Session objectives
Attendees will understand that:
- Oral language interventions can have a positive impact on all phases of education.
- High quality implementation of approaches to improve oral language is important and challenging.
- Oral language should be considered as a core element of developing literacy, rather than a distinct subject area.
Intended outcomes
To ensure there is consistency in understanding what is meant by oral language, and what the evidence suggests are the best ways of developing this. There will be practical examples about how we can provide opportunities for structured talk across the curriculum.
Session outline
Oral language interventions can have a positive impact at all phases of education, the impact is highest in the early years (+7months) but has still been shown to have an impact in primary schools (+6months) and secondary schools (+5months).
This suggests that a focus on improving oral language is valuable throughout a pupils’ education. We will look at where the evidence base is strongest and the importance of spoken language and verbal interaction in the classroom, as well as the use of purposeful, curriculum-focused, dialogue and interaction.
There is evidence to suggest that pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be behind their more advantaged counterparts in developing early language and speech skills, which may affect their school experience and learning later in their school lives. The targeted use of oral language approaches may support some disadvantaged pupils to catch up with peers and offers us a strategy to help narrow the attainment gap.
Facilitator
Julie Kettlewell – Assistant Director of Huntington Research School and Assistant Headteacher
Julie is one of the EEF Alumni Content Specialists for Learning Behaviours (incorporating social and emotional learning, metacognition, improving behaviour, parental engagement and SEND), and is based at Huntington School. Julie is also the Assistant Director of Huntington Research School, a teacher of Psychology and Assistant Headteacher overseeing Personal Development. Throughout her studies of psychology she has been fascinated by cognition and the mental processes involved in knowing, understanding and learning, and she is passionate about making a difference for young people and developing learning behaviours in order to address the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Suitable for
All classroom practitioners from all phases.
Cost
£30 per person
