Teaching Oral Language

Oral language is widely recognised as an essential foundation for successful school learning. However, until recently, the acquisition of oral language skills has been largely overshadowed by reading, writing, spelling and numeracy and has not been considered a key component of school curricula.

In Teaching Oral Language, John Munro addresses this imbalance through the delivery of his step-by-step model, The Ideas-Conventions-Purposes-Ability to learn-Expression and Reception framework (ICPALER). ICPALER describes the various aspects of oral language from a classroom perspective and demonstrates how teachers can best guide students to become effective communicators and language users.

Designed to facilitate teaching and assessment, and to equip teachers to hear and see students' speaking and listening skills, ICPALER promotes the use of self-talk and empowers students to become self-teachers of oral language.

This breakthrough program has been used to inform several major oral language projects commissioned by state and federal education departments and is an indispensable resource for teachers and their students in the early primary years.