To support language development, teachers should:

• A. Model enriched vocabulary and promote conversations.
• B. Rely on grammar drills with minimal interaction.
• C. Limit opportunities to respond and avoid clarifications.
• D. Focus exclusively on decoding practice.

Answer: (A)

Language development thrives when students are exposed to rich words in meaningful talk and have lots of opportunities to use language. Modeling enriched vocabulary means the teacher purposefully demonstrates how advanced words sound, what they mean, and how they fit into real sentences, giving students a clear sense of nuance and appropriate word choice. When this happens in authentic contexts—during read-alouds, discussions, and shared activities—students hear correct syntax, varied sentence structures, and precise meanings, which builds their receptive and expressive language.

Promoting conversations provides the practice that turns hearing words into using them. Through back-and-forth dialogue, students learn to ask questions, explain ideas, clarify misunderstandings, and stay engaged in discussion. This ongoing, interactive talk strengthens vocabulary, sentence construction, listening skills, and overall language fluency, all of which support later reading and writing success.

Relying on grammar drills with little interaction, limiting opportunities to respond, or focusing only on decoding misses the chance to develop students’ expressive language and comprehension. Those approaches don’t give students the meaningful, communicative practice they need to grow language abilities alongside literacy.