Oral Language Development - Essay Example

As projected by psychologists oral language development effectively takes place from the child’s early years, where in a child is capable of learning two or more languages easily as compared with adult learners. It is vital for a child to learn to communicate from a very early age, in order to become a fully literate and educated person. Since so much is developed and learned by a child early on, the education and proper training should be the most important component of the child’s life and into adolescent’s.

Early literacy is defined as the stages undergone by a child in developing their language skills which includes reading and writing. Oral language performs essential functions in the development and enhancement of the child’s thinking skills. Through the development of oral language the critical thinking ability of a child undergoes the same pace. Familiarizing themselves with the vocabulary and the language basically makes them think of the proper and appropriate words on how to present and express their thoughts with other people.

The aforementioned things provide a strong link between the child’s oral language development and early literacy. The more a child can interpret and deeply understand oral language, the greater the possibility that a child has the capacity to interpret, analyze, and understand written texts. Research findings have revealed that a child at his/her young age possessing an exemplary oral language development is more likely to reach a commendable literacy level; while in the reverse, a child with poor oral language development has a greater probability of having low level of literacy skills.

Oral language, despite of its being one of the foundations of literacy, is often neglected or given lesser importance in emphasizing the enhancement of literacy skills. Oral language performs various essential roles in academic success as studies with monolingual English speakers illustrated. The skills used in deciphering knowledge and information cultivated by having oral language proficiency is the threshold toward the development of reading comprehension among these young learners. This shows the interrelationships among the four macro skills in language learning such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

The vocabulary words that a child learned from his or her environment through listening and used in speaking are essential in developing his or her reading comprehension. IMPORTANCE OF READING SKILLS According to the article entitled “Reading, Literacy, and Your Child”, research has distinguished five basic reading skills which are all important in improving the literacy level of every child such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, distinguish, and play with isolated sounds known as “phonemes” in oral language; Phonics is the capability of connecting with the letters of the written language with the inclusion of the phonemes of the spoken language; Vocabulary which is considered as the words that a child needs to recognize in order to communicate proficiently; reading comprehension is the ability to deeply understand and derive meaning from