Oral Language Development and Literacy
Oral language development is believed to play a critical role in the development of literacy, according to the government of Saskatchewan's Education Ministry. Oral language acquisition lays a foundation for learning reading, writing, listening and speaking skills and, in fact, is a good indicator of how well and how quickly literacy will develop in a child. For instance, a child who enters a school with low levels of oral language skills will most likely take longer to learn how to read and write than a child with better oral language skills.
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Factors Affecting Oral Language Development and Literacy
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The development of literacy as it relates to oral language development depends on the breadth and depth of life experiences, the ability to hear and speak and the interaction of children with adults who care about their language skills and encourage them to speak through conversations, according to the government of Saskatchewan.
How Oral Language Skills Affect Literacy Skills
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Learning oral language prepares young children for reading and writing in four main ways. First, oral language develops vocabulary and concepts; information about word meanings--called semantics--and pronunciation--called phonemics--are first introduced through speaking and understanding how others speak. Second, oral language provides an understanding of how language communicates meaning through structure, such as word order and verb-subject agreement (known as syntactics). Third, children first understand through oral language traditional and culturally specific means of communicating with others; and, lastly, oral language acquisition builds a desire and ability to use speech for a range of purposes.
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What Adults Can Do To Encourage Oral Language Development
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Parents, teachers and other adults can play important roles in how well and how quickly young children develop oral language, according to the government of Saskatchewan. Adults can work with children on acquiring and improving listening and speaking skills through engaging in conversations that demonstrate interest and care in what the child is expressing, as well as encouraging spontaneous speech. Adults can also help the child develop confidence in their usage of language through positive reinforcement and listening, familiarize the child with vocabulary and sentence structure by continually introducing new words and encouraging their use, increase vocabulary by building it during life experiences and discussing them after they occur, provide meaningful context and concrete experiences to use language and integrate opportunities to read, write, speak and listen.
Teaching Activities Centered Around Conversation
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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has raised concerns with certain scholars of education and teachers of children. The focus on standardized tests, the presentation of discrete pieces of information and a fragmented curriculum leaves oral development by the wayside, according to some educators, says Jerry Aldridge. He and others like C. Woodward encourage teachers to develop activities around challenging conversations and the improvement of oral language development to help improve overall literacy.
Children With Trouble Reading
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Children who have trouble reading have been helped in their literacy skills by the further development of their oral language skills, according to N. Conrad and colleagues. Through culturally-responsive teaching methods, in which the child's cultural background and language (oral and written) is respected and taken into account, Conrad and others believe literacy connections can better be made. These methods draw connections between home and school literacy, set high expectations for all students in the classroom and promote collaboration.
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References
- Photo Credit reading image by max blain from Fotolia.com
