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Oral language
Being able to hear language, perceive differences in meaning and articulate language is crucially important for learning to read and write.
Oral language provides the base and foundation for written language because it is the beginning of using language as a symbol for meaning. In fact, as Vukelich, Christie and Enz (2002) write: Oral language involves first-order symbolism, with spoken words representing meaning. Written language, on the other hand, involves secondorder symbolism that builds on the first-order symbolism of oral language. Printed symbols represent spoken words that, in turn, represent meaning (p. 2).
While oral language is the foundation for written language, the two modes are different. Oral language relies on the context, the here and now objects to make meaning—for example, pointing to an apple a child may say ‘Look at this one’. Written language, however, is removed from context; it is decontextualised and the writer has to provide additional information for the reader—for example, ‘Look at this red apple’.
Language is a symbol system
Language is made up of sounds (phonemes), words and word order (syntax), and meaning (semantics).
Language—whether it be English, Chinese, French or Spanish—is any system of symbols that is used to communicate meaning. These symbols can also consist of sounds, finger movements and print (Vukelich, Christie & Enz 2002). Because this book is about language and literacy—speaking, listening, reading and writing—language refers to oral language, which is communicating through speaking and listening, and literacy refers to reading and writing, which is communicating through print and multimedia. Language is made up of sounds (phonemes), words and word order (syntax) and meaning (semantics). Pragmatics is the social use of language which has to do with selecting language to suit a particular purpose, and vocabulary or lexicon is knowledge of words and word meanings. Discourse is a larger framework and concerns how all components of language are used in particular social contexts; for example, children may have a school discourse and a home discourse. From birth onwards, infants and toddlers experiment with sounds, words and word order and by the time they are 3 or 4 years old they have a large vocabulary of words. Figure 2.1 Key definitions of the components of language Phonology refers to the way sounds of a language operate. Syntax refers to the rules for how words work in phrases, clauses and sentences. Semantics refers to the ways that language conveys meaning. Pragmatics refers to the ways the members of the speech community achieve their goals using language. Vocabulary refers to stored information about the meanings and pronunciation of words. (Based on Emmitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff & Pollock 2010; Snow, Burns & Griffin 1998)
