Lesson Eleven: Division that Leaves No Result: Oracy and Literacy

            In reference to age, one year, three years, four years, and five years are quite significant, no matter which corner of the globe you go.  Ask people if they can guess what happens at those ages, and most will probably be able to tell you:  the ability to listen meaningfully (smiling at the sound of your voice), the beginnings of speech, the ability to read, and then the beginnings of writing.  These steps happen universally.  It is the natural process by which humans develop cognitively. 

And, yet, when it comes to academia, we constantly test, examine, analyze, quiz, drill, pound—you get the picture—two things:  reading and writing.  To give an example, I am a junior in college and, having gone through the entire public school system, have taken over ten standardized tests (read this, write in that), not one of which involved any listening or speaking exercises.  It will not be until my senior year of college that I will be administered a speaking activity, as part of my teaching certification.  It appears to me that—save a few select majors, such as mine—a student may pass through the entire public school system, and even college, without having once been evaluated on his/her listening and speaking abilities.

How, then, do we expect English Language Learners (ELLs) to ever be on the same par as native speakers of English?  It is assumed that they will simply “pick up” skills in listening and speaking in social contexts—a reasonably fair assumption for native speakers, though flawed.  If we feel the need to educate native speakers in academic reading and writing, we take the position that simply acquiring reading and writing skills from social contexts—text messaging, environmental texts, etc.—is insufficient.  By that position, it is our duty to educate students—all students—on how to listen and speak, because what is “picked up” from social contexts does not meet our expectations.  Throw a language barrier into the mix, and you have even higher a demand to instruct students—native speakers or ELLs—on how to listen and speak.