Phonics is the method of teaching reading by matching the sounds to letters. Children learn how to sound out words, but this does not ensure they understand them. For example, a child might decode the word "enormous" correctly but fail to grasp that it means "very big." Without oral language development, reading becomes a mechanical process rather than a meaningful one.

Why this matters: The National Reading Panel (2000) emphasized that phonics is just one component of effective reading instruction. Explicit vocabulary instruction and oral discussions enhance comprehension and meaning-making skills.

The solution: Teachers should integrate explicit vocabulary instruction into phonics lessons. Read-alouds, word games, and morphological awareness activities (breaking words into prefixes, roots, and suffixes) can help deepen understanding (Carlisle, 2000).  

Really Great Reading products integrate phonics and vocabulary instruction for a robust supplemental solution, helping students decode and understand words. Explore our solutions today! 

Lexical knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension. Students with a limited repertoire of words struggle to understand what they read, even if they can decode words accurately.

Why this matters: Dr. Hollis Scarborough invented the Reading Rope model in the early 1990’s. Scarborough’s Reading Rope highlights vocabulary and background knowledge as key strands of language comprehension, directly impacting reading fluency and understanding.

The solution: Engage students in oral discussions about books, encourage them to use new words in conversation, and introduce morphology instruction (e.g., teaching how "happy" becomes "happiness") to help them recognize word patterns (Carlisle, 2000).

Read more about Vocabulary Development vs. Oral Language Development in our blog. 

Fluency is more than reading quickly—it involves accuracy, expression, and comprehension. When students struggle with oral language, they often read in a choppy, robotic manner, failing to recognize natural phrasing and meaning.

Why this matters: Scarborough’s Reading Rope model identifies fluency as the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Students who develop strong oral language skills read with better prosody (intonation and expression) and understand texts more effectively.

The solution: Encourage read-alouds, repeated readings, and oral storytelling to help students develop fluency and expression in reading. 

Understanding how sentences are constructed is essential for grasping meaning in complex texts. Students with weak oral language skills often struggle with syntactic awareness, which makes it difficult to follow sentence structures in reading.

Example: Simple: The dog ran outside.

Complex: Despite the rain, the dog eagerly ran outside.

A student unfamiliar with oral sentence complexity may decode the second sentence word by word but fail to understand its whole meaning.

Why this matters: David Kilpatrick (2015) highlights that students need explicit instruction in oral syntax to develop comprehension skills, particularly for academic texts and content-area reading.

The solution: Use sentence-building activities, oral discussions, and sentence-mapping exercises to help students recognize patterns in complex sentences. 

Readers must connect what they read to prior knowledge. Students who lack background knowledge about a topic struggle with comprehension, even if they can decode every word in the text.

A student might read a passage about volcanoes fluently but struggle to grasp its meaning without prior exposure. Without hearing or discussing concepts like magma, eruptions, or tectonic plates, students can decode the words but might find it challenging to make meaningful connections. This underscores the need for explicit oral language instruction to build the vocabulary and syntactic awareness essential for deep comprehension, especially in academic reading.

Why this matters: The National Reading Panel (2000) stressed that background knowledge significantly impacts reading comprehension. Oral discussions help students build conceptual understanding before reading.

The solution: Engage students in verbal conversations about different topics before introducing new texts, encouraging them to ask and answer questions about what they read to enhance their learning. 

By integrating oral language development with phonics, vocabulary instruction, and morphological awareness, educators can provide students with the essential tools for deep reading comprehension. Research from Scarborough, Kilpatrick, Carlisle, and the National Reading Panel underscores that strong oral language skills are the foundation for fluency, syntactic awareness, and background knowledge—critical components of literacy success. When students actively engage in discussions, explore word structures, and connect reading to prior knowledge, they move beyond decoding to truly understanding and engaging with texts. 

References: 
Carlisle, J. F. (2000). Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words. Reading and Writing, 12, 169-190. 
Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Wiley. 
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. 
Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, 1, 97-110.