TExES Reading Specialist (151)

This chapter describes the stages and milestones of oral language acquisition, explains how listening comprehension sets the ceiling for reading comprehension, and introduces the models that link oral language and reading. It serves descriptive statement B of Competency 001 and lays the groundwork for statement F.

Behaviorist (Skinner), nativist (Chomsky) and interactionist (Vygotsky, Bruner) theories each explain part of language acquisition, but most researchers now take an interactionist position: children bring powerful learning capacities, and conversational interaction with more skilled speakers shapes development. Research on conversational turns shows that back-and-forth exchanges, not just the number of words a child hears, predict vocabulary and language growth. Talking with children matters more than talking at them.

Children vary in the timing of milestones, but the sequence is remarkably consistent. The following table summarizes typical development for monolingual children; bilingual children follow similar sequences, though vocabulary may be distributed across two languages.

Typical Oral Language Milestones

The late development of certain sounds is important. Sounds such as /r/, /l/, /th/, /s/ and /z/ may not be fully mastered until age six to eight, so a kindergartner who says "wabbit" for "rabbit" is usually within the typical range. Overgeneralizations ("foots," "goed") are positive signs of rule learning, not errors to be drilled.

Two models, both heavily tested, explain why oral language is central to reading.

The Simple View of Reading, proposed by Gough and Tunmer, states that reading comprehension is the product of decoding (word recognition) and language comprehension: Reading Comprehension = Decoding x Language Comprehension. Because it is a product, not a sum, a weakness in either component limits comprehension. A child who decodes perfectly but has limited vocabulary and syntax will still comprehend poorly. A child with excellent oral language who cannot decode also comprehends poorly in print.

Scarborough's Reading Rope illustrates the same idea with two sets of strands. The lower strands (word recognition) are phonological awareness, decoding and sight recognition, which become increasingly automatic. The upper strands (language comprehension) are background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures (syntax and semantics), verbal reasoning (inference, metaphor) and literacy knowledge (print concepts, genres), which become increasingly strategic. Four of the five language comprehension strands are oral language strands.

In the early grades, children can understand far more complex language by listening than they can read. As decoding becomes automatic, reading comprehension rises toward listening comprehension. For most readers, by the middle school years the two converge, and listening comprehension effectively sets the upper limit, or ceiling, for reading comprehension. A student cannot comprehend in print what he cannot comprehend when the same text is read aloud.

Informal reading inventories estimate a listening comprehension level, the highest text level a student understands when it is read aloud. If a fourth grader's reading comprehension is at a second-grade level but his listening comprehension is at a fourth-grade level, the gap suggests word recognition is the bottleneck. If both are low, oral language comprehension needs attention as well.

Student Profiles Using the Simple View

Exam Tip: When a scenario shows a student whose listening comprehension is much higher than reading comprehension, the best answer usually targets decoding and word recognition. When listening and reading comprehension are both low but decoding is accurate, the best answer targets oral language, vocabulary and background knowledge.

Children with rich vocabularies comprehend more, read more and learn still more words, while those with limited language fall further behind, a pattern Stanovich called a Matthew effect. Read-alouds and extended conversation in the early grades are among the best ways schools counter it.

Narrative skill is strongly linked to reading comprehension. Early stories are often "heaps" of unrelated statements, then sequences of events, and finally true narratives with a setting, problem, attempts, resolution and characters' reactions. Story retelling is therefore both an assessment tool and an instructional activity.

Common Trap: Assuming that once children can decode, oral language instruction is no longer needed. Language comprehension continues to develop through adolescence and becomes the main limit on reading comprehension in the upper grades. Discussion, academic talk and vocabulary instruction remain essential in middle and high school.

Classroom Scenario: A second-grade team notices that several students read grade-level passages accurately and at an appropriate rate but give thin retellings and miss inferential questions. The same students also struggle to answer questions after hearing a story read aloud. The reading specialist explains, using the Simple View, that these students' decoding is adequate but their language comprehension is limiting them. She recommends daily interactive read-alouds of complex texts with planned vocabulary and inference questions, structured partner discussion and oral retelling with story grammar prompts, rather than more phonics.

Oral language milestones follow a consistent sequence; later sounds such as /r/ and /th/ may not be mastered until about age seven or eight.

Overgeneralizations like "goed" show rule learning and are developmentally appropriate.

The Simple View of Reading (decoding x language comprehension) and Scarborough's Rope both place oral language at the heart of reading comprehension.

Listening comprehension sets the ceiling for reading comprehension; comparing the two helps locate a student's bottleneck.

Conversational turns and rich talk drive language growth and help counter Matthew effects.