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Communication Skills

Learner Variable · All learner variables
Evidence · 70 claims (44 show a difference, 15 mixed, 11 no difference) · 56 studies (15 associational, 13 causal, 9 review, 7 quant-synthesis, 5 theoretical, 4 design, 3 qualitative), q1–q3 · 11 of 56 report an effect size · 69 claims rest on one study

Description

Communication is expressing one's thoughts, ideas and emotions and understanding those of others. Language is its main medium (spoken and signed language, reading and writing, listening), but it also includes gesture, drawing, numbers and technology, and the use of more than one language. Using several modes, and mixing languages when a learner's vocabularies do not overlap, is described as extending thinking and making ideas easier for others to engage with. It is measured through vocabulary and language tests, self-assessments of oral competence, and, in mathematics, by coding the detail and soundness of students' spoken explanations and their participation in discussion.

The page brings together three LVN factors. For adults, oral communication covers conveying one's own ideas and goals and understanding others in academic, workplace, personal and peer settings; misunderstandings can lead to frustration and conflict. For school-age learners, communication develops most rapidly in early childhood but keeps changing into adolescence. In mathematics, language and literacy support problem solving, and students need advanced language to understand and take part in classroom discussion; students with stronger language skills tend to have better mathematics outcomes.

It overlaps with reading and language and English-learner status, and with the reading and language pages for vocabulary and oral language. Dialect and home language are part of a learner's identity and repertoire, not deficits in communication.

Implications

Context

  • Matters wherever learning runs through discussion, explanation, presentation or written argument, including mathematics classrooms.
  • Speaking in front of a whole class or audience can provoke anxiety that depresses performance.
  • Multimodal and multilingual expression can widen what learners are able to show.

Target Learners

  • Learners of all ages, from early childhood through adult education.
  • Learners still acquiring the language of instruction, and learners who speak a dialect different from the classroom's.
  • Learners with hearing loss or auditory-processing difficulties.

Target Learning Objectives

  • Explaining and justifying reasoning, including in mathematics.
  • Listening comprehension and participation in discussion.
  • Oral presentation and workplace communication.

Claims

Measures

  • Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (EOWPVT-4) (Martin & Brownell, 2011): expressive vocabulary across all age groups.
  • Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Cognitive Abilities (Schrank et al., 2014): battery whose subtests cover aspects of reading and written language.
  • Math Discussion Skills (e.g., Webb et al., 2014): coding of students' explanations of their problem solving for detail and validity, and of their engagement in classroom discussion.
  • Test of Self-perceived Oral Competence (TSOC) (Gracia et al., 2021): self-assessment of oral communication for adolescents.
  • Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) (McMaster et al., 2009): brief copying, dictation, letter-sound writing and spelling tasks for early writing.
  • Working Memory: speakers hold and retrieve words in working memory, and verbal short-term memory supports the reading used in mathematics.
  • Affect Regulation: anxiety about speaking in public or in whole-class discussion can lower performance.
  • Social Awareness and Relationship Skills: understanding conversational norms affects what learners take a speaker to mean, and social goals motivate taking part in discussion.
  • Access: hearing loss affects speech and can make language-heavy tasks such as word problems harder.
  • Socioeconomic Status: differences in the language children hear at home, which track family circumstances, are associated with differences in vocabulary and reading.
  • Self-Efficacy: confidence in one's speaking or mathematical ability rises with practice in discussion and justification.
  • Metacognition: small-group problem solving and discussion bring metacognitive talk into the open.
  • Motivation: some learners take part in discussion to get feedback on their thinking.
  • Prior Knowledge: knowing more about a topic helps learners understand and talk about it.
  • Academic and Critical Literacy: verbal and nonverbal communication support learning academic content, and communication skills go with health literacy in older adults.
  • Attention: attentional control supports acquiring communication skills and managing speaking anxiety.
  • Auditory Processing: difficulty processing speech sounds, including in noise, is associated with communication difficulties.

Examples

Key Sources

  • Digital Promise. Learner Variability Navigator: Communication (Portrait of a Learner 4-8, Portrait of a Learner 9-12, Portrait of a Learner PK-3). lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
  • Digital Promise. Learner Variability Navigator: Oral Communication Skills (Adult Learner). lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
  • Digital Promise. Learner Variability Navigator: Math Communication (Building Math 3-6, Building Math 7-10). lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
Page metadata
Field Value
type learner-variable
id communication-skills
title Communication Skills
description A learner's ability to express thoughts, ideas and feelings and to understand others, through speech, sign, writing, gesture, drawing or technology, including talking about subject matter such as mathematics.
status review
canonical True
generated by claude/unspecified on 2026-10-16
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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