Have you noticed the decline in oral language in young children as they start school? As teachers we have been observing this decline in children’s expression for the past few years and started a staffroom conversation to explore what contributes to children losing their love of natural expression. The ensuing discussions highlighted some incredible insights into the possibilities as to why children’s vocabulary is so limited and how they have lost the art of using the building blocks of conversation.
There appears to be a growing delay in children’s oral language, and it is becoming widespread across the strata of society. This delay includes a basic development of vocabulary which hinders their ability to express what they want to say. Children seem to have lost the opportunity of experimenting with language to extend their vocabulary bank. Could this be attributed to the lack of role modelling from adults? Are children hearing us model rich conversations which expose them to language that is imaginative, creative, full of intonation, pitch, tone and inflection to extend their vocabulary bank?
There seems to be a propensity to no longer be reading quality literature books for enjoyment which becomes a natural exposure of ways to use a range of rich and extending vocabulary. Perhaps we have now placed an emphasis on using books for instructional purposes for teaching language and thus limiting the development of their expression!
Teachers are observing their students’ speech which is comprised of shortened sentences, and at times, no sentences at all. They are modelling the language of screen games and their talk tends to include abbreviated language e.g. trending text language.
We are seeing children who have had little experience in conversations being limited in their ability to hold a conversation with each other and wondered if this could be the result of the robotic screen language they are being exposed to from a very young age. Their lack of conversational skills and ability to connect with others is quite noticeable.
Children have a natural thirst to connect with one another in joyful interactions, however, how often do we encourage further development of these spontaneous moments to model rich conversational language?
Our staffroom conversations delved into the poor listening and engaging skills that children are exhibiting and we surmised that this maybe as a result of adults not modelling the appropriateness of using listening skills. Are teachers, parents and other adults, demonstrating a high level of listening to each other and valuing this worth in conversations?
Listening is the silent partner of being able to deepen the richness of conversations.
How often are we modelling the true art of communication that encourages children to enter conversations that deepen their awareness and connection with one another?
In the busy-ness of classrooms are we giving children the space to work with, and experiment with, oral expression? Do we rush to correct rather than offer them the opportunity to expand their natural expression? Are we hindering the levels of confidence our children have in relating to one another and expressing and valuing what they share? Teachers are observing and validating the educational research that when children develop their confidence in communicating there is a distinct impact on their reading and writing skills.
We have observed when we place focus on using deep and simple building blocks of conversation that children’s language becomes very vibrant and engaging, offering them the opportunity to build on each other’s natural expression. We then see the natural growth of their communication skills soar and bring a solid foundation of love for conversation to education.