Think for a moment about how children learn language. They are learning before
they are even born. They can hear and feel the vibrations of their mother’s voice
while they are still in the womb. Once welcomed into the world, they listen to their
parents talking and singing to them. Like little sponges, they soak everything in,
from the sounds letters and words make to the inflection and rhythm of the
spoken language. Then they begin making sounds of their own.
Through oral language, or spoken language, children progress in their
understanding of words and the ability to use them to communicate their
thoughts and feelings with others. They start by saying simple words usually
around the age of one, soon followed by stringing words together to form
sentences.
Oral language lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills children will
develop as they enter and progress through school. They will use oral language
in all aspects of their education, in the classroom as they connect with their peers
and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into adulthood. Having a
solid foundation in oral language will help them become successful readers and
strong communicators as well as build their confidence and overall sense of wellbeing.
According to the National Reading Panel (NRP), there are five components of a
reading curriculum that are essential to its success: phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency development, vocabulary development,
and comprehension. English language arts scholars believed that oral language
development, along with many other components critical in an early literacy
program, were left off of this list. The GrapeSEED program provides instruction
and materials to cover the NRP’s five components as well as an additional ten
key components identified by the scholars. Recognizing how important a solid
foundation is for successful language development, GrapeSEED placed oral
language and critical listening at the heart of its program for young learners.
Oral language and critical listening are skills often missing from reading and
writing programs, leaving teachers to wonder why their students are still
struggling or taking longer than expected to become proficient speakers and
readers. GrapeSEED’s focus on building these essential skills is one of the
reasons the program is so successful. Children must be able to understand the
language they are hearing and reading in school in order to thrive as readers,
writers and communicators. Through carefully designed multi-sensory materials,
GrapeSEED keeps children engaged and helps them learn language naturally.
As a result, independent research shows that GrapeSEED students are reaching
English proficiency in speaking and reading faster than the national average and
are closing the achievement gap in language. Contact us to learn how!
In this lesson, learn what oral language skills are and the components of oral language. We will
also cover how you, as an educator, can assess oral language skills.
Oral Language Skills
We all communicate with each other in many different ways throughout our lifetime. One of the
most common ways is through speaking to each other. Most people communicate with each
other through speaking without any issues. That isn't a skill we're born with, though. We arrive
knowing how to make sounds, but our oral language skills, or ability to communicate through
speaking, developed over time.
As an educator, you had to learn how to communicate various lessons to your students. This
required development of your oral language skills. Now that your skills are developed, it's time
to help your students develop their oral language skills. You first have to know exactly what
makes up oral language skills in order to know how to successfully teach them to students and
assess them.
Oral Language Components
Probably the most obvious part of oral language skills is vocabulary, or the understanding of
different words. There are a countless numbers of words and, if prompted, almost anyone could
mimic the sounds of the words. That doesn't mean that you have a clue as to what you just said,
though.
In order to effectively communicate, students must learn the meanings of different words. This
component of oral language skills will aid in selecting the correct word for what's being
communicated. While we just explained that anyone can make the sounds of a word, we should
make sure we don't take away from the importance of the phonological skills. These are important
in order to ensure the correct pronunciation of a word. Phonological skills include speaking words
using the correct sounds and syllables.
Having a functional understanding of grammar rules and the order of words for the language is also
crucial. We refer to this as syntax. Think for a minute about the last time that you started learning a
foreign language. You learned many words used in the language, but it meant very little until you
learned how to put the words together to form sentences that someone else speaking that language
can understand.
The next component of oral language skills is understanding the word parts and forms, known
as morphological skills. These skills deal with the three different parts of a word: the prefix, the
root word, and the suffix. They also deal with knowing how to put these components together and
take them apart to alter the meaning of a word. For instance, you know how to change the meaning
of the word order by altering it using prefixes like ''re-'' and suffixes like ''ed-'' to
get reorder and ordered.
The last component is pragmatics, which deals with understanding the social rules of
communication. This mainly involves knowing when it's appropriate to speak and when it's not. Not
interrupting others when they speak is a classic example of the pragmatics of oral language.
So those are the components of oral language skills. You likely already have some idea of how to
teach and even demonstrate these skills. However, how can you effectively assess whether or not
your students have these skills?
1. Oral language, starting from the words and sounds a baby hears at birth, is how
written language is formed. Of course, written language is more deeply formed by
access to education, but oral language is where it all begins. Oral language helps
children develop an initial understanding regarding letter sounds and forms,
phonemic awareness, and syntax, all of which are related to a students ability to
read. My cousin just recently had a baby boy, and every time we see him, she always
asks us to talk to him as much as we can. I always knew it was important to talk to a
baby to develop their oral language skills and their social skills, but now it makes
even more sense as it is related to their written language skills as well.
