The Spoken Word: How Oral Language Plays a Role in Literacy Instruction

Unlike mathematics or science, reading is the only subject we expect incoming kindergarten students to have some knowledge of when they enter school. Research has shown oral language—the foundations of which are developed by age 4—profoundly impacts children’s kindergarten preparedness and success throughout their academic careers. 

Oral language is often associated with vocabulary as the main component. However, oral language includes much more. In the broadest definition, oral language consists of six areas: Phonology, grammar, morphology, vocabulary, discourse, and pragmatics. Students begin acquiring these skills at a young age, before they learn print-based concepts such as sound-symbol correspondence and decoding. Because students develop oral language skills early in life, children with limited oral language ability are typically at a distinct disadvantage when they enter kindergarten (Fielding et al., 2007). Furthermore, students from underserved groups and Emergent Bilingual students are often among the most at risk.

Oral language is critical to the science of reading. According to Gough and Tunmer (1986) Simple View of Reading (SVR), reading comprehension is conceptualized as combining two skills: Word recognition and language comprehension. 

Their model is represented as a multiplication equation, showing that neither of these concepts is sufficient on its own. A lack of understanding of one concept could lead to overall reading failure, which is why students need to develop them alongside each other. 

In the SVR, decoding consists of these skill components: 

• Phonology 

• Orthography

• Morphology

Language comprehension consists of these skill components: 

• Syntax

• Semantics

• Pragmatics

• Discourse

Struggling with any of these subcomponents can lead to problems with reading comprehension struggles. Here are the six areas students must learn to develop their oral language skills.

Phonology

Phonology describes the organization or system of sounds within a language. Once students acquire a phonological system for basic listening and speaking, they begin to develop phonological awareness—the awareness of words in sentences or syllables in words. 

Other aspects of phonological awareness include rhyme, alliteration, onset rime (word families), blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds. The most complex level of phonology is the development of phonemic awareness (blending, segmenting, and manipulating words at the individual sound—or phoneme—level). 

Vocabulary (Semantics)

Students develop both expressive and receptive vocabulary at the same time. 

• Expressive vocabulary refers to the words a student actively uses when talking, writing, or otherwise communicating. 

• Receptive vocabulary refers to the words a student understands—based on context and background experiences—but may not necessarily be used when speaking or writing. 

A student’s vocabulary knowledge shouldn’t be solely measured by the number of words they can understand and use; this measures the breadth of vocabulary knowledge. To measure the depth of a student’s vocabulary knowledge, educators should assess how well students understand multiple meanings of words (homonyms), shades of meaning, figurative language, and relationships between words (synonyms, antonyms, and analogies).
 

Morphology

Morphology sometimes falls under the subset of syntax, and other times is considered part of vocabulary (semantics). It focuses on the smallest units of meaning within a word and the rules about how those words are formed. For example, if we were to examine the word “cats,” a basic analysis would show four phonemes: /k/, /a/, /t/, and /s/. However, the word only has two morphemes (meaningful word parts): “Cat” is a feline animal, and “s” tells us that there is more than one cat. Morphology can also include the study of structural analysis—how words join together and build vocabulary by analyzing the morphological structure of the word (prefix, root, and suffix).

Grammar (Syntax)

As students develop their oral language skills, they also develop an understanding of grammar—the set of structural rules that govern the combination of words and phrases into sentences and paragraphs. When students learn grammar rules, they better understand the relationship among words and how to apply vocabulary and abstract thinking to their oral language comprehension. 
 

Pragmatics

Pragmatics requires students to understand the social use of language. This includes social norms regarding conversational turn-taking, personal space, and appropriate behavior with peers and authority figures in everyday social situations. In some classroom settings, students who lack background experience—which can be attributable to cultural differences in some instances—don’t necessarily understand group dynamics and expectations regarding behavior. When students understand how language and conversation work in various situations, it better prepares them for more successful comprehension at later stages, including listening and reading.
 

Discourse

Oral and written communication, or discourse, is a critical skill. Narrative storytelling follows a particular format: Stories typically have a beginning, middle, and end. They describe the main characters and the setting in which they live, the conflict, and the resolution. 

Understanding story structure is essential to reading, understanding, and writing a narrative. In contrast, consider the structure of expository or informational text. These forms of writing also follow specific structures, such as persuasive, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and procedural formats. Students must understand these structures through listening comprehension before mastering reading comprehension. Also, before they can begin to write these kinds of stories, they must first be able to understand and tell stories in those formats.

How Oral Language Development Impacts Reading Skills

Children naturally build oral language skills through personal experiences and interactions, through listening, speaking, and engaging in meaningful conversations. When students can comprehend spoken language and express themselves verbally, they can form a strong base for reading comprehension.

As explained in The Simple View of Reading, the connection between oral language development and reading proficiency is symbiotic. Oral skills lay the foundation for understanding written text. It’s important to nurture these skills in younger, non-reading students, because the symbiotic relationship between oral language and reading is not yet accessible. As their reading skills progress, their comprehension of written text aligns with earlier language comprehension.

Specific populations—including students with disabilities and Emergent Bilinguals—face several challenges in their oral language development. 

