Entry #2: October 27,2011 Relationship Between Oral Language and the Reading Process

"While spoken and written language obviously have distinctive characteristics, there is no absolute boundary between them" (Gibbons, 2002, p.41)
    I believe that the relationship between oral language and the reading process in one that cannot be separated. Oral language gives individuals a foundations for words and reading. Oral language is the basis for human interactions. As individuals we acquire oral language in order to meet of needs. We then transfer our knowledge of language from our oral communication to written communication in the reading process.  In this relationship, the reading process is dependent on oral language. A student may "seem able to cope with a language [English] at school, yet have academic or literacy-related difficulties." (Gibbons, 2002, p.1)  For these students they have learned the conversational purposes of a language in order to communicate their needs. However their oral language skills remain shallow. When a student's oral language vocabulary is shallow, he/she will have no foundation for the reading process.  The inner voice must be their to guide the reader, to help the reader understand context, build meaning and synthesis information. In the reading process, a student must have knowledge, context and schema for ideas and terms. Without a strong oral language students misunderstand meaning and fall short in fully comprehending the text.