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How the language is used by people in different contexts (Close et al, 2022).

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The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences (Close et al, 2022).

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The order of words in sentences (Close et al, 2022).

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How the words are structured (Close et al, 2022).

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Morphology is important for language and academic learning because in this branch of linguistics students will investigate the different parts of words and how combining them will change the meaning. Understanding word parts or morphemes can help ELLs make sense of new vocabulary.

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Study of sounds in a language (Close et al, 2022).

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Phonology is important for language and academic learning because it teaches students the sounds of the language and how those individual sounds interact with one another to make words. Phonology is important for reading and progressing from print to speaking. Phonology allows ELL students to decode words and pronounce them the correct way (Gaab, 2023).

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Classroom Activity #1 - Games to play while lined up

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Classroom Activity #1 - Games to play while lined up

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One activity that can be done in the classroom with your students is the sentence game (Heinricher, 2020). As students line up to exit the classroom, tap the first students on the head with every word of a chosen sentence such as "the cat is fat." The student that you land on has to answer the question "How many words?" Once the student answers, repeat down the line with different simple sentences. You can differentiate this activity based on the various language proficiencies by using longer sentences for more advanced learners.

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"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language. Skills are at a listening/auditory and spoken/verbal, level - NO print - spoken words requiring ears only!

It is a broad term and comprised of a group of skills that progress developmentally, but of course, overlap as children mature. As phonological awareness skills develop, children will begin to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate (segment/blend) words and sounds at these levels or chunks:

Sentence
Understanding that the sentence they hear, "Thecatisfat" is comprised of four separate words "The cat is fat".

Word

Understanding the words "cat" and "fat" rhyme.

Understanding two words become one in a compound word: cat + fish = catfish

Syllable
Understanding the word "cat" as one syllable.

Phonemic Awareness
Understanding and manipulating the three sounds in "cat" = /k/ /a/ /t/

Let's take a closer look at phonemic awareness. It is a specific skill under the broad category of phonological awareness. If we put phonological awareness skills on a continuum, phonemic awareness is the most sophisticated and last to develop.

The following is a list of specific phonemic awareness skills. Keep in mind, all of these are done at the auditory/spoken level, NO print:

Recognize words in a set begin with the same sound (cat, cake, kite all begin with the /k/ sound)

Isolate and say the first/last/middle sound/s in a word (cat begins with the /k/ sound and ends with the /t/ sound, etc.)

Blend separate sounds (phonemes) into words (/k/- /a/ - /t/ = cat)

Segment words into sounds (cat = /k/- /a/ - /t/)

Delete/manipulate sounds in spoken words (What is "cat" without the /k/? - "at"

Basically, phonemic awareness skills include learning how to break apart (segment) and combine (blend) the sounds in words. Phonemic awareness should begin in Pre-K with the focus on the simpler phonemic awareness skills of isolation and identifying beginning and ending sounds. Because phonemic awareness is a more advanced phonological awareness skill, development continues into kindergarten and early elementary.

Why are phonemic awareness skills so important?

Well, children who cannot hear and manipulate the phonemes of spoken words will have a very challenging time learning how to relate phonemes to letters when they see them in written words, Phonics. Therefore, Phonological Awareness skills are foundational for Phonics.

What is Phonics?

Phonemic awareness, however, is not phonics.

Phonics skill development focuses on helping children understand the relationship between sounds of written letters, letter combinations, and words. Phonics deals with written language, therefore we need to use our ears AND eyes, where as Phonological Awareness (and phonemic awareness) involves NO print, just listening and saying sounds and words. To keep this straight in my mind, I think about phonological awareness activities as those which can be completed with the eyes closed, while phonics activities require us to see the written letters and words, so, eyes need to be open.

Both phonemic awareness and phonics are interrelated, foundational skills and necessary for reading. However, it is important to understand a foundation of all phonological awareness skills should built before intense concentration is given to phonics.

