Why is Language So Important for Learning?

Heather Ironside Director of Language and Literacy The Gateway School A s her students make their way into her class, settle into their seats, and pull out notebooks and tablets, the teacher poses a question for the students to consider: “How are we violating a person when we deny them the right to vote?” It is a provocative and effective conversation starter among a classroom full of school-aged children and a way for the teacher to assess whether or not her students can pick a position and convincingly substantiate their opinions. Participating successfully in a classroom discussion such as this requires a broad range of language skills.

To actively and effectively engage in a classroom debate, a student must use their thinking skills (evaluation, judgment, reason), find the right words to articulate their position, create a series of clear sentences that capture their logic, hold on to the argument while listening critically to others, and support their argument when the classmates challenge it with questions and counterarguments. The demands of classroom discourse are not altogether different from what’s called for during a lively dinner table conversation or an exchange with teammates on the playing field. For a typically developing child, all of these experiences draw on and simultaneously reinforce the development of their language skills. For a child with language impairment, however, these skills do not develop at the same pace as their peers, which can have a deep impact on their school experience.

“People hear the word ‘language,’ and they think French, German, Italian,” says Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Staff Developer at The Gateway School. “Language is a remarkable gift given to us. Yet, we rarely think about it because no one’s parents teach the particulars, such as ‘add an “s” to a word when you mean more than one.’ Parents just talk with their children and correct the obvious mistakes. But when your child cannot learn the details of his or her language independently, it will lead to trouble learning in school. School is all about language no matter what subject is being taught.”

In 1978, Lois Bloom and Margaret Lahey published their seminal book on language development. They conceptualized language as comprising three separate but overlapping components: content, form, and use. Content encompasses our knowledge and ideas about the world, concepts, and words. Vocabulary and all that we know about words and their connections, called semantics, make up language content. For example, content includes everything from the items that belong on the dinner table such as ‘glass,’ ‘napkin,’ or ‘fork,’ and the purpose of a meal which might be ‘nutrition,’ ‘family,’ or ‘socialization,’ to what is learned in the Humanities class referred to earlier. ‘Violation’ is a word, a world issue, and a concept. The student who can’t understand the definition, “the act of violating someone or something,” won’t be able to distinguish or easily distinguish the magnitude of different types of violations (e.g., traffic ticket, hitting, denying a person’s rights). This limitation in understanding will be reflected in their world view. Ultimately, a child’s language content involves having something to say, to understand, to read, or to write. Form refers to the observable features of language, the parts that are easiest to hear and see. It describes the structure or rules for combining sounds into words and stringing words together to form sentences reflecting complete, logical thought. Language form is essential for speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Imagine, for example, taking a spelling dictation in a second grade reading class, writing an essay, or following homework instructions. Phonology, morpology (parts of words, e.g., ‘hats’), grammar, and syntax are central features of this domain. Form is the means by which we share our ideas when speaking, listening, reading, or writing.

Use, also known as social or pragmatic communication, relies in part on the integration of content and form. It matters not only in a conversation with friends, but also in the academic setting. For example, it is important for comprehension when reading about a character’s intentions or analyzing an author’s purpose. When writing, it guides student intent, leading them to choose words for a persuasive argument that differ from those employed in a narrative. Language use is very complex and subtle. It is all the reasons we speak, attempt to understand, to read, or to write.

As Heather Ironside, Director of Language and Literacy at The Gateway School, explains, “Use really draws the content and form together and is the highest goal of language to be an effective communicator. The foundation of language and literacy upon which our mission was built has never faltered.

Lydia Soifer, Ph.D. Consultant The Gateway School “Consider the statement, ‘Wow, it’s really cold in here!’ This comment correctly brings together vocabulary and grammar, but what is its purpose? Is it to get the listener to do something about the temperature? Is it just an observation? To the language-impaired student, the intent can easily be unclear.”

Students with a language-based learning disability typically misuse pronouns (‘them’ vs. ‘he’), verb tenses (‘drawed’ vs. ‘drew’), and prepositions (‘to’ vs. ‘on’). Their sentence structures are awkward and their word-finding difficulties are pervasive. They overuse ‘do,’ ‘make,’ ‘go,’ and ‘thing.’

The neural network for higher-level vocabulary characterized by categorization, associations between synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms, meaning changes to root words with the substitution of prefixes or suffixes, and more does not develop.

The absence of an expansive vocabulary and grammatical sentence structure caps a student’s ability to express themselves. Rather than describing someone as ‘kind’ or ‘fair’ depending on the situation, everyone is ‘nice’ or ‘very nice’ regardless of context. Similarly, a child may say that their parent always gets ‘mad’ at them, relying on this one word to represent a fuller range of emotions (disappointed, sad, frustrated, irritated) because their vocabulary hasn’t developed as fully as it might.

Communicating wants and needs is hard for a student with a language-based learning disability, just as it is difficult to correctly perceive what others are doing or saying, because the student’s ability to make sense of their experience is compromised. The result is frustration and miscommunication. Often the student feels defeated. This lack of language can also cause a student to plateau in their emotional development.

In the classroom, this lack of higher-order vocabulary does not just manifest in expressive language, but also in how they think about words and concepts. In the brain of a typically developing child, for example, ‘fire truck’ is linked to ‘red’; ‘red’ is also linked to ‘heart,’ ‘passion,’ and ‘danger.’ At higher levels of reading comprehension, a student doesn’t need to be told explicitly why Nathaniel Hawthorne chose to use a scarlet letter, as opposed to a blue one. The student is able to move from a literal understanding of text to an understanding of similes, the interpretation of symbols, or the identification of themes. When there are gaps in the development of this complex language network, the ability to progress to reading levels that require inferencing is impaired. language-impaired students?

At The Gateway School, the core of the curriculum is instruction in language and literacy. “Facility in the use of language—whether thinking, listening, speaking, reading, studying, or writing—is prioritized across the grades. These are the foundations of the cognitive linguistic approach utilized in class instruction.

Cognitive linguistic instruction entails instruction in how to use language for thinking and learning,” says Ms. Ironside.

In a language-rich environment, Lower School students acquire fundamental academic and organizational skills, along with the interpersonal skills essential for success in school and in life. During the elementary school years, the emphasis is on how to learn, and the acquisition of language and literacy skills is paramount. Through their successes in the classroom and as they participate in school life, students develop the self-confidence that inspires them to assume responsibility for their own learning. As awareness of their unique learning needs emerges, Lower School students develop the early skills of selfadvocacy and are ready to meet the challenges of Middle School.

With readiness for college-preparatory high school as their goal, Middle School students continue to focus on language and literacy, as well as applying academic and organizational skills and strategies. This progression enables them to apply the skills and strategies necessary to tackle more complex academic material, learn the value of good study habits, develop sound social values in the face of complicated social experiences, and realize the benefits of contributing to a community. Students reflect regularly on how they learn and become more self-aware. As real accomplishments begin to define Middle School students, their self-confidence grows, and they display greater curiosity and motivation to learn. On the path to becoming strong self-advocates, Middle School students learn how to ask for the specific supports or accommodations that allow them to do their best work.

The foundation of language and literacy upon which our mission was built has never faltered,” explains Sharyn Lico, Gateway’s Director of Academic Support. “A commitment to this approach, consistency in its delivery, and acknowledgment of the importance language plays in all learning has made the school particularly adept at serving the needs of language-impaired students.” n