Entry #3 Oral language and the reading process

I found this quote in Marie Clay's Literacy Lessons Part 1 (2005) :
      "Some children will transition into school from homes or preschools that emphasize speaking and oral language. While that is a great preparation for literacy learning, it may be that an emphasis on oral traditions in some cultures have severely reduced the exposure to printed language. If this is the case, the school needs to deliver extra opportunities for engaging with print, approaching this with due cultural sensitivity."(p.6)
     I think this statement is true for many of our students today. Many cultures value family outings and fieldtrips, using and promoting language development through experiences. The school needs to be the bridge for students to connect their oral language skills to printed langauge. High exposure to quality literature and opportunities for students to share their thoughts and ideas is crucial for the possible lack of print experience in the home. If a child comes to school as a preproduction, early production or speech emergent ELL the teacher needs to point and label images or objects, use simple sentence structures, and provide many opportunities for the child to hear and practice language at school. Simple sentence structures gradually progress to more complex language structures. This oral language growth can develop quickly, or take up to 5 years to become more fluent. Initially, ELLS input of language will be stronger than their output, verbally and in print, but eventually in a secure environment, the students will transfer what they hear into what they say and write. Skills that will help students transfer oral language to print are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency (National Reading Panel). These skills can be taught in isolation at times, but prove to be acquired more deeply within meaningful context.

Information gathered from Marie Clay's book, Literacy Lessons Part 1, Hill and Flynn's Classroom Instruction That Works With English Language Learners, and Freeman and Freeman's Essential Linguistics.