Word Learning Flashcards
What is required to learn a word?
- speech stream segmentation/form encoding
- mapping problem
- linking problem
- extension problem
speech stream segmentation/form encoding
- determine the word form (phonetic/orthographic)
mapping problem
- determine the word meaning
linking problem
- link the form and the meaning to each other
extension problem
- figure out the boundaries of the category
- what else does this word refer to and not refer to
Fast Mapping
- happens with few exposures
- frequently assumed to occur incidentally, via over-hearing or chance
- early/surface level knowledge
- linkage between form and meaning is critical
Form + meaning= word
Slow Mapping
- strengthens form, meaning, and/or link
- represent the word with additional examples and info
- integrates the word into a large semantic networks
- happens over time
- requires repeated exposures
- requires that you recognise that you are hearing the same word again
Phonological working memeory as a Cog Process underlying Vocab Learning: Baddelely 2010 working memory model:
Modality:
- visuospatial sketchpad
- phonological loop
Central executive:
- attention controller
- episodic buffer
Kids with DLD and Dyslexia (and other S/LI and SLDs) have reduced phonological memory
Children with DLD Weaknesses
- weaker vocabulary breadth and depth
- more difficulty with form encoding
- poor word retrieval skills (words with stronger representations are more likely to be retrieved)
Polysemous words:
- double function words
- words that have a physical and psychological meaning
Developmental Trajectory:
1. know the physical meaning
2. know the psychological meaning
3. see the relationship between the two and be able to explain it
Other polysemous words:
- homophones
- sound the same/spelled differently/different meanings
- in oral language can be confusing- access to written language aids in meaning differentiation
Children with DLD Strengths (primary vs secondary)
- better accuracy for the primary meaning compared to the secondary meaning
- awareness of secondary meaning improves through adulthood
- much poorer for children with DLD as compared to TD- 40-60% correct for TD
Teaching Words
- mid-frequency
- occur across many contexts
- likely to have multiple meanings
- more common in written than spoken language
Tier 1 words:
- basic words
- part of every day language
- needed for communication
- learned through conversation and interactions
Tier 2 words:
- academic words
- polysemous words
- transition words
- conjunctions
-idioms - phrasal/compound words
Tier 3 words
- subject-specific words that don’t have broad utility
- often words bolded in text books
Choosing amount Tier 2 words
- choose words the child will encounter soon and often
- is the word representative, repeatable, transportable, context analysis, and morphological analysis, helpful for learning other words?
- choose words that are useful and hard
- focus on words that require deep knowledge and flexible understanding
Word Learning Strategies:
- get teachers on board- these strategies benefit everyone
- expect DLD kids to need more extensive instruction and practice to move to independence
- support practice with visuals
Word Learning
Plan
- notice words you do not know
- stop when the word interferes with comprehension
- keep a list and confirm the word meaning later if possible
Vocabulary Interventions
-Robust Vocabulary Instruction: depth and breadth
- Lexicon Pirates and Vocabulary Book: empowering kids to learn vocab independently
- supporting word finding via strong semantic networds
- dose and intensity
Contextual Abstraction
- lexical representations build up over time
- context clues guide learning meanings
- some words are more frequent and easier to represent
- low frequency, abstract words may not be readily learned through incremental, incidental exposure
Direct instruction
- can support and extend contextual abstraction
Robust Vocab Instruction
- encounter new words systematically
- child-friendly definitions and explicit instruction
- exposure to multiple examples- adult points examples out, then child is prompted to identify them
- associate words with child’s own experiences
- provide opportunities for production practice
Child friendly Definitions
- something you can weave into reading or speaking easily
- relatable and using known words or examples for the child
- consider having two-three variations so that the definition isn’t just memorized
- write the definitions on a word wall or in a vocab notebook for the child to refer to
Definitions Quality
- category+ differentiating characteristics (synonyms)
- Weak: antonyms, examples, comparisons to other things, situational definitions
- Weakest: related words
Definitions are…
- heavily influenced by content knowledge
Explicit Instruction- Gradations
- make the gradations amount similar, but not identical words clear
- adjectives
- adverbs of liklehood and degree
- time words
- factive/nonfactive verb
Explicit Instruction- Polysemous Words
- make both primary and secondary meanings clear via definitions
- only teach secondary meanings if the primary meaning is already well known
- give children greater practice with the secondary meaning
- clearly discuss the relationship between primary and secondary meanings
- give children opportunities to differentiate between the two meanings and explain how they know which meaning is being used
- consider providing contexts (jokes/puns) that hinge on the secondary meaning
Opportunities to Practice:
- production practice: imitation/sounding out
- writing practice: spelling/focus on word roots if relevant
- sentence stems: “i always exaggerate when…”
- word banks: answer the question/write a story using the following words
Word Learning Strategies: Lexicon Pirate
- the child collects words that they can name and define
- generalization is promoted: the child is encouraged to collect a certain number of unknown words at home for work in therapy later
- the child uses a context map to define and learn the word
- set asife words that need to be learned/retrieved: when examining give both phonological and semantic cues
The Vocabulary book
- look for context clues to determine the meaning
- morphological decomposition
- use the dictionary/other tools
- plan what to do when you do not know a word
take ownership of vocabulary growth
Context Clues
- recognize when they don’t know a word
- pause and look for clues (text, picture)
- guess a simpler known synonym
- try out your guesses and check for context
Morphological Decomposition
- fluent and flexible use of derivational morphology may be the one way that children’s vocabulary grows so rapidly in the elementary school years
- can be explicitly taught, especially once the child is literate
- teach children to decompose the word, guess the meaning, and then check the context for verification
Derivational Morphology
- morphemes that change the meaning or word class
- later developing/more challenging than inflectional morphemes
- may change the pronunciation or spelling of the root
- roots are sometimes transparent sometimes not
Strategies for Teaching About Roots and Derivational Morphology
- talk about taking words apart
- show kids they already know about word parts
- practice: notice a word has a prefix, remove the prefix, write/say/think about the prefix meaning and word meaning, guess the meaning from the parts, use context clues to confirm meaning
Teaching Dictionary Skills
- appropriate for kids in upper elementary school with a good sense of alphabetic principles and basic spelling
- make a thesaurus and dictionary readily available
- use of a paper dictionary is not the point
- NOT an evidence-based word learning straetgy
Intervention for Word Learning Strategies:
- increasing degrees of independent- explicitly describe the strategies and how to use it
- SLP/teacher/peer models the strategy
- collaborative use of the strategy
- guided practice: should extend across multiple context and long periods of time to ensure transfer and mastery
- independent use
Robust Vocab- Book Based Instruction
- pre-reading instruction
- embedded ins tory books
- post reading instruction
- exposure to word in context + brief definition
- limited production practice
Robust Vocabulary Dosage
- set of 6 words, 0 exposure, 5 exposures, 20 exposures
- taught over 3 or 6 days
- both scheduled worked for TD kids but 20 exposures was better
- better to teach a few words at a time, intensely, than many with reduced frequency or over a longer period of time
- children with DLD need 2x the exposure for word learning as compared to typical peers
- initial learning should be several exposures to the word per day
Word Finding
- presumed that kids know the word and the problem is retrieving the correct word at the appropriate time
- can occur to anyone, but more associated with low language skills
- characterized by: hesitations and fillers, circumlocutions, use of empty words, lexical substitutions, overuse of pronouns/GAP verbs
Word Finding Cont.
- the presence of cues
- frequency of retrieval
- competition amount related words
- recency of word learning/retrieval
Word Finding Cues
Semantic:
- actual object
- sentence completion
- pictures
- descriptions
Phonological:
- starts with…
- rhymes with…
Word finding and word learning are linked
- frequency of retrieval: how often the individual has to retrieve it and under what conditions
- recency effects: more recent retrieval makes it easier to retrieve words again
Word Finding Strategies
- semantic associations
- phonemic cues
- circumlocutions
gestures
drawing - context clue maps