LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DURING THE SCHOOL YEARS AND BEYOND

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DURING THE SCHOOL YEARS

AND BEYOND

For exam:**

• No test questions on McLaughlin pp. 350-bottom of p. 359

• Emphasis is on the bottom of p. 359 starting at Semantics: Growth and Changes till the end of the chapter

I. DEVELOPMENT IN RELATED DOMAINS**

• 6 years—express own feelings and empathy for others’ feelings

Onset of puberty at around 12 years

• Voice changes

• 14 years—increase abilities in abstract reasoning and problem-solving

II. IMPORTANCE OF INCREASIING ACADEMIC SKILLS**

• Burke, 2012 “Spotlight on poverty and opportunity”

• http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org

Burke, 2012:

Youtube…Why Teachers Drink

We need to implement common core standards into our tx:

• Working w/ school-aged students, we need to write our goals to these standards and help students achieve them

III. DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS:

SEMANTICS**

• First graders are capable of understanding about 20,000 words

• By 6th grade, students understand about 50,000 words

• Students learn new words, and they also recognize additional features of words; they discover additional meanings of words

• **Horizontal development—process of associating additional features with a word.

• E.g., “father” originally referred to the child’s dad

• Now, he knows that other children have fathers, and maybe he even calls God “Father”

• Catholic--priest is called “Father”

Another example—dogs:**

• Family dog

• Different breeds, ages of dogs—neighbors, parks

• Police dogs—direct experience

• Stuffed animals, books

• **Vertical development —learning multiple meanings of words

• “Rock” can mean different things

• “Pound” can also mean different things

• **Thematic organization —used early in life. It is based on associations that relate words to some integrated context in which they are experienced as a whole

• Children assemble groupings based on themes

• For example, the word “slide” might go with playground, swings, sandbox, friends, recess

• The word “cake” might go with birthday, candles, presents, games

• **Taxonomic organization —later in school years--based on associations or classifications in which items share features that define them as a class.

• Students use categories (overall labels)

• For example, when given the word “cake,” the student would categorize this as a dessert and give related items like cookies, ice cream, pie

• “Slide” would be categorized as playground equipment, and go with swings, monkey bars

What other categories do elementary kids need to develop?

On page 363…**

• You will not be tested on the terms subordinate categories and superordinate categories

• **Convergent semantic production —production of a specific word is prompted by other words that point to it.

• Clinician: “Listen to these words: smoke, alarm, siren, flames, hoses, ladders…what word does all this make you think of?”

• Student: A firetruck.

**Convergent and divergent semantic production….

• Are very important to academic success

• State standardized tests also tap these abilities

• I work on these skills in therapy!

IV. LANGUAGE SKILLS IN THE SCHOOL SETTING**

• A. Pragmatics

• Presuppositional skills and style shifting continue to become more refined

• Topic shading develops as children mature in their ability to subtly shift topic

In topic shading…**

• A subsequent utterance maintains one aspect of the previous utterance but shifts to a related topic

• In other words: you subtly change the subject

• Speaker A: How about this weather?**

• Speaker B: This rain is really something.

• Speaker A: Yeah, all this rain has been great for my lawn and roses.

• (weird and unsubtle: “My roses are beautiful.”)

• Speaker B: What kind of roses do you grow?

• Speaker A: I really liked watching the Olympics this year.**

• Speaker B: Yeah, the swimming was awesome. I’m taking swimming lessons.

• (weird and unsubtle): I’m taking swimming lessons. They’re fun.

• Speaker B: Where do you take the lessons?

It is crucial to help students with pragmatics as they grow older**

ASHA Schools Conference 2012: Pamela Wiley—In middle school:

B. Classroom Language**• 1. Teacher language:

• Diminished presupposition (less background explanation): teachers assume children know a certain body of knowledge

• Highly decontextualized, addressed to group

Teacher language…**• Expository; relatively structured information

presented in a logical and tutorial manner

Teacher language also…**

• May be directed to the whiteboard or overhead, not to kids

• May be very fast

• Mark’s teachers have always spoken very rapidly

Hulit et al., 2015:

2. Textbook language**

By second grade, text grammar

Books written in structured, formal way

Often very different from language students experience outside of school, especially if they are low-SES

