Blog #3

Comment on the relationship between oral language and the reading process:

In the spoken word, phonemes are the smallest parts of sound. To become proficient at phonemic awareness, a reader must have the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds within the spoken language. Also, one must demonstrate the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. The goal of phonic should be to teach the reader that there are systematic and predictable relationships amongst written letters and spoken sounds. This will help them in recognizing words and decoding new words. 

Once phonetic awareness has increased, fluency should be the focus. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression, because they recognize words and comprehend them at the same time. Vocabulary acquisition helps with fluency. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print. We need to know them to understand what we read. Most vocabulary acquisition is done indirectly (context-embedded language). However, some of it can be taught (context-reduced language). Indirectly, students increase their vocabulary by engaging daily in oral language, listening to adults read to them, and by reading extensively on their own.

                Students who are Second Language Learners will need more support along the way, because their native language will most likely have had different rules surrounding the manipulation of letters, sounds and words. One of the most difficult skills a person has to do is to relearn. ELL students are learning a totally different set of rules for a task they were probably already proficient at doing.