Assessing and Teaching Language.ppt

Assessing and Teaching Language EXC 7130 Definition of Language Any code employing signs, symbols, or gestures used for communicating ideas meaningfully between human beings. Social tool to communicate meanings, feelings, and intentions. Language comprises of receptive skills (understanding) and expressive skills (use) and includes both written and oral forms. Theories of Language Behavioristic: Skinner Infant begins with no knowledge of language, but possesses ability to learn it through reinforcement and imitation Nativistic or psycholinguistic: Chomsky Child is prewired for language development and the environment triggers its emergence Interactionistic: Piaget Language occurs through fixed developmental stages Language Components Skills Form Phonology Morphology Syntax Content Semantics Use Pragmatics Functionalist Language Theory Phonology Study and use of individual sound units in a language and the rules by which they are combined and recombined to create larger language units. Phonemes are the unit of sound such as /s/ or /b/ , they do not convey meaning. Phonemes alter meaning of words when combined (e.g., sat to bat). Phonological Deficits Frequently appear as articulation disorders. Child omits a consonant: “oo” for you Child substitutes one consonant: “wabbit” for rabbit Discrimination: child hears “go get the nail” instead of mail Morphology Study and use of morphemes, the smallest units of language that have meaning. A morpheme is a group of sounds that refers to a particular object, idea, or action. Roots can stand alone (e.g., car, teach, tall) Affixes are bound such as prefixes and suffixes and when attached to root words change the meaning of the words (e.g., cars, teacher, tallest) Morphological Deficits Elementary aged: may not use appropriate inflectional endings in their speech (e.g.,“He walk” or “Mommy coat”). Middle school: lack irregular past tense or irregular plurals (e.g., drived for drove or mans for men). Be aware of “Black English”: