Creating a learning culture: Making it work in the classroom - NALDIC

Rose also suggests that ‘by the time children enter school, theirlanguage skills are considerably advanced . They already understandmuch of what is said to them and can express their ideas so that otherscan understand them.’ Though they need to continue furtherdevelopment in areas of vocabulary and syntax, they are likely to beproficient language users.The diagrammatic representation below (Rose 2006) shows thecomponents of comprehension for spoken and written language.section 2ComprehensionprocessesGeneralknowledgeWritten wordidentificationLanguagesystemVisual inputVocabularyWhen children learn to read, the comprehension processes they useto understand written text are the same as those they already use tounderstand spoken messages – written text is accessed via the eyesrather than the ears.While the above is true for speakers of English as a mother tonguelearning to read, children learning English as an additional languageare learning to understand what is said to them and to express theirideas to be understood while learning to read words. Early readerslearning English as an additional language will require plannedteaching and opportunities to understand the language they hearand read.Primary National Strategy | 2133-2006DCL-EN | © Crown copyright 2006Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching for bilingual children in the primary yearsUnit 2: Creating the learning culture: making it work in the classroom 33