Speaking

Talk is an essential part of communicating, thinking, and learning. It allows students to express themselves, to negotiate relationships, to give definition to their thoughts, and to learn about language, themselves, and their world. Talk lays the foundation for reading and writing. Oral language gives students their:

understanding of conventional and culturally specific ways to communicate with others, and the desire and ability to use speech for a variety of purposes in a variety of forms (pragmatic cueing system)
understanding of the different structures within various forms of oral text (textual cueing system)
understanding of the ways that language conveys meaning through such aspects of structure as word order and rules for subject-verb agreement (syntactic cueing system)
information about word meanings (semantic cueing system) and pronunciation of words (phonemic cueing system).

Students need many opportunities to talk in a linguistically rich environment. Researchers have found that students' learning is enhanced when they have many opportunities to elaborate on ideas through talk (Pressley, 1992).

Language has purpose - to communicate needs, wants, ideas, information, and feelings. Students need many opportunities to use language for different purposes within meaningful contexts and concrete experiences. Halliday (1975) observed that students must learn to apply as well as learn the language itself. He suggests that students should learn the following functions of language.

Halliday's Model of Language Functions

Function	Examples	Classroom Experiences
Use language to communicate preferences, choices, wants, or needs (Instrumental)	"I want to ..."	Problem solving Gathering materials Role playing Persuading
Use language to express individuality (Personal)	"Here I am ...."	Making feelings public Interacting with others
Use language to interact and plan, develop, or maintain a play or group activity (Social Relationships/Interactional)	"You and me ...." "I'll be the cashier, ...."	Structured play Dialogues and discussions Talking in groups
Use language to control (Regulatory)	"Do as I tell you ...." "You need ...."	Making rules in games Giving instructions Teaching
Use language to explain (Representational)	"I'll tell you." "I know."	Conveying messages Telling about the real world Expressing a proposition
Use language to find things out, wonder, or hypothesize (Heuristic)	"Tell me why ...." "Why did you do that?" "What for?"	Question and answer routines Inquiry and research Metalanguage
Use language to create, explore, and entertain (Imaginative)	"Let's pretend ...." "I went to my grandma's last night."	Stories and dramatizations Rhymes, poems, and riddles Nonsense and word play

The uses of language represent a developmental sequence. "The child's earliest efforts to use language seem to be self-maintaining, directing, and reporting. Predicting, projecting, imagining, and reasoning make a later appearance. But development within each category proceeds and it is the strategies selected that indicate the complexity of thinking the child is trying to express" (Tough, 1976, p. 81).

Clay (1991) suggested that in order to compensate for limited language learning, teachers must go beyond the provision of interesting play and work opportunities for students to also incorporate regular periods of close interaction with an adult who shows interest in their ideas and concerns. Such adults need to be alert for ways to draw students into spontaneous talk. The teaching strategies that follow develop oral language capabilities within meaningful contexts and concrete experiences.

When developing students' speaking skills and strategies, consider the following guidelines. A sample planning guide and teacher checklist are also provided at the end of this section to support the development of students' speaking abilities.

1. Provide many opportunities for students to speak daily.

Children use meaningful talk to express their needs and their feelings, to question and explore their surroundings, and to create imaginary worlds. Their speaking is improved when teachers allow for all kinds of talk in classroom activities, by engaging students in conversation, by assessing what students are thinking and saying, and by planning many opportunities for students to extend their language and thinking repertoires. Some examples follow:

Plan and give time and opportunity for students to practise speaking and thinking skills. Provide for different opportunities to give students experiences with talk both inside and outside the classroom. Help students identify a focus for each situation. If necessary, demonstrate/model forms of language appropriate for the moment or situation. Encourage students to think aloud. Listen actively and carefully to what they are saying. Take the role of "listener" and assess what students are saying. Respond by encouraging elaboration, clarification, rewording, and questions. Keep silent at strategic moments. Support and encourage students.
Conference and chat with students and encourage them to converse with classmates as they work together. Encouraging conversations in the classroom is an important means of furthering students' thinking.
Give students many opportunities to speak in order to express their thoughts, feelings, and insights for a variety of purposes and audiences using a variety of forms including: anecdotes, announcements, audiotapes, choral readings, conversations, dialogues, debates, discussions, dramatizations, jokes, interviews, lessons, newscasts, oral directions, oral presentations, oral reports, plays, poetry readings, radio scripts, raps, riddles, reader's theatre, talking circles, skits, speeches, songs, and tributes.

