The oral language productive vocabulary profile of children starting school: A resource for teachers

The oral language proficiency of students in early education is crucial as teachers draw on this as a resource when developing literacy. There is a need to better understand what this oral language resource consists of at school entry, particularly the diversity amongst children so as to address inequalities. This article reports a study on a key component of oral language, namely productive vocabulary. It profiles the oral language vocabulary in approximately 3.6 million words produced by a large sample of almost 800 children under the age of five. The results are reported in a productive vocabulary resource, structured as a list of 2767 vocabulary targets. This profile represents highly productive vocabulary presumably known by most children as well as more advanced vocabulary not part of every child’s oral language. The article demonstrates the pedagogical implications of this research in the context of the National Literacy Learning Progressions of the Australian National Curriculum.

Can Virtual Replace In-person Coaching? Experimental Evidence on Teacher Professional Development and Student Learning in South Africa

Virtual communication holds the promise of enabling low-cost professional development at scale, but the benefits of in-person interaction might be difficult to replicate. We report on an experiment in South Africa comparing on-site with virtual coaching of public primary school teachers. After three years, on-site coaching improved students' English oral language and reading proficiency (0.31 and 0.13 SD, respectively). Virtual coaching had a smaller impact on English oral language proficiency (0.12 SD), no impact on English reading proficiency, and an unintended negative effect on home language literacy. Classroom observations show that on-site coaching improved teaching practices, and virtual coaching led to larger crowding-out of home language teaching time. Implementation and survey data suggest technology itself was not a barrier to implementation, but rather that in-person contact enabled more accountability and support.

The Importance of Oral Language Proficiency in EFL Online Teaching Setting

English language, as an international language has been used in North Macedonia as a foreign language in schools for a considerable amount of time now. English teachers have tried to convey new ways of teaching this language, furthermore adapting to the main four skills in a meticulous manner. However recently, all of the teachers, were confronted with a worldwide pandemic situation which shaped a different scenario of teaching. A different mechanism that all of the teachers are getting used to, which is online education. The purpose of this study is to analyze how effective was teaching English online for the pupils oral proficiency, whilst communication in English language was limited. Videoconferencing and converting lessons into videos and send them as documented evidence, were two of the main tools mostly used from teachers in schools in Gostivar. The methodology used for this research was qualitative, and it uses two instruments, an observation, and an interview. The overall study results show that, even though pupils showed improvement in EFL (English as a foreign language) oral proficiency, since the materials used to lecture online where persuasive; some students also had difficulties learning autonomously, without depending on the teachers help. Furthermore, according to the interview responses, the appropriate and detailed lesson planning, helps in combining activities which would emphasize speaking more in online teaching classes.

The contributions of oral language to English reading outcomes among young bilingual students in the United States

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The current study examined the language-reading relationship for bilingual students in two grade levels (grades 1 and 3) and for two reading outcomes (decoding and comprehension) to understand the contribution of oral language in English reading. The study also explored the potential mediating role of oral language between language use, reading frequency, and reading outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The study included 60 bilingual students from bilingual households that speak a language other than, or in addition to, English. All participants completed a battery of language and reading assessments and a background survey. Data and analysis: Three separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to derive an Oral Language factor (from oral language assessments), a Language Use factor, and a Reading Frequency factor (from survey items). A multivariate regression was conducted to investigate whether the language-reading relationship differed by grade and reading outcome. A multivariate mediation analysis was also conducted to examine whether the Oral Language factor mediates the effect of Language Use and Reading Frequency on reading outcomes. Findings/conclusions: Oral language proficiency significantly predicted both decoding and comprehension for both grades. Oral language also mediated the relationship between reading frequency and reading outcomes. Originality: This study investigates the contributions of oral language in young bilingual students’ English reading outcomes, which is an under-explored topic. Significance/implications: The results demonstrated the importance of oral language proficiency in bilingual students’ reading outcomes. Oral language plays a robust role in not only reading comprehension but also decoding. The study also clarified that the effects of reading frequency on reading outcomes are indirect and mediated via oral language. Improving bilingual students’ oral language proficiency coupled with promoting their reading frequency can help promote their reading outcomes.

The Supra Tutor

Pronunciation is critical for English oral language proficiency because of its immediate role in language judgments. However, effective and targeted English pronunciation instruction is scarce. Given the need for pronunciation instruction and the undeniable impact of suprasegmentals on intelligibility and on comprehensibility, the Supra Tutor, a four-module online pronunciation tutor focusing on suprasegmentals, was developed. This mixed methods study assessed the impact of the Supra Tutor on the comprehensibility of international teaching assistants (ITAs). Participants were evaluated for comprehensibility before and after training. The study also examined ITAs’ perceptions of the Supra Tutor in terms of usefulness, engagement, and overall quality. Findings indicated that the Supra Tutor can provide effective pronunciation instruction and engage learners to successfully complete the training. Research and pedagogical implications of the Supra Tutor and its contribution to pronunciation instruction are discussed.

Reading outcomes in children with developmental language disorder: A person-centered approach

Background and aims Many children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) develop reading difficulties. The purpose of this study is to better understand variation in the reading outcomes of children with DLD using a person-centered approach. Method 87 monolingual Dutch children diagnosed with DLD performed at ages 5 or 6 years nine tests of nonverbal IQ, oral language proficiency, phonological memory (PM) and executive functioning (EF). Two years later, the same children were tested on single (non-)word reading. Latent profile analyses were conducted to identify profiles based on oral language proficiency, phonological memory and executive functioning at age 5–6 years, which, in turn, were related to nonverbal IQ and to single-word reading two years later. Results Four profiles were identified and labelled relative to their position within the DLD-sample: 1. Weak performance overall, 2. Strong EF-average language and PM, 3. Mild working memory (WM) deficiencies-average language and PM, 4. Strong development overall. Profiles 1 and 3 had below average nonverbal IQ scores and were associated with low word reading outcomes two years later. Conclusions Within the group of children with DLD, children with relatively weak oral language, phonological memory and executive functioning, or children with working memory deficiencies are most at risk for developing reading difficulties. The findings support a multiple risk framework and confirm that a person-centered approach is promising in predicting reading outcomes in DLD. Implications: Research into individual differences in DLD is dominated by variable-centered approaches. This study illustrates how a person-centered approach, which views variables as properties of individuals, captures variation in the DLD-population. Using this bottom-up approach, the study highlights how an individual’s strengths and weaknesses across different developmental domains can be combined into profiles that relate to later reading outcomes. As such, it can provide an example for future DLD research.

The relationships between oral language and reading instruction: Evidence from a computational model of reading

Reading acquisition involves learning to associate visual symbols with spoken language. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that instruction on the relationship between spellings and sounds may be particularly important. However, it is unclear whether the effectiveness of this form of instruction depends on pre-existing oral language knowledge. To investigate this issue, we developed a series of computational models of reading incorporating orthographic, phonological and semantic processing to simulate both artificial and natural orthographic learning conditions in adults and children. We exposed the models to instruction focused on spelling-sound or spelling-meaning relationships, and tested the influence of the models’ oral language proficiency on the effectiveness of these training regimes. Overall, the simulations indicated that oral language proficiency is a vital foundation for reading acquisition, and may modulate the effectiveness of reading instruction. These results provide a computational basis for the Simple View of Reading, and emphasise the importance of both oral language knowledge and spelling-sound instruction in the initial stages of learning to read.

The Oral Language Proficiency of Indonesian English Teachers

This study reports an observation of the competencies of Indonesian secondary English teachers. An intensive observation over a two-week workshop session was performed involving 38 English teachers, with this group comprising 18 SMP English teachers and 20 SMA English teachers. Three aspects of the observation were identified for this study: competence in oral English, competence in written discourse, and the ability to motivate students in the classroom. This study revealed that English teachers lacked practice in speaking, resulting in an insufficient mastery of the oral use of English. In written discourse, the teachers showed a lack of mastery with rhetoric and the linguistic aspects of writing. In terms of strategies to motivate students in the classroom, the teachers generally lacked self-confidence