The role of oral language in reading and writing skills

Cilj ovog rada je ispitati doprinos razvijenosti usmenog jezika u vještinama čitanja i pisanja kod djece u drugim i trećim razredima osnovnih škola u Zagrebu i okolici uz kontrolu dobi, spola djeteta i obrazovanja njihovih roditelja. Usmeni jezik odnosi se na procjene učiteljica o tome koliko je djeci bogat rječnik, koliko rado govore, koliko kreativno koriste jezik, koliko razumiju usmeni govor, koliko dobro prepričavaju događaje i priče te koliko jasno govore. Za ispitivanje čitanja i pisanja, koristili smo tri testa: Test nizova riječi, Test diktata i Test razumijevanja čitanja. Rezultati su pokazali kako djevojčice, za razliku od dječaka, i djeca obrazovanijih roditelja bolje rješavaju testove čitanja i pisanja te su procijenjeni uspješnijima u usmenom jeziku. Starija djeca uspješnije rješavaju testove čitanja i pisanja, ali u procjenama usmenog jezika se ne razlikuju od mlađe djece. Hijerarhijskom regresijskom analizom pokazali smo kako usmeni jezik, uz kontrolu spola i stručne spreme roditelja, značajno doprinosi u predviđanju razultata u testovima i u drugim i u trećim razredima. U trećim razredima taj je doprinos manji.The aim of this study is to examine contribution of oral language in reading and writing skills in children in second and third grades of grammar school with variations in age, sex, and educational level of parents. The categories of oral language include teacher's evaluation of children's level of vocabulary, their wish to speak, their creativity in the use of words, their ability to understand spoken words of others, their ability to re-tell stories and events and how clearly they talk. Three different Tests were used to examine reading and writing skills: Word Chains Test, Spelling Test and Reading comprehension test. Results showed that girls and children of parents with higher education scored better in reading and writing tests, and the level of development of oral language is higher. Regarding age differences, older children had better results in reading and writing tests, while there are no evident differences in their oral evaluations to the ones of younger children. Through hierarchical multiple regression analysis, we showed that oral language with the gender and parents' education level controlled for, significantly explains the variance in reading and writing skills of children in second and third grades. That contribution is lower on the reading and writing skills of thirdgrade children