Justice, 2012 ASHA Schools Conference

Justice 2012—we need to teach Tier 2 words

C. Narratives**

• Young children use plots— central organizing themes of stories, and include: – -Story setting

-Story episode

As young as 5 years old, students use unfocused chains; the events and elements of the story relate to each other, but are not well organized under an overall plot

• **By 9 years old, children use focused chains —these have central characters and true sequences of events, but not the characters’ internal plans or intentions

• Complete narratives are used next, where characters complete their goals

• Complex narratives —adolescence—many subplots

V. METALINGUISTIC ABILITIES**

• Definition—speaker’s ability to make a conscious evaluation of lang. behavior

• 1. Segmentation: speakers analyze stream of language into linguistic units such as phonemes, syllables, words

2. Understanding Figurative Language**

• Figurative language consists of utterances that convey meaning by suggesting a connection between two contexts that share features or relationships

• People use figurative language to evoke mental images in the minds of their listeners or to emphasize something in an interesting way

**

• Types of figurative language are similes, metaphors, idioms, and proverbs

• In McLaughlin, the definitions of idioms and proverbs are so similar that on the exam, I am referring to them as proverbs

A simile:**Directly states an analogous relationship

“Your lips are like pedals—bicycle pedals.”

“Your teeth are like stars—they come out at night.”

“She’s as light as a feather.”

A metaphor:**

• Implies an analogous relationship

• Love is a rose.

• He’s a bull in a china shop.

• She’s a kid in a candy store.

Idioms/Proverbs:**• Short, analogous statements that express

advice or truths

“The early bird gets the worm.”

• “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

• “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”

More proverbs:• Act normal, because everyone is crazy

already (Dutch)

• The nail that sticks its head up gets hammered down (Japan)

• Every tree has its roots, and all water has its source (Vietnamese)

Filipino proverbs (thanks to Chantelle!)**

• It is better to live in a nipa hut if a good person dwells there than to live in a palace with an arrogant person

• Before trying to clean the dirt off others, be aware of your own dirt

• Before you get into someone’s business, take a good look at yourself in the mirror

• If you are not proud of your native language, you are but a stinky fish. Be proud of your culture!

More proverbs (other cultures):

3. Understanding Ambiguity**• Two or more interpretations are possible for the

same utterance.

• “The man saw the girl looking through the telescope.”

“I have my earring back.”

• “She is an ancient history professor.”

• “She’s looking blue.”

• “I could use some change.”

4. Word awareness**• Understanding

that referents can have multiple names

• E.g, a small container we drink liquid out of = a glass, cup, or mug

Shoes: **• In the Philippines, there is one word: zapatos

• In the U.S. High heels, tennis shoes, sneakers, slingbacks, pumps, sandals, mules, penny loafers, boots, flipflops, clogs, stilettos, platforms, espadrilles, booties

VI. LANGUAGE FOR LITERACY

Pages 388 and 389**

• Are not on the exam

Joffe & Black, 2012 (Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 10/12)

Reading Development**

• Bottom-up model in early stages, associated with the phonics approach

– graphemesphonemes words sentences ideas

• Top-down model in later stages—extract meaning from text—associated with the whole language approach

Writing Development

For example:**

• My dog’s name is Cocoa

• MI DG NM Z KO

The Common Core State Standards…

From a 3rd grade reader

This is narrative (story), not expository

.

•

Grade 5 Standard 3: Summarize the points a speaker makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons and evidence.

Grade 9 Standard 3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Examples—not on exam

VII. SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH LITERACY DIFFICULTIES

SUPER POWER READING STRATEGIES**Before I read:

Look at the title, headings, and picturesLook at any words in italics or boldface

Read the summary at the end of the chapter

While I read:

Visualize what I read; make detailed pictures in my brainAsk myself questions about what I’m reading

Predict what will happen nextHighlight key ideas

After I have read the whole thing:

Look at the title, headings, and pictures againRead over my highlights

Ask questions about what I have just readSummarize what I have just read in my own words

VII. CHANGES ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN**

• Lose hearing

• Develop additional registers, or styles of communication

• Add to vocabulary

• Decline in word retrieval skills; use of more general rather than specific terms (e.g., dog/border collie)

Three nonlanguage cognitive abilities that impact language for older people are:

Owens 2014

Berko Gleason & Ratner 2013