Teacher guide The impact of innovative whole-class language strategies on language development

TLF ID S7082

This teacher resource describes the successful language strategy developed by Mahogany Rise Primary School in Victoria. The strategy was introduced in the first year of schooling in response to more than 90 per cent of the children having language delays or impairments. The resource is organised in nine sections: Summary, Target student group, Method, Results, Lessons learned, Next steps, Research base, Further reading and links, and Contacts. It describes the whole-class elements of the strategy, indicates the significant role of the school speech pathologist, outlines the extended intervention provided to students with severe language delay, and identifies the success achieved.





Educational details

Educational value
  • This resource is valuable for teachers and schools seeking to improve the attainment of receptive and productive aspects of the English achievement standard in Foundation year by children with language delay. Students at Mahogany Rise Primary School improved by 28 months in expressive grammar, 25 months in expressive information, 19 months in receptive language and 22 months in narrative. Overall, they demonstrated approximately two years' average improvement in language in less than a one-year period.
  • The resource has clear implications for the implementation of the English curriculum in the Foundation year, particularly for students with language delay. The Mahogany Rise strategy emphasises oral language skills, particularly in expressing feelings in response to songs used in a home-school partnership, developing expressive vocabulary in narrative structures and focusing on visualising and verbalising. This approach is particularly relevant for content descriptions in the Language for interaction, Interacting with others, and Creating literature substrands of the English curriculum.
Year level

F

Learning area
  • English

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.australia.gov.au
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
  • Text
Rights
  • © 2014 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. This material is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 AU) unless otherwise indicated. You may distribute, remix and build upon this material, provided that you include the acknowledgement '© Commonwealth of Australia 2014' and license under the same terms any new creations you have based on the material.