Oral Language Acquisition

Nicole Tesh
Education 410-Crickmer
March 17, 2013

According to the New Oxford Dictionary, oral language is defined as: the
spoken aspect of language that can be heard, interpreted, and understood. In
todays society, one may tend to struggle if they were to lack oral language skills.
Thus, an early education filled with opportunities to enhance oral language
development is considered imperative.
Lyenn Remson, author of Literacy for the New Millennium, states that,
Communication is defined as the ability to construct meaning between at least
two individuals. Symbolic communication refers to the use of language, or a
system of shared symbols to represent meanings. Speech is a physical form for
producing symbols. Oral language, then, is the use of speech to share meanings
though an agreed upon set of symbols- spoken words (Remson, 2007). The
ability of a communicator depends on an individuals linguistic system, the
combined knowledge about a language including word meanings, syntax, speech
sounds, pragmatics, and morphology (Remson, 2007). According to Literacy for
the New Millennium, phonology refers to the specific rules for using speech
sounds of a language to construct and form words (Remson, 2007). Semantics
refers to the meaning of words; morphology is the set of rules for modifying root
words to alter meanings, and syntax the arrangement of words and phrases to

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create well-formed sentences. The last element of oral language is sentence
pragmatics, which are the rules for how language is used within a social
community (Remson, 2007).
Literacy for the New Millennium explains that, Although it is often referred
to as a skill, oral language is actually a complex network of coordinated
knowledge and movement that allows individuals to communicate with each other
by talking and listening (Remson, 2007). There are many things that influence
the development of a first language: biology, learning, and cultural interactions
(Remson, 2007). According to some theorists, children begin to acquire oral
language because of their social interactions with others (Remson, 2007).
Children, even infants, are always hearing sounds native to their first languages,
even within their first weeks of life (Remson, 2007).
There are various stages of development that describe the characteristics
of oral language acquisition. The first stage begins at the birth of a child and is
characterized by the establishment of sounds and the ability to alter pitch and
loudness (Remson, 2007). As infants continue to use these sound gestures to
gather responses from others, other phonetically consistent forms begin to
emerge (Remson, 2007). When a child reaches twelve to eighteen months they
have entered the pre-representational phonological development stage in which

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they begin to produce a variety of vowel sounds and combine them with common
consonants (Remson, 2007). In this stage, sounds of high frequency will often
become the first complete sounds or words to come from the baby (Remson,
2007).
Around eighteen months is when the child begins to possess a small
vocabulary. They will have mastered several words, and use them frequently.
This stage is known as the Representational Phonology stage and is described
by an individuals ability to supply almost all phonemes (or smallest unit of sound),
but are still unable to supply all the speech sounds (Remson, 2007). By the time
a child reaches age three, an individual will be able to produce all vowel sounds
and many of the consonants within a language (Remson, 2007). They will begin
to learn special features that establish each phoneme as a separate sound
(Remson, 2007).
Between the ages of four and seven, children finalize their phonetic
inventory. Because they have mastered all of their vowels and consonants they
will begin to learn more advanced phonology (Remson, 2007). Remson explains
that, by the time children are six years old, their linguistic system is very similar
to an adults, although they continue adding to the complexity to the system
throughout their school years (Remson, 2007). An individuals use of sounds,

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words, morphology, and syntax will grow depending on their linguistic
development (Remson, 2007).
According to research, strong oral language skills and strong reading and
writing skills are deeply connected. In opposition, if an individual has an issue
with oral language, he or she may therefore struggle with reading and writing as
well (Bennett-Armistead, 2005).

Pricilla Griffith in Literacy for Young Children: A

Guide for Early Childhood Educators reveals an important factor in oral language
education, Since oral language lays the foundation for future success in literacy
development, it is of utmost importance that teachers devote much attention to
support childrens language development though a supportive classroom
environment. We, as teachers, want children to feel safe to take risks using
language in meaningful and purposeful ways (Griffith, 2008). Students should
be taught in an environment that is rich in other literacy areas as well, such as
reading and writing (Griffith, 2008). Griffith explains that if oral language activities
are planned out effectively, students will have prompt progress in all areas of
development, including oral language acquisition (Griffith, 2008).

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In Nancy Broyles writing, The Learning Differences Source Book, she
explains multiple strategies that increase the development of language skills:
1. Read, read, read. Beginning in infancy and select many topics.
2. Talk to your child about anything and everything.
3. Provide opportunities to identify likenesses and differences in shape,

4.
5.
6.
7.

size, and color.

Provide opportunities to name things based on categories.
Produce opportunities to sequence things.
Provide a variety of experiences such as trips to the grocery store.
Urge children to ask questions about their world, then listen and answer

carefully.
8. Make up stories about pictures in all variety of media (Boyles, 1997).

In the education of a child developing oral language, an instructor must give them
ample opportunities to express themselves though words and sounds.
Engagement in conversation is key, as Boyles stated, and taking almost every
action and allowing a child to make comments is simple and beneficial. There
are many ways to enhance oral language acquisition in the classroom as well as
at home.
Oral language acquisition in the classroom should be focused around the
student. Jodene Lynn Smiths book Activities For Oral Language Development:

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Grades K-2, gives many examples of activities that teachers can use to enhance
oral language development. One of the methods she explains is the Think, Pair,
Share activity in which students discuss their ideas with other children in the
classroom (Smith, 2005). Smith states, This discussion technique also provides
a way for students to challenge and build upon others thinking. For students who
rarely share, it initially places them in a less threatening situation than a wholeclass discussion, within which they can talk about their ideas (Smith, 2005).
The first activity listed, Think, Pair, Share, is an activity that gives all students
within a classroom a chance to share and discuss their ideas with others. This is
beneficial for all students, even those who may not prefer to speak up in front of
the whole class. The second activity, Language Experience, allows teachers to
generate discussion and build vocabulary, but most of all, as Smith states,
through a written language experience, students can learn that what can be
spoken can be written down, what can be written down can be read, and what
can be read can be thought about (Smith, 2005)! Here are the methods below
as stated by Activities For Oral Language Development: Grades K-2 (this activity
is taken directly from the book).

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THINK
Students begin by spending a few moments thinking about the question by
themselves (Smith, 2005).

PAIR
Then pair students. Each partner should sit facing each other. The pair
should spend the next few minutes sharing with each other their thoughts and
ideas. Be sure to provide enough time for both partners to share their ideas
and for some discussion that may come out of shared ideas. As students
become more comfortable with sharing ideas with each other and questioning
techniques, they will initiate further discussion and questioning on their own
(Smith, 2005).

SHARE
Finally, the class comes back together as a whole in order to share ideas as
part of a class discussion. Be sure to let students know that they may share
their own ideas or the ideas of the partner to whom they talked. By allowing
students to share their partners ideas, each child in the class comes to the
discussion with something to share. Students who seemingly have nothing to
share previously have been invited to the discussion because they have a
piece to offer, even if the partner generated the idea. Chances are that, even if
a student shares his partners idea, he will not repeat word-for-word the exact
same sentences. Students often use the idea as a springboard from which
another idea can be added (Smith, 2005).
Note: During the share portion of the activity, the teacher may act as the
facilitator or a student may be selected to be the facilitator. If another activity
or writing assessment will follow the discussion, you may want to document

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LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE
Depending on your intent for the lesson, the object can be related to a topic
being studied, and unusual object that students may have not seen before, or
possibly even an object they have seen before (Smith, 2005).

1. Begin by either placing the object in a position so that all children can see it
or by passing the object around for students to experience. Ideally,
students should experience the object with as many senses as possible.
Although a language experience may be done with the whole class at one
time, it as nice to work with a small group. A smaller group provides more
opportunities for each student to provide input (Smith, 2005).
2. You may choose to let students know that you have a special object that
you want then to see and then remain silent for a period to see what
conversation the object generates. Students will probably begin talking
about the object right away; however, if they dont, you may need to ask
some leading questions to get the discussion going (Smith, 2005).
3. As students talk about the object, you will want to chart key words that are
being included in what the children say. If students are not familiar with the
object or with key vocabulary, you will need to provide those critical words.
4. Once the key vocabulary related to the object has been charted, the word
chart can be used to help students with a writing piece (Smith, 2005).
a. For kindergarten students or English Language Learners, this may
be a sentence dictated to the teacher. Try writing the dictation on a
sentence strip. Students can trace over the letters with a crayon.
Then, have students cut the sentence strip into word cards.
Students can practice ordering the sentence and reading it to a
partner (Smith, 2005).
b. For older students or students able to write for themselves, their

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Same of Word Chart for Language Experience Activity (Smith, 2005)

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References
Bennett-Armistead. (2005). Literacy and the Youngest Learner. New York, NY:
Scholastic, Inc.
Boyles, N. (1997). The Learning Differences Source Book. Los Angeles, CA:
Lowell House.
Griffith, P. (2008). Literacy for Young Children: A Guide for Early Childhood
Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Remson, L. (2007). Oral Language. (B. Guzetti, Ed.) Literacy for the New
Millennium , 1.
Smith, J. L. (2005). Activities For Oral Language Development: Grades K-2.
Westminster: Teacher Created Resources.