Oral language is crucial for reading and writing as it lays the groundwork for literacy development. Strong oral language skills provide the foundation for understanding written language and composing coherent, well-structured writing.

You can explicitly teach oral language by incorporating structured activities such as vocabulary lessons, purposeful read-alouds, and guided discussions that focus on specific language skills. Additionally, you can provide opportunities for students to build their language skills implicitly through structured, scaffolded opportunities for conversations that encourage students to use and expand their language within a supportive classroom environment. Purposeful and effective instruction in this area requires thoughtful pre-planning, explicit instruction, consistent structure, and skillful execution – it is not enough to get students to ‘turn and talk’ a few times a day. Dig into the resources linked, and checkout ONlit.org for more information and ideas.