Camp Thrills, Chills and Spills

Teacher Modelling - Oral Language

Modelling both speaking and listening enables a teacher to focus students’ attention on different oral language forms and to develop a shared language. 

Modelling empowers students to observe, discover, classify, articulate and in the process construct their own knowledge about oral language, and apply this knowledge to their own speaking and listening. 

It provides opportunities for spoken language to be constructed in front of the students. Planned modelling may include a particular genre or strategy, based on the teaching focus that is to be developed, and the planned assessment criteria. 

Modelling demonstrates explicitly how people learn, what is involved in the learning process, what is expected and the steps you need to take to get there. It scaffolds the learner, providing support in new learning situations, as they gradually take control of the new learning for themselves. It focuses on the process of learning, the "hows" of learning, demystifying it. 

For example, the teacher may tell a range of anecdotes to introduce the students to the structure and language features found in this style of storytelling. The teacher demonstrates how to speak in this genre, through the construction in front of the students, discussing the structure and the process as the anecdote is told. The teacher talks informally, out loud, articulating what they are thinking, what they are doing, and why, as they demonstrate. This "teacher talk" lets children know what good speakers and listeners do. 

Modelling is a powerful way of demonstrating 

·	How did the speaker select the topic?
·	What was the speaker's intent?
·	What would the speaker need to know?
·	How do we plan for speaking? for listening?
·	How was the information organised?
·	How do we go about telling an anecdote? making a speech? joining in a discussion?
·	How do speakers begin? and end?
·	How do speakers hold the audience's interest?
·	How do speakers use their voice to make it interesting? memorable?
·	How does non-verbal language contribute to speaking and listening?
·	What strategies are used?
·	How are different speaking forms used for different purposes and audiences?
·	Who was the audience for the speech? anecdote?

Students need to be provided with opportunities that allow them to try out and practice the activities and strategies they have seen modelled. 'Demonstrations need to be repeated in different ways and in different contexts, as students will not grasp all the information when it is first presented.'
(The Learner as a Reader, Page 15)

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)