The National Reading Panel report released in 2000, Teaching Children to Read, has become an invaluable resource in guiding reading education policy and practice throughout the United States.
Building upon that knowledge, the National Early Literacy Panel convened in 2002 to examine instructional practices used with children ages 0–5 and offer recommendations on the best ways to support emergent literacy skills. Panel members included experts in literacy, multicultural education, special education, pediatrics, psychology, and reading. The results of the research were to be used to create and support literacy-specific development materials for early childhood educators and parents of preschool children. Their report, Developing Early Literacy, released in 2008,determined a certain set of abilities learned in the preschool years provide a solid basis for later reading success.
This set of abilities became known as the Big 5 Early Literacy skills, which include:
- oral language
- phonological awareness
- print concepts
- alphabetic principle
- vocabulary and meaning
These emergent literacy skills precede the conventional literacy skills of decoding, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling, and writing.
Below we take a close look at oral language. We will explore the other early literacy skills in subsequent blogs.
The Importance of Oral Language
“Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings” (Heinemann, 2015).
The National Early Literacy Panel found that vocabulary and oral language development lay at the heart of foundational literacy skills and were important predictors of later literacy competence. Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings. Developing a children’s oral language capabilities—including listening and speaking—prepares them to be proficient readers and writers later on in their educational journey.
Focusing on these foundations early-on can have significant long-term benefits for a child’s ability to read and comprehend text. Children acquire language through hearing words and phrases and from meaningful exchanges with the adults in their lives. The quantity of words a child hears in their early years can be a predictor of later reading success. So, too, quality matters. More spoken words and wider exposure to language in a variety of methods provides children an advantage in later academic and social learning.
The Components of Oral Language
Oral language is the sum of five key components:
- Phonological skills. Before a child can begin to sound out words they must possess the ability to hear the individual units of sounds within words. Examples include:
- syllables
- rhyme
- phonemes
- Syntax refers to an understanding of word order and rules of grammar. Syntax helps in understanding the meaning behind word order, sentence structure, and punctuation.
- Vocabulary relates to all of the words in a particular language, and understanding the meaning of those words and phrases in context.
- Pragmatics have to do with social rules of communication and how words are used in context, looking beyond the literal and considering how meaning is constructed.
- Morphological skills. These are necessary to understand the smallest units of meaning in language, like:
- Root words, such as cat
- Prefixes, such as un, re, sub
- Suffixes like ing, ed, ly
- Bound roots that require a prefix or suffix to become a word: ject, rupt, mit, pute.
Recommended Instructional Approaches
Language-rich environments encourage oral language development. Dr. Timothy Shanahan, one of the National Early Literacy Panel contributors, states, “Oral language should be supported all day long in such classrooms, but within instruction—not as the focus of instruction” (Shanahan, 2017).
Special focus should be placed on quality interactions, including educator responsiveness, open-ended questions, and serve-and-return feedback loops.
Talking, reading, encouraging, singing, modeling, describing, commenting, playing, and enquiring are all examples of positive, high-quality oral language environments.
Myriad opportunities exist throughout each day to promote language development in young children:
- Using child-directed speech, the educator listens to what a child says and repeats it back using slightly higher-level or advanced vocabulary.
- An educator can use self-talk, or running commentary, to describe what the educator is doing while they do it.
- An educator can use parallel talk to narrate a child’s actions. With both self-talk and parallel talk, educators are connecting actions to words that help children expand their vocabulary.
- Storytelling and reading aloud introduce new words in context and help children comprehend words, building mental models as they listen. Encouraging children to retell stories, act them out, and discuss the characters within enhances their understanding and promotes language skills. Shared book interventions (Shanahan & Lonigan, 2010) were explicitly called out in the report as a tool that enhanced children’s language development.
- Songs, rhymes, and chants are fun ways for an educator to engage children in learning new words and build their vocabulary.
- Themes or study units allow educators to use a variety of activities that appeal to a child’s interests.
- Feedback loops and Strive for Five conversations strengthen a child’s comprehension and ability for expression.
Strive for Five
Strive for Five is a conversational feedback loop that uses a series of at least five questions, comments, or observations in a one-on-one, small-, or large-group setting. The adult engages with the child by showing interest in what the child is saying and/or doing. By waiting, watching, and listening intently to the child, they are able to form appropriate responses and questions that delve deeper into the subject. Strive For Five conversations increase the quality of educator/child interactions while providing opportunities for children to think, talk, and strengthen their comprehension, vocabulary, and oral language.
Source: Cabell & Zucker (2024)
Oral Language: A Communication Essential
Quality interactions and respectful communication foster trust and empower children to use their voices and practice within a safe, nurturing environment. Having effective oral communication strategies in their teaching toolbox enables educators to readily take advantage of the many spontaneous activities and conversations that occur naturally in preschool environments.
Our next blog will take a closer look at a few of the different strategies that support vocabulary development in early childhood.
References
Cabell, S. Q., & Zucker, T. A. (2024). Using Strive-for-Five Conversations to Strengthen Language Comprehension in Preschool through Grade One. The Reading Teacher, 77(4), 522-532. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/trtr.2266
Lesaux, N., & Harris, J. (2015, October 29). What Is Oral Language? [Blog post]. Heinemann. https://blog.heinemann.com/what-is-oral-language
National Early Literacy Panel. (2008). Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention. National Institute for Literacy. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/documents/NELPReport09.pdf
National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/smallbook
Shanahan, T. (2017, November 12). Does Oral Language Instruction Improve Literacy? [Blog post]. Shanahan on Literacy. https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/does-oral-language-instruction-improve-literacy
Shanahan, T., & Lonigan, C. J. (2010). The National Early Literacy Panel: A Summary of the Process and the Report. Educational Researcher, 39(4), 279-285. https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/upload/publications/52/pdf/0013189×10369172.pdf
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