Semantics

Question 1

What part of the language taxonomy is semantics in?

Answer 1

Content

Question 2

What is content?

What is semantics?

Answer 2

Content: meaning of language - words used and meaning behind them

Semantics: rules of a language - individual words and word combinations

Question 3

What is a word?

Answer 3

• Symbol: representation
• Arbitrary: no relation between sound and meaning
• Referent: words stands for their referents
• Conventional: socially shared

Question 4

development at birth - 6 months

Answer 4

• sounds are represented in all different languages

- universal linguists

Question 5

development at 8 months

Answer 5

• early sounds ma ma ma and da da da

Question 6

development at 12 months

Answer 6

babbling consists of sounds only from the language spoken

Question 7

development at 10-15 months

Answer 7

• approximations of target words

- context bound

Question 8

what is under extensions?

what is over extensions?

Answer 8

under: very narrow use of word
over: broad use of word

Question 9

pre-school children
kingergarten

grade 3

Children with small vocabularies (SES background)

Answer 9

> Preschool children: Oral vocab lays the foundation for reading success
vocab size in kindergarten = effective predictor of reading comp
restricted vocab at end of gr 3 declining reading comprehension scores

low SES are:

• greater risk for reading failure
• more likely to have poorer grades in school
• more likely to drop out in high school

Question 10

what is fast mapping?

Answer 10

fast mapping: how quickly you learn a word
link word to referent and extend word to a category of referents
hear dog one time, see dog, know dog

Question 11

what is slow mapping

Answer 11

takes time

strengthen knowledge of word and category

Question 12

words can be known at different levels, what are the stages?

Answer 12

Stage 1: never saw it before
Stage 2: heard it but doesn’t know what it means
Stage 3: recognizes it in context and knows generally what it has to do with
Stage 4: knows it well

Question 13

What are the levels of word knowledge:

Answer 13

Association: can make association even though don’t understand meaning of word
Comprehension: understands commonly accepted meaning of word
Generation: can use target word in novel contexts (surface level - fast mapping)

Question 14

what are arguments against direct instruction of vocabulary?

Answer 14

too many words to teach directly AND

words can be learnt easily from context during reading

Question 15

are there too many words to teach directly?

- what are the 3 tiers

Answer 15

Tiers

1. basic words
2. words that occur with high frequency in mature language users, found across a variety of contexts
3. words whose frequency of use is low and often limited

Question 16

Why are tier two words best to teach?

Answer 16

more productive
rich knowledge of these words impact verbal abilities
called “goldilocks” words

Question 17

Learning for context - how easy is it?

Answer 17

• readers do use contexts to learn new words BUT only in small increments (3-16/100)
• this is most problematic for struggling readers because they read less and less successful in deriving meaning from context

Question 18

what are the 4 context cue categories in regards to context?

Answer 18

1. Directive Contexts: lead to correct inferences about word meaning
2. General Context: provide enough clues to place word in a general category
3. Non Directive: provide little assistance
4. Mis-directive context: seem to direct reader to incorrect meaning

Question 19

What aids in learning?

Answer 19

• frequent exposure
• temporal spacing
• multimodal input
• numerous exemplars

Question 20

what does text talk develop?

Answer 20

surface level understanding/use (fast mapping)
and
deeper level understanding/use (slower)

Question 21

what to do prior to reading?

Answer 21

ask about word meaning
guide to develop accurate word meaning
add additional representations

Question 22

Guidelines to choosing vocab in story books:

Answer 22

• preschool 5-6 words/story
  school: 10-15 / story
• vocab is most important so allow below-average to acquire above average
• choose word central to understanding plot and interesting words that they haven’t heard

Question 23

dont use word for instruction if:

Answer 23

• not being able to define the word in terms known to students
• word used to define a target word are alike or unknown to a student

Question 24

choose words that are:

Answer 24

useful and interesting ones

- able to find uses for in everyday lives

Question 25

Three major categories distinguish print and illustration:

Answer 25

symmetrical
Complementary
counterpoint

Question 26

What is symmetrical?

Answer 26

• illustration and print are equivalent
• independent from one another;
• story can be told by either

Question 27

What is complementary?

Answer 27

illustration and print complement each other and work together

Question 28

what is counterpoint?

Answer 28

illustrations and print represent info in different ways