ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSION OF LANGUAGE
(UNDERSTANDING)
11 – 19 years
Students will benefit from practising listening and comprehension skills individually or in a
small group.
 Listening Comprehension – Read a paragraph from a book or a short article from a
newspaper. Ask the student five questions about what they have listened to. ‘First
News’ newspaper available online is a useful source. Start with questions asking them
what the passage was about and ask for a few details e.g. ‘Where did this happen?’, ‘
What was the name of the man?’ If the student struggles to recall the details try giving
them the questions before your read the passage.
 Inference and prediction – once the student can answer 4/5 questions about a
passage ask questions to develop their understanding of inferred knowledge and
prediction. In the following passage you can infer (read between the lines) that the girl is
in a cinema.
‘Hannah laughed at the film while she ate her popcorn.’
You might also predict that when the film is finished she will get the bus home.
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Students will benefit from answering questions about pictures/photographs that involve
inference and predicting.
DVD clips – show the students short sections of DVDs and ask questions about the
clip.
Note taking – extend the above activities so the student records the key points. At first
they may need a worksheet with suggested sub-headings to organise their notes.
Gradually, encourage them to think of their own sub-headings.
Reinforce lesson content – recap the lesson with the student recalling key words and
concepts. Use visual support and pictures to support their understanding e.g. use mind
maps to organise the information and encourage the student to draw pictures to
illustrate what was covered.
Developing independent following of instructions – Give the student some written
instructions. Ask them to highlight or underline the key words and explain to you what
they have to do. Try saying the instructions to them and asking them to note down the
key points. This skill can be used in class to remind the student of the steps in tasks.
Barrier Games - Students work in pairs back-to-back or with a screen in between them.
One student draws a picture or collection of shapes. They then explain how to draw this
to their partner. At the end compare pictures to see how successful they were.
Encourage the student who is following the instructions to be an active listener and seek
specific clarification if they are not sure what to do e.g. ‘what colour is the square?’ or
‘where do I have to draw the diamond’ rather than waiting for the student giving
instructions to repeat or rephrase their instructions.
More barrier games – further variations include giving each student an identical
picture. Each student draws five crosses on their picture. They then take turns to
describe where there crosses are e.g. there is a cross on the top of the chimney of the
third house. As an alternative o crosses they can draw lines between two objects in the
picture.
October 2012
RL10
Students will encounter lots of non-literal and ambiguous language both in general
conversations and in the classroom. Whilst most students learn the meaning of these
phrases, students with language difficulties often need explicit teaching to understand this
type of language. The following activities develop comprehension of non-literal and
ambiguous language.
 Multiple meanings – lots of words have more than one meaning e.g. a ‘bat’ can be
sports equipment or an animal. Make some cards with the words on to use with a
simple board game. Take turns to take a card and give as many meanings of the word
as possible. Move your counter the number of different meanings given.
 Cartoons – ask the student to draw pictures to illustrate the different meanings of
words.
 Using context – Give the student sentences containing words that have multiple
meanings. Ask them to explain which meaning of the word is correct in that context.
 Ambiguous Headlines – ask the student to interpret newspaper headlines that can be
interpreted in more than one way e.g. ‘Include kids when baking cakes.’ Ask them to
illustrate the literal meaning and the intended meaning.
 Idioms – discuss common phrases that are not meant to be interpreted literally e.g. ‘pull
your socks up’, ‘put a sock in it’. Ask the student to choose from a choice of three
meanings of the phrase – the correct meaning, a literal meaning and a random
meaning. Again pictures can be useful to reinforce the meanings of idioms.
SUGGESTED RESOURCES THAT CAN BE PURCHASED
Understanding and Using Spoken Language Available from “Speechmark Publishing
Limited, Telford Road, Bicester, Oxon OX26 4LQ. www.speechmark.net Order Code
0025183 Age Range 7 -9 Price (Nov 2012) £38.99
Time and Growth Cards showing concept of time in various sequences. Available through LDA,
Duke Street, Wisbech, Cambs PE13 2AE. www.ldalearning.com Price (Nov 2012) £18.42
Secondary Language Builders provides detailed advice and activities to encourage the
communication skills of 11-16 year olds. Available through Elklan Parkside, Station Road,
St. Mabyn, Cornwall, PL30 3BN Tel: 01208 841450
http://www.elklan.co.uk/resources/language-builders-series/secondary-language-builders
Rhodes to Language by Anna Rhodes. A photocopiable book of language activities,
based on the National Curriculum, for children aged from 7-16 years. Available through
Winslow, Goyt Side Road, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 2PH Tel: 0845 230 2777
http://www.winslowresources.com/rhodes-to-language.html
Looking and Thinking - a photocopiable series to develop reasoning skills. Available
through Learning Materials Ltd,Dixon Street,WOLVERHAMPTON,WV2 2BX Tel:
01902 454026 http://www.learningmaterials.co.uk Books 1-5 order code 2012
New Reading and Thinking - exercises in inferential comprehension. Available through
Learning Materials Ltd,Dixon Street,WOLVERHAMPTON,WV2 2BX Tel:
01902 454026 http://www.learningmaterials.co.uk Books 1-6 order code 2058
October 2012
RL10