Listening and Talking

When supporting listening and talking, practitioners will draw on their knowledge and understanding of the key language skills learners should be developing as appropriate to their age and stage. In addition to the Fife Literacy Progression Pathways resources such as the What is Typical Talk at Primary and What is Typical Talk at Secondary posters may be considered as these outline the typical phases of speech and language development and exemplify expected progress in primary and secondary stages.

As listening and talking skills are central to all aspects of learning and wellbeing across the curriculum and in life, a well-established positive culture will encourage and support dialogue between all members of the classroom and wider school community in a variety of contexts. Practitioners will model and clearly reinforce expectations through their own effective communication skills ensuring that interactions with learners are authentic and nurturing.

Through daily routines, activities, and experiences, practitioners will harness opportunities to teach listening and talking skills explicitly and implicitly. Many learners will have acquired positive communication skills through their early literacy experiences or home environment. However, some learners will require more modelling and support. As the quality of input is likely to be of greater benefit than the quantity, practitioners will consider targeted approaches carefully to meet the needs of individual learners in ways to ensure that, where there may be difficulties or concerns, skill development continues to progress accordingly. Universally, a range of prompts will be used, as appropriate, to scaffold learners’ use of language such as modelling, commenting, imagining, recapping, explaining, narrating, recasting or extending.

In helping learners to acquire a wider oral vocabulary, practitioners will use their understanding of how words can be categorised into tiers. Considering learners who may be using more simplistic, tier one level language practitioners will encourage learning of tier two alternatives that are more likely to appear frequently in a wider variety of written or oral text. Tier three level words (those that are more subject-specific) will be explored in ways that help learners to understand content. Maximising opportunities to develop vocabulary explicitly and implicitly develops learners’ ‘Word Consciousness’ which supports them to make connections and become more confident and precise when using language to express their feelings or ideas.

As conversations are an ideal context for the development of children’s language and thinking, practitioners will expand the quantity and quality of classroom talk by asking a range of questions, such as those that require learners to justify their thinking or expand on their initial responses. Throughout their experiences, learners will be encouraged to ask their own questions (e.g. using a Question Matrix) and supported appropriately in different ways to articulate their ideas and thinking (e.g. using Sentence Stems).

While a range of explicit and implicit approaches and strategies will be used, developing learners’ confidence and skills as effective communicators will be achieved most effectively through:

• Opportunities for learners to recognise and practise active listening skills e.g. co-creating expectations of positive listening behaviours, establishing routines for engaging with stories, films, or other media, using cueing systems to gain attention, visual supports.
• Opportunities for learners to recognise and practise group discussion skills and behaviours e.g. collaborative activities, team games, social situations, problem-solving contexts, debating issues.
• Opportunities for learners to recognise and practise individual talk skills and behaviours e.g. analysing effective speakers, drama, games, informal and formal oral presentation.