About Language

Language is a code that students learn to communicate ideas and express wants and needs. Reading, writing, speaking and gesture are all forms of language.

Language is the basis for all human communication and is fundamental to thinking and learning. In the classroom, students use language to present ideas and communicate through the understanding and use of vocabulary, concepts and grammatical forms that "fit" specific activities.

Language enables students to:

• Participate in class discussions and build relationships
• Reflect and think
• Express feelings and ideas
• Plan, control and guide their actions
• Problem solve, develop logical relationships and make explanations
• Create and recreate
• Remember and recall
• Ask questions
• Develop reading, writing and spelling.

By the time they arrive at school most children are able to understand and express a variety of meanings and intentions. They can initiate and take part in conversations with teachers and peers. They can present and respond to ideas. They now have the building blocks for academic learning in place and are ready to interact with a curriculum that requires them to listen, speak, write and read.

Communication skills are embedded within The New Zealand Curriculum Key Competencies (2007)

 Some examples from the Key Competencies (p 12-13):

• Thinking: Students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions.
• Using Language, symbols, texts: Students who are competent users of language, symbols,and texts can interpret and use words, number, images, movement, metaphor, and technologies in a range of contexts.
• Relating to others: ..  includes the ability to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.
• Participating and contributing: .. includes the capacity to contribute appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for others in the group.

New Zealand Curriculum states the importance of language in all of the learning areas:

Each learning area has its own language or languages. As students discover how to use them, they find they are able to think in different ways, access new areas of knowledge, and see their world from new perspectives (p. 16).