The Benefits of Phonemic & Phonological Awareness

PreK is the time to begin to lay the foundation for strong reading skills, and it is important to begin by concentrating on phonological awareness skill development. In addition, if we do not help children gain the foundational understanding of sounds that phonemic awareness brings, phonics (assigning a letter a sound, spelling, and reading) will make little sense. And research supports this.

In summary, Phonemic Awareness is critical for reading. It primes readers for mapping speech to print, connecting sounds with written symbols, and also gives children a way to approach sounding out, blending sounds to make and read new words.

Phonological Awareness Activities & Strategies

In Pre-K, Phonological Awareness skills most certainly need to be taught explicitly, but fun extra practice can be woven in anytime.
Activity 1: Games to Play While Lined Up
Here are a few ideas for some simple games to play while children wait in line:

1. Sentence game: say a sentence, "The cat is fat". Tap the first 4 children on the head as you say each word of the sentence. Ask, "How many words?", four! Repeat the sentence, or say a different sentence, as you go down the line of children.

2. Rhyme game: Say a few words that rhyme, "cat, fat, bat". Prompt children to join in the game. You may need to prompt by saying some initial sounds: /p/ - at, /s/ - at, etc. Include silly words (/z/ - at) and blends (/th/ - at)!

3. My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game: (My Turn) Model clapping/stomping/tapping the syllables for objects you see in the classroom (Ceil-ing, floor, ta-ble, com-pu-ter). (Your Turn) Prompt children to imitate you. Ask after each word, "How many syllables?"

4. Repeat the beginning sound game: /c/ - /c/ - cat, /c/ - /c/ - cake, /c/ - /c/ - car. Prompt children to join in with other words.

The Get Set for School curriculum offers many activities that support early Language and Literacy skill development for children in your Early Childhood classrooms.

Here are some additional sample activities and products to explicitly instruct young learners in some key Phonological Awareness skills.
Activity 2: Discriminate rhymes
Each of the four Mat Man books features the beloved character, Mat Man. Rhyming verses in all the books help children discriminate and learn about rhymes.

Mat Man helps students learn about shapes, professions, rhymes, while expanding their imaginations, exploration, and community awareness.

Click here to see more sample pages from the Mat Man Book Series.
Activity 3: Discriminate between environmental sounds and speech sounds
Children learn important social, math, literacy & language concepts as they move and sing to upbeat songs on the Sing, Sound, and Count with Me Music Album

For example, the song "Syllable Sound Off" helps to develop children's understanding of syllables as they listen for and move to identify 2, 3 and 4 syllable words... all in one song!

Rhymes are taught in a fun playful way in the song "Rhyming Riddles". In fact, most songs on the music album include verses with rhyming words!
Activity 4: Identify Sounds and their sources
The Sound Around Box is a versatile classroom tool that will help you teach early language and literacy concepts in a fun and hands-on way. It provides the opportunity for many group activities which will help children develop important social skills as they engage in multisensory play with rhymes, syllables, beginning sounds, alphabet knowledge, letters, word parts, and test their memory skills!
Activity 5: Develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills
Line It Up engages children in fun interactive activities that develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills. The set includes a mountable magnetic display bar to hold the Story, Letter, and Coloring Cards.

The 26 Coloring Cards each have simple picture. The picture can be colored, but also used to facilitate a "Syllable Chant" activity. For example, on the "A" card: al-li-ga-tor.

The 26 Picture Cards can be used for phonemic awareness activities as children name each picture and identify those that begin with the target sound. For example:

Show picture side of Letter Card A. Name each picture.

Alligator begins with /ă/. Say it with me, /ă/, alligator.

Does violin begin with /ă/? No, violin begins with /v/.

Does astronaut begin with /ă/? Yes, /ă/, astronaut.

Continue with banana and apple.

Let children circle beginning /ă/ pictures.

All of the Get Set for School products support a variety of learning opportunities for your developing children. The products and activities highlighted shown here are just a snapshot of the many skills these products can facilitate.

To learn more about these and other Get Set for School activities and products, visit our website.

A-Z for Mat Man and Me

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5 Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Activities

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"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

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To access the Library, GCU students and faculty must login. The username and password is the same as your GCU login.

