What activity best supports children's oral language development during unstructured play?

Promoting storytelling and dialogues among peers is the activity that best supports children's oral language development during unstructured play because it actively engages children in verbal communication. This interaction allows them to express their thoughts, share experiences, and listen to one another, which are critical components of oral language skills.

Through storytelling, children practice using language in a meaningful context, fostering creativity and enhancing their vocabulary. Peer dialogues create opportunities for negotiation of meaning, which helps in understanding conversational cues and structures. As children discuss and collaborate during play, they learn to articulate their ideas clearly and respond appropriately to others, thereby improving their language fluency and confidence.

In contrast, the other options focus on more structured activities that do not inherently prioritize the same level of interactive linguistic exchange. Silent reading, for instance, may enhance literacy skills but lacks the communicative component necessary for developing oral language. Worksheets and assignments do provide some vocabulary enrichment but do not facilitate spontaneous language use in the way that peer storytelling does. Peer tutoring, while beneficial for academic support, does not guarantee the same dynamic language interactions that occur during unstructured play.