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MAKING ACADEMIC ENGLISH MORE ACCESSIBLE

MAKING ACADEMIC ENGLISH MAKING ACADEMIC ENGLISH MORE ACCESSIBLEMORE ACCESSIBLE

Susan M. Ebbers susan@readingway.com

www.readingway.com

Corpus Christi, TX April 6, 2009

EDUCATION SERVICE CENTER REGION 2

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Teaching VocabularyAn Effective Use of Instructional Time

Time—measured in just minutes—spent on vocabulary instruction correlates with growth in reading comprehension

– Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986 (a meta-analysis of vocabulary studies at varying grade levels)

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Big Ideas for Developing Vocabulary

• Verbalize Words – enunciate, discuss

• Relate Words– build networks

• Enjoy Words– overcome apathy, intimidation

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Get a Grip on LearningGet a Grip on Academic Texts

Academic Words

Morphologically Complex Words

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Academic Words

• Used primarily in school or other formal settings– Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are

less likely to hear this language at home• low SES• non-English (or non-standard English)• less exposure to those with post-secondary education

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Morphologically Complex Words

Morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning in a word

unlocking has 3 morphemes: un-lock-ing

biographers has 4 morphemes: bio-graph-er-s

Common Morphemes:

word root: inspector, phonics

base word: unlikely light house

prefix: re-, un-, dis-

suffix: -able, -ive, -ly} affixes

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derivation

•A word formed from an existing word, root, or affix, having a derivational suffix

tract (Latin root, meaning to pull)

•tractor, traction, attractive, intractable, etc.

morphology

•The study of the structure of words as it relates to meaning. It is structural analysis.

•Morphology may also include the study of word history: etymology.

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UnveilingUnveilingAcademicAcademicEnglish viaEnglish viaMorphologyMorphology

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• Poor comprehension in middle school is frequently due to limited vocabulary, including academic words

(e.g., August & Shanahan, 2006; Buly & Valencia, 2003; Carlo, 2005; Stahl & Nagy, 2006; Stanovich, 1986)

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“Nearly half of incoming freshmen cannot read their textbooks fluently”

(Carnegie Corporation, 2002)

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Butler et al. (2004) Describe Academic Words in 5th Grade Math, Science, and Social Studies

• Low frequency words, rare words<11 exposures per million words (Zeno et al., 1995)

• Words with ≥ 3 syllables• Derivations—a linguistics-morphology term• Nominalizations

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Developmental ProgressionInflection, Compound, Derivation

derivations

inflections

compound words

boy, farm, coldbase words

boys, farmed, farming, colder, coldest

boyfriend, farmhouse, coldhearted

boyish, boyishly, boyhood, farmer, Farmington

(Anglin, 1993; Berko, 1958; Tyler & Nagy, 1989; Wysocki & Jenkins, 1987)

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Derivational Suffixes That Mean “one who”

leader

painter

teacher

--er

politician

dietician

librarian

--ian

pioneersenatorcartoonist

mountaineermayorpianist

engineergovernorscientist

--eer--or-ist

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Derivational SuffixesAcademic, Abstract, and Challenging

Derivational suffixes can change the part of speech

• words ending with –ion (-sion, -tion) are often nouns (station, distraction, consideration)

• words ending with –ive are often adjectives (creative, aggressive, sensitive)

• words ending with –ity are often nouns (simplicity, purity, inferiority)

• words ending with –ment are often nouns(inducement, enrollment, impediment)

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Inflection or Derivation?

actor acts acted

action activate acting

deactivation activity actress

(The base word is act.)

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Morphological Development

Morphology studies demonstrate that English-speaking children generally understand inflections and compounds before they understand derivations. For diverse learners, derivational morphology continues to be an obstacle through high school.

(Anglin, 1993; Berko, 1958; Carlisle, 1995; Carlisle & Fleming, 2003; Derwing, 1976; Derwing & Baker, 1979, 1986; Freyd & Baron, 1982; Selby, 1972; Tyler & Nagy, 1989; Wysocki & Jenkins, 1987)

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Prior Studies: The “Wug Test”

Jean Berko-Gleason, 1958

Boston

12 adults, 86 children

preschool and 1st grade

This is a wug.

Now there is another one.There are two of them.There are two ____.

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Prior Studies: Anglin, 1993

What does the word treelet mean?OK. Maybe it means like a tree and maybe like for Christmas you can put lights on it…

Can you tell me anything more about treelet?Is it [spelled] –let or –lit?

Actually, it’s l-e-t.I’m not sure about this, but it might mean a baby tree…

Fifth-Grader (p. 100)

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Research with Compounds and Related Words

At-risk second-grade readers failed to understand the meanings of compound words and did not recognize related word (e.g., quick, quickly, quicksand, quicken) (Nagy, Berninger, Abbott, Vaughan, & Vermeulen, 2003)

What would you call grass where bees like to hide?beegrass or grassbee?

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Build Compound WordsBuild, Invent, Describe

Word cards

coathouse

firerain

flashdog

horsefly

nightlight

dropgreen horsedogdoghouse

Invented wordReal word

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White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) found that third-graders who were given training on the nine most common prefixes and a strategy for decomposing words into roots and suffixes outperformed a control group on several measures of word meaning.

They concluded that teaching at least the top nine prefixes (if not all twenty) to middle school students would pay dividends in increased vocabulary learning.

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20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts1. unable

2. review

3. inedible (immobile, illegal, irresponsible)

4. distrust

5. enlighten (empower)

6. nonsense

7. inside (implant)

8. overload

9. misguide

10. submarine

11. preheat

12. interview

13. forewarn

14. derail

15. transfer

16. supersonic

17. semicircle

18. antifreeze

19. midterm

20. underfed

American Heritage Dictionary

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not prefix re-prefix re-reheatredreturnreadrebuildrewindrestrescue

Will the Real Prefix Please Stand Up?

reheat red

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Peel Away the Affixes

multifaceted

The diamond was multifaceted; it had many faces or sides.

many

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The greatest benefit from instructional time spent on word study can be gained from exploring roots, prefixes, suffixes, and networks of related words.

Henry,1997

Morphological AwarenessMorphemic Analysis, Context Clues, and Cognates

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Word Play Develops Morphological AwarenessWord Play Develops Morphological Awareness

Are these real words? What might they mean?

ugsomemalductive

vinciblesubjacent

triskaidekaphobia

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“…vocabulary instruction needs to be more explicitly metalinguistic—that is, word consciousness is an obligatory, not an optional, component”

Nagy, 2007, p. 54

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Frindle by Andrew Clements

5th grade chapter bookOne boy’s determinationto express free speech throughword invention

etymologyJohnson’s Dictionary

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A Morphemic Word Wall Speak it, Change it

kind

kindness

unkind

unkindlykindly

I am…

I act…

I show… unkindness

predictable unpredictable

predictably unpredictably

predictability unpredictability

un = not, opposite

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A challenging curriculum:

•teaching about words

•teaching academic words

•creating awareness of polysemy

•strategies for inferring word meaning from context

•morphological and cross-linguistic tools

Carlo, August, McLaughlin, Snow, Dressler, C., et al., 2004

Spanish: A Latinate LanguageSignificant Gains for Both ELL and EO in Fifth Grade

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When students are aware of Spanish-English cognates, they resolve vocabulary tasks more effectively.Nagy, Garcia, Durgunoglu, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993

Examples:

insect/insecto, observe/observar

Most Spanish words that end in -ción can be translated into English by changing the suffix to "-tion"

–constitución means "constitution"–nación means "nation"

Uncover and Discuss False Cognates

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Pictures and English-Spanish Cognates

roedorcorrosión erosión

rodentcorrosion erosion

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Teachers and students benefit from resources for accessing the cognate (e.g., Spanish)

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necessity, necessarynecesitarnecessitas

lunar, lunacy, lunaticlunaluna

prime, primary, primerprimeroprimus

avian, aviary, aviationaveavis

arbor, arboretumárbolarbor

Common EnglishScholarly EnglishCommonSpa

nishLatin root

(Bravo, Hiebert, & Pearson, 2007)

Some Common Spanish Words Correspond to an Academic English Word

tree

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Academic Texts are Filled with Morphologically Complex Words

About 60% of the word meanings in printed school English in grades 3-9 might be inferred through knowledge of their morphemes, in context

(Nagy & Anderson, 1984)

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Students skilled in morphemic and contextual analysis have the potential to increase their vocabulary breadth and depth substantially.(Edwards, Font, Baumann, & Boland (2004) in Baumann & Kame ’enui, p. 161)

Efficacy inconclusive, if promising, for severe reading disability (Deacon, Parilla, & Kirby, in press; Reed, 2008)

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OutsideOutside--In StrategyIn Strategy

1. Look outside the word at context clues.

2. Look inside the word for meaningful word parts.

3. Combine the clues. Use the analogy strategy.

(For more details, see Baumann et al., 2002; Ebbers & Denton, 2008)

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OutsideOutside--In StrategyIn Strategypneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

1. Look outside the word at context clues, visualsThe coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

2. Look inside the word for known word parts: pneumono ultra microscopic silico volcano coni osis

3. Use the analogy strategy: “I don’t know this sickness, but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by analogy, this sickness might have something to do with lungs and heat—maybe they are inflamed.”

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Context Clues and Morpheme Clues

• Some middle school students did not make use of context clues or morpheme clues

• Those who could utilize both types of clues did not necessarily use them both in tandem

• Those who did access context clues tended to look only in the proximal sentence, and only for synonyms – (Wysocki & Jenkins, 1987)

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Point Out Context Clues

• A formal definition inset into the text, usually offset by commas or a dashed line

• A synonym or a rephrasing

• An antonym

• Common signal words: which is, in other words, also known as, also called, that is, or, for example, such as

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Point Out Punctuation Clues

CommasWe must find the terminus, or the end, of this circuit.

DashesCan photons—small particles of light energy – travel faster than sound?

ParenthesesHis lorikeets (parrots) wakened the household at dawn.

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Readers must understand at least 90% of the words to minimally comprehend a text (Nation, 1994)

When is a Text Incomprehensible?

90%93% 98%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Text A Text B Text C

Percent ofwords known

acce

ssib

le w

ith in

stru

ctio

n

frus

trat

ing

text

easy

, per

haps

inte

rest

ing --frustration reading level

--instructional reading level--independent reading level

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WHAT TO DO ABOUT POOR COMPREHENSION OF ACADEMIC TEXTS?

Build Background Knowledge

Build Academic Word Knowledge

Develop Derivational Morphology

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Some Words to Teach

www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/averil-coxhead/awl/

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Use Academic Language Freely

near the entrancenear the door

obtain a rulerget a ruler

assist a friendhelp a friendlocate a pencilfind a pencil

Unknown Academic Word

Commonly Known Word

Note: Beginning English Language Learners may not already know the common English words shown above.

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• Word knowledge is the BEST predictor of reading comprehension. First grade vocabulary predicts 11th grade reading comprehension.

(Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997)

Expose Young Children to Academic Words as Appropriate

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Optimize Oral Language

• Provide adolescents with instruction that includes discussion of text and concepts (Torgesen et al., 2007) .

• Oral discussion of content and content vocabulary is a common component of many successful reading interventions (Nagy, 2007)

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Use Academic Language in Discussions

• Sentence starters or stems• Our principal has decided on school uniforms. One

disadvantage confronting students might be…• I concur with ____ because• I take exception to ______’s idea because….

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A Student-Friendly DefinitionWith Examples and Non Examples in Artificial Conversations

• rational– If people seem rational, they make sense, they are logical,

and not highly emotional. Rational is an adjective; it describes.

• Have students respond to the following statements by saying, “That is rational” or “That is not rational.”– I lock the door when I leave the house. – I am terrified of the moon. I scream whenever I see it.– My father keeps his extra money in the bank.– The neighbor hangs his extra money from a tree.

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Elicit Active Responsesprofound

• Which ones are more likely to be profound?

• With your thumbs up, say, “That’s a profound ___.”

– a carrot an essay a menu a speech a shopping list a poem

That’s a profound essay, dude!

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A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Carnivorous Carnivalby Lemony Snicket

The author has intentionally made vocabulary explicit in this series—see next slide.

Integrate Excellent Excerpts

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Lemony Snicket, The Carnivorous Carnival

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For English Language Learners Especially:Anchor the Meaning into Phonological Memory

• from speech to print, grounded in meaning• active engagement, gestures, etc.• with vocalized articulation

– whole word– syllable by syllable

• syllable accent– in meaningful phrases

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Listen: catastrophe. A catastrophe is a big (motion) problem. A catastrophe is often a sudden bad surprise, too. Like an earthquake. That’s a catastrophe.Listen: /ku tas’ tru fee/. You say it. (signal for a response)Say the 4 parts after me (wait for each signal): / ku tas’ tru fee/ Say the second part (tas’) the loudest, like this: /ku tas’ tru fee/. (signal)

If I tell about a big problem, you say, “What a catastrophe!” and make a motion.Listen: Suddenly, fire spread throughout the kitchen. (signal)Listen: A sudden tornado tore up the barn and the corn field. (signal)Listen: Linda broke her crayon by accident. (signal)

Let’s see what this word looks like. (point) ca tas tro phe, cat a stroph icSay each part when I point to it. (point). Now read the whole word. (signal)What is a catastrophe? (signal)Turn to a neighbor and verbalize an example of a real catastrophe.

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Bridge to Known WordsThus Linking the Language

Bridge catastrophe to known words and examples:– a really big problem– overwhelming

• like a hurricane, a shipwreck, a flood • disaster, fiasco, calamity, cataclysm, tragedy• NOT like a broken fingernail

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Listen: pantry. A pantry is a kitchen closet.Listen: /pan’ tree/. You say it. (signal for a response)Say each part after me: /pan’/ (signal) /tree/ (signal)Say the first part the loudest, after me: /pan’/ (signal) /tree/ (signal)A pantry is a closet in the kitchen. We keep food and kitchen stuff in it.

If I say something kept in a pantry, you say, “Look in the pantry!” (point)Listen: a box of cereal. (signal)Listen: a television. (signal)Listen: paper plates and napkins (signal)

Let’s see what this word looks like. See the two parts: (point) pan trySay each part when I point to it. (point). Now read the whole word. (signal)What is a pantry? (signal)Turn to a neighbor and use pantry in a silly sentence.

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Specific Word Instruction

No single method is effective for teaching every word, in part because words and phrases vary greatly in characteristics and complexities (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

And so do students!

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Networking or Linking the Lexicon

“There is considerable evidence that words, both spoken and written, are remembered in relation to other words and that word meanings are not stored in our memory as isolated wholes that resemble separate entries in a dictionary”Moats, 2000, p. 72

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Tools for Building Academic Language

• Use Semantic Maps– various graphic organizers

verbalize

enjoyrelate

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English language learners benefit from instruction that shows how words can be grouped together in meaningful ways, including synonyms, antonyms, and word family associations.

(Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004; Gorgnet et al., 2000)

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Interactive Semantic Sorting

• Use relevant vocabulary• Sort words with a peer

– build networks of related words• Verbalize it• Defend or justify word placement• Enjoy• Not a right/wrong proposition

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Animalsstampedeswoopsoarslitherswarmgallop

Machinesblast off

towexplode

spinpercolatecalculate

movements

Toys/Objectsbouncetwirlrollbuzztickspin

Natureblow

rustlefluttererupt

tremblesplash

Lehr, Osborn, & Hiebert. A Focus on Vocabulary. PREL, 2004. Product # ES0419

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Semantic Feature AnalysisTeach “How To” with Known Words

chameleonowlcoyotevultureasphare

bird reptilemammal

Partners discuss answers and justify responses. Verbalize it!

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Semantic Feature Analysis #2

clownrabbipastormimesoloistprofessordivapresident

actssingsspeaks

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Word RelationshipsWord Relationships

Partners discuss answers and justify responses

crusade-crusader

knight-night

knight-tapestrymoat-towerserf-lordfealty-loyalty

not relatedbelongtogether

nearly the opposite

nearly the same

homage-respect

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Frayer ModelFrayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969

• Graphic organizer• May help the learner

process information• Verbalize it

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console

Action verb: tomake someonewho is sad feel better

-friendly-kind-sympathetic

-a hug

-a bunch of flowers

-a sympathy card

-a kick in the teeth when someone is down

-rubbing it in

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pardon me presidential pardona pardonable offense

pardonedpardoningpardonableunpardonable

pardon

definition

-to forgive someone-to ask for forgiveness

three phrases related words

Modified Modified FrayerFrayer ModelModel

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Your Own Modification(use words from text excerpts)

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target word

definition

sketch

sentence

part of speech

root

affixes

related wordscognate

fracture

noun

fractură

fract

--ure

fraction, fractional, fractionalize, fractal

A break, a breaking away, a part.

Jorge fell from the tree; he has a cast on his fracture.

build, repair, healantonym

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word

definition

sketch

sentence

part of speech

root

affixes

related wordscognate

antonym

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“There is a mountain of evidence suggesting that spacing study time

leads to better memory of the material”

Daniel Willingham, 2002

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Distributed Encounters with WordsMeaning Expands One Exposure at a Time

• Readers need at least 6 exposuresto learn the new word– Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984

• Better results with 12 exposures– McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985

• Even better with 20 exposures– Beck & McKeown (2004)

• Some of the primary-grade students still did not learn all the new words

• This varies – By word and learner characteristics

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Distributed Practice

Ongoing review is much better than cramming(Willingham, 2002)– Student notebooks– Word walls– Flashcards– Daily conversation– Ongoing context in varied content

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The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter

The Unbreakable Codeportrays the quiet pride of a Navajo code talker as he explains to his grandson how the Navajo language, faith, and ingenuity helped win World War II.

Promote Word Consciousness or Linguistic Awareness via Books

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• Sunshine, Moonshine– by Jennifer Armstrong

• Cryptomania! – by Edith Hope Fine

• Fortunately– by Remy Charlip

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• The Important Book – by Margaret Wise Brown

• Miss Alaineus– by Debra Frasier

• Pig, Pigger, Piggest – by Rick Walton

• Why the Banana Split – by Rick Walton

• Once there was a Bull…(frog)

– by Rick Walton

Promote a Rich Verbal Culture

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Professional Vocabulary Guides

• Bringing Words to Life– Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002

• The Vocabulary Book– Graves, 2006

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Henry, 2003Moats, 2000

Professional Morphology Resources

Moats, 2009LETRS Module 4

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Wrap-Up

Summarize the most useful information gained from this session

Explain the three “global” ideas for teaching vocabulary

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THANK YOU & BEST WISHES!

• Email: susan@readingway.com, sebbers@berkeley.edu• Website: www.readingway.com• My Sopris West Publications:

– Vocabulary Through Morphemes: Suffixes, Prefixes, and Roots for Intermediate Grades

– Power Readers (consumable interactive decodables with pre-reading and post-reading material)

– Turbo Readers (in press) advanced interactive decodable chapter books– Daily Oral Vocabulary Exercises: A Program to Expand Academic Language