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Syntax is important for language and academic learning because this is how we convey meaning. The arrangement of words in a sentence varies by language. This is the stage where we put our new vocabulary together to make a meaningful summary. Without this knowledge of the language it would be difficult to communicate with others.

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Semantics is important for language and academic learning because it explains how sequences or language match the proper meaning and said in the proper environment. There can be a grammatically correct sentence that means absolutely nothing. It's the combination of the right words that will convey meaning and shape the language. Some words have multiple meanings, this is why it is important to study semantics so that the sentences that are being created are being said correctly and in the appropriate space.

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One activity you can do in the classroom to support morphology development is called "Find the roots" (zeh, 2007). Explain to your students what a root word is and provide a list of challenging words. Have them underline the root words in each word on the list. You can differentiate this lesson by using more complex words for your more proficient students.

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Classroom Activity #2 - My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game 

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Classroom Activity #2 - My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game 

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Another activity that can be done in the classroom with your students is the syllable count games (Heinricher, 2020). Model with students how to clap or stomp the syllables for words. Then have them identify how many syllables in classroom objects around the room. This game is simple and perfect for the lower level ELLs in the classroom, even for students that are in the silent period. These students can just be expected to imitate you, the teacher and slowly progress to clapping syllables on their own.

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Pragmatics is important for language and academic learning because learning this language structure will teach you the culture and how to react in social situations. Most of pragmatic knowledge is learned through being immersed into social situations. Pragmatics are the rules on how people interact and communicate with each other. Without this knowledge, you may not be able to communicate with people in an effective way.

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Another classroom activity that you can do with your students is "I Spy" with sounds (Reading Rockets, n.d). For example, the teacher or the student can say "I spy something that starts with the sound S sound - ssssss." The students that have a lower language proficiency may need a word bank to identify the letters in the word. This is a great way to reinforce and practice the sounds of the letters.

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Another activity you can do in your classroom is "Sort n Spell" (Zeh, 2007). This can be played a variety of different ways depending on the proficiency levels of your students. Lower achieving students can just match root words to affixes to practice creating words. Higher achieving students can group the list of words provided with the corresponding affix. This activity can help students identify spelling differences among words and distinguish patterns.

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Classroom Activity #4 - Tongue Ticklers  

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Classroom Activity #4 - Tongue Ticklers  

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One last classroom activity that you can do with your students is tongue twisters or alliteration exercises (Reading Rockets, n.d).  This can be an easy way for students to practice their speech sounds. To make this a little more challenging for your more advanced ELLs, you can have them pick a sound and create their own tongue twister and share it with the class.

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A quick, no prep activity that can be done at home to support the development of phonology would be to ask your child to come up with words that rhyme with a specific word that you choose (Reading Rockets, n.d). For example, ask your child what rhymes with "cat" and see how many words they can come up with on their own.

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That's a complicated sounding term, but it's meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to:

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a name

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Identify the syllables in a word

The most sophisticated phonological awareness skill (and the last to develop) is called phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. When playing with the sounds in word, children learn to:

Blend individual sounds to make a word

Stretch out a word into its individual sounds

Swap in a different sound to the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make a new word

Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of later reading success. Children who struggle with reading, including kids with dyslexia, often have trouble with phonemic awareness, but with the right kind of instruction they can be successful. Learn some of the warning signs for dyslexia in this article, Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood.

Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Try these speech sound activities at home

Rhyme time

"I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big. What's the animal?" Answer: pig. What else rhymes with big? ( dig, fig, wig)

Road trip rhymes

While you're out driving in the car, spot something out the window and ask your child, "what rhymes with tree or car or shop?" Then switch roles and have your child spot something and ask you for a rhyme. This can turn into a game of nonsense rhymes ("What rhymes with tree stump?") but that's great for practicing sounds, too!

Word families

Word families are sets of words that rhyme. Start to build your family by giving your child the first word, for example, cat. Then ask your child to name all the "kids" in the cat family, such as: bat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, hat, flat. This will help your child hear patterns in words.

