Expanding
Expanding is an effective strategy for supporting oral language expression. It involves repeating
what the student says and adding a comment that enhances meaning and increases complexity.
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Support Materials for Students with Special Education Needs
English K–6
Speaking and listening
IMPLEMENTATION
Example: expanding on a student’s comment
Student:
The car’s going up the hill.
Teacher:
The car’s going up the hill very fast.
Supporting interaction skills
Group and pair work provide ideal opportunities for speaking and listening with peers.
To work in groups, students require a combination of social, communication, organisational
and independent work skills. Students who have difficulties in these areas benefit from a
high level of structure to support group work.
The teacher:
• demonstrates and explains social rules using videos, photographs, role-plays, checklists
and illustrations
• explicitly teaches and reinforces interaction guidelines, for example:
– everyone has a turn
– how to assign group roles
– procedures for asking questions, answering questions, making suggestions and
observations, disagreeing, resolving differences
– rules on interrupting
– active listening behaviours
– how to support group members and encourage all members to participate
– how to seek help from the teacher
– summing up the group’s findings
• role-plays problem-solving by using think-aloud
• organises seating to best facilitate group work and eliminate distracting input
• provides scaffolding to support task completion, for example:
– assigns group roles, eg using job name tags
– provides visual scaffolds, eg illustrated checklists to help students complete tasks and
monitor their progress. The checklists may include:
• materials/equipment
• the task steps assigned to group members if necessary
• reporting responsibilities.
Using classroom routines
Students with language difficulties are likely to find transition times challenging. The more
students can rely on routines, the more attention they have to focus on other information
being communicated orally. Transition times also present an ideal opportunity to support
students’ comprehension of procedural and recount language.
