LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
DURING THE SCHOOL YEARS
AND BEYOND
For exam:**
• No test questions on McLaughlin pp. 350bottom of p. 359
• Emphasis is on the bottom of p. 359
starting at Semantics: Growth and Changes
till the end of the chapter
I. DEVELOPMENT IN
RELATED DOMAINS**
• 6 years—express own feelings and empathy for
others’ feelings
Onset of puberty at around 12 years
• Voice changes
• 14 years—increase abilities in abstract reasoning
and problem-solving
II. IMPORTANCE OF INCREASIING
ACADEMIC SKILLS**
• Burke, 2012 “Spotlight on poverty and
opportunity”
• http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org
Burke, 2012:
Youtube…Why Teachers Drink
We need to implement common
core standards into our tx:
• Working w/ school-aged students, we need
to write our goals to these standards and
help students achieve them
III. DEVELOPMENT OF
LANGUAGE SKILLS:
SEMANTICS**
• First graders are capable of understanding about
20,000 words
• By 6th grade, students understand about 50,000
words
• Students learn new words, and they also
recognize additional features of words; they
discover additional meanings of words
• **Horizontal development—
process of associating
additional features with a
word.
• E.g., “father” originally
referred to the child’s dad
• Now, he knows that other
children have fathers, and
maybe he even calls God
“Father”
• Catholic--priest is called
“Father”
Another example—dogs:**
• Family dog
• Different breeds, ages of
dogs—neighbors, parks
• Police dogs—direct
experience
• Stuffed animals, books
• **Vertical development
—learning multiple
meanings of words
• “Rock” can mean
different things
• “Pound” can also mean
different things
• **Thematic organization —used early in life. It is
based on associations that relate words to some
integrated context in which they are experienced as a
whole
• Children assemble groupings based on themes
• For example, the word “slide” might go with
playground, swings, sandbox, friends, recess
• The word “cake” might go with birthday, candles,
presents, games
• **Taxonomic organization —later in school years-based on associations or classifications in which
items share features that define them as a class.
• Students use categories
(overall labels)
• For example, when given the word “cake,” the
student would categorize this as a dessert and give
related items like cookies, ice cream, pie
• “Slide” would be categorized as playground
equipment, and go with swings, monkey bars
What other categories do
elementary kids need to develop?
On page 363…**
• You will not be tested on the terms
subordinate categories and superordinate
categories
• **Convergent semantic production —
production of a specific word is prompted
by other words that point to it.
• Clinician: “Listen to these words: smoke,
alarm, siren, flames, hoses, ladders…what
word does all this make you think of?”
• Student: A firetruck.
**Convergent and divergent
semantic production….
• Are very important
to academic success
• State standardized
tests also tap these
abilities
• I work on these skills
in therapy!
IV. LANGUAGE SKILLS IN
THE SCHOOL SETTING**
• A. Pragmatics
• Presuppositional skills and
style shifting continue to
become more refined
• Topic shading develops as
children mature in their
ability to subtly shift topic
In topic shading…**
• A subsequent utterance maintains one
aspect of the previous utterance but shifts
to a related topic
• In other words: you subtly change the
subject
• Speaker A: How about this weather?**
• Speaker B: This rain is really something.
• Speaker A: Yeah, all this rain has been
great for my lawn and roses.
• (weird and unsubtle: “My roses are
beautiful.”)
• Speaker B: What kind of roses do you grow?
• Speaker A: I really liked watching the
Olympics this year.**
• Speaker B: Yeah, the swimming was
awesome. I’m taking swimming lessons.
• (weird and unsubtle): I’m taking
swimming lessons. They’re fun.
• Speaker B: Where do you take the
lessons?
It is crucial to help students with
pragmatics as they grow older**
ASHA Schools Conference 2012: Pamela
Wiley—In middle school:
B. Classroom Language**
• 1. Teacher language:
• Diminished presupposition (less
background explanation): teachers
assume children know a certain body of
knowledge
• Highly decontextualized, addressed to
group
Teacher language…**
• Expository; relatively structured information
presented in a logical and tutorial manner
Teacher language also…**
• May be directed to the whiteboard or
overhead, not to kids
• May be very fast
• Mark’s teachers have always spoken
very rapidly
Hulit et al., 2015:
2. Textbook language**
By second grade, text grammar
Books written in structured, formal way
Often very different from language
students experience outside of school,
especially if they are low-SES
Justice, 2012 ASHA Schools
Conference
Justice 2012—we need to teach
Tier 2 words
C. Narratives**
• Young children use plots— central organizing
themes of stories, and include:
– -Story setting
-Story
episode
As young as 5 years old, students use
unfocused chains; the events and elements
of the story relate to each other, but are not
well organized under an overall plot
• **By 9 years old, children use focused
chains —these have central characters
and true sequences of events, but not the
characters’ internal plans or intentions
• Complete narratives are used next, where
characters complete their goals
• Complex narratives —adolescence—
many subplots
V. METALINGUISTIC
ABILITIES**
• Definition—speaker’s ability to make a
conscious evaluation of lang. behavior
• 1. Segmentation: speakers analyze stream
of language into linguistic units such as
phonemes, syllables, words
2. Understanding Figurative
Language**
• Figurative language consists of
utterances that convey meaning
by suggesting a connection
between two contexts that share
features or relationships
• People use figurative language
to evoke mental images in the
minds of their listeners or to
emphasize something in an
interesting way
**
• Types of figurative language are similes,
metaphors, idioms, and proverbs
• In McLaughlin, the definitions of idioms
and proverbs are so similar that on the
exam, I am referring to them as proverbs
A simile:**
Directly states an analogous relationship
“Your lips are like pedals—bicycle pedals.”
“Your teeth are like stars—they come out at
night.”
“She’s as light as a feather.”
A metaphor:**
• Implies an analogous
relationship
• Love is a rose.
• He’s a bull in a china shop.
• She’s a kid in a candy store.
Idioms/Proverbs:**
• Short, analogous statements that express
advice or truths
“The early bird gets the worm.”
• “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
• “Don’t count your chickens before
they’re hatched.”
More proverbs:
• Act normal, because everyone is crazy
already (Dutch)
• The nail that sticks its head up gets
hammered down (Japan)
• Every tree has its roots, and all water has its
source (Vietnamese)
Filipino proverbs (thanks to
Chantelle!)**
• It is better to live in a nipa hut if a good person
dwells there than to live in a palace with an
arrogant person
• Before trying to clean the dirt off others, be aware
of your own dirt
• Before you get into someone’s business, take a
good look at yourself in the mirror
• If you are not proud of your native language, you
are but a stinky fish. Be proud of your culture!
More proverbs (other cultures):
3. Understanding Ambiguity**
• Two or more interpretations are possible for the
same utterance.
• “The man saw the girl looking through the
telescope.”
“I have my earring back.”
• “She is an ancient history professor.”
• “She’s looking blue.”
• “I could use some change.”
4. Word awareness**
• Understanding
that referents can
have multiple
names
• E.g, a small
container we
drink liquid out
of = a glass, cup,
or mug
Shoes: **
• In the Philippines, there is one word: zapatos
• In the U.S. High heels, tennis shoes, sneakers,
slingbacks, pumps, sandals, mules, penny
loafers, boots, flipflops, clogs, stilettos,
platforms, espadrilles, booties
VI. LANGUAGE FOR
LITERACY
Pages 388 and 389**
• Are not on the exam
Joffe & Black, 2012 (Language, Speech,
and Hearing Services in Schools, 10/12)
Reading Development**
• Bottom-up model in early stages, associated
with the phonics approach
– graphemesphonemes words
sentences ideas
• Top-down model in later stages—extract
meaning from text—associated with the
whole language approach
Writing Development
For example:**
• My dog’s name is
Cocoa
• MI DG NM Z KO
The Common Core State
Standards…
From a 3rd
grade reader
This is narrative (story), not
expository
.
•
Examples—not on exam
Grade 5 Standard 3: Summarize the
points a speaker makes and explain how
each claim is supported by reasons and
evidence.
Grade 9 Standard 3: Evaluate a
speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and
use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying
any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated
or distorted evidence.
VII. SUPPORTING STUDENTS
WITH LITERACY DIFFICULTIES
SUPER POWER READING STRATEGIES**
Before I read:
Look at the title, headings, and pictures
Look at any words in italics or boldface
Read the summary at the end of the chapter
While I read:
Visualize what I read; make detailed pictures in my brain
Ask myself questions about what I’m reading
Predict what will happen next
Highlight key ideas
After I have read the whole thing:
Look at the title, headings, and pictures again
Read over my highlights
Ask questions about what I have just read
Summarize what I have just read in my own words
VII. CHANGES ACROSS THE
LIFE SPAN**
• Lose hearing
• Develop additional registers, or styles of
communication
• Add to vocabulary
• Decline in word retrieval skills; use of more
general rather than specific terms (e.g.,
dog/border collie)
Three nonlanguage cognitive abilities
that impact language for older people are:
Owens 2014
Berko Gleason & Ratner 2013