Classroom Routines

Students should use talk regularly to communicate important ideas and information. Some examples that can be incorporated easily into classroom routines follow.

Morning Talk/Sharing Circle: Students share, in social groups, personal news or take turns sharing ideas and opinions about a topic under study. Teachers provide a framework for sharing and have students prepare answers in advance to likely questions.

News/News Reporting: Students report and discuss local school and community as well as national and international news using the 5Ws + H questions as a framework (i.e., Who? What? Where, When? Why? How?).

Oral Presentations: Students make short oral presentations to the class each day of the school year on a rotational basis. They may present individually, in pairs, or in small groups using student or teacher-selected topics. Their presentations may include factual reports, favourite music, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters, favourite poems or books, movie or television reviews, "how to" demonstrations, magic tricks, news reports, storytelling, and others. Students usually begin their presentation with, "I have chosen to present on ... because ...."

Class Meeting/Group Time: Students should be encouraged to add concerns or issues to the agenda for class meetings. The teacher and students work together to solve problems and deal with the issues or concerns of students. Students can generate questions about issues that concern them and these questions can be placed in a classroom question box and dealt with during class meetings, or individually.

2. Give students guidance and explicit instruction that develops effective speaking skills and strategies.

Model and discuss effective speaking behaviours. Charts outlining rules and courtesies can be developed with students and posted in the classroom. Some examples follow.

Sample Grade 1-3 Chart

When we speak, we:

take turns
pay attention to each other
speak loudly enough
do not speak too quickly or too slowly
use courteous words
tell the important things in order.

Sample Grade 4-5 Chart

When we speak, we:

are prepared
ensure everyone is ready to listen
get started
speak clearly and loudly enough for everyone to hear
stay on topic
provide evidence for our thinking
are courteous.

Group Work

Provide frequent opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups to explore concrete materials, share ideas, and create group products. All such activities are opportunities for oral language development. Some useful strategies follow.

Think, Pair, Share/Square (McTighe & Lyman, 1992) and Partner Conversations: Students listen to a presentation, view a video, or read a print text. They work individually to record their ideas (in notes, on a diagram, on a listening/viewing/reading guide) and then team with a partner or two sets of partners (square) to discuss their ideas. They can add to the ideas that they generated individually. "Squares" often share the ideas with the whole class. Another variation is having students (after they listen, read, or view) practise retelling the story or main ideas with a partner. Guidelines for speaking should be emphasized prior to sharing.

Talking Circles: Students use the talking circle format to take turns sharing ideas and information. An object is passed around the circle. The student who has the object speaks about the topic while other members of the circle listen attentively. When the student has finished speaking, or if the student does not wish to speak on the topic at that time, he or she may pass the object to the next person. The object continues to move around the circle as ideas and opinions are expressed. Students are encouraged to listen carefully and to build on each other's responses.

Small Group Conversations: Informal and respectful conversations can set the tone for more structured discussions. Students can productively converse about their experiences, their readings, and their hobbies.

Sharing Circles/Conference Groups: Students talk about and share their work with each other or explore a given topic.

Circle within the Circle (Fishbowl): Students participate in a discussion about a particular topic using two circles. Students in the inside circle discuss what they know and have found out about a particular topic. Students in the outside circle make notes and reflect on what they are hearing. They then discuss the new ideas and information as well as pose questions that they may have about the topic. The roles are reversed as the new inner circle deals with another topic.

