Oral Language and the reading process

     I believe that Oral language provides the foundation for learning to read, and is related to overall reading achievement.  There is some debate over the acquisition of oral language. Behaviorists believe that it is a learned behavior; some developmental psychologists believe that because children develop language rapidly without instruction that humans have a special capacity for language.  Sociologists with a focus on the environment believe that language is developed for social interactions and Chomsky, a foremost linguist, believes that children have an innate capacity for language (Freeman 2004).  Although we know that oral language is acquired I believe that it needs to be continually fostered both at home and in the school setting.   Oral language becomes the building block for establishing success in all areas of literacy. It will be very difficult for students to learn to read a language they do not understand.  To some degree I think there are similarities between some incoming Kindergarten students and ELL students.  Although the degree of not understanding the language would be greater for ELL learners, many incoming Kindergarten students either have not been exposed to, or have not had to use oral language skills before they come to school. Teachers can model oral language by purposefully talking with their students and teaching them how to have these conversations with each other. Theses conversations can be about books that have been read to the class, a unit of study in the classroom or how to ask a friend to play at recess.  

            An effective way to teach children the reading process is through scaffolding. Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (Gibbons 2002) helps us to understand that teaching children in the zone between what they can do with out any adult help and what they can do jointly with a skilled expert is where the most effective teaching will take place.  Students will need direct explicit instruction within their proximal zone in the five components of literacy.  In phonemic awareness students need to understand that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words.  In phonics students will understand the relationship between the letters of the written language and the individual sounds of spoken language. Fluency is the connection between word recognition and comprehension.  Students will need to know what fluent reading sounds like, so they have an idea what they are striving for.  Beginning readers and ELL students will have a much more difficult time reading/decoding words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.  It is important for teachers and parents to continue to develop student vocabulary.  Comprehension is the reason for reading.  Combining everything students know and understand about the process will make them successful readers.

            Although these two skills are learned in a different way, oral language through immersion fostered by the teacher, and the reading process that requires direct explicit instruction they are interdependent on each other and our students success depend on both.