Silly tongue twisters

Sing songs and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

Tongue ticklers

Alliteration or "tongue ticklers" - where the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again - can be a fun way to provide practice with a speech sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

Syllable shopping

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

"I spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple "I spy" game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store. Choose words with distinctive, easy-to-hear beginning sounds. For example, if you're in the bathroom you can say, "I spy something red that starts with the "s" ssss sound ( soap)."

Sound scavenger hunt

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "p" pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear "

Which letter sounds do I teach first?

Reading expert Linda Farrell recommends that you begin with teaching the letter names, and then focus on the letter sounds that are closest to their letter names (such as /v/). And here's a great tip for teaching the trickier letter name-letter sound combinations - use arm motions. In this video, Linda demonstrates motions for /x/ and /y/. (From our video series Reading SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Reading.)

Sound games

Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Hold each sound longer than normal.

First sounds

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and say it with emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Zzz-zookeeper and rrr-rhinoceros. Can you hear what sound zzz-zookeeper starts with? Is it the same as rrr-rhinoceros?

Jump, skip, hop!

Create simple picture cards that you draw or cut out of magazines. Have your child, identify what's in the picture, and then break that word into its individual sounds. For example dog is d-o-g, three sounds (phonemes). Three sounds? You and your child do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops (followed by a high-five). You can also do this game outdoors without the cards, just call out simple words for your child.

Snail talk

Tell your child you're going to communicate in "snail talk" and they need to figure out what you're saying. Take a simple word and stretch it out very slowly (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/), then ask your child to tell you the word. Switch roles and have your child stretch out a word for you.

"I spy" blending

Here's an easy phoneme blending game you can play while talking a walk. For blending, you can say, "I see a sign that says s-t-o-p" Then your child has to blend the sounds to guess your word - stop. (Remember to say only the sounds in the word - not the letters.) Keep the words short, moving from two to three to four sounds depending on your child's skill level.

Sound counting

Using LEGO bricks, beads, or pennies, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, top = t-o-p = three sounds, so your child would place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word bike would be = b-i-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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Another activity that can be used in the classroom is called Spotlight (Zeh, 2007). This activity is more or a strategy that can be used in all subjects. When a complex word comes up during a lesson, point it out to your students and break it down with them. For example, in math when you talk about shapes. Point out to the students that the word parts will help them identify the shape such as triangle. Tri means three so a triangle is a shape with 3 angles. This strategy can be easier for lower proficient students if you provide them with the word in front of them to break apart rather than just briefly showing it on the board.

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On last activity that you can do in your classroom to support morphology is " Big Word Breakdown" (Zeh, 2007). Encourage your students to look for complex words in a piece of text. Ask them to break it down and make an educated guess on what the word could mean based on the meanings of the root word and affixes. Once all words are attempted, then have students find the definition and compare. This can be differentiated for our low achieving students by pre making the list of words they need to breakdown.

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Classroom Activity #1 - Sentence Anagrams 

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Classroom Activity #1 - Sentence Anagrams 

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One activity you can do in the classroom to support syntax is giving your students sentence anagrams (Sedita, 2019). You can start this activity by giving the students a set of words that create a sentence but are not in the right order. Students are tasked with rearranging the words until they make sense in a complete sentence. This activity can be used with all the different levels of proficiency. For example, for the lower proficient students, you might just start with simple 3 word sentences that work on putting the adjectives and the nouns in the right place. For the more proficient students, the sentences can be longer and hold more details.

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One activity that you can do to support semantics in the classroom is to have your students sort items into given categories (n.d, 2013). This can be differentiated for various levels of proficiency. For example, you can have the lower proficient students use pictures and sort them. The more proficient students can sort longer and more complex words into categories.

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One activity that can be done in the classroom to support pragmatics is role playing (n.d, 2020). Acting out situations in different contexts is a great way to get students to understand the importance of pragmatics. Just practicing the different ways to greet different kinds of people is critical. Students need to be able to understand the difference in word choice of greeting their best friend and greeting their teacher. More proficient students can be placed in more challenging situations.

