Blog #3 oral language and the reading process

Oral language is something that all children, regardless of culture or language, use from a very young age.  Young children use oral language for things that they need or use in their everyday lives.  Freeman says that although children aren't given direct instruction, they quickly learn how to communicate in the environment that they live in.  As children get older, they begin to understand that they need to use language in different ways for different situations. 
It's this development of oral language that can then help children when learning to read.  Children can use their background with different ways of using language to make sense of the text that they see written on the page.  As young readers, oral language helps connect a sound with the grapheme it goes with.  As readers grow they begin to use their knowledge of language to make meaning of the different types of sentences they come across.
Not only can oral language help children learn to read but reading can also enhance a student's oral language.  The more types of text that students come across, the more they can use oral language in different contexts.  Gibbons states that not only is it necessary to have the right grammar, but students must also be able to determine the appropriate language and context needed for a particular situation.  Children can learn a lot of vocabulary from the text they read and increase their knowledge of how and when to use it. 
Oral language and reading go hand in hand and each one can help improve the other.