Of course not. In the same way, educators must ensure that young learners have a language foundation in place before they learn to read.
Reading requires a learner to translate written text into meaningful oral language.
Thus, it is critical for learners to have strong oral language skills before reading instruction begins. Without a good command of oral language, reading has no foundation upon which to develop and expand. Once oral language is firmly established, it is much easier to introduce reading and the probability of reading success is much greater. When formal reading instruction begins, the goal is to help learners become independent readers, to give them tools that will enable them to unlock words on their own. Readers cannot successfully attack unfamiliar words if they are not aware that words have sounds, that those sounds can be manipulated, and that graphic symbols represent those sounds.