The Oracy–Literacy Connection: How Talking Shapes Reading and Writing
Oracy and literacy are deeply intertwined. (đź“·:empowervmedia) T he term oracy ( coined by Andrew Wilkinson in 1965 ) refers to our ability to communicate through spoken language (essentially, speaking and listening skills). It is sometimes called “the literacy of the spoken word” . In contrast, literacy refers to reading and writing (the skills of decoding letters and encoding ideas in text). Importantly, children acquire oracy naturally long before literacy: we learn to talk, sing and understand speech well before we learn to read or write. In practice, this means that the vocabulary, sentence structures, and thinking skills we develop through talking provide the scaffolding for understanding written text and expressing ourselves in writing. In fact, research shows that oral language ability tends to place an upper limit on reading comprehension (if you cannot recognise a word by listening, you cannot fully understand it when reading) . In short, oracy and literacy are like tw...