

Cultural Considerations for Oral Language Development of Multilingual Learners

GMT20221124-224757_Recording_2736x1824.mp4

View the recording of the presentation on discourse.

This presentation looks at the cultural influences of discourse and some routines teachers can implement to help EAL students develop their proficiency in discourse

Student-and-Teacher-moves.pdf

Teacher and Student Discourse Moves

Strengthening Reasoning, Strengthening Language

Peer Learning: Fostering MLs' Oral Language Development and Content Understanding

Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder offer four key practices for fostering MLs engagement and participation in peer learning activities. See the padlet below (Chapter 4) for tools and ideas.