Teaching Oral Language: Building a Firm Foundation Using ICPALER in the Early Primary Years

Oral language skills are 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. In Teaching Oral Language, Dr. John Munro redresses this imbalance through the delivery of his step-by-step model: ICPALER (Ideas-Conventions-Purposes-Ability to Learn-Expression and Reception). This framework 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, empowering students to become self-teachers of oral language. This breakthrough program has been used to inform several major oral language projects commissioned by Australia's state and federal education departments. It is an indispensable resource for teachers and their students in the early primary years.