Essential Questions
Ch. 7:
1. How do linguistis analyze words?
2. How do new words enter a language?
Ch. 8:
3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
4. How can teachers help English Language Learners acquire academic vocabulary?
5 . How does morphology apply to both reading and second language teaching?
6. What does it mean to know a word?
Key Terms
Morphology- the study of wordsMorpheme- the smallest meaningful unit or part of a word
Cognate- words that come from the same root
Conversational English- language of everyday coersation; language is embedded in a rich context
Academic Language- generally more cognitively demanding; often with less contextual support
Krashen's Natural Order Hypothesis- says that people acquire components of a second language in a natural order and is based on morpheme studies
Syntax- how a word functions in a sentence
Semantics-definition and/or synonyms of a word
Pragmatics-real-word use of a word
Assignments for January 15, 2013
1. Read Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. Really focus on Chapter 8 for Teaching Implications for your reflection 4.
2. Watch YouTube Video
3. In 200-300 words each, please answer 3 of the Essential Questions above (Due Jan 15 by 8:00pm) and comment on 2 of your colleagues's posts (Due Jan 22, 2013 by 4:30 pm).
Attach your questions with your blog so that others may have a frame of reference when responding.
4. Write Reflection 4 from Chapter 8. What did you learn 1/2 page? What did it mean 1/2 page? How will you apply your knowledge to the classroom 1 page? (Due January 22, 2013 4:30 pm)
5. Take Online Quiz: http://buckhoff.topcities.com/morphologyquizzes.htm
Supplemental Reading/Watching to help with your Reflection 4:
1. In this entry, Carolyn
Eddy offers suggestions for teaching Spanish-speaking students to more
quickly grasp English by exploiting cognates and by teaching high frequency
academic words that do not share the same root. She draws from research and
from her own secondary and post-secondary experiences as a language learner.
Carolyn recently completed her undergraduate work in Spanish Language and
Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in only three years,
including a semester of study in Seville, Spain.
2. (Watch this marvelous little video
on word formation or visit Popular
Linguistics Online where Corrine McCarthy (George Mason University) neatly
summarizes how words are formed through morphological
processes.)
3. Students who understand how words are formed, by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots, tend to have larger vocabularies and better reading comprehension. In a recent study of a group of elementary school students – many of whom are English language learners – HGSE Assistant Professor Nonie Lesaux examined how some student readers use this insight to build a successful reading strategy. Lesaux suggests four ways in which morphology – this technique of viewing words as a combination of parts – can become an instructional tool for all students.
Read More --> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC102-407.html
3. Students who understand how words are formed, by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots, tend to have larger vocabularies and better reading comprehension. In a recent study of a group of elementary school students – many of whom are English language learners – HGSE Assistant Professor Nonie Lesaux examined how some student readers use this insight to build a successful reading strategy. Lesaux suggests four ways in which morphology – this technique of viewing words as a combination of parts – can become an instructional tool for all students.
Read More --> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC102-407.html
basic information on morphology with examples
Ch. 7:
ReplyDelete1. How does linguistics analyze words?
Words are accepted as being the smallest units of a sentence (syntax). It is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules. For example, English speakers know that the words dog, dogs, and dog-catcher are closely related. English speakers simply know these relations from their personal experience (tacit knowledge) of the rules of word formation in English. They simply know that dog is to dogs as cat is to cats. They know that dog is to dog-catcher as dish is to dishwasher. These rules come from specific patterns in the way words are formed from smaller units and how those smaller units work together in speech. Morphology is the part of linguistics that studies patterns of word formation within and across languages. Morphology tries to formulate rules that show the knowledge of the speakers of those languages. The more reading and writing experiences children have in school, the more they learn about the structure of words, and the more accomplished they become at using structural analysis to read long words.
Ch. 8:
3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
“The best way to teach vocabulary is to make it meaningful to students.” I’m sure you’ve here this saying before in your teaching careers. The question most teachers ask themselves is “how.” How do you make vocabulary meaningful to students that don’t know what the word means? Most vocabulary instruction involves looking up the words, copying the definition, and writing a sentence. It’s fast, easy, but not always effective. Definitions are perfect for familiar concepts. If students already know a synonym, the teacher can give a brief explanation during the lesson. This helps students learn the word in context without interrupting the lesson. Most teachers already use this strategy. Freeman and Freeman (2004) write that acquire more words by reading. I agree. The best way to help students increase their vocabulary is to provide opportunities for them to hear and read more words. When students encounter new words, they need the skills to figure out the meaning on their own. The important thing to realize is that vocabulary learning is incremental. Students need many encounters with a word to understand it, with each new encounter helping them to refine their own understanding.
4. How can teachers help English Language Learners acquire academic vocabulary?
Since ESL students speak a different language at home, some of them do not know the meanings of simple English words and phrases, and it can be difficult for teachers to communicate with them and vice versa. Teachers have to understand every individual student's level of language proficiency and educational history. If students already understand the concept in their own language, the word would be easier to learn because it would only be a new label for an existing concept they already understand. In addition, vocabulary lessons can be interesting, fun, and rewarding for both the students and the teacher. However, they can become boring and counter-productive if they are not organized in a proper way. When teaching vocabulary to ESL students, the teacher has to remember that the goal is for the students to be able to understand and use the words and expressions they've learnt in different contexts. For example, teachers should also take advantage of transition times. Every morning after morning assembly, students would tell the principal to “Have a nice day!” After doing a lesson on the synonyms of nice, students changed their greeting every week. Instead of having a nice day, they said “Have a wonderful day!”
In question 3 you described how new vocabulary is most effectively learned. This approach is very similar to what it means to truly know a word. Both approaches require that we give the students opportunites to use the word orally and see it in written form. A multi-faceted approach is necessary to the student so they can see, use, and apply the word in various contexts. I think station-teaching would be an effective activity for a student to get a definition at one station, use it in a sentence in another, draw a picture at the following station, and so on. The student would be exposed to multiple ways the word is seen and used and how each of those uses contributes to meaning.
DeleteAfter reading Question 4 I recalled what we discussed in one of our small group discussions during our last meeting. In order to better teach English, we need to know the proficiency level our students have in Spanish or their first language. Anytime we can attach meaning from the second language to the first language we stand a better chance for that knowledge to become long-term in nature and give the student a better chance to use it in context properly.
DeleteSimone,
DeleteIn Question 8, I agree that the best way to increase vocabulary is to make it meaningful. However, I would also add make it exciting and relative to their world. Students will rise to the occasion if they see the need and will want to grab hold to it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete(regarding Chapter 8, question #4)
DeleteSimone,
I really like what you had to say about building skills during transition, or "down" time. One thing we have to remember about many of our ELL students is that they are trying to learn new life skills along with academic knowledge. I think that allowing a lot of time for ELLs to interact with English speakers in non-academic environments would be great, perhaps even allowing them to go on field trips where the primary focus is on communication. I feel like exposure is one of the things that hurts our ELL students when it comes to academic vocab because they're simply not exposed to enough of the most basic parts of the English language at home. It's hard to make connections with words that students need to know when even the most basic words and phrases have barely been practiced by the student. I feel that some of our ELLs need an environment where these basics can be cultivated so that when they enter the classroom and we try to build connections with vocabulary, everyone can be successful.
Simone,
DeleteI agree with your comment about allowing the students to understand the words in different contexts. It would be great to give the students some "real world" experience using the words, not just in class. I know of some teachers that require the students to use vocabulary words at home, bringing in a record signed by their parents for homework. We could also provide incentives for students to use new vocabulary words in class or in their writing outside of the specific vocabulary lesson. Usually, I praise students, or at least acknowledge, when they use vocabulary words, but an specific and regulated incentive could increase the motivation to challenge themselves to use new words.
Question 1- How do linguists analyze words?
ReplyDeleteLinguists analyze words by their structure. Morphemes, the smallest part of a word, are both free and bound in nature. Free morphemes are words that have meaning and can stand alone and convey that meaning. Bound morphemes are added to free or bound morphemes to create different meanings. Bound morphemes cannot be written as separate words. Linguists have difficulty in defining words. In written language it’s fairly straight forward as to what constitutes a word and what doesn’t. In oral language it’s much more difficult. The use of words tends to be more related to written language than oral language. The way that people speak changes the actual structure of how the word is used in written language when compared to how it is used in oral language. English is considered an analytic language. This refers to the use of a single morpheme to represent a word and morphemes are not bound to one another. Other languages are called synthetic languages. These languages, like Latin for example, add a lot in inflections into their words. Before a linguist can determine if a language is analytic or synthetic, they must determine if they are agglutinative or polysynthetic. Agglutinative languages combine many morphemes into one word. The parts are attached together but the morphemes do not change. Polysynthetic languages use many morphemes to create meaning. The primary difference in the two languages is that synthetic language can change the form of the morphemes while analytic languages do not. Linguists have to deal with conflicting ways different languages use words and the structure necessary to create them, so it makes it difficult to create a uniform way of defining what actually defines a word.
Question 2- How do new words enter a language?
New words enter languages by various methods. Some are created by using word formation rules while others are created using a morphological process called derivation. Teach and teacher for example. Teach is a verb. When the –er is added it changes the verb teach to the noun teacher. Other words are blended together out of necessity. An example in the book referred to a spork. Some innovative marketer one day decided to combine a plastic spoon and fork together and create one item to take care of two jobs. This reduced the cost to the manufacturer and to the consumer. What to name it? Combine the word fork and spoon together to coin a new word in spork. Word formation rules are responsible for many of the new words that enter a language. Adding derivational affixes to root words (prefixes or suffixes that change the meaning of a word) and word formation rules is the primary method new words get formed. English presents new language learners difficulty because it uses several different prefixes to convey the same meaning. The prefixes un- and ir- both convey negative meaning. Imagine the difficulty of a new language learner when two different morphemes mean the exact same thing just said differently.
Question 2
DeleteWhen we use language we try to categorise the world around us by assigning a term to a concept. In the same way, when you hears a word, you tends to have a mental image of it. Things are classified in linguistics in much the same way as everywhere else, that is, on the basis of similarity. New words enter a language by decoding and from building vocabulary. When ELL tudents begin to understand words at the morphemic level, they are better able to get the meaning of words and are better prepared to deal with the increased reading and writing demands across the curriculum and content areas. Good readers use their knowledge of morphological structure to recognize complex words and to build they vocabulary.
Mr. Lacy,
DeleteIt is true that English can be confusing since prefixes and suffixes often have multiple meanings, or more than one prefix or suffix can mean the same thing. Last week in class we worked on prefixes and suffixes, and many students, including EL students, had trouble. For example, when asked to write a word with the suffix -er, as in "one who," some students wrote words like "soccer" or "under." I realized that just recognizing these suffixes is not a deep enough level of understanding for the students to find that knowledge practically useful.
Question 6- What does it mean to know a word?
ReplyDeleteAcquiring vocabulary from reading is the most efficient way to truly know a word because students gain a more complete meaning of how the word was used in context as opposed to just knowing the definition. Simply knowing what a word’s definition is doesn’t mean a new language learner can use it properly in an academic setting. Linguists maintain that in order to know a word you must have morphological, phonological, sematic, syntactic, and pragmatic information. The only way this is achieved is to see and hear the word in a variety of contexts. Phonological awareness refers to someone that can recognize a word during reading but not being to reproduce the word orally. The ability to recognize the word visually and reproduce the sound exactly is one aspect of knowing a word. Another aspect of knowing a word is the ability to know the morphological application of a word. Knowing how derivational affixes change meaning also influences of a word is actually known. The syntactic use of words is another aspect of knowing a word. Knowing if a word is being used as an adjective or noun is important in the overall knowing of a word. How it functions in a sentence is part of the overall knowledge of the word. Semantic information is yet another aspect of knowing a word. Being able to define a word and give a synonym is the basic test of semantic knowledge. Pragmatic knowledge refers to real-world use of a word. English learners often struggle with this aspect of knowing a word. The book used the word dude as an example. A student may see that dude refers to a male. What they don’t know is that in a more formal setting that greeting may be inappropriate when talking to adults. Knowing a word is a very complex and time consuming process. In the classroom, we can now see that simply defining a word doesn’t mean that much in isolation. Taking it through each of these aspects and putting some context with the definition is the most effective way in helping an English learner truly know the meaning of a word.
I agree with you, Mr. Lacy, that students need to have a morphological, phonological, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic understanding of a word for them to really "know" the word. It does students no good to have all these definitions of vocabulary terms in their heads if they cannot correctly use them in a sentence. In order to give them the exposure needed to gain a true understanding of vocabulary, we must provide numerous examples from which they can see how words should be used in different contexts.
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ReplyDeleteCh. 7
ReplyDelete#2. How do new words enter a language?
As Andrews (2001) states in Chapter 7, new words enter a language in a number of ways such as compounding, clipping, creating acronyms, blending, back- formation, and borrowing. In the process called coining, someone makes up a name for an object and the name sticks to that object. For example, a common name, kleenex began as a proper noun, Kleenex but now the word applies to almost any brand of facial tissue. Also, many of the new words that entered English language are related to computers like a mouse and desktop, which are now assigned to existing words. English contains many compound words. Some of these words are written as one word such as teacup and cupboard where as other words are hyphenated such as mother- in- law. Another type of compound words is written as two words such as grocery store. Both clipping and acronyms are abbreviated forms of words. Clipping occurs when a word is shortened, such as mathematics, which is shortened into math. Acronyms are words made up of the first letters of the words such as scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Some English words are created by blending two words, such as brunch (breakfast + lunch). Back formation is the process where verbs are created from nouns. For example, the verb peddle was created from the noun peddler. Many English words were borrowed from other languages. For example, the word ‘tea’ was borrowed from Chinese whereas the word ‘golf’ was borrowed from Dutch.
Ch. 8
ReplyDelete#3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
One of the effective ways to increase students’ vocabulary is to involve the students in activities that help them build concepts. Those activities help students build concepts along with the vocabulary used to express those concepts. Activities designed to build concepts can help students comprehend the text. For example, when students are reading a story which has the word ‘oxygen’ in it, simply pre-teaching this word by having students define oxygen or having them write a sentence using the word doesn’t help build the background they need. According to Hoyt (2002), a good approach to helping students build both the concepts and vocabulary they need in order to read text is frontloading. Frontloading involves learning about something, talking about it, wondering about it, and then reading and writing about it. Students acquire vocabulary as they read and write. They develop vocabulary during reading rather than through the study of vocabulary. Also, students develop their vocabulary by extensive reading because repeated exposure to a word helps a person to develop a full understanding of the word. Many researches show that for children who do a fair amount of independent reading and natural learning process could lead to the acquisition of five to ten thousand words a year.
Ch. 8
#6. What does it mean to know a word?
Knowing a word involves students develop a more complete understanding of the word than just memorizing the definition. From a linguistic perspective, knowing a word means having phonological, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic information. In phonological information, a person may be able to recognize a word during reading without being able to pronounce it. Some words such as ‘anemone’ may be used only in person’s reading and writing but not in his or her listening or speaking vocabulary. Knowing a word means knowing the derivational affixes it combines with to produce complex words. Sometimes, words differ in the deviational affixes they take. For example, the adjective “humble” becomes humility as a noun, not humbleness. This is morphological information. In syntactic information, part of knowing a word is knowing how it functions in a sentence. For example, a word ‘blessed’ can be a verb (The priest blessed the couple.) or an adjective (It was a blessed event.). When someone talks about knowing a word, he usually means that he can define the word or give a synonym. This is sematic information. Finally, in pragmatic information, knowing a word means using that word in real-world situations. Also, knowing a word involves using that word appropriately. For example, a word ‘dude’ could be informal while the same person may be referred to as ‘sir’ in a more formal situation.
Question 3 -
DeleteI am using frontloading strategies to prepare students for learning new material. Theis is a good teaching strategy because it prepare students for what they are about to learn. By previewing the text, students can activate prior knowledge and make connections from the text to real life experience; while teachers can pre-teach vocabulary and other reading strategies. This is an excellent way to build on students' word bank and at the same time relate to the social, cultural, and historical facts within a lesson.
Essential Questions #1, #2, and #4
ReplyDelete(1) Morphology is the study of words. However, linguists find it difficult to define the term word. Whether written or spoken orally, decisions about what constitute a word becomes very difficult to make. They also find the task of defining a word difficult because words can be broken down into smaller meaningful parts. This leads to classifying languages based upon how words are formed.
Since it is hard for linguists to define words as well as to classify languages, they analyze words through a pattern that is referred to as word formation rules. Linguists suggest that these rules are descriptive of the regular processes in language. Every word that follows these rules also follows the same sound change, category change and meaning change. These rules also help people determine new words.
(2) Through the word formation rules, new words are derived by adding prefixes to base words. For example, un – can be added to adjectives to form words like unhappy , unusual, unkept, etc. New words enter language in a number of ways. Some are coined, by combining words, by clipping, by blending, by back formation, and through borrowing from other languages. English has a large vocabulary and new words are created daily.
(3) The best way to increase vocabulary is through reading. Research supports a number of programs like sustained reading (SSR) because students see words many times as they read, and repeated encounters with words leads to acquisition. And, students acquire many more words through reading more than they could possibly learn through direct teaching of vocabulary.
How do Linguists analyze words?
ReplyDeleteThe concept of word seems to be more associated with written language than spoken language. This is why Linguists have difficulty to find the term word. Words can be broken into smaller meaningful parts called morphemes. There are two kinds of morphemes called free and bound. Free morphemes are units that can’t stand alone as a word by themselves such as the word tree. Bound morphemes are units that must be attached or bound to a free morpheme. In the word trees, the s is the bound morpheme. Bound morphemes in English are either prefixes or suffixes. An affix refers to a prefix or suffix and can either be inflectional or derivational. Linguists have trouble classifying languages. Languages that have one morpheme per word are called analytic. English is considered an analytic language. Analytic languages rely on the order of words. This is why the English language as subjects and predicates. Latin is classified as a synthetic language. Synthetic languages add many inflections to a word. Some linguists classify languages as agglutinative and others as polysynthetic. Agglutinative languages combine many morphemes into a word. Synthetic, polysynthetic and agglutinative languages have words that carry more information. This is why one word may be a complete sentence. The Japanese language adds endings to words to indicate each word’s function in the sentence.
How do words enter a language?
Linguists find it difficult to define word because words are not the smallest unit of meaning. The first language that was taught in schools was Latin. Students were taught language in the younger grades and this is where the term grammar schools derive from. Essentially Latin rules were applied to English rules. For instance in Latin prepositions can’t come at the end of a sentence. This is also true with English grammar. In the English language there are closed cased-words. Examples of these are pronouns, particles and intensifiers. Dictionaries keep expanding. English has one of the largest vocabularies of any of the world’s languages. In the book a student asked his teacher who comes up with words. The teacher replied you do. My students often use the word “ratchet”. This is a word that developed from a rap song. This word refers to a girl who is not pretty. This word is now a common word used today among all youth.
What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
When was in school teachers often gave the students list of words to define in a glossary. We were then required to memorize the definitions for a test. However once I took the test I lost touch with the words and their meanings. It did not stay with me. The book suggest that words be acquired as students read. When I taught elementary school, students were required to read 25 books. The philosophy for this was that students would be exposed to a million words. Students need to be exposed to the word in a variety of ways for the word to be acquired. They have to be engaged in activities that build concepts along with vocabulary used to express this concept. Frontloading is a technique that is used to increase vocabulary. Frontloading involves learning about something, talking about it, wondering about it, and reading and writing about it. This helps students develop vocabulary prior to readin
I agree with many of the things you said regarding the best way to increase vocabulary. It's crucial to build interest and some knowledge about a subject or topic before inundating students with vocabulary terms. This is where a lot of visuals can come into play--videos, newspapers, magazine articles/covers, artwork, etc. My favorite way to build interest in social studies is with simple, yet powerful, political cartoons. I could spend a day discussing the cartoon with my students before ever thinking about introducing vocabulary, just to ensure that the overall concept of the topic of study is understood. I think its also important to utilize the internet, primarily public sites like you tube, just so students can get other people's takes on specific topics and issues. I feel that to learn vocabulary, especially for our ELL students, its critical to make the learning "whole", and what I mean by that is to exhaust every resource and to try every angle of teaching that is available.
DeleteI still assign weekly spelling words to the students, and I also ask them to define the words using the dictionary. However, after reading this chapter and reading the posted responses, I am confused. Should I eliminate the weekly spelling words? I agree that students should read books in order for them to learn or expose to new vocabulary words, but I cannot force them to read. For classwork, I read for them and they answer questions related to the passage. Every week, they go to the Media Center and Ms. Moura reads to them. Then they do a book report on that book. What else should I try?
DeleteI agree with assigning words every week but maybe approaching different strategies on how to assess the words.
DeleteWhat does it mean to know a word?
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding a word involves much more than knowing a synonym or an antonym. It involves phonological, morphological, and syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information. Phonology is about recognizing a word orally and being able to articulate a word, and morphology tells about the inflections that the endings of the verb take different forms. For example, the verb--to walk-- can be expressed as walking, walks, or walked, and English learners learn to manipulate the verb in different tenses-- present, progressive present, past, or future. In addition, syntax is knowing a word and its functions in a sentence because a word can be a noun, adjective, or a verb depending on its use. As a result, learning how to apply inflections in a conversation and learning how to write them effectively require a higher level of understanding in English. Furthermore, semantics is the study of the meanings of a word such as tiger is an animal; however, tiger can be applied to a person who carries out his objective aggressively. Thus, the word—tiger has two meanings. English learners learning to use vocabulary properly increase the effectiveness and complexity in a language. What’s more, pragmaticality refers to realistic applications that people use them in their daily conversation. For example, the word “dude” could be used in a casual setting while a same person might be referred to as “sir” in a formal situation. Therefore, learning a vocabulary involves many steps as recognizing, pronunciation, applying, and understanding of the word.
How can teachers help English Language Learners acquire academic vocabulary?
ReplyDeleteTo help English learners build academic language, teachers should implement several strategies such as previewing the text, activating background knowledge, and utilizing graphic organizers that help English learners easily understand the concepts. There are two types of academic language—content specific vocabulary and general academic vocabulary. Content specific vocabulary includes technical words related to a specific subject because the terminology targets to a particular subject such as engineering, mechanical advantage, direct current, or alternate current. On the other hand, general academic vocabulary consists of words that learners notice them appearing in a wide range of subjects or topics of various texts such as hypotheses, therefore, or as a result. The researchers state that students have a tendency to acquire content specific vocabulary quicker than general academic vocabulary because content specific vocabulary words appear more often. In addition, the students realize that these words connect with the topic, provide definitions, and appear in boldfaced or italicized. What’s more, these words will appear on the tests. Another method to assist English learners acquiring academic language is introducing cognate which means the words coming from the same root. In this case, Spanish learners can compare English academic words to their own language because of the similarities. Spanish learners can recognize “hipotesis” when they read “hypothesis” in English. Moreover, many words appearing in English have similar spelling in Spanish as they appear in social studies and geography like “civilization” in English to “civilizacion” in Spanish or “geography” in English to “geogrfia” in Spanish. Additionally, English learners can transfer their knowledge in primary language to their secondary language. Cummins states that a person knows in one language can transfer his understanding to a second language, which is true, for if a student understands the concept of water in his primary language, he can easily understand the water cycle when the teacher explains it in English. Not only English learners understand and transfer knowledge and skills from their primary language, but they also can implement strategies and skills when they summarize a passage or calculate a math problem. More importantly, English learners with formal schooling in their primary language will succeed academically in English quicker than students who lack.
What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
Structural analysis is a process of deciphering a word by analyzing parts of the word. English learner can decode a word if he knows the prefix, root, or suffix of a word. For example, the word “recognize” that comprises of these parts: re means back, cogn means know, ize means to make. Thus, if a student knows the meanings of parts of the word—recognize--he can easily figure out the meaning of the whole word. Teachers who present structural analysis to students will identify parts of the word before providing a definition of the word. Another way to increase vocabulary is through reading, for a passage consists of content and general terminologies. The teachers will preview and pre-teach difficult or challenging words before reading a passage. Thus, the students will be able to comprehend the story and engage in learning. According to Freire, he states, “Reading does not consist merely of decoding the written word or language; rather, it is preceded by and intertwined with knowledge of the world.” Thus, the teachers will design concepts that will assist the students to grasp a text. As a result, the students will experience a thrilling encounter as they relate their feelings through the passage and provide their own opinions, predictions, and visualizations as they read.
How do new words enter a language?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up my mother always told me not to say ain’t—that it wasn’t a word, that it didn’t make sense, that it was a contraction between words that didn’t exist. Well, ain’t is a word that has been included in most dictionaries, and while it’s inclusion in the English lexicon is somewhat controversial, it has nonetheless carved a niche in the everyday speech of many Americans. Words become part of a language in many ways. English is a language, much like American culture itself that is a melting pot of various other languages. Many words that have become part of the English language, if not all of them, originated from another language. We take our cues from synthetic languages such as Latin, as opposed to analytic languages such as Chinese. This makes sense since both language system arose in completely different ways—Latin from the ancient Phoenecians, who based their oral and written language on the sounds of words; and the Chinese, who typically have one symbol for each word and one morpheme for each word or concept. Whereas synthetic languages seem to be more concentrated on sounds, and creating words from these sounds, analytic languages seem to be less complex. The addition of new words to each language is probably very different. In the US, it seems that words are added to our language based on their popularity, as explained in the book, Frindle. Also, because American English is so diverse and doesn’t cling strongly to rules the way that other languages do, English speakers can take words they already know and combine them with words they do know. Sometimes brand new words, like brunch, are mergers between different words we know.
What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
One of my least favorite things to do at school when I was a student was to take vocabulary quizzes and tests. Sometimes they were incredibly easy, and sometimes I felt like I was reading a foreign language. After reading chapter 8, I feel now that a lot of my troubles with these types of assessments was the way in which I learned and studied the vocabulary. If the vocabulary was such that we had read about it, and most importantly discussed it in class in context, I was fine. I did terrible when we copied down vocabulary and then were expected to memorize it the way you memorize the lines of a play. After reading through this chapter, I now look back and realize that the way to teach and reinforce vocabulary is to read, and just as importantly, to use the vocabulary in context during class discussions. I recently gave a vocabulary quiz in class that the students did terrible on. However, I let them retake it and even made it a little harder after a week of using the words in our lessons and in context when solving our math problems. Through the exposure, most of the students did much better. I feel that exposure as part of an overall acquisition method of learning vocabulary are the best way to go, and the events in my class show that. It’s difficult to memorize vocabulary when there is no context and nothing to relate the word to, in terms of prior knowledge.
I completely agree with Eric Sas. During the instruction of the first unit in my science class, I gave a matching vocabulary test on Rocks and minerals, and it was a big disaster. Later, I started teaching five new words at a time and made them use those words in context in class discussions. The second unit vocabulary test was a big success. Now, I adapted this vocabulary teaching strategy in both my math and science classes.
DeleteHow can teachers help English Language Learners acquire academic vocabulary?
ReplyDeleteTeaching English Language Learners (ELLs) can be very challenging because many ELLs are trying to cope with learning conversational, and have not even thought of a separate lexicon which is the academic side of the language. While Freeman discusses many strategies to help these students develop more academic language, I feel the best thing the author pointed out was the use of cognates, or words that are easily transferrable from one language to the next. I also feel that it helps that academic English uses many bound morphemes that are derived from Latin. This really helps Spanish speakers. For example, the word cent, meaning 100, is used all of the time in academic English. It’s very close to the Spanish word for 100: cien. In math class, understanding words like cent can help because we work with percents. We also work with a lot of money problems, and most students already know there are 100 cents in a dollar. Increasing academic vocabulary and ensuring that the input is more comprehensible has a lot to do with connecting new terms, concepts, and vocabulary back to to prior knowledge.
Chapter 7
ReplyDeleteHow do new words enter a language?
New words enter a language through a variety of pathways. Some new words are taken from other languages. For example, the word fiancée is originally French. However, it proves useful in the English language, and so it has been adopted. Other words like tea, cargo, yogurt, bagel, and chipmunk all come from other languages that span the globe. This is not only true for English, although the English language does boast an extremely vast vocabulary. I remember from y academic studies of Spanish that many words in Spanish are actually borrowed from Arabic since the Iberian Peninsula moved back and forth from Arab to European control for centuries. I would assume that this tendency to borrow words exists in many other languages as well.
Another way new words can enter a language is through necessity. A new item, like a technological device, needs a new word. With recent developments in technology, words like desktop and tablet have acquired new meanings. Still other new words are simply modifications of already established words. Abbreviations, acronyms, and compound words also rise in popularity, eventually taking on the status of a new word. Some words are blended together, like brunch or smog. All of these variations can make English a confusing language to learn, but they also make English a dynamic field of study.
Chapter 8
What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
When teaching vocabulary, an educator must decide between pre-teaching word parts or whole words or introducing vocabulary as background for reading. If students are taught to learn new words only through word parts, the results can often be frustrating. This week in class, we are focusing on Greek and Latin roots in Target Time. When asked to come up with words that begin with specific prefixes, students often missed the mark. One student suggested “post office” as a word that begins with the prefix “post,” meaning “after.” While “post office” technically begins with the right word part, it doesn’t connect to the meaning “after.” Because English is full of exceptions and multiple meanings, relying solely on word part recognition isn’t effective.
Introducing vocabulary as background knowledge for reading allows students to see how the word is used and understand its meaning. Students need to know the concept behind the word, even if that concept is complex. So, exposing students to the word multiple times and in multiple ways allows students to construct a more full meaning of the word. Vocabulary study should not take place at the expense of reading, but rather flow naturally into and out of reading. One implication of this research is allowing students more time to simply read. Even reading on their own, without focusing on a specific goal or task, helps students tremendously by providing a maximum exposure to new words.
Chapter 8
How can teachers help English learners acquire academic vocabulary?
One way to highlight academic vocabulary is to make note of words that are cognates with that student’s home language. Many times in class I have been able to relate an English word to its Spanish equivalent when they are both cognates of Latin. These Latin (and Greek) based words are frequent in academic language, so knowing the native language equivalent (if there is one) can frequently be of help. This makes the word more familiar to the students, and it helps them remember the word’s meaning when they next encounter it.
Drawing on background knowledge is also key. Because learning academic language is more demanding, teachers must be vigilant in providing context and background knowledge for new content related vocabulary. For transition and direction words like thus, therefore, and summarize, students need repeated exposure and direct explanations to internalize this type of academic vocabulary.
The English language borrowed several words from Indian languages as well. For example, the words Guru, Avatar, bangle, bandana, bungalow, pajamas and chutney were borrowed from India.
Deletethe teacher can help the language learniner acquire academic vocabulary by emercing the student in literature. They usually have a significant amount of vocabulary and jargon related to the topic that the author is tyring to convey. The teacher must constantly asks questions to check for understanding and be able to relate it to the student's language and experiences. The teacher should also introduce a variety of lieterature. Reading a diversity of literature will help broaden the students vocabulary. his will help them have a better understanding of what they read. this will also help their word usage when they actually see the way the word is written in print. The student will be able to speak and write with correct sentence structure. It can also help with word usage. The literature has a way of introducing vocabulary words. This can teach the student about conetxt clues. The surrounding text will teach the student the meaning of the word by giving them clues in the reading passage. It helps the student learn new words. The teacher can also use a variety of reading genres. Students may be intrigued to be exposed to such a wealth of literature. Different genres tend to use words that build vocabulary. They use more synonyms and antonyms. This give the students more practice with the word and build upon their prior knowledge. The teacher can also use word searches and, crossword puzzles and sloze passagesw to help foster learning new words. The student must use the words daily. They need to use the words when they read and speak. watching television can further assist in their vocabulary. Listening to the radio will also enhance their vocabulary usage. Language must be real and relevant to the student.
DeleteI completely agree that students must see a word used in multiple contexts to really gain a thorough understanding of the word and its possible uses. If we only rely on word parts to help children gain meaning from vocabulary, we are not preparing them to use those words on their own in the correct context.
DeleteMs. Duggirala,
DeleteI did not know those words were borrowed from India. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
How do new words enter a language?
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how words enter the English language until this assignment. I have questioned a word here and there, but never really thought about were it came from. New words become revelant when they are compounded. When two morphemes are combined or when they are hyphenated they are compounding. I had a student who told me that she sometimes speak Spanglish. She said that she combines English and Spanish when she does not know words in one of the languages. When we abbreviate and shorten words, we are clipping words. Creating acronyms from the first letter of several words are very useful. I like to use acronyms because they help me to remember important details. We blend words to create new words. Words are back-formed by creating a new word from a noun to a verb. For example, educator and educate. We borrow words from other languages and they become apart of our language. With all that being said, I now know how words enter a language.
Words enter a language by music. Many times a singer will use a word to mean something elso. Like for example a simile or a metaphor. Whereas, the singer will not come out and say exactly what they feel but they will express it using a word or phrase and leaving it to the listener to figure it out. Sometimes, they will even yuse the word as an antonym to say the opposite of what hey are conveying. Often in songs known words are a spin off of puns. For example: Snicker's has a commercial that says a Snickers satifies you. Now, the pun is Snickerageous. Meaning that the taste is good and it satisfies a huge appetite. regardless, to the fact that chocolate spoils your appetite before a healthy balanced meal. Words can then becreated from other words. They form new words with new meanings.
DeleteChapter 7
ReplyDelete1. How do linguists analyze words?
They look at how languages combine morphemes to produce larger units, which are words and sentences.
For example, linguists classify languages as analytic, synthetic, agglutinative and polysynthetic when analyzing the meaning , function and order of the morphemes that create words. in each language.
In synthetic languages, the order of the words is less important because each word uses inflections and morphemes to add meaning. For example, in Japanese, there are six different ways to say “Yuka gave that book to Ali’ child” because each word has an affix that signals the function of the word in the sentence. In an analytic language such as English, on the other hand, the order of words in very important as the function of each word is dependent upon its position in the sentence. For example, “The dog chased the man” has a different meaning than “The man chased the dog.”
Linguists also classify words into parts of speech by looking at how words function in a sentence by looking at their position and role. Linguists also look at morphological evidence such as how an affix changes or adds meaning to a word. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are considered function words, and prepositions and conjunctions are considered function words.
2. How do new words enter a language?
New words can enter a language through compounding (teacup, highchair), clipping (mathematics becomes math), creating acronyms (VIP), blending (brunch), back-formation (peddle from peddler rather than teacher from teach), borrowing (boutique) and coining (Kleenex, Coke).
Chapter 8
3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
While the word recognition view and sociopsycholinguistic view of reading instruction are commonly accepted, the latter rather than the former provide more effective means to teaching vocabulary. If all words were formed with distinct, meaningful root words and affixes, then phonics and the study of word parts would be very useful in helping students gain meaning from reading. But because many English words are not so easily understood through this approach, the sociopsycholinguistic approach to teaching vocabulary better helps students develop meaning from the words they encounter. Through this approach, teachers engage students in activities that build concepts along with the vocabulary used to express those concepts. Words must be taught in context so that students can acquire the appropriate ways in which to use the words they are learning. One way in which Hoyt suggests to build understanding is to frontload reading passages with rich discussion using the vocabulary before reading the text.
I agree with the sociopsycholinguistic approach which encourages students to read and be exposed to text before it is taught.
Delete1. How do linguists analyze words?
ReplyDeleteLinguistics is the search for the unconscious knowledge that humans have about language and how it is that children acquire it. Linguistics is also an understanding of the structure of language in general and of particular languages, the knowledge about how languages vary, and how language influences the way in which we interact with each other and think about the world. Linguists investigate how people acquire their knowledge about language, how this knowledge interacts with other cognitive processes, how it varies across speakers and geographic regions, and how to model this knowledge computationally. Linguists work with speakers of different languages to discover patterns and/or to document the language.
Linguists analyze the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics of a language sample. Phonology is the study of sounds. Morphology is the study of internal structure of words. Syntax is the study of sentence structure. Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Pragmatics is the study of social use of language.
2. . How do new words enter a language?
The Merriam-Webster website has a great essay on the formation of words. It list the following ways words can be added to a language: borrowing, shortening or clipping, functional shift, back-formation, blends, acronymic formations, transfer of personal or place names, imitation of sounds, folk etymology, combining word elements, and literary and creative coinages. Contained on the website is a detailed description of each way of adding a new word along with an example. I had thought very little about the creation of words, but after reading this essay, I have found myself thinking more about the subject. Etymology the history of a linguistic form, is a fascinating area of study, and not one I had given much thought to before this class.
3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
There seems to be an argument for everything. In the case of increasing vocabulary, should teachers preteach vocabulary before a lesson or build a student’s background knowledge using readings in which students encounter unfamiliar vocabulary. Either way vocabulary will not be learned if the “learner” isn’t using the vocabulary on a regular basis. This isn’t just for young students. I can give students list of 25 words to memorize for the short term, but they really want know and understand the words if they only see them on a test. I can have students read a paragraph and find all the words they don’t know. Some students will use context clues to lean the definition and some will have to resort to using a dictionary, but neither will leave a lasting impression if this is the only time the students see or hear the words. If teachers want students to learn new vocabulary, the teachers must be willing to use the words often. Teachers must set the example they wish to see in their students.
What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
ReplyDeleteRead, read and read some more is the best way to increase vocabulary. I was never a reader as a teenager, but when can a time when I forced to read, my vocabulary became broader. Its is funny that as an adult now, I am still broading my vocabulary. Maybe because now I read more than I ever have. I am a big fan of drill, drill, drill and some memorization. My biggest problem with students today is that they cannot retain the information. Maybe if they are taught a lesson old school, then we might see a better retention rate. I remember as a child that vocabulary was mandatory. Write the word five times, then the definition, create a sentence using the word was a weekly routine. Reading with a little old school teaching will really go a long way with todays students.
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