In the famous fifteen year "Bristol Study," in which sociolinquist Gordon Wells observed a representative sampling of children from the utterances of their first words until the end of their elementary education, he concluded that of all the worthwhile activities helpful in the acquisition of literacy, only one is significantly more beneficial than all the others. That activity? Listening to Stories! Why is listening to stories so beneficial?
(1) In listening to stories read aloud, children are already beginning to gain experience with the sustained meaning-building organization of written language and its rhythms and structures. When they read books for themselves, they will find the language familiar.
(2) Through stories, children vicariously extend the range of their experience far beyond the limits of their immediate surroundings. In the process, they develop a much richer mental model of the world and a vocabulary with which to communicate about it.
(3) Stories provide an excellent starting point for collaborative talk--between a child and parent or a student and teacher. As the adult helps the child explore his or her own world in light of what happens in the story, the child begins to understand the significance of his or her own experiences. This gives validation for the child's own inner story--that internal mode of meaning-making which is as deeply rooted in human nature as language itself.
Your post brings to mind our current reading issue. The kids, 4 and 6, loved The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Of course, who doesn't? They heard there were other Narnia books and wanted to read them. I, assuming they were all written on the same reading level, picked the next one and we dove into The Horse and His Boy. Within the first chapter, I could tell this was way above their listening level. I was having to explain far too much and letting a good bit soar over their heads. I gave them the chance to put it aside for a couple of years and read something else now. They wouldn't have it. The basic plot arc--boy and talking horse trying to escape back to Narnia--was enough to have captured them. The difficult dialogue and narration didn't stop them from NEEDING to find out what would happen. Your post is a reassurance that all that is not understood is not lost. They are, as you say "gaining experience" and one day when they read similar writing they will "find the language familiar". It is not, after all, soaring over their heads...it's being stored IN their heads, though not fully decoded.
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