The study of language arts plays a crucial role in an individual’s overall development. At its root, language arts is all about communication. We send messages to others by speaking or writing. We receive messages by reading, or carefully listening to what others have to say in a way that fosters understanding, empathy, and increased knowledge. 

Language arts are important because they:

1. Enable us to connect with others. 

2. Help us organize and clarify our own thoughts. 

3. Allow us to share information & learn from others. 

Connection fills one of the most basic of human needs. We have an inherent need to feel loved, accepted, understood, and have a sense of belonging or shared identity. Meaningful relationships have a profoundly positive impact on our mental, emotional, and even physical well-being. This connection comes as we communicate our thoughts, feelings, and experiences with others. While it is true that non-verbal communication can play a role in our relationships with others, the ability to use language, whether spoken or written, is crucial in sharing ourselves and connecting with other people.

Language also helps us organize and clarify our thoughts. Recording our experiences in journals can assist us in making sense of our feelings. Organizing ideas into a structured outline or essay can help us analyze information, refine our logic and form opinions based on that information.

Language arts further allow us to share information. Sharing information is a critical part of human development. Societies depend on the ability to communicate. Societies advance when we learn from other people, building on what they have already learned, rather than having to discover everything for ourselves. Throughout the centuries, individuals have gathered and recorded information so it can be accessed and utilized by future generations. Our advances in all fields of science & engineering, as well as politics, medicine, psychology, and human relationships, occur as people record and share what they have learned. In short, our insight into life is expanded as we share our thoughts and experiences with others, and they share their experiences with us. This is why great literature is important. Great literature helps us feel emotions and experience things that might normally be out of reach (read more about The Power of Great Literature). 

Thus, language arts—communication— is critical to both our emotional health and personal development, learning, and growth as human beings. When we teach language arts, we are providing basic tools for helping students connect and collaborate with others. Children who have a solid foundation in language arts are more likely to excel in all of their academic endeavors. We start teaching language arts the day a child is born and ideally, continually build on that foundation, expanding their ability to communicate effectively throughout their life.