Oral Language

Oral language delivers the basis for learning to read and is related to general reading achievement throughout primary and secondary schooling. Oral interactions help to shape a child’s vocabulary knowledge. Research shows that the number and the variety of words that children are exposed to are linked to literacy achievement later in life. When children are surrounded by, and included in, rich and increasingly multifaceted conversations, their vocabulary increases, the complexity of the language structures they use broaden and they become language risk takers and develop confidence in the way they communicate. Teaching the children oral language and giving them the tool to use it as a strategy is the foundation for learning to read.
Phonological …show more content…
The ability to see the relationship between sounds and the letters that represent them (graphemes) is at the core of reading an alphabetic language. The main objective of phonics instruction is to help children quickly establish the sounds in unfamiliar written words. When children stumble new words in texts they use the strategies of phonics to decode and understand. A knowledge of the relationships between letters and sounds is vital for decoding words which, in turn, is critical for reading. The most successful method of teaching phonics is synthetic phonics. In synthetic phonics, children are taught to sound and blends from the beginning of reading instruction, after a few letter sounds have been taught Synthetic phonics works because it is systematic and successive; it recognises that certain skills or concepts need to be taught before others, and therefore skills are taught in a specific sequence. Louisa Moats Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Martin A. Davis, Jr argue that children who are asked to pay attention to the meaning of a sentence before guessing at a word from context and the first letter; “sounding out” the whole word reduce the importance given to …show more content…
Beginning readers use knowledge of words from speech to recognise words that they come across in print. When children ‘sound out’ a word, their brain links the pronunciation of a sequence of sounds to a word in their vocabulary. If they find a match between the word on the page and a word they have learned through listening and speaking, and it makes sense to them, they will keep reading. Vocabulary, therefore, becomes an important element for effective reading instruction. Biemiller states: Teaching vocabulary will not guarantee success in reading, just as learning to read words will not guarantee success in reading. However, missing either sufficient word identification skills or suitable vocabulary will ensure. Strategies for successful vocabulary instruction include: how to use word parts (e.g. suffixes, prefixes and base words) to figure out the meanings of words in the text; and how to use context clues to determine word meanings. Consistent and frequent exposure to new vocabulary words is important. Several studies have found an association between repeated readings of stories and improvements in vocabulary in preschool and primary school