Co-operative Learning Groups: The teacher defines a task, assigns students to groups, has students complete the learning task in groups, and asks students to share the results with other groups. Each student has a particular role or task to fulfil. In a jigsaw, students are divided into groups of not more than five ("home" groups). They then form new "expert" groups that include one student from each home group. These new groups research and become experts on a particular part of a topic. Members discuss in their expert groups what they know and have learned about their part of the topic and develop a shared understanding. Expert members then return to their home groups to share their new knowledge.

Instructional Conversations: Instructional conversations are discussion-based lessons "geared toward creating richly textured opportunities for students' conceptual and linguistic development" (Goldenberg, 1993, p. 317). They are designed to ensure a focused and engaging discussion that is not dominated by a series of teacher-posed questions. The teacher begins by identifying and providing background knowledge that students need in order to make sense of what they will be listening to, reading, or viewing. After listening to, reading, or viewing the text, the teacher poses a broad, open question that invites students to think and elaborate on their ideas and to interact with each other. For example, the teacher might ask: "Why did Rob make that decision?"

Literature Conversations: Goldenberg (1993, p. 317) advocates that teachers employ an explicit instructional model to guide students in conversations. Eeds and Wells (1989) advocate a special way of discussing a story that they call "grand conversation". They recommend the following:

Read a work of literature with or to students.
Remind students of the guidelines for grand conversations:
- Only one person talks at a time.
- Listen carefully so you can tell when someone has finished speaking.
- Take turns speaking.
- Everyone should share at least one idea.
- No one should share more than two ideas until everyone has shared something.
- Stay on topic.
Engage students in a conversation (about the work) that the students themselves direct.
Ask one interpretive or literary question to further students' responses and thinking.

Literature Circles: Students can form small groups or literature circles to read and discuss a text (often a novel). To facilitate the group process, Daniels (1994) recommends that roles be assigned to define student responsibilities, and to help students focus their reading and prepare their discussions. A group of four, for example, might include the following:

A discussion director (who is responsible for facilitating the discussion and ensuring that each group member has an opportunity to respond to the collection of questions and to highlight additional key ideas from the text)
An illustrator (who is responsible for representing visually or graphically key passages that group members discuss)
A connector (who is responsible for ensuring that the story is related to personal experiences)
A plot tracer (who is responsible for noting in point form the events that happen in the section).

It is understood that alternative roles can also be used. Daniels advocates using roles in order to learn a variety of ways of responding to a novel. Roles can later be abandoned when students no longer need them. Some students find the roles restrictive and prefer the freedom to respond to a variety of ways depending on what is suitable to the text.

Storytelling

Involve students in storytelling. It stimulates the imagination, helps students internalize the characteristics of stories, and expands their language abilities.

Oral Storytelling: Storytelling often uses familiar verses, stories, riddles, and jokes with humour and surprise endings. Students can tell them aloud as they are, make up different endings to old favourites, or add on to the story. They also may prepare and share favourite literary, family, or personal stories, incorporating drama, photographs, illustrations, props, or other media forms.

When students tell stories, they should consider their facial expression, intonation of voice, body language, and ways to engage the audience's interest. They are encouraged to choose words and literary devices (such as repetition and pauses) to convey feelings and create mood. Explicit instruction, modeling, and guided practice help students create mood as they tell their own and others' stories. They should read or hear stories several times and get a feel for the basic components.

Flannel Board Stories: In kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, a flannel board is a useful storytelling device. Teachers and students can create the essential images to illustrate a story (e.g., characters, trees, houses) and plan the order in which the pieces will be placed on the board. As the story is told, the pieces are placed on the flannel board in the order in which they appear.

Never-ending Stories: Even before students can read, they can tell a story. Invented stories help students develop their oral language and give them an understanding of the basic ingredients of all stories (e.g., folk tales, fables, legends, ballads, short stories). The teacher can use a picture, an object, or an oral prompt (e.g., "Once upon a time ...", "It all began when my brother said ...") as a point of departure. Each student in turn can use his or her imagination and oral language to develop the story for a set amount of time or by adding one sentence. Older students can use story starters (e.g., "One day I was walking toward the edge of town in a snowstorm. I was all alone ...") or story elements (e.g., a character, a place, and a problem) to create a never-ending story. Stories can be taped onto an audio cassette, perhaps to be transcribed and revised.

Memorable Moments/Pick a Card: Students choose a photograph, old postcard, greeting card, newspaper, or magazine clipping and make up a story about it. They might also pick a card to focus the story (e.g., The happiest moment, It all started when, The worst day, I was so embarrassed, The funniest _______.)

Oral Reading and Choral Speaking

Oral reading and choral speaking can take many forms and provide many opportunities for oral language development. Oral reading serves a number of purposes including developing students' fluency, boosting their confidence in themselves, and allowing the teacher to assess the students' understanding of the cueing systems. Solo oral reading of text requires, however, practice and a supportive setting. Teachers can build students' confidence and fluency by beginning with echo and choral reading, chanting, and group or individual dramatic readings of poetry and prose.

Choral Reading: Steps for choral reading are described below.

1. Choose a selection and read it together or in pairs until everyone understands it.
2. Decide how to arrange the text for a choral reading. Although there are books that do this, the process of working out a good arrangement is a valuable one. Therefore, students should be encouraged to do their own arranging.
3. Have each person read a line so you can decide if his or her voice is high, medium, or low. Group all the voices with the same quality together and use them for certain lines.
4. Decide together which, if any, lines should be spoken by a solo voice, a subgroup, or the whole group and which lines would best be spoken by high, low, or medium voices.
5. Read through the entire selection as arranged and make changes if needed to emphasize the important parts. Practise expressive fluency by making a list of the most important words and phrases and then reading them aloud in quick succession, one after another, changing voice and facial express as the meaning changes.
6. Read through the complete text again, using a different volume level for each different idea. Decide which volume and pitch level is best for each part to clarify the meaning. Try out various kinds of phrasing, intonation, and other vocal expression.
7. Experiment with pace. Decide which lines should be spoken more slowly, which more rapidly.
8. Decide who is going to read the solo or duo part; then rehearse; tape the rehearsal to hear which parts, if any, need more work. You may decide to add a guitar, piano, humming, movement, or other accompaniment.
9. Share your choral reading with an audience. (Moffett & Wagner, 1992, p. 185)

Echo Reading: The teacher or leader reads each line, and the children repeat it.

Chanting and Sing-alongs: Students delight in chanting and singing nursery rhymes, jump-rope jingles, and rhythmical games such as "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" (Moffett & Wagner, 1992). Chants and songs broaden students' experiences with language and give students a sense of rhythm and phrasing.

Leader and Chorus Reading: The teacher reads the main part of the poem or story, and the students read the refrain or chorus in unison.

Small Group Reading/Reading Together: Small groups of students form reading circles and each child takes a turn reading aloud, passing the book on to the next person.

Cumulative Reading: One student or one group reads the first line or stanza and another student or group joins in as each line or stanza is read so that a cumulative effect is created.

Reader's Theatre: Students focus on oral reading and oral interpretation when they participate in reader's theatre. A small group of students can prepare a poem, a story, or a play or use a prepared script for reader's theatre. They stand at the front of the class with their backs to the audience and, as each student reads, he or she turns to face the audience. (See sample script below.)

Reader's Theatre: Sample Script Molly Whuppie and the Giant
Narrator:	Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a cottage near the forest. The people who lived there couldn't support their children so they took them into the forest and left them there.
Tess:	Oh, no! We're lost in the forest with no food or shelter!
Bridey:	I'm hungry and my feet hurt!
Molly:	Don't worry. All we have to do is wait till dark and then follow the north star until we find a house.
Narrator:	So the three girls waited silently until dark and followed the north star until they came upon an old spooky house.
Tess:	Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps!
Bridey:	Yah, it looks really haunted!
Molly:	Well there's only one way to find out.
Narrator:	Molly knocked boldly on the door. The door opened. Before her stood an ugly old woman.
(Adapted to script form by Andrea, 10 years.)

Drama and Play

Drama and structured play afford additional opportunities for oral language development. In kindergarten, children engage in different types of play depending upon circumstances and particular needs. Structured play supports children in learning about their world and develops their abilities to communicate with others. Types of play range from inactive observation to participation in group play requiring planning and co-operation. Children First: A Curriculum Guide for Kindergarten (1994) provides a full discussion of structured play centres, also known as activity centres. See pages 29-46.

The need for structured play does not end when children enter grade 1. Students in the Emerging Phase need the support it provides for vocabulary and communication skill development. Creating activity centres in the classroom can extend students' experiences beyond the familiar and stimulate their language development. As teachers and students discuss ideas, and read, view, and listen to fiction and nonfiction related to the centre, they use theme-related vocabulary and sentence patterns in their speech and questions; for example, "Letter carriers used to be called postmen even though some of them were women. We'll try and remember to call people who deliver mail from our post office, letter carriers. Those of you who want to work in our post office sorting and stamping mail will be postal workers." Teachers can incorporate a group time at the end of structured play for students to share the work they did that day, and to describe ideas they had, things they learned, and ways that they solved problems.

Small group structured play activities provide literacy opportunities, support oral language development, and incorporate critical and creative thinking challenges (Wasserman, 1990; Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Teachers should provide frequent opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups to explore concrete materials, share ideas, and create products. Students may enrich their understanding of themselves and others, and of concepts introduced through dramatic play (e.g., crossing the desert, travelling in space). They can also explore natural objects and phenomena, sort and classify objects and photographs, and create sound pieces, stories, dramas, puppet shows, or other products. Students' language and imagination are stimulated as they create costumes, props, and other three-dimensional objects related to the play activities.

Supported role play for social problem solving also can contribute to students' language growth and help students communicate their needs and ideas respectfully and honestly. Supported role play for social problem solving can teach behaviours that are important to creating a democratic and caring classroom atmosphere. Teachers can choose a focus for a role play demonstration (e.g., ways to share materials) and generate two or three scenarios portraying better and worse ways to solve the problem. Using puppets, adult volunteers, or older students from another class, the teacher can rehearse and then role play the situation using positive examples and the language associated with each.

For example, the teacher could do a puppet role play involving name calling and then invite the class to respond with prompts such as: "What are your ideas about the best ways to solve the problem? Which solution do you think is the best one? Can you think of other ways to solve this problem besides the one presented in the role play? How might you decide which solution is the best?" Students could do practice sessions following a teacher-led role play by breaking into pairs (or threes) and re-enacting the role play or creating a new one on the same theme. The teacher could invite a few pairs or trios to share their role plays with the class or with students from another class.

Teachers should not expect students to automatically know the language with which to work and play harmoniously with others. Role plays and "on the spot" demonstrations provide students with a language for co-operative social problem solving. Other behaviours for social problem solving might include:

Calming oneself - self-talk (e.g., counting to ten slowly, saying the alphabet, reciting a verse to oneself), leaving the scene, finding a quiet activity, and (when the situation proves too difficult) enlisting the support of someone you trust in order to share your feelings.
Listening carefully in order to understand the needs, wants, feelings, and ideas of others.
Showing interest in and friendliness toward others - greeting others when you see them, smiling, and appreciating the contributions and/or ideas of others.
Showing empathy and offering encouragement through words, deeds, and body language.
Taking turns, trading, and sharing fairly - better and worse ways to make or refuse requests, different ways to take turns or share, and trading things of equal value/appeal.
Using proactive assertive behaviours - initiating social interactions by greeting others, making friendly as opposed to bossy suggestions, offering to help, respecting the right of others to say "no".
Using reactive assertive behaviours - responding to social interactions by standing up for personal rights, and refusing to accept discriminatory acts or any form of name calling.

