Abstract:
The aim of this study was to explore why some children appear to enter our classrooms without a willingness or ability to communicate orally. Through the observation of children with a range of oral language abilities, it was sought to highlight the instructional settings in which those children who seldom interact in the classroom may feel more confident in contributing, and also to compare these children to those who are more able in an effort to compare why this might be occurring. In doing so, we as teachers can take advantage of these settings to increase the oral language participation of these children and in turn increase their oral language base and vocabulary. The findings highlight that instructional setting and participation structures, as well as the role of the teacher, do have a significant impact on the interactions of children of different oral language abilities. The results emphasise that teaching, like speaking, is reciprocal and requires quality input so that we might achieve quality output. Children who are perceived to be of lower oral language ability are not receiving the same opportunities to participate in whole class and teacher- led groups, and as such are missing out on opportunities to increase and practise their oral language skills with a range of conversational partners.
