Oral language: what is it and why does it matter so

much for school, work, and life success?

banterspeech.com.au/oral-language-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter-so-much-for-school-work-and-life-success/

David Kinnane 25 July 2021

Oral language is a wonder. Across time and cultures, most people develop oral language
skills without much conscious effort. As a species, oral language has helped us to
survive, reproduce, and to cooperate with each other, even in very hostile conditions. As
individuals, oral language is crucial for social development, reading comprehension,
learning, academic participation, and for work and life success.

But what is oral language?

As a speech pathologist who works with people with Developmental and other Language
Disorders, one of the most frustrating things about oral language is just how hard it is to
explain to others in Plain English. I’ve tried a few times, without much success.

I’m going to have another go now!

A. Not just complicated.

Some things are made up of many interconnected parts. We describe these things as
“complicated”. Cars and coffee machines are good examples. Often, the parts of
complicated things work together in defined and limited ways to produce a result, like
letting me drive down my street, or producing a hot cup of coffee.

Language is made up of many connecting parts. But it is not like a car or a coffee
machine. Oral language is not just complicated: it’s a complex system.

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B. What do we mean by a complex system?

Not only is language made up of lots of parts, but the parts interact with each other in
lots of different – and often unpredictable – ways. This makes language complex, like
weather or the health system.

Oral language involves listening (receptive) skills; and speaking (expressive) skills. It also
includes different forms, content, and uses, as shown in this famous model:

C. Everything is connected!

This sounds like something from James Cameron’s Avatar or something to be discovered
on a life-changing meditation retreat. But, with oral language, it happens to be true.

Some children have language problems that affect primarily one sub-system or part of
language. For example, many children with language disorders have difficulties with word
forms (e.g. past tense verbs, like “jumped” or “flew”) or syntax (e.g. understanding and
using complex sentences like “The boy ordered a pizza because he was hungry”, “Before
you have breakfast, make your bed”, and “The dog was walked by the man with the grey
hair”). But everything is connected, and language problems do not segregate into neat
subtypes.

As a practical example, consider the word “because”. If a 6-year-old child does not
understand the word “because” and how it’s used, he or she will:

be unlikely to understand or use the word correctly as part of his or her vocabulary
(a language content deficit);
have difficulties understanding or using the word as a subordinating conjunction in
complex sentences (a language form deficit);

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 have difficulties understanding or explaining cause and effect relationships in words,
meaning they may not be able to answer questions or follow instructions from a
teacher that include the term (both examples of language use deficits);
perhaps be perceived by the teacher and the child’s peers as unintelligent, impolite
or disobedient (an example of the social stigma and low expectations that often
accompany language difficulties); and
perhaps become reluctant to engage in future interactions and situations requiring
knowledge of “because” (an example of how language deficits can reduce
participation and inclusion over time).

Focusing on one aspect of language difficulty – e.g. receptive syntax or expressive

vocabulary – in isolation doesn’t make a lot of sense when all aspects of language
interact and feed into each other. Language difficulties in one area can have serious,
systemic knock-on effects.

Rather than trying to sort language problems into arbitrary categories or leaky buckets,
it’s better to just use the term “language disorder” and think about treating the system.
(You can read more about language therapy here.)

D. Typical language development

Given its complexity, it’s incredible that so many of us learn to understand and to use oral
language without much direct instruction. But some people aren’t as lucky. It’s useful to
know about typical patterns of language development so that people with, or at risk of,
language disorders are picked up and helped as early as possible.

Note that this section summarises typical language development for monolingual children.
For information about bilingual language development, please check out our separate
article here.

Language development typically follows this pattern:

Understanding of language usually comes before speaking.

From the first months, most children develop native speech perception and
production skills based on the language or languages the child is surrounded by.
Speech production starts with single words, followed by word combinations, to
simple sentences and then more complex sentences.
Between 18 months and 6 years of age, children learn lots of new words: around 50
words at 18 months to around 10,000 words by 6 years. Word and sentence syntax
skills also develop rapidly.
In infant, toddler and preschool years, most of the language a child hears is oral
language.
When literacy begins in late preschool or early school years, an increasing amount
of language input comes from printed words, e.g. in books.

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 Early oral language skills are a good predictor of early reading development. But,
later, reading and spoken language development piggyback off each other. For
example, quality books often contain more sophisticated vocabularies and sentence
structures than conversational speech.
During the school years, language skills continue to develop and be refined into
adolescence, alongside various forms of “meta-linguistic awareness” (the conscious
awareness of oral and written language and how it is used).

