The Impact of Oral Language Skills on Academic Achievement

Phonology

• Oral Language: As children become aware of their surroundings, they rely on phonology to recognize and blend the sounds /c/, /a/, and /t/ as something meaningful. It takes several encounters with these three sounds in the presence of a particular furry animal to connect the combination of sounds directly to that object (i.e., the cat).
• Impact on Academic Achievement: If a student is unable to phonologically segment and blend sounds to make words, the letter-sound connections they learn will remain single units of sound that may or may not be recognized as meaningful. This will interfere with decoding (reading) and spelling (writing). It will also interfere with orthographic mapping (a process that allows for the automatic recognition and comprehension of a word).

Semantics

• Oral Language: Over time, children recognize other sound combinations such as /t//ai//l/ and /f//ur/. Tail and fur do not mean the same thing as cat, but they are connected and help to define cat. Aha! The semantic component of oral language has begun to evolve.
• Impact on Academic Achievement: The impact of weak semantic skills is easy to see across all academic tasks. It will disrupt the efficient process of linking spoken and written words to their meanings (orthographic mapping). Insufficient quantity and variety of word knowledge, and knowing how words work together, will severely limit a student’s success with reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. For example, imagine the frustration of trying to create a really cool and intricate house with only 4 Lego blocks! Similarly, with limited word knowledge (the building blocks of sentences and stories), students will be frustrated in their efforts to express their creative thoughts and complex ideas.

Morphology

• Oral Language: As a child continues to experience this object cat in the presence of its associated sound combination (/c/ /a/ /t/), they may subconsciously become aware that whenever there is more than one of these objects (i.e. the cat), the sound /s/ is added to the end of the word. This is an early example of how morphology connects phonology (speech sounds) and semantics word meaning.
• Impact on Academic Achievement: Without an understanding that certain parts of a word (morphemes) hold specific meanings, the student remains tied to the less efficient sound-by-sound breakdown of words. They also fail to generalize these word parts to comprehend new, unfamiliar words.

Syntax

• Oral Language: If this object cat happens to be a household pet, the word “cat” will often be combined with other words that follow a specific pattern or sequence. Without knowing why, this student will understand that it makes sense for a “cat to jump” but less sense to “cat something”. In this example, oral language models of the word “cat” in proper syntax lay the foundation for learning important grammar rules and sentence structures.
• Impact on Academic Achievement: Having strong oral language development, while not formally taught before school age, ensures that students have encountered significant structural models to guide syntactic development. If a student does not have consistent oral language modeling and interactions using language, they will not have the foundational road map needed to layer on formal learning for grammar and sentence structure.

Pragmatics

• Oral Language: Finally, whenever a child’s mom refers to this cat, she also uses other words like “kitty” or “Buster”. When these words are used in the conversation, it is positive and loving. While mom has referred to some people with animal labels such as “dirty rat” or a “pig”, no one is ever scorned with the word “cat”. This modeling of pragmatic use of oral language helps deepen the full representation of cat specifically for this student in this house.
• Impact on Academic Achievement: Without a pragmatic understanding that language is subject to the time, place, and people involved, a student’s academic functioning will be limited to the literal level. For example, if a student can only interpret the word “hot” in the literal sense, they will not pick up on the sarcasm used by the author whose character describes a wintry day as “hot”. Additionally, if a student cannot understand the difference in how they should speak to a teacher versus a friend, they might miss important social cues and appear disrespectful. Pragmatic limitations can affect a student’s ability to follow instructions in class, participate in group activities, and communicate effectively with peers and adults. (This is where those “soft skills” for vocational preparation are crucial and rely on language and communication!)

Now, let’s think about how the various areas of language could be impacted by different lived experiences:

Now that we have an understanding of the specific areas of language, and also for the impact its development has on oral and written language knowledge, we are ready to revisit the original question...What is the impact of oral language skills on academic achievement?

The Informed Answer: ANY limitations within oral language development will impact reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

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