Pre and Primary Level

Strategies to Support Language Development

1. Be a Good Role Model

Since children often learn by observing and copying adults, you need to ensure that you are
modelling good speech and language skills as much as possible, including:

 Speaking slowly, so that children have time to process the information you give them, as well
as clearly and calmly.
 Using short sentences so that they aren’t overwhelmed with language
 Making eye contact, getting down to the child’s level if necessary.
 Modelling the right pronunciation and sentence structure, making sure to enunciate each
word and sound – for example, it helps children learning to speak if you say ‘going to’ rather
than ‘gonna’.
 Not using ‘baby words’ – children will need to learn the adult version from somewhere, and
if you model it for them, they’ll learn it more quickly.
 Labelling objects and actions around you to teach them more vocabulary – for example, ‘look
at that dog!’.
 Listening carefully when children are talking to you – give them your full attention.
 Not interrupting when they are speaking.
 Giving them opportunities to respond by leaving pauses after your sentences – this helps
them learn turn-taking in conversations, but also gives them time to think and anticipate
your next sentence.
 Making signs, gestures, or actions as you speak to help convey your meaning.
 Using expressive language to discuss objects, actions, and emotions – for example, ‘that’s a
beautiful picture!’, ‘look at that tall tower!’. This will help children to expand their
vocabularies.
 Being a good role model only requires you to adapt your behaviour slightly, and can have
extremely rewarding results.

2. Read to Them

Reading in early years is extremely effective for language development – it also has many other
benefits, as you can find out in our article ‘Why is Reading Important for Children?’. Try to read books
every day if you can – it is even useful for babies under six months, but is particularly effective as
they get older.
When you read, point to the words as you say them. This helps the children link the spoken word to
the written word, and will aid their literacy development later on. Talk about each page to encourage
the child to speak – for example, you could say ‘that’s a lot of food – what’s your favourite food?’.

Engage them in the book by using intonation, pointing to pictures, and letting the child guess what
will happen next. Toddlers might want you to read them the same book over and over again – this is
great for getting them to really absorb the language, and testing whether they can finish the
sentences for you. Alongside their favourites, read children books on different topics, particularly as
they get older, so that they broaden their vocabularies. Talk about words that they aren’t familiar
with, asking them if they know what it means, and explaining it if not.

3. Talk Together

Naturally, talking to a child as much as you can will assist their language development. It’s important
to talk to them even when they can’t talk to you – from birth, you should chat about what you’re
doing and ask them questions, responding to any gestures or noises they make as if they’ve spoken a
sentence. This teaches them how conversations work, and exposes them to lots of vocabulary and
sentence structures to become familiar with.

To make your conversations even more impactful, think about:

 Talking to infants in a singsong, high-pitched voice. They are more likely to tune into this and
listen to what you’re saying, thus accelerating their language development.
 Addressing them by name to get their attention before you speak (and teach them their
name!).
 Expanding what children say by repeating and building on it. For example, if they say ‘car’,
you could say ‘yes, look at that red car over there’. Giving the child complete sentences helps
them to learn more about grammar.
 Using parallel talk and self-talk. Parallel talk involves talking about what the child is doing –
for example, ‘you are wearing a nice blue dress today’ or ‘you are playing with the toy
giraffe’. Self-talk involves talking about what you are doing, such as ‘I am tidying up the toys
because it’s almost time to go home’. This helps teach children to pay attention to cues and
predict what will happen next.
 Being positive. If children make an error with their language, you should still say ‘well done’
or ‘yes’ – it takes a lot of effort to learn to talk, and they will need lots of encouragement.
You can then repeat what they said, correcting the error; they will learn gradually by hearing
you produce the correct forms. For example, if a child says ‘her got dog’, you could say ‘yes,
she has a dog’.
 Choosing topics to work on each half-term. Some vocabulary will come up naturally in
conversation, but by choosing a topic (such as daily routines, animals, body parts, food and
drink, or colours) you could teach children even more words! The repetition of the same
topic over a number of weeks will also make it more memorable.

4. Sing with Them

Singing is particularly important for babies and younger children – it can really help their language
development by supporting them in differentiating sounds, recognising rhymes, improving their
memories, and broadening their vocabularies. Just as with reading, pause before the end of a song
line, getting the children to fill in the gap – for example, ‘twinkle, twinkle, little… (star)’.

You could make up your own songs, or ask older children to do so. If they’re silly, the children might
enjoy and remember them even more!