One part of the article that really stuck out to me was when it stated “If children
come to school with well-developed oral language, it must be expanded. If children
come to school with underdeveloped oral language, it must be developed.” When I
was in AmeriCorps, I was a reading intervention teacher for grades K through 8. I
worked with a lot of young students who had just moved from developing countries
with their families. I had one student in particular who, even though he was so
young, spent his days not in school but sitting on a farm as his parents worked.
Because of this, he received little verbal communication and interaction with others.
When he came to us, we realized that though he was a Spanish speaker, his basic
reading skills were still underdeveloped in Spanish. His vocabulary understanding
was very poor, along with his sentence structure and letter sounds in his native
language. It was clear to us as teachers that this was more than just an EL student,
but a student who was not able to develop his skills at a young age and in turn, his
reading skills were being negatively affected. Reflecting on what I have learned
about the importance of oral language skills in order to read and develop written
language skills, it makes more sense now as to why the student struggled due his
lack of interaction with others.
REPLY
2.
3. Without building these skills through oral language in their early years, students
written language and reading will suffer.
4. Also, we talked in class at length about how students gain a strong vocabulary in
their early years through oral language. Without building a strong vocabulary base
through oral language, a child’s written language will also suffer in this way. I have
seen students who have had a severe struggle in writing all the way up until their
senior year because they lacked a strong and wide range of vocabulary in their
everyday use.
Oral language intertwine like a rope. it is important to know that they are not mutually
exclusive.
It was interesting to learn about how oral language starts at such an early age and
the changes that occur overtime in a child until adulthood.
Oral language paves the foundation for helping students advance through reading
and writing skills at each grade level. Students enhance their understanding of
words and learn how to communicate their feelings, thoughts, or opinions because
of oral language. Using oral language is imperative because it allows students the
ability to connect with teachers, classmates, and transfer this skill into their daily
life routines.
The written language of a student will vary depending on different variables that
coincide with having a strong oral language foundation to start when enrolling into
school. Oral language influences the student’s knowledge of vocabulary, sounds of
letters or word patterns, sentence structure, and grammar. Personally, I think
phonemic awareness is truly the most important element that stems from oral
language. Phonemic awareness is the basis for students to know that letters have
sounds and the various combination of letters will produce a word that has a
specific sound or word meaning. At early age, students come to understand
through reading grade level text that blending words and letters together creates
meaning into written language as well. A student with strong written language has
a solid foundation for vocabulary words and meaning to express written responses
to text in greater detail. Students are routinely told to provide evidence when
responding to a text and oral language plays an essential role to guide them
through that process.
I’m going to take what I learned in EDU 571 about oral language when observing
how my students perform in the classroom now.
As a child, you learn oral language first. You learn the alphabet, how to make sounds, how
to say words, and how to use those words in conversations.
more developed your oral language is the developed your written language will be.
Our end goal is that all students will meet this bar, but will meet it in different ways. When
it comes to reading and writing this stands very true. As students develop, I am able to see
significant differences between students depending on what their home life is or was as a
younger child and presently.
During class, I found it very interesting to hear the difference in how many words children
from different settings are hearing. It is amazing, how this could positively or negatively
effect a child’s speech and language development.
finding is highly influenced on how much appropriate exposure a child has had in order to
develop those skills. A child’s success in learning to read depends on several factors, such
as how well a child can interpret printed words, how much appropriate and quality oral
language models a child has been exposed to, and if effective materials and instruction
have been implemented.
As a child, you learn to talk before you write, so having the ability to communicate
effectively at a young age will help in the long run with writing and reading. Young
students begin with oral language at home, and when transitioning to school are assessed
for what oral speaking requirements
This means that a child that is exposed to more oral language during infancy
and toddler years usually enter school ahead of their peers. This helps them
advance their reading and writing skills at a faster rate. When we have a large
language bank to pull from we can form sentences with ease. Knowing more
vocabulary and understanding it helps us to form written sentences. When we
can speak sentences correctly we can write sentences correctly. If we don’t have
a large vocabulary or can only speak in simple sentences we will most likely
only be able to write in simple sentences too. This correlation is strong; when
we have a large vocabulary we can be more successful with our writing.
REPLY
Without the oral language children will not be able to recognize the words they are trying
to read.

it has to do with speaking and listening to conversation at a young age.