The Five Features of a Language-Rich Classroom

May 12, 2011
Jill Davis

Read to and interact with the children on a regular basis. - woodleywonderworks

To achieve a language-rich classroom, learners must experience a satisfying verbal exchange with their teachers on a regular basis.

Exposure

A child must be exposed to high-quality language at regular intervals during his school day. This exposure should be varied. Opportunities for a child to use his skills when interacting with others is an integral part of learning language. The child does not always have to be taking an active role in the interaction, however, or imitate what he is hearing. Sometimes he may be an observer only. As long as he is being exposed to language, even as a bystander, his language skills will be enriched.

Deliberateness

Adults and educators in the classroom must deliberately choose the language they are using with the students. They should make informed choices about the words and grammar they use during interaction. This will help stimulate a new dexterity of language in the children. Different words should also be used when describing similar things. Speak in the abstract and vary the level of abstraction. This will permit the students to interact with adults and use speech and language to imitate and label. They will also begin to learn the basics of summarization and reasoning.

Repetition

Repetition plays an integral part in the learning of linguistic ideas. Studies were done using children listening to storybooks. In the 1994 article, "Reading storybooks to kindergartners helps them learn new vocabulary words," published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, C. Robins and L.C. Ehri showed that a child was much more likely to learn a new word from a story if the word appeared at least twice. In the 2002 article, " What's the Word? " authors J.F. Penno, I.A. Wilkinson, and D.W. Moore wrote that if the child hears a word many times in a story, the word was much more likely to become an increasingly used part of their vocabulary. Repetition is a strong tool in language-rich classrooms. By using a word repeatedly in different contexts, children get multiple opportunities to learn the linguistic concept.

High-Quality Input

High-quality input is crucial. The adult or educator must use variety in the form, content and use of the language. These three elements come together to form the whole of language. Form is the way the sentence structure is organized. Content refers to how the meaning is expressed with the words that are being used, similar in idea to vocabulary. Use refers to how the language is used for interaction in social settings. The way the learning child puts these three elements together is a direct reflection on how they are experiencing language in their lives.

Adult Responsiveness

Adult responsiveness is very valuable in the development of language. When a child talks to a teacher and the teacher responds, the child learns that communicating works. The adult's response must be on a similar level as the rate that the child’s language is developing. The adult should always respond to the child’s intent – that is, what he knew the child meant, whether or not it was correctly worded. If a child says, “She smiled,” the adult should respond positively that someone smiled at him, rather than say, “That is not the correct way to say that word.”

Create a Language Rich Environment

In a language-rich classroom, young learners experience teachers exchanging verbal information with children on a regular basis. When interacting with adults, the students must receive a high level of acknowledgment and responsiveness from the adults. They must feel satisfied by the interaction with the educator.