School-Aged Language Development

• derivational morphology


  - use/comprehension begins in preschool years

  - continues during school age

  - biggest increase from ages 9-14

  - continues into adulthood
• rate of word learning


  - school age kids learn about 5-8 words per day

  - which is about 2,000-3,000 new words a year

  - largest rate is during late elementary school age
• number of words learning each day


  1-1;4: 0.3 words

  1;4-1;11: 0.8 words

  1;11-2;6: 1.6

  2;6-6;0: 3.6

  6-8: 6.6

  8-10: 12.1

  10-17: 7.8
• direct instruction


  - form of explicit learning such as

  -- vocabulary lessons in school

  -- looking words up in a dictionary
• contextual abstraction


  - using context cues

  - in oral or written language

  - fast mapping

  - frequency of exposure in context relates to whether the word is learned

  - usually this is done by implicit teaching
• morphological analysis


  - break down word into smaller morpheme

  -- compound words

  -- use of bound morphemes

  EX: nation - national - nationalize - nationalization
• homophones


  - words that sound the same but have different meanings

  - bear/bare

  - bank/bank

  - run/run
• double function words


  - meanings are related; physical and psychological

  - bright/bright

  - sharp/sharp

  (kids will understand literal, not psychological)
• mental state verbs


  - verbs that are in an action themselves

  - think, believe, hypothesize
• non-literal/figurative language


  - meaning is different from what the direct syntax/semantics would suggest; more abstract

  - ability starts in preschool, continues through adolescence and into adulthood
• metaphors


  - compare 2 objects/ideas

  EX: the bird was a rainbow flying in the sky
• simile


  - compare 2 objects/ideas using like or as

  EX: the moon is like the Earth's kite
• idioms


  - sayings with figurative meaning

  EX: he jumped the gun
• metalinguistics


  - ability to think about and talk about language

  - these skills begin at a young age, such as young child repairing a communication breakdown

  - relates to figurative language and using morphological awareness to learn new words
• written language


  - just like oral, can be comprehended (read) and produced (writing)
• reading process involves


  - decoding: being able to look at written words on a page and say what the word is

  - comprehension: being able to understand what you read
• sounding a word out


  - way to decode

  - involves phonological awareness skills

  - awareness that words are made of smaller units (sounds, syllables)
• ways to assess a child's phonological awareness


  - rhyming

  - saying words that all start with the same word (alliteration)

  - saying a word and then leaving off the first sound of the word (elision)