ABSTRACT
Oral language is an integral component of human nature, and the skills of oral language can be taught. Speaking entails sharing an idea or creating a message through spoken words. Excuse the pun, but sometimes this is easier said than done. Oral language develops in a fairly regular order. Lessow-Hurley synthesized the research on early stages of language development between birth and the age of 4 years. After crying, infants begin cooing and then start babbling. Later in this stage, babbling becomes echolaic, which means that the baby is starting to replicate speech sounds in the environment. Researchers and theorists have derived a number of theories of language and its purposes. One of the most useful is M. K. Halliday’s functions of language model that postulates seven functions of children’s language. Achievement gaps are differences in performances between different demographic groups.