Drama is a special type of talk activity and can play a central role in language learning. Dramatic activities help students explore language and respond to ideas. These activities can range from whole-class contextual dramas where the teacher also takes a role to small group tableaux. Some descriptions of dramatic activities follow.

Pantomiming: Pantomiming uses only facial expression, body movement, and gestures to communicate. Students can have fun using pantomime to tell a story, folktale, or nursery rhyme. They enjoy playing "Guess What I'm Doing" and imitating animals, games, toys, sports, and places to visit. They may enhance the pantomime with props and costumes (e.g., a hat, a cane, a piece of luggage).

Role Playing: Students assume roles to explore situations that involve considering others' ideas. They might, for example, assume the roles of different story characters and have other students interview them. Booth (1994) suggests teachers help students explore different ways of "playing" with a story in order to help students to take on roles. A simple story such as a folktale can lead to activities such as the following:

responding to the story in role by creating the environment or setting (time and place) where the story takes places
developing a character or role, and exploring the character's response to a particular situation in the story
improvising a scene using the roles they have created
interviewing a character(s) by acting as a reporter
depicting, through group tableaux, the key events or incidents in the story
choral speaking, chanting, or presenting reader's theatre using key ideas from the story
individually presenting an interpretation of the story through a read aloud
creating a version of the story as a drama
making masks and retelling the story using the masks as props
exploring with mime by communicating key actions non-verbally.

Wax Museum Projects: Small groups of students research a notable person (e.g., a person from Saskatchewan or other Canadian history). Based on their research, they make a display, prepare a costume, and have one student pose as a wax figure of the person. A "tour guide" tours the class through the museum.

Character Interview: Students begin by generating questions for characters about whom they have been reading, and write these on strips of paper, one question per strip. The questions are then sorted by character. Each student chooses a character to portray for an interview. Students also may choose a prop that represents their character. They then take turns being interviewed.

Performing a Favourite Story: The teacher makes an audio or video tape of himself or herself reading a brief picture book. The teacher may deliberately read in a monotone or neglect to pause at the end of sentences. The students listen to or view the tape while they turn the pages of the book. They then write compliments and suggestions (e.g., using a T-chart) for the teacher. The teacher then reads the book to the students trying to incorporate their suggestions. Again, students are asked for compliments and suggestions. After this modeling, each student selects a book, rehearses it for a particular audience (e.g., younger students), then performs for a friend who uses the compliments-and-suggestions format to give feedback. Finally, the students make audio or video tapes of their read alouds.

Dramatizations: Students can explore their understanding of a story or issue by adopting roles within the story or dramatic situation. This can be done in small groups or as a whole class. (For information on planning for more extensive drama work, teachers can consult the drama strand of the arts education curriculum.)

Puppet Plays: Puppet plays allow students to create a voice, characterization, and action in a non-threatening format. Stick puppets, finger puppets, paper bag puppets, sock puppets, paper plate puppets, and hand puppets are easy to make and develop children's speaking, thinking, and imagination.

Oral Reports and Presentations

Students can share what they have learned by preparing and presenting oral reports. They can prepare and give reports about topics that they are interested in or that they are studying. They need explicit instruction on how to prepare, including choosing and focusing their topic, gathering and organizing their information, creating visuals (e.g., charts, diagrams, pictures, models, timelines) and giving their presentations. Students can use interviewing as an oral language tool for gathering information.

Investigative Reporting and Group Work: With practice and scaffolding, students can work in groups to prepare and present an oral report.

"Book" Talks: Students can give oral reports on their impressions of a book, an illustration, a television show, a film, or other form of text. Again, students should prepare carefully by organizing their thoughts and creating visuals and other representations to enhance their talks.