• Students with dyslexia may excel in oral language but struggle with decoding words, impacting print comprehension. These students often have trouble reading and understanding texts because they lack the skills to properly decode what they’re reading. Following a Structured Literacy instructional approach can help level the playing field for these students.

• Emergent Bilinguals need frequent opportunities to speak English to develop their oral language skills. This is one of the most important ways to help newly arrived Emergent Bilinguals build language skills. Typically, Emergent Bilinguals first develop receptive language, or the ability to understand and comprehend language they hear or read in the classroom. It’s often assumed students who can follow verbal or written directions will be able to speak the language, but that’s not always true.

The Importance of Oral Language for Emergent Bilinguals

Teachers typically focus on reading comprehension strategies and phonics to improve the literacy skills of Emergent Bilinguals. While these skills are critical components of the literacy equation, they lack a vital piece: Oral language comprehension and acquisition. Using evidence-based reading alone will not help Emergent Bilinguals improve their reading comprehension.

Because of the lack of organized instruction around language comprehension and oral language, Emergent Bilinguals are at risk of lacking the foundational language skills to carry them into the upper-elementary grades and more complex literary texts. Here are a few reasons why.

• Not enough exposure to the English language. Hart and Risley (1995) found a wide disparity in the number of words (sum of unique words and gross sum of all words) and the quality of language to which the children were exposed. 

• Insufficient exposure to print. Children in a print-rich environment benefit from early exposure to reading and print concepts, such as familiarity with letters and sounds and exposure to the conventions of printed words (e.g., reading from left to right on a page and front to back in a book). Emergent Bilinguals have less exposure to English print compared to their peers. 

• English is not spoken in the home. Children in homes where English is not spoken often lack exposure to critical oral language skills such as English vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, and discourse. Without these skills being modeled and reinforced in the home, these students enter school already significantly behind their peers (Biemiller, 1998). 

• Fewer background experiences. Emergent Bilinguals sometimes lack the opportunity to expand their background experiences and knowledge compared to their peers in other subgroups. These experiences and knowledge can be based on exposure to books, conversations, or first-hand experiences.

How Does Oral Language Support Emergent Bilinguals’ Literacy Development?

A language barrier should not impede content-based learning, subject understanding, or classroom participation. Without targeted English language instruction, Emergent Bilinguals will fall behind their peers who already have a basic understanding of the language.

• Students must be able to speak the language. Students can stimulate the brain's metacognitive functions by engaging in speaking practice. This creates a feedback loop in which students learn through practice and real-time feedback. While literacy and speaking are often considered separate skills, it’s critical to work on developing both skills concurrently to encourage the positive feedback loop in the brain and help Emergent Bilinguals acquire language through practice. 

• Grammar is vital to language understanding and production. However, there is a massive difference between how native speakers acquire grammar and how Emergent Bilinguals do. While native speakers learn passively through instruction, listening, and context clues, Emergent Bilinguals need active grammar practice to fully understand and acquire a language. For this reason, speaking practice, oral literacy, and active utilization of the English language are vital to Emergent Bilingual literacy. 

How To Blend Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals

Teachers should prioritize oral literacy and take a systematic and explicit language development approach to create an equitable classroom and instructional model that will lead to success for all students. 

• Engage Emergent Bilinguals in discussion groups of mixed skill levels so students with lower vocabulary skills and limited background knowledge can benefit from hearing their peers’ discussions. 

• Create print-rich classroom environments in which books and language surround students all day. 

• Read stories with expression and intonation. 

• Focus on the phrasing and structure of sentences and stories, particularly helpful as students become more fluent readers.

•  Incorporate Adaptive Blended Learning technology, which has proven to effectively support Emergent Bilinguals by combining English language and academic learning. 

Practice Strategies for Strengthening Oral Language in the Classroom

All students benefit from oral language practice. Oral language interventions can further support learners’ use of vocabulary, articulation of ideas, and spoken expression. Here are some oral language approaches you can use with your students:

• Targeted reading aloud and book discussions. Engage students in interactive read-alouds, using expressive reading, discussions, and open-ended questions to enhance vocabulary and comprehension. 

• Explicitly extend students’ spoken vocabulary. Introduce and reinforce new words in meaningful contexts through direct instruction, repetition, and student discussion.

• Use structured questioning to develop reading comprehension. Ask a variety of questions to encourage deeper thinking, and ask students to support their responses with text evidence.

• Introduce purposeful, curriculum-focused dialogue and interaction. Model academic discussions using structured protocols to promote critical thinking.

• Encourage discussions in heterogeneous groups. Group students of different skill levels to allow peer modeling, collaborative learning, and richer discussions that support vocabulary and background knowledge growth.

Teachers can deliver oral language interventions for a few weeks, but frequent sessions (three times a week or more) during a sustained period (half a term to a term) appear most successful.

Educational equity can only be achieved with instructional equity. By including oral language instruction as part of your science of reading literacy program, you can ensure all students form the foundations they need to be confident readers. 

Discover how you can integrate oral language instruction for Emergent Bilinguals in your classroom.