E. Things that are known to affect language development

Oral language development is influenced by many factors, including:

genes. In children aged 2-4 years, the heritability of language is about 30% but this
rises to around 60% by the age of 12 years. The genetic correlation between oral
language and reading comprehension is above 0.80;
socioeconomic status (e.g. factors like parental education, income, and housing).
On average, children aged 30 months-3 years from professional families are
exposed to 11 million words in a year, compared to an average of 3 million words for
children from the poorest families. Parent-child interactions for children from high
socioeconomic backgrounds are, on average, more conversational than for children
from low socioeconomic backgrounds. On average, parents with lower
socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be more directive with their children, though, of
course, there are many examples where this is not the case. Poverty has a big
impact on reading outcomes too: you can read more about why poor kids are more
likely to be poor readers here;
home learning environment. This includes the language and literacy skills of
parents (which are of course also affected by genes), as well as the number of
books in the home and the parents’ reading habits. You can read more about the
importance of the home learning environment here;
the interaction between your genes and your environment. For example, if you
are good at using language, you will probably seek out more language-based
activities. If you have poor social language skills, you will probably have less
satisfying social interactions and socialise less; and
other known risk factors for language disorders: we’ve summarised some of the
main known risk factors here.

F. This is interesting. Tell me more!

My favourite response, and why we write this blog!

Here are my recommendations for further reading about different aspects of oral
language. For each article, we include references to peer-reviewed research:

(1) Language Form

For information about phonological (speech) development, check out:

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 In what order and at what age should my child learn to say his/her consonants?
10 common speech error patterns seen in children of 3-5 years of age – and when
you should be concerned
Lifting the lid on speech therapy: How we assess and treat children with unclear
speech – and why

For information about early morphological development, check out:

When “steel meets steel”: grammar doesn’t need to be dull

For information about syntax, check out:

Speaking for themselves: why I choose ambitious goals to help young children put
words together
Following instructions: why so many of us struggle with more than one step

(2) Language Content

For information about vocabulary, check out:

How do babies and toddlers choose their first words?

Late talkers: how I choose which words to work on first
How to help your school-age child learn new words
Reading with – not to – your preschoolers: how to do it better (and why)
For reading, school and life success, which words should we teach our kids? How
should we do it?
10 great words to teach young high-schoolers (and why) – with brilliant free
resources!

For information about categories, semantic development, sequences, and inferences,

check out:

Parents: teach categories to your kids to ignite language development

“Huh?!” The many benefits of using Blank’s Language Levels framework to help
your kids to understand language for school
Five ways to boost your child’s oral language and reading comprehension skills with
sequencing
Help your child to fill in the gaps, join the dots, and read between the lines! (Improve
inferencing skills for better reading and language comprehension)

(3) Social Use of Language (also called pragmatics)

We use oral language to communicate in different places with different people and for
different purposes (pragmatics). For more information, check out these resources:

What is “pragmatic language”? The social use of language

Key behaviours to look for in the pragmatic (social) language development of
children aged 0-5 years

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 Pragmatic language for 5-11 year-olds includes (at least) 27 observable behaviours
Helping Children with Pragmatic (Social) Language Challenges. Some Evidence-
based Themes

(4) Language Disorders and the importance of focusing on strengths, participation

and inclusion

People with language and other communication difficulties are not broken and don’t need
to be “fixed”. People are not their disorders.

Lots of researchers, speech pathologists, psychologists, teachers, families and people

with language disorders are focused on learning more about language and how to
mitigate the effects of language difficulties.

It is never too late to seek help! Find out more:

Developmental Language Disorder: A free guide for families

Beyond ‘fixing’: using the ‘F-Word Framework’ to support children with
communication disorders and their families
Focusing speech therapy on functional outcomes: a refresher
Parents of children aged 0-5 years: 10 practical ideas to increase your child’s
participation and communication skills
Parents of children aged 6-12 years: 10 practical ideas to increase your child’s
participation and communication skills
Parents of children aged 13-15 years: 10 practical ideas to increase your child’s
participation and communication skills
Parents of teenagers aged 16-18 years: 11 ideas to increase participation and
communication skills

Key source for the information in Parts D and E: Hulme, C., Snowling, M., West, G.,
Lervåg, A, and Melby-Lervåg, M. (2020). Children’s Language Skills Can Be Improved:
Lessons from Psychological Science for Educational Policy. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 29(4), 372-377.

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Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried,

personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the
Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

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