Chapter Six
Assessing and Teaching Language
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Speech and Language
Language is defined as “a socially shared code or conventional system for
representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed
combinations of those symbols” (Owens, 2008, p. 4).
Speech involves the actual mechanics or motor act of verbal expression. Thus,
whereas speech includes spoken utterances to convey meaning, language
indicates a person’s knowledge of the linguistic concepts on which speech is
based. Moreover, language comprises receptive skills (understanding) and
expressive skills (use) and includes both written and oral forms.
Terms
Terms such as specific language impairment, language delay, and language
disorder generally are used with students who are having difficulty learning
language in the absence of any intellectual, sensory, or emotional problems.
Definition of Language Disorder
The impairment or deviant development of comprehension and/or use of a
spoken, written, and/or other symbol system. The disorder may involve (1) the
form of language (phonologic, morphologic, and syntactic systems), (2) the
content of language (semantic system), and/or (3) the function of language in
communication (pragmatic system) in any combination.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1992, p. 949)
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Theories
Theories of language acquisition fall within three major camps:
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Behavioristic: Relies on learning principles to explain language
acquisition. Emphasize environmental influences and the universal laws of
learning, namely operant conditioning principles.
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Nativistic (or psycholinguistic): Believe that humans are “prewired” for
language development and that the environment simply triggers its
emergence.
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Interactionistic (or cognitive): theorizes that the child acquires
language through the interaction of perceptual-cognitive capacities and
experiences.
Components of Language
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Phonology
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The sound system of a language and the linguistic rules that govern the
sound combinations
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Smallest unit of language and is distinguished from the other language
components in that a phoneme alone sounds not convey a meaning.
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Most commonly in the child who is developmentally delayed in consonant
acquisition.
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May omit a consonant, substitute one consonant for another, or distort a
consonant.
Morphology
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The linguistic rule system that governs the structure of words and the
construction of word forms from the basic elements of meaning
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Smallest unit or segment of language that conveys meaning
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Free Morpheme: one that has meaning and may stand along (root words)
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Bound Morpheme: One that may not stand alone (prefixes, suffixes)
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Students many not use appropriate inflectional endings in their speech.
Syntax
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The linguistic rule system that governs the order and combination of
words to form sentences, and the relationships among the elements
within a sentence
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System of rules governing how words or morphemes are combined to
make grammatically correct sentences.
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Rules of syntax specific word, phrase, and clause order; sentence
organization, and the relationship between words, word classes, and
other sentence elements.
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Delay in syntax use sentences that lack the length or syntactic
complexity expected for their age.
Semantics
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The psycholinguistic system that patterns the content of an utterance,
intent, and meanings of words and sentences
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Language meaning and is concerned with the meaning of individual words
as well as the meaning produced by combinations of words.
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Developmental delay in word meaning is observed in youngsters who use
or understand a limited number of words.
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Pragmatics
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The sociolinguistic system that patterns the use of language in
communication, which may be expressed motorically, vocally, or verbally
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Concentrates on language as a communication tool that is used to achieve
social ends.
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Delay in pragmatics is evident when students do not use functions that
are expected for their developmental delay.
Language Difficulties
Preschool and Kindergarten Students
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Delayed readiness skills
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Unable to follow simple directions
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Immature-sounding speech
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Utterances and vocabulary may be similar to that of a younger child
Preschool and Kindergarten Students (cont’d)
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Word-finding difficulties
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Inability to name common objects
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Sound substitutions such as “buzgetti” for “spaghetti”
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Fewer functionally appropriate and accurate responses (“you know” or
“that thing over there,” or describe rather than name objects)
Preschool and Kindergarten Students (cont’d)
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Unable to make one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds
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Difficulty discriminating between sounds
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Frequently play by themselves or exhibit more nonplay and parallel play
than do their peers (Roth & Clark, 1987).
Behaviorally, children with language problems may have attention deficits,
need additional time to understand information and formulate ideas for
expression, and have a poor tolerance for frustration.
