"Connecting Oral Language and Literacy for Multilingual Learners"

Oral language is the foundation of literacy development. Before students can read and write effectively, they must develop strong listening and speaking skills. This connection is especially crucial for multilingual learners, who rely on oral language development to build vocabulary, comprehension, and academic language proficiency. Research consistently shows that oral language skills directly impact reading fluency, comprehension, and writing abilities—making intentional oral language instruction essential in every classroom.

So, how can educators bridge oral language and literacy to support multilingual learners? Here are three powerful strategies to strengthen this connection.

1. Providing a Safe Space for Risk-Taking

For multilingual learners to develop oral language skills, they must feel comfortable speaking in class. Creating a low-stress, supportive environment helps students take risks and practice language without fear of mistakes. Teachers can:

• Encourage a culture of respect where all language attempts are valued.
• Use partner or small-group discussions before whole-class sharing to build confidence.
• Provide wait time so students have space to think and formulate responses.

2. Structured Academic Conversations

Encouraging students to engage in meaningful discussions using content-specific vocabulary supports both oral language and literacy. Teachers can facilitate this by:

• Using sentence frames to scaffold responses (e.g., “I agree with ___ because…”).
• Providing discussion stems to model academic language.
• Implementing think-pair-share to increase student engagement.

When students articulate their ideas verbally, they develop a deeper understanding of language structures and concepts, which directly benefits reading comprehension and writing.

2. Interactive Read-Alouds with Discussion

Reading aloud to students while engaging them in discussion builds both oral language and literacy. To maximize the impact:

• Pause to ask open-ended questions that require thoughtful responses.
• Encourage students to make predictions, summarize, and explain key ideas.
• Model academic vocabulary and have students practice using new words.

By integrating discussion into read-alouds, students develop oral fluency while expanding their ability to analyze and comprehend text.

Final Thoughts

The connection between oral language and literacy cannot be overlooked. Seeking every opportunity to enhance lessons with student interaction is crucial. By incorporating structured conversations and interactive read-alouds into daily instruction, educators can provide multilingual learners with the tools they need to become confident readers and writers.

By making oral language a priority, we empower students to develop literacy skills in a way that feels natural, engaging, and accessible.

What strategies do you use to strengthen the oral language-literacy connection in your classroom? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments!