The etymology of modern English vocabulary. Content introduction
CHAPTER I. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE SERVICES
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CHAPTER I. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE SERVICES
1.1 USING THE CURRICULUM TO FORMULATE IEP GOALS FOR COMMUNICATION THROUGH A DEVELOPMENTAL CONTINUUM Students who understand something of the culture they interact with are likely to be better received by their hosts than those who are less well informed. This is mainly because understanding pertinent facts, attitudes and behaviors in the cultures we deal with can enable us to identify specific behaviors’ that will help us communicate more effectively and avoid causing unintentional offence. It is important that the behaviours we identify (often described as 'dos and don'ts') are not prescriptive or too specific, but instead focus on enabling us to achieve whatever outcome we want to achieve from the interaction in question. visitors who understand something of the culture they interact with are likely to be better received by their hosts than those who are less well informed. This is mainly because understanding pertinent facts, attitudes and behaviours in the cultures we deal with can enable us to identify specific behaviours that will help us communicate more effectively and avoid causing unintentional offence. [1] The primary importance of communication in a context lies in the fact that the meaning of any given behaviour may differ from culture to culture. In other words, although certain aspects of non-verbal communication (such as facial expressions that at indicate sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise) are universal, other forms of communication may differ from one cultural group to another. Even when dealing with universal behaviours such as smiling or frowning, the situations in which these expressions are demonstrated and the intensity with which feelings and emotions are expressed varies between cultures. For example, to outsiders, people from Mediterranean and Arabic cultures appear to exaggerate their expressions of grief or joy. In contrast, many Anglo-Saxon cultures are stereotyped as encouraging the stiff upper lip and the absence of emotional expression. In reality, individuals from both types of culture are capable of effectively transmitting information about their feelings; they simply do it in different ways and at different times. The potential for misreading and misunderstanding, communication is compounded by the fact that so much of communication is outside conscious control. For example, a Japanese student may not be consciously aware of averting eye contact when interacting with a high-status university professor, although this is commonly observable behaviour in that culture. The British university professor who encounters this Japanese student may not be consciously aware of this lack of eye contact, but may still subconsciously interpret it as demonstrating disinterest or a lack of courtesy. In this situation, cultural differences in non-verbal communication have generated feelings in both teacher and student that are difficult to recognize and hence difficult to rationalize and reject.[2] Whether conscious or unconscious, the various meanings communicated through body movements (and the frequency with which body movements are made) can sometimes vary from culture to culture. This can lead to cross-cultural misunderstandings, as the examples below demonstrate. Emblems. The meaning of emblems can differ from culture to culture. For example, the American OK sign means 'zero' in France and has a potentially obscene meaning in some Latin American cultures. Illustrators. In some Asian cultures the extensive use of hand gestures is often interpreted as a lack of intelligence, whereas in Latin cultures the absence of hand gestures may be seen as demonstrating a lack of interest in the conversation. Affective displays. Although basic affective displays such as sadness, happiness or anger are usually understood across cultural barriers, the degree and frequency with which affective displays are used is much less universal. Thus, the comparative absence of facial gestures in Japanese culture directly gives rise to the Western stereotype of the Japanese as Inscrutable'. The counter-stereotype of 'hot-tempered' Latinos can also be attributed to the greater use Whether conscious or unconscious, the various meanings communicated through body movements (and the frequency with which body movements are made) can sometimes vary from culture to culture. This can lead to cross-cultural misunderstandings, as the examples below demonstrate. Emblems. The meaning of emblems can differ from culture to culture. For example, the American OK sign means 'zero' in France and has a potentially obscene meaning in some Latin American cultures. [3] Illustrators. In some Asian cultures the extensive use of hand gestures is often interpreted as a lack of intelligence, whereas in Latin cultures the absence of hand gestures may be seen as demonstrating a lack of interest in the conversation. Affective displays. Although basic affective displays such as sadness, happiness or anger are usually understood across cultural barriers, the degree and frequency with which affective displays are used is much less universal. Thus, the comparative absence of facial gestures in Japanese culture directly gives rise to the Western stereotype of the Japanese as Inscrutable'. The counter-stereotype of 'hot-tempered' Latinos can also be attributed to the greater use of affective displays in Latin culture. People from Scandinavia tend to smile less at people they do not know, or who are not personally introduced to them, than American people. Regulators. In India a slight shake or circling of the head indicates an affirmation or agreement with what is being said. In North America this shaking head gesture signifies `no', whereas in Greece `no' is indicated by tilting the head back sharply. In Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Iran, nodding the head up and down often means `no', while shaking the head back and forth means 'yes'. Adaptors. Adaptors can sometimes be misperceived as emblems when crossing cultural boundaries. Crossing the legs while sitting may be an adaptor in Western cultures carrying a limited amount of communication meaning. However, the unintentional by-product of crossing the legs — showing the soles of the feet or shoe — may be strongly emblematic (and quite offensive) in some Asian or Arab cultures. Even the act of crossing the legs itself can be considered rude in both Ghana and Turkey. of affective displays in Latin culture. People from Scandinavia tend to smile less at people they do not know, or who are not personally introduced to them, than American people. Regulators. In India a slight shake or circling of the head indicates an affirmation or agreement with what is being said. In North America this shaking head gesture signifies `no', whereas in Greece `no' is indicated by tilting the head back sharply. In Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Iran, nodding the head up and down often means `no', while shaking the head back and forth means 'yes'. [4] Adaptors. Adaptors can sometimes be misperceived as emblems when crossing cultural boundaries. Crossing the legs while sitting may be an adaptor in Western cultures carrying a limited amount of communication meaning. However, the unintentional by-product of crossing the legs — showing the soles of the feet or shoe — may be strongly emblematic (and quite offensive) in some Asian or Arab cultures. Even the act of crossing the legs itself can be considered rude in both Ghana and Turkey. SLPs should write IEP goals that support the MCPS Curriculum. As stated in the English/Language Arts Curriculum Framework: Oral language forms the foundation of reading/language arts. Listening and speaking proficiently prepares the individual to communicate articulately in society. As stated in the Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum English/Language Arts Content Standards: Listening is an active, purposeful part of the communication process that goes well beyond hearing. Receiving, attending to, assigning meaning for, responding to, and remembering aural messages are important aspects of listening. Speaking is a powerful oral communication tool used for personal, academic, professional, and social purposes. This course work is an effort to illustrate examples of IEP goals that address foundational oral communication skills. This document represents the belief that focus on oral communication skills will enable students to become engaged with the MCPS Curriculum. Ideally, this approach will lessen the impact of oral communication weaknesses as the student meets the challenges of the curriculum standards and indicators. Important Notes Note 1: Use of the goals assumes the student in question has been assessed and deemed eligible for speech-language services.[5] Note 2: Sample IEP goals are developed to support most content standards for any student who is eligible for speech-language service because of oral communication issues. Note 3: Sample IEP goals can be used with and adapted for students Pre-K through secondary. Note 4: Sample IEP goals can be adapted for students who are developing alternative forms of communication. Note 5: It is expected that goals will be modified to individualize for each student. In most cases, use of all of these goals as exactly stated is not expected. Note 6: Items in sample goals that are BOLDED require that you choose and/or insert criteria appropriate for the developmental level of the student for whom you are writing the objective. Note 7: For each sample goal, evaluation method B provides a way to measure the student’s performance of the targeted skill in a functional way or with curriculum-based materials/tasks. Note 8: Extraneous words should be deleted from the goal (words that do not apply). Reference Information The developmental information for reference below is taken from Language Sample Analysis II The Wisconsin Guide, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2005. It is based on data collected from 50 and 100 utterance samples of conversation. Benchmarks of sentence length and intelligibility are criterion referenced. The mean lengths of utterance quoted below represent the average performance for each age group. A typically developing 3-year-old child is expected to have an average utterance/sentence length of 3.2 words. Intelligibility can range between 83 and 100%. A typically developing 5-year-old child is expected to have an average sentence length of 5.1 words. Intelligibility can range between 94-100%. A typically developing 7-year-old is expected to have an average sentence length of 5.7 words. Intelligibility can range between 93-100%. A typically developing 9-year-old is expected to have an average sentence length of 6.2 words. Intelligibility can range between 96-100%. A typically developing 11-year-old is expected to have an average sentence length of 6.9 words. Intelligibility can range between 96-100%. A typically developing 13-year-old is expected to have an average sentence length of 6.5 words. Intelligibility can range between 96-100%. Sample IEP Goals for Oral Communication The student will group familiar items belonging to the same category and say a carrier phrase to label the category, (e.g. “These are all toys.”). Evaluation Method: A. (X)% of appropriate responses maintained over a 30 day period as documented by SLP in therapy log. * B. Demonstration of skill with (X) sets of familiar objects. Example Goal #2 (Receptive and Expressive: Explain Vocabulary and Categorization) The student will explain groupings of people, objects, places, events, and actions from story contexts to demonstrate likenesses and differences among items. The student’s explanations will include (X-word) sentences which are meaningful to the context. Evaluation Method: A. (X)% appropriate responses maintained over a 30 day period as documented by SLP in therapy log.[7] * B. Demonstration of skill with at least one story studied in the classroom. Example Goal #3 (Expressive: Oral Word-Finding) The student will use (X) strategies to facilitate recall of words from his/her personal repertoire during interactions with peers and adults (e.g., describing word in question, accessing phonological cues, using a picture, using a synonym). Student will use strategy/strategies with no more than one cue or reminder. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect use of above strategy/strategies (X) times. * B. Demonstration of skill with one story, personal experience or event presented in class. Speech and Language Services Montgomery County Public Schools Rockville, Maryland Example Goal #4 (Expressive: Communicative Intents/Interactions) The student will participate in interactions for (X) exchanges. The communication will involve (greetings, requests, protests, clarification, and/or explanations). Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained will reflect use of target skill(s) observed at least (X) times over a 30-day period. * B. Demonstration of target skill(s) with (peers/adults) in (social situations/ discussion opportunities). Example Goal #5 (Receptive: Understands Sentences [including directions]) The student’s responses will show that s/he understands (X-word) sentences that include, (e.g. sequence cues, varied verb tense, modifiers, prepositional phrases, and question forms), with no more than one repetition. The orally presented information will be developmentally appropriate and be supported by the use of visual aides. Evaluation Method: A. (X)% appropriate responses to orally presented language, obtained by observation on 3 out of 4 occasions. * B. Demonstration of skill with one activity presented in class. Example Goal #6 (Expressive: Oral Messages) The student will produce grammatically and syntactically correct (X-word) sentences to convey messages to peers and adults. The messages will be clear and contextually appropriate to the audience(s). Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect an average sentence length of at least (X-X-words). B. Demonstration of skill with one story, personal experience or event presented in class.[10] Example Goal #7 (Receptive and Expressive: Answering Questions) The student will meaningfully use (X-word) sentences when answering (is/are, do/does, who, what, where, when, why, how) questions, making comments, and giving messages. Evaluation Method: A. (X)% appropriate responses maintained over a 30 day period as documented by SLP in therapy log. * B. Demonstration of skill with at least one example of material studied in the classroom. Speech and Language Services Montgomery County Public Schools Rockville, Maryland Example Goal #8 (Expressive: Speak in Sentences, Grammar, Syntax) The student will speak in (X-word) grammatically correct sentences (containing conjunctions, clauses, modifiers) with a model and visual cues. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect an average sentence length of at least (X-X-words). * B. Demonstration of skill with one story, personal experience or event presented in class.[11] Example Goal #9 (Expressive: Asking Questions) The student will meaningfully use (X-X-word) (is/are, do/does, who, what, where, when, why, how) questions to obtain clarification and interact about stories during discussions. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect an average sentence length of at least (X-X-words). * B. Demonstration of skill with at least one story studied in the classroom. Example Goal #10 (Expressive: Basic Describing) The student will use (X-word) sentences to describe action, event, or pictures with no more than one prompt or reminder. Sentences will be grammatically correct and meaningful to the context. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect descriptions with an average sentence length of at least (X-X-words). * B. Demonstration of skill with one story, personal experience or event presented in class. Example Goal #11 (Expressive: Speaks in Sentences to Summarize and Paraphrase) The student will use at least (X) (X-word) sentences to (summarize, paraphrase) stories, events, or topics. Sentences will be grammatically correct and meaningful to the context. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect at least (X sentences) with an average sentence length of (X-words) and topic relevance in successive sentences. * B. Demonstration of skill with one story, personal experience or event presented in class. Example Goal #12 (Expressive: Describing Thinking) The student will use (X-word) sentences to describe student’s own thinking about actions, events, pictures, or stories, with no more than one prompt or reminder. Sentences will be grammatically correct and meaningful to the context. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over 30-day period will reflect average sentence length of at least (X-X-words). * B. Demonstration of skill with at least one example of material studied in the classroom.[14] Example Goal #13 (Expressive: Describing Thinking and Giving Reasons) The student will explain his/her thinking and rationalization about a specific familiar topic to tell a story. The student will use at least (X), (X-word) grammatically, syntactically, and contextually correct sentences. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect explanation of student’s thinking using at least (X sentences) with an average length of (X-X-words). * B. Demonstration of skill with one story or topic studied in class or a Personal experience. Example Goal #14 (Expressive: Describing Thinking about Idea(s) or Concept(s)) The student will use at least (X-word) sentences to explain his/her thinking about a specific idea. Sentences will be grammatically correct and meaningful to the context. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect an average sentence length of at least (X-X-words) and topic relevance in successive sentences. * B. Demonstration of skill with one idea studied in class. Example Goal #15 (Expressive: Intelligibility in Sentences) The student will use clear speech in at least multiple (X-word) sentences to describe an event, experience or story. Evaluation Method: A. Language samples obtained over a 30 day period will reflect multiple (Xword) sentences with (X) % intelligible speech. * B. Demonstration of skill while discussing one topic presented in class. Example Goal #16 (Expressive: Articulation) The student will use target sound(s) (X) in (isolation, syllables, words, phrases, sentences, connected speech). Evaluation Method: A. (Imitation, Samples, Language Samples) obtained over a 30 day period will reflect multiple (X % intelligible speech, 80% correct use of target sound/sounds) * B. Demonstration of skill while discussing one topic presented in class. 1.3 Measuring Pupil Abilities In today’s policy environment, testing has become a critical component of education reform. Policy makers and education administrators often view test scores as a measure of educational quality and use test scores to hold schools accountable for teacher performance. Continuous assessment, an alternative or supplement to high stakes testing of pupil achievement, offers a methodology for measuring pupil performance and using those findings to improve the success of pupils. Continuous assessment is a classroom strategy implemented by teachers to ascertain the knowledge, understanding, and skills attained by pupils. Teachers administer assessments in a variety of ways over time to allow them to observe multiple tasks and to collect information about what pupils know, understand, and can do. These assessments are curriculum-based tasks previously taught in class. Continuous assessment occurs frequently during the school year and is part of regular teacher-pupil interactions. Pupils receive feedback from teachers based on their performance that allows them to focus on topics they have not yet mastered. Teachers learn which students need review and remediation and which pupils are ready to move on to more complex work. Thus, the results of the assessments help to ensure that all pupils make learning progress throughout the school cycle thereby increasing their academic achievement. The continuous assessment process is much more than an examination of pupil achievement. In order to understand how children move between stages, it's important to understand how children take in stimuli from the environment and use it to grow. Most theorists agree that there are periods in children's lives in which they become biologically mature enough to gain certain skills that they could not have easily picked up prior to that maturation. For example, research has shown that babies and toddlers' brains are more flexible with regard to learning to understand and use language than are older children's brains. Children are ready and open to develop certain things during specific stages; however, it doesn't just happen. Instead, they need proper environmental stimuli to develop these abilities. For example, babies have the ability to grow in length and weight in amazing amounts during the first year, but if they're not fed and nurtured enough during that time, they will not have the tools and building blocks to grow and will not grow and thrive. This is why it's so important for parents and caregivers to understand how their children are growing in all ways and channels and to know what stimuli, or stuff, they need to give their children to help them thrive. From time to time children without any cognitive or physical problems at birth may not be able to develop certain milestones during the stage or time period they are most receptive. There may be an injury, illness, caregiver neglect or abuse, or a shortage of needs such as food or medical care, that make it difficult for a child to absorb all the basic building blocks and stimulation they need to gain certain abilities at certain times in life. When this occurs, affected children will generally have a harder time gaining those abilities even if they later get special attention and resources designed to help them compensate. It's like children have a window of opportunity when they are ready to grow in certain ways if they have the right stuff and tools in their environment. When that window closes, it will never be as easy to grow in those ways again. Theorists disagree about how important it is for children to have that special stimuli at each growing stage in order to reach their milestones. Some theorists call these times critical periods, but other theorists call them sensitive periods The difference between critical periods and sensitive periods is subtle. Theorists who believe in critical periods believe that children who do not get special stimulation during their window of receptivity are going to be "stuck" forever and never gain the abilities they should have gained in that period. However, other theorists believe that those very sensitive times in a child's life are just sensitive periods. They agree that children who do not get the right nurturing at the right times to jumpstart their developmental potential are going to have problems later in life, but they do not think that this inability to develop is permanent. CHAPTER II. EDUCATING OURSELVES AND THE COURT ON THE TRUE NATURE 2.1 The Science of Implicit Bias The true nature and extent of bias contradicts the traditional views of bias as being relatively rare and as being polarized between us (the good who are free from all negative bias) and (the bad) those with openly bigoted views. Bias is not measured in extremes and the vast majority of those who have bias that affect their decision-making are in the middle of the scale, not at either end. The true extent of bias suggests that far more people suffer from negative views of certain groups that we would like to believe including our friends, relatives and coworkers. The true nature and extent of bias can only be understood by those willing to look in themirror. The true nature of bias consists of wide variety of feelings, attitudes, associations, perceptions, stereotypes, judgments, bias, and overt prejudice; which in turn can be either be openly stated, hidden, overtly conscious, bordering on the edge of awareness or seeping deep from within the subconscious. The true nature of bias includes an understanding that most people within American society have likely derived some degree of negative biases against at least the three main protected classes (Race, Gender, Age) and likely have such biases within their mind at some level of consciousness. The standard response to the above paragraph is as follows: “Well of course we all have biases, one cannot escape them. I prefer a certain basketball team and I favor my wife’s cooking.” That is not what we are talking about. History, experience, current studies and social science suggest that large numbers of person have negative, i.e. unfavorable associations or biases against blacks, women and the aged. Those attitudes affect decision-making to the detriment of those groups. The ruler represents levels of consciousness and willfulness that exist in all of us. The purpose of the scale is to point out that bias involves a variety of relatively benign, overtly harmful, conscious and subconscious perceptions, not merely two extremes. The scale does not represent an opinion of exactly where any of those views of minorities fall along the conscious or willfulness scale. There is no need because Title VII prohibits adverse employment actions against minorities that is motivated anywhere along that scale. The true extent of bias includes an understanding that most people within our society have likely derived some degree of biases against protected classes and likely have such biases within their mind at some level of consciousness. To put it bluntly, at least regarding the three main classically protected groups, i.e. women, non-whites and the aged, in a room of 100 people 70 of them will have some degree of negative association with that person based on their age, gender or color. They merely are intended to provide a simple visual reference for how a decision or a group of decisions can be impacted at any point by the filter of negative bias. Now think about the hundreds of decisions, thoughts and groups of decisions that a minority must negotiate every week in their employment. The impact of even one person in the chain of decision-making with some degree of negative bias is very real. That means they do not purport to measure racism or sexism. They only measure negative and positive attitudes toward groups. It may be that racists and sexists will also test for these lower levels of bias, but the point is to reveal the existence of bias in people who look and act like you and me. In short, even if the only bias that remained in society was subconscious, it would still provide barriers to minorities. Subconscious bias affects our decision-making regarding minorities as effectively as if we had hate in our hearts and minds. Science can now clearly identify at least the bottom end of the scale. It can tell us that when it comes to the bare negative associations of certain protected groups or positive associations with historically advantaged groups, that an extremely high percentage of people in our society retain these negative associations. There are three major categories of beliefs regarding groups. They are explicit attitudes, implicit stereotypes, and implicit attitudes. An attitude is a positive or negative evaluation of some object or idea. An implicit attitude can rub off on an associated object. The word implicit implies that these attitudes are sometime hidden from view and even from conscious awareness. A stereotype is a belief that members of a group possess or share some characteristic. A stereotype and an attitude are closely related. Not all attitudes are stereotypes, but all stereotypes are attitudes. Evidence of attitudes shows how negative or positive feelings about a group can rub off on a person or object. Likewise, a negative attitude toward a person can likely rub off on views of actions taken by that person. The implicit attitude represents the bottom of the scale. Stereotypes represent some level of awareness between implicit attitudes and overt bias. The explicit attitude may represents the high end of the scale for that person, assuming that they openly admit their true attitudes or bias. Tests have been developed to measure the degree of hidden bias (implicit negative associations toward groups) in people who deny they have such bias. For example, people favor whites in this country, they favor males, and they favor the young. They do all this without regard to open racism or sexism or ageism and without feelings of animosity toward those groups. The actions of all of those individuals are intentional in the legal sense. They hire, they fire, they demote, but the awareness of the nature of their own bias is often very low (or, to the extent the awareness is high) the willingness to express them explicitly remains low. The Implicit Association Test is a test that was designed to measure this hidden bias. The test was developed in the 1990’s because psychologists began to figure out that most people denied any bias or racism or sexism when asked. However the effects of racism and sexism continued to endure and the evidence of hidden bias remained. The question was how to measure bias that either people were denying or which people did not even know they had. The Implicit Association Test or IAT, was a direct response to this problem.
1. Implicit bias can be large. Implicitly if not explicitly, the magnitude of bias toward particular social groups is large. Whether it is age, race, class, ethnicity, religion, physical appearance, or sexual orientation, there is now strong evidence that negative associations automatically arise when we think about the less favored (gay, elderly, African Americans, Arabs, Jews--when compared to Christians, the obese). 2. The bias is widespread. Many, including the test developers themselves, show evidence of implicit biases, even in the absence of any conscious bias, and sometimes in opposition to the consciously expressed attitude. 3. Not all groups demonstrate the bias equally. Quite often implicit attitudes, like explicit ones, favor the groups to which we belong. There are some surprising and psychologically meaningful deviations. For example, members of disadvantaged minorities and even statistical minorities do not show the same implicit ingroup preference as do members of majority and dominant groups. This finding often stands in contrast to the consciously expressed, strong in-group preference by members of disadvantaged or small groups. 4. Not all individuals demonstrate the bias equally. Following from the above finding, within groups, there is a wide range of individual differences. We have also learned that there are individual differences in the degree to which each person is contaminated, and that these individual differences in the strength of the bias is meaningful – those with stronger biases are likely to be more discriminatory in other behaviors than those who show a weaker bias. 5. Implicit bias is related to explicit bias. The work shows that consciously held attitudes and stereotypes may indeed be associated with the degree of implicit bias, such that those who report lower explicit bias also appear to be lower in their implicit bias (this finding can vary quite a bit depending on the category – race, political attitudes, etc.), but it is no longer possible to ignore the fact that the two are related. Since conscious attitudes are controllable and can be consciously adopted, this provides a path whereby implicit attitudes can be influenced. 6. Implicit bias is plastic. Among the more optimistic revelations from recent data is the finding that seemingly minor shifts in the environment (such as an imagery exercise or the presence of a particular person) can change the magnitude of the bias that is observed. For example, the presence of an African American experimenter appears to lower anti-Black bias, and imagining women in positions of authority lowers the Female+weak bias. These findings raise questions about the power of the immediate situation in determining which one of may possible attitudes is expressed. Source - Mahzarin Banaji - Notes on Implicit Bias The ideas and data of implicit association and the IAT clearly makes visible the bottom end of the scale of those motivations prevented by Title VII. It shows that the nature of bias includes an entire range of motivations and conscious awareness. It makes known the true extent of bias within our society. Finally, it either is, or soon will be able to establish that the possession of attitudes measure by the IAT actually causes motivation that can adversely impact on protected groups. 2.2 THE RATE OF NEW-WORD LEARNING IN CHILDREN The process of learning the words of a language is referred to as Vocabulary Acquisition. As discussed below, the ways in which young children acquire the vocabulary of a native language differ from the ways in which older children and adults acquire the vocabulary of a second language. MEANS OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Language Acquisition Active Vocabulary and Passive Vocabulary Annotation Context Clues English as a Second Language (ESL) Lexical Competence Lexicon Listening and Speech Overgeneralization Poverty of the Stimulus Reading and Writing World Knowledge The rate of new-word learning is not constant but ever increasing. Thus between the ages of 1 and 2 years, most children will learn less than one word a day whilst a 17-year-old will learn about 10,000 new words per year, mostly from reading. The theoretical implication is that there is no need to posit a qualitative change in learning or a specialized word-learning system to account for the 'remarkable' rate at which young children learn words; one could even argue that, given the number of new words to which they are exposed daily, infants' word learning is remarkably slow." THE VOCABULARY SPURT At some point, most children manifest a vocabulary spurt, where the rate of acquisition of new words increases suddenly and markedly. From then until about six years old, the average rate of acquisition is estimated to be five or more words a day. Many of the new words are verbs and adjectives, which gradually come to assume a larger proportion of the child's vocabulary. The vocabulary acquired during this period partly reflects frequency and relevance to the child's environment. Basic level terms are acquired first, possibly reflecting a bias towards such terms in child-directed speech. . . Children appear to need minimal exposure to a new word form (sometimes just a single occurrence) before they assign some kind of meaning to it; this process of rapid mapping appears to help them to consolidate the form in their memory. In the early states, mapping is exclusively from form to meaning; but it later also takes place from meaning to form, as children coin words to fill gaps in their vocabulary. 2.3 TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY If vocabulary acquisition is largely sequential in nature, it would appear possible to identify that sequence and to ensure that children at a given vocabulary level have an opportunity to encounter words they are likely to be learning next, within a context that uses the majority of the words that they have already learned." Although additional research is sorely needed, research points us in the direction of natural interactions as the source of vocabulary learning. Whether through free play between peers . . . or an adult introducing literacy terms (e.g., sentence, word), as children engage in play with literacy tools, the likelihood that vocabulary will 'stick' is heightened when children's engagement and motivation for learning new words is high. Embedding new words in activities that children want to do recreates the conditions by which vocabulary learning takes place in the crib. Second – language learners and vocabulary aquision: The mechanics of vocabulary learning are still something of a mystery, but one thing we can be sure of is that words are not instantaneously acquired, at least not for adult second language learners. Rather, they are gradually learned over a period of time from numerous exposures. This incremental nature of vocabulary acquisition manifests itself in a number of ways. . . . Being able to understand a word is known as receptive knowledge and is normally connected with listening and reading. If we are able to produce a word of our own accord when speaking or writing, then that is considered productive knowledge (passive/active are alternative terms). . . . Mastery of a word only in terms of receptive versus productive knowledge is far too crude. . . . Nation proposes the following list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a word. These are known as types of word knowledge, and most or all of them are necessary to be able to use a word in the wide variety of language situations one comes across. Several of our own studies . . . have explored the use of annotations in second-language multimedia environments for reading and listening comprehension. These studies investigated how the availability of visual and verbal annotations for vocabulary items in the text facilitates vocabulary acquisition as well as the comprehension of a foreign language literary text. We found that especially the availability of picture annotations facilitated vocabulary acquisition, and that vocabulary words learned with picture annotations were better retained than those learned with textual annotations. Our research showed in addition that incidental vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension was best for words where learners looked up both picture and text annotations. There is a quantitative and qualitative dimension to vocabulary acquisition. On the one hand we can ask 'How many words do learners know?' while on the other we can enquire 'What do the learners know about the words they know?' Curtis refers to this important distinction as the 'breadth' and 'depth' of a person's lexicon. The focus of much vocabulary research has been on 'breadth,' possibly because this is easier to measure. Arguably, however, it is more important to investigate how learners' knowledge of words they already partly know gradually deepens. Download 40.86 Kb. 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