Elementary Students
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Limited ability to identify sounds, difficulty analyzing and synthesizing
sound sequences, and problems segmenting words into grammatical units.
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Difficulty with temporal and spatial concepts, as well as abstract
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concepts such as before-after, neither-nor, some, if/then, and
In the early elementary grades, the use of manipulatives begins to
decrease, and the student must gain information from the teacher’s
verbal presentation.
As the language complexity increases with each grade advance, the
student must keep up with the demands of the instructional language as
well as absorb the curriculum content.
By fourth grade, most of the curriculum content is presented in print,
and the student with language problems may have particular difficulty
making the transition from narrative to expository writing.
Deficits in text comprehension
Elementary students with language problems continue to exhibit difficulties in
their use of language.
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Often reflected in the student’s social skills
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May exhibit some of the same behaviors as they did when they were
younger, such as failing to adjust to their listener’s needs and having
difficulty joining an ongoing conversation
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May misinterpret social cues, fail to think of others’ thoughts and
feelings, and be unable to predict the consequences of their behavior
Secondary Students
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Tend to be passive learners
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Often appear to lack the metacognitive strategies necessary to perform
complex academic tasks
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Teacher is faced with the challenge of designing interventions to assist
students in overcoming or compensating for their language disabilities so
that they can meet the increased demands of secondary school.
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Lack the ability to use and understand higher level syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics
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Are expected to organize their time and complete assignments and,
thus, they must follow both oral and written instruction to complete
work independently
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Receptive and expressive language difficulties affect their ability to
learn effectively. This creates problems:
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Gaining information from class lectures and textbooks
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Completing homework
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Following classroom rules
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Demonstrating command of knowledge through test taking
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Expressing thoughts in writing
Passing minimum competency exams
Participating in classroom discussions.
Intervention may change from a content-oriented approach to a
functional approach in which the student is taught strategies to deal
with everyday situations.
Problems in comprehension of auditory language also are persistent in
adolescents and result in short-term memory problems and a decrease in
the understanding of linguistic relationships (Riedlinger-Ryan & Shewan,
1984).
Frequently, adolescent students with language problems have difficulty
organizing information and correctly associating or categorizing it for
later retrieval.
Poor organization and categorization result in other problems:
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Poor notetaking, test-taking, and study skills, as well as difficulty
integrating
Poor organization and categorization result in other problems, such as
poor notetaking, test-taking, and study skills, as well as difficulty
integrating information.
Difficulties also may persist in language use in the awareness of social
cues, interpretation of the motives and emotions of others, and use of
appropriate language.
Because adolescents frequently are aware of their difficulties,
behaviors such as aggression, frustration, lack of motivation, withdrawal,
and inattention may arise (Hazel & Schumaker, 1988; Seidenberg, 1988;
Wiig & Semel, 1984).
Bilingual and Culturally Diverse Students
Some students with limited English proficiency or nonstandard dialects are
misdiagnosed as having learning or language impairments because of their
difficulty on culturally biased standardized tests (Payne & Taylor, 2006).
As the bilingual population in the United States increases, the teacher must
distinguish between students who are unfamiliar with the language and culture
and students with a true language problem.
Bilingual students with language problems may need services somewhat
different from those for students whose primary language is standard
English.
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Salend and Fradd (1986) note that bilingual students have the following needs:
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Access to teachers who are proficient in English as well as in the
student’s native language.
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Use of nonbiased assessment and instruction to formulate appropriate
individualized educational programs.
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Exposure to curriculum and alternative instructional strategies that
promote the academic and social relevance of instruction.
To determine if a student’s problems are due to language difficulties, a
learning disability, or lack of exposure to effective instruction, Salend (2008)
suggests that the following factors should be considered in assessing secondlanguage learners:
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Length of residence in the United States
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School attendance patterns
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School instructional history
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Cultural background
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Performance in comparison to peers
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Home life
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Health and developmental history
Assessment of Language Skills
5 major reasons for language assessment:
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To identify students with potential language problems
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To determine a student’s language developmental level
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To plan educational objectives and design appropriate intervention
programs
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To monitor the student’s progress
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To evaluate the language intervention program
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Language Service Delivery Models
Pullout Therapy Model: They do not like to be singled out, peer pressure,
missing course work, fragmentation of services.
Classroom-Based Language Models
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Team Teaching: The language specialist actually teaches a portion of
the curriculum.
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Self Contained Classroom Teaching: The language specialist teaches in
a self-contained language class.
One-to-0ne Intervention: Intervention to particular students in the
classroom.
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Staff, Curriculum, or Program Development: Can aid students
indirectly by providing staff, curriculum, or program development to a
school or district.
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Consultation: Can serve as a consultant to the various professionals who
interact with students, such as general or special education teachers,
psychologists, physicians, nurses, social workers, or counselors.
Strategies-Based Model
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Teaching Language Skills
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General Principles:
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The language specialist should be aware of young students with language
disorders who are dismissed from language services, because academic
problems may resurface later due to a breakdown in the language system
and increased curriculum demands.
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Language screenings should consist of more than one test and be
sensitive to subtle forms of language disorders.
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Students suspected of having learning problems should receive routine
language evaluations that emphasize language and auditory processing.
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School officials should consider service delivery alternatives to the
traditional pullout model, and language specialists should focus on both
contextualized and decontextualized aspects of language.
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Professionals should collaborate to devise a coordinated program for
students with language problems rather than implement a variety of
isolated programs.
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The delivery of instruction in learning strategies should be language
sensitive.
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The curriculum in language intervention should be relevant to the general
curriculum, respond to setting demands, reflect areas of academic
concern, integrate spoken and written language systems, and focus on
generalization.
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The individual strategy preferences of students with language problems
should be considered, and students should be encouraged to determine
which strategies are successful in a given situation.
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Intervention should encourage student accountability and responsibility.
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Effective interventions from other disciplines should be applied.
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Teaching Language Skills
Strategies For Increasing Language Comprehension: Difficulty following
directions or understand information of increased complexity, Arrange
classroom seating to limit distractions, Use vocabulary that is familiar,
Encourage students to act out sentences, Introductory statement to help
students prepare for task.
Strategies For Increasing Language Production: Expect student to talk in
incomplete sentences occasionally, Use structured language programs,
Comment or elaborate on students ideas, Use semantic training, Encourage
verbal expression to improve verbal expression, Act as a good language model.
Imitation And Modeling Strategies: Student gives a response that is similar
to that of a model. Mimicry the student gives a one-to-one literal matching
response for each stimulus statement.
Language Activities
To teach is + verb + ing (is jumping)
To teach plural morpheme s on regular plural nouns
To teach possessive pronouns (her, his, their)
To teach classification of associated words
To teach ed on regular verbs (walked, jumped
To teach the prepositions in, on, out of, in front of, in back of, and beside
To teach classification of part/whole relationships
To teach classification by function
To classify objects that belong to the same class (animals, foods, houses,
vehicles)
To teach synonyms
To increase auditory discrimination between two phonemes
To teach negatives
To extend the use of linguistic forms to other environments
To use language as an effective communicator
To teach the classification of where, when, and what phrases
To teach vocabulary likenesses
To teach the use of relative clauses
To use the conjunctions and, but, because, and so
To teach paraphrasing
To teach employment vocabulary words to secondary students
Instructional Games in Language
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His, Her, or Their
What Goes Together?
The Deck
Whose Is It?
Say the Whole Sentence
Phonetic Bingo
Fishing for Blends
Two-Way Words
Sentence Game
Can you Answer with a Question?
Build a Sentence
Prefix Bingo
Deal a Sentence
Conjunction Square
SELF-CORRECTING LANGUAGE MATERIALS
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Opposites
Time Slot
Flip-Siders
Make a Question
When Did It Happen?
Word Endings with Meanings
Make It Say a Sentence
Does It Mean the Same Thing?
Descriptors
Indirect Requests