Some students are deficient in oral comprehension due to their inability to integrate the information presented orally in the classroom. Deficiency in oral comprehension makes them deficient in understanding of the given lecture. The following tips may be used by teachers to help students deficient in oral comprehension:-
1) Allow the student to record the lecture if he/she needs to listen the lecture again for better understanding. Allow the students to use other appropriate tools to express their comprehension skills such as reading into a tape recorder or using an assistive device.
2) Write down the keywords and new terms on the blackboard before the commencement of the lesson. Make sure the student takes notes for later oral review.
3) At the end summarize the main points of the lecture and provide printed copy of the lecture containing important points. Take time during the class to provide verbal assessments for students who are having difficulty with oral comprehension.
4) Teachers should try to strengthen the phonological skills in students deficient in oral comprehension by creating multiple opportunities for students to verbally engage individually and within groupings. Teachers must encourage students to engage themselves in text reading in and out of the class. Students can work collaboratively in small groups where each student is required to present orally the lesson objectives. For example, each student in the group can read a passage to enhance oral comprehension skills. Teachers can read fables, poems, dramas etc. to create student interests in the lessons and the material being used for oral readings.
5) To teach effective oral comprehension skills, teachers must teach about sentence structure, punctuation and grammar to students. Students should be encouraged to write the main events of the discussion to develop writing skills in relation to the oral discussions.
6) Teacher can instruct a student to read a story aloud without any intervention. Then the teacher can reread the story aloud. Again, the teacher can ask the student to read the story aloud, with error corrections.
7) Teachers can use models, charts, graphs and pictures to help the students understand the lecture in visual form. Teachers should use small and logical sentences to explain the lecture in segmented chunks for better comprehension.
Teachers should assess the ability of every child to participate in classroom discussions. Some students can articulate the things easily whereas other students face difficulty in expressing their thoughts and readings in front of others. Classroom environments should be free from any outside distractions to enable students to focus their attention on the classroom discussions and to focus on building better oral comprehension skills.