5. Play Describing, Guessing, and Turn-Taking Games

Games are great language activities that you can try out. You could try:

 Getting the children to feel a hidden object and describe it so that the others can guess what
it is.
 Playing ‘what am I?’, where you describe an object and the children have to guess it – for
example, ‘I have four legs and I’m a pet, I like to bark’.
 Playing I Spy.
 Sitting in a circle and taking it in turns to pass something around, only speaking when it’s
your turn. You could get everyone to answer a question (such as ‘what is your favourite
food?’) this way. It also helps to build attention and listening skills, which are vital to good
communication.
 Asking children to wait until you say ‘go’ to do something, such as knock down a tower or
make lots of noise. Again, this improves their attention and listening skills.

6. Encourage Pretend Play

Pretend play helps children to broaden their vocabularies – you could get them to dress up as
characters from their favourite book, make up their own stories, or try role-play using some simple
props.

During the play, encourage the child to name the objects that they’re using and ask them questions
like ‘what are you doing now?’, ‘where’s teddy’s hat?’. You could give them simple instructions within
the play, such as ‘put teddy down’, making them more complicated for older children (‘make your
dolly sit on the chair’).

7. Explore Rhymes

Rhymes are key for language development, just like singing. In addition to helping children to
differentiate sounds and learn more words, rhymes increase phonological awareness skills and
prepare children for learning to read.

You could play games – such as coming up with a word that the children have to find lots of rhymes
with – or make up poems together. Reading rhyming stories is another good way to incorporate it
into everyday life.
8. Create a Language-Rich Environment

To maximise opportunities for language development, ensure that the environment around you is
conducive to good communication. This means:

 Keeping it organised and uncluttered. Research has shown that tidy rooms help children to
learn better.
 Having displays on the walls that are colourful, include words, and are interesting to look at
(but not overwhelming). This is useful for older children who might be beginning to match
the spoken word with the written word.
 Having plenty of books available that are age-appropriate and appealing.
 Ensuring it isn’t too noisy or there are ‘quiet spaces’ available. To develop communication
skills, children need to be able to hear properly – you could use tents or dens to create areas
where children could talk to each other, as well as making sure the general volume isn’t too
high when you have conversations.
 We hope that these eight strategies will give you a good starting point for supporting
language development.

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Language development in the early years is crucial for children’s outcomes later on – by using
supportive language strategies and learning to recognise potential problems, you can help them to
achieve the best outcomes possible. We hope you have found this article helpful!

Further Resources:

 Supporting Speech & Language Development In Early Years Course

https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/supporting-language-development-in-the-early-years/
Middle and High School Level

Languages can be learned in any number of ways, there are five great strategies described here that you
can use to help learn a language. These strategies can be useful to know especially for students with
different learning styles.

● Cognitive – this strategy helps learners make and strengthen associations through the use of
information that they already know. Learners are taught to correlate already known
information with unknown information in order to learn the unknown information. For
example, students may guess from context, relate words to pictures, use deductive and
inductive reasoning et cetera. The Rosetta Stone program is an excellent example of this
strategy.
● Mnemonic – this strategy helps learners learn new information by linking known information
with new information using mnemonic devices. This is great for learners who like words and
symbolism. The popular ways to remember the names of the planets and great lakes are
mnemonic devices. In language learning, students may memorize information through the use
of acronyms, rhymes, songs, body movements, et cetera.
● Metacognitive – this strategy helps learners to know exactly what they are doing.
Metacognitive means beyond cognition and learners learn to manipulate their environment to
enhance their learning experience. They begin to understand the learning process and the
specific tasks that work for them. They are taught to identify available resources and use them
to their benefit, such as finding a quiet place, setting a schedule, et cetera. One example is that
if a student knows flashcards work really well for him or her then he or she will use flashcards
to learn new information.
● Affective – this strategy focuses on the learners’ feelings and emotions. Students learn to
recognize what forms of learning and material evoke particular emotions, such as anger or
frustration. The student learns to recognize the presence of these emotions and, in doing so,
might be able to control them and pursue the learning of new material.
● Social – this strategy focuses on becoming involved with other people. It is the social aspect
of learning and is a great strategy for extroverted individuals. Learners are encouraged to
engage in peer activities, ask questions, have discussions, et cetera. In addition, students may
learn and study together outside of class, in study hall, in learning groups, et cetera.
Knowing and understanding each of these strategies will help you both as a learner and a teacher. If you can
recognize what strategy works best for you then your learning experience will be much more successful. In
addition, if you can identify which strategy will work best for your students, then they will have a much better
experience as well.