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There are many activities that can be done at home to support morphology development. One activity that can be done is manipulating flashcards. Ask a teacher to provide some or create your own for your child to use to create different words using a mix of root words and affixes. Allowing your child time to explore is an effective way to support your child (Scholarly Elite Tutoring, 2020).

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After your child has developed the ability to sound out words, it is important that they begin to recognize words as "images" in their minds.

This skill, known as morphological awareness, involves the recognition and comprehensions of morphemes, small unit of meaning (i.e. run, banana, re-, tri-).

By teaching root words, prefixes and suffixes, your child can build morphological awareness for stronger reading success.

Here are 5 easy tips you can incorporate into your child's reading practice to build morphological awareness and ultimately their overall reading automaticity for greater academic success.

Help your child understand the concept of root words, by explaining thar the root of the word os the key word in a long word. Practice identifying root words with a list of complex words.

Teach your child the concept of affixes by explaining prefixes (parts added to the beginning) and suffixes (part added to the end). Create a list of root words and a corresponding list of affixes, encourage your child to match the root with the correct prefix of suffix

Build morphological awareness by recognizing word families based in morphemes. Instruct your child to examine and sort a list of words based in their morphemes. Have them find the similarity and predict the meaning of the morpheme.

Example: Colourful, disadvantage disappointed, careful

Dis- (means "not"): disadvantage, disappointed,

-ful (means "full of"): colourful, careful

Have your child create complex words using a blend of prefixes, suffixes and roots, by making flashcards with different root words and affixes. Instruct your child to physicallyu manipulate the flash cards to create as many real words as they can.

En-, content, -ful, dis-, light, joy, de-, -ment

Possible words: contentment, discontent, delightful, joyful, enjoy

Your child can apply their knowledge of morphemes by using them in sentences. Provide your child with a list of root words plus one affix. Have them combine the morphemes and use the new word in a sentence.

Root words: hope, thought, care

Words: Hopeful, Thoughtful, Careful

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Activities to Develop Morphological Awareness

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After your child has developed the ability to sound out words, it is important that they begin to recognize words as "images" in their minds. This skill, known as morphological awareness, involves the recognition and comprehensions of morphemes, small unit of meaning (i.e. run, banana, re-, tri-).

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Defining and giving of examples: phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics✨

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Another activity you could do in the classroom to support syntax is sentence elaboration (Sedita, 2019). This activity can be done whole group or just one on one. The teacher will ask the 6 "W" questions, who, what, where, when, why, and how? Students will create answers to the questions, slowly adding more and more detail to their sentence. This can be differentiated for students based on level. To make it more challenging for the more proficient students, you can ask them to add a dependent clause to make it a complex sentence or add adverbs.

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Another classroom activity that can be done in the classroom to support semantics is to name opposites (n.d, 2013). Allowing students to explore antonyms of words will allow them to gain a deeper understanding of the words and use them in greater amounts. The words can be chosen based on proficiency level. For higher proficient students, you can even do opposites of content vocabulary.

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Another classroom activity that can be done to support pragmatics can be reading a picture book aloud (n.d, 2020). Picture story books have great ways of showing us how to act or what to say in times of conflict.

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Another classroom activity you can do in the classroom to support syntax is sentence combining (Sedita, 2019). Give students 2 simple sentences and ask them to combine them. This can be done orally for your students that are not yet ready to write. For the more proficient students, you can use more detailed sentences or maybe even giving them 3 sentences to work with.

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Another classroom activity you can do to support semantics is creating word families (n.d, 2013). Give students a topics such as "fruit" and have them name words that would fit under that category. The categories will be different based on the language proficiencies in the classroom. Also, the vocabulary for more proficient students is bigger so they can add more words to their families.

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Another classroom activity that can be done to support semantics is playing the game "odd one out" (n.d, 2013). Give students a list of words and ask them which word doesn't belong with the others. Asking them to provide reasons will also get them to think a little further. Again, like the other activities the set of words is going to be different based on the language proficiencies you have in the classroom.

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Another activity you can do in your classroom to support syntax is to work on oral or written sentence completion (n.d, 2013). This is simple and easy to do as a warm up or exit slip at the end of class. Give the students an open-ended sentence such as "the dog ran into..." You can challenge the more proficient students to expand on their answers more.

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One way to practice semantics at home is by asking comparison questions (n.d, 2013). For example, you can ask your child "which dog is bigger" or "is the basketball bigger than the softball?" With all of these semantic activities it is going to be important to really know the level of your child so that you can ask very simple questions or higher level questions.

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Semantic knowledge is the ability to understand narrative. This includes the ability to understand the meanings of words in different contexts, as well as a knowledge of the meaning of relationships between words. The activities listed here will help develop semantic knowledge

Semantics refers to the meanings of words and how they relate to each other. This may be affected by poor auditory memory skills and can have serious implications for pupils in the classroom. If they cannot retain an understanding of the learning of new vocabulary, they will have difficulty understanding new concepts and ideas. This will also affect their ability to express their own ideas.

Pupils with difficulties in this area may have:

word-finding problems (see separate 'word-finding' activities page)

difficulty with word classification

difficulty developing more than a literal understanding of a text

a poor short-term auditory memory

a need to be given time to process information

kinesthetic strengths, learning better through using concrete materials and practical experiences

visual strengths, enjoying learning through using visual materials (charts, maps, videos, demonstrations).

Order the best-selling book A-Z of Special Needs for Every Teacher for lots more activities and help.
Activities to develop semantic knowledge

1. Comparative questions - eg. 'Is the red ball bigger than the blue ball?'

2. Opposites - using everyday objects (eg. thin/fat pencils, old/new shoes).

3. Sorting - both real and pictorial items into simple given categories (eg. items we can eat, items we use for writing and drawing).

4. Classification - ask pupils to sort both real and pictorial items into groups, using their own criteria.

5. Bingo - simple pictorial categories (establish that each pupil understands the category on their baseboard before they begin the game).

6. Odd one out - ask the pupils to identify the items that should not be in a specific category and give reasons why.

7. Which room? - ask the pupils to match pictures of objects to specific rooms in the house and give reasons for their choice of rooms.

8. Where am I? - one pupil chooses a place in the classroom to stand or sit and asks 'Where am I?' The other pupils have to use a range of prepositions to describe the pupil's position, eg. 'You are in front of the teacher's desk', 'You are next to the whiteboard'.

9. Comparisons - activities in maths (finding objects that are shorter than, longer than).

10. Concept opposites - introduce concept vocabulary within different areas of the curriculum, using visual/concrete materials (eg. hard/soft, full/empty, heavy/light, sweet/sour, rough/smooth).

11. Homophone pairs, snap, pelmanism - using pictures and words (eg. see/sea, meet/meat).

12. Compound word dominoes - eg. start/bed//room/to//day/for//get/pan//cake/hand//bag/finish.

13. Compound picture pairs - match pictures that form a compound word (eg. foot/ball, butter/fly).

14. Word families - collect words that belong to the same category (eg. vegetables, fruit, clothing).

15. Synonym snap - this provides an introduction to the use of a simple thesaurus (eg. big/large, small/little).

From A-Z of Special Needs for Every Teacher by Jacquie Buttriss and Ann Callander

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Activities to Develop Semantic Knowledge - Teaching Expertise

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Semantic knowledge is the ability to understand narrative. This includes the ability to understand the meanings of words in different contexts, as well as a

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Another activity you can do with your class to support pragmatics is to create rules together about accountable talk (n.d, 2020). This is a great way to clearly state the expectations of good listeners and learners in the classroom while also giving students a voice in their environment. This conversation can be more student lead if the students have higher proficiency in the language.

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There are so many great, quick activities that can be done with your child at home to support syntax. You can play the game "tell me" (n.d, 2013). Ask your child to pick an object and describe it without giving away what it is. The child must say things like "It is yellow" or "It is short."

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These classroom activities can help develop grammar skills, particularly syntax and morphology

Syntax is about how words are sequenced to convey meaning. This meaning can be changed by rearranging the same words in a different order (e.g. 'I can run fast' changes to 'Can I run fast?'). Morphology refers to the grammar of words and how they are formed. A morpheme represents the smallest unit of meaning in a word. Some children with speech and language impairment have difficulties with using bound morphemes such as -ed, -ing, -s and -es at the ends of words. Grammar is organizing words into sentences, using the correct grammatical word structure. Children who have difficulties with grammar tend to muddle verb tenses. They may find it difficult to pronounce -ed, -ing, and -s on the ends of words and their sentence formation tends to be immature.

Children who have difficulties in this area may:

use immature sentence construction (words may be in the wrong order)

have difficulty using pronouns correctly

have difficulty using connectives and articles in both speech and writing

use word endings (-ed, -ing, -s) incorrectly

have difficulty with understanding when to use conjunctions and prepositions

often muddle web tenses

have kinesthetic strengths and learn better through using concrete materials and practical experiences

have visual strengths and enjoy learning through using visual materials (charts, maps, videos, demonstrations).

Order the best-selling book A-Z of Special Needs for Every Teacher for lots more activities and help.
Activities to develop grammar skills

1. Model correct grammar, but don't correct - for example, if the child says 'I runned to school with my mum,' you might reply 'So you ran to school with your mum. Did you get up late?'

2. Oral sentence completion - ask the children to complete open-ended sentences (e.g. The dog ran into...').

3. Tell me - describe objects or pictures orally for others to guess. Child must give sentence clues (e.g. 'It is black. It is very long.').

4. Sort a sentence - using known words. The children should recognize that the word with the capital letter starts the sentence and the word with the full stop ends the sentence.

5. Reorganize simple rhebus sentences .

6. Beginnings and endings - matching parts of sentences.

7. Sentence speech bubbles 1 - children to match these to well-known story characters or characters from a core reading scheme.

8. Written sentence completion - ask the children to write endings for open-ended sentences (e.g. The dog ran into...).

9. Reorganize sentences - using given subject/verb/object sentences (e.g. The boy/was painting/a picture).

10. Sentence speech bubbles 2 - children to write these for well-known story characters or characters from a core reading scheme.

11. Cloze for nouns - choice of nouns given (A...was playing football. bus, boy, boat).

12. Sentence completion - using simple information materials (e.g. A baby horse is called a...').

13. ow and then (verb tenses) - ask the children to choose sentences that can be placed on the 'now' or 'then' boards (e.g. The girl walked to school. The girl is walking to school).

14. Did you know? - ask the children to write some simple sentence information facts.

15. Verb change - ask the children to change a verb that has been repeated in a passage.

16. - ask the children to identify pronouns with people in in a text.

17. Cloze - for verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

From A-Z of Special Needs for Every Teacher by Jacquie Buttriss and Ann Callander

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Activities to Develop Grammar (Syntax and Morphology) - Teaching Expertise

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These classroom activities can help develop grammar skills, particularly syntax and morphology

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Reading is the act of processing text in order to derive meaning. To learn to read, children must develop both fluent word reading and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer,1986). Language comprehension is built upon vocabulary and morphology, knowledge, syntax, and higher-level language skills.

How Syntax Contributes to Reading Development

Syntax refers to the formation of sentences and the associated grammatical rules ( Foorman, et al., 2016 ). "Syntax skills help us understand how sentences work-the meanings behind word order, structure, and punctuation. By providing support for developing syntax skills, we can help readers understand increasingly complex texts" ( Learner Variability Project).

Syntactic skills are correlated with reading comprehension and language comprehension (Westby, 2012), although the nature of the relationship is still being studied (Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015). A number of recent studies have shown that syntax and grammar are predictors of later reading comprehension ability (Logan, 2017).

Promoting Syntax Development in the Classroom

Knowledge of how grammatical elements such as pronouns, lexical references, and connectives function in sentences allows young children to follow the ideas in a sentence and understand its meaning (Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015). Children do not need to know the names of these grammatical terms, but they do need to develop understanding of how sentences work in natural speech and in text. Working with sentences can be part of a class's engagement with complex text. Complex text offers rich language; teachers can facilitate a discussion of short snippets of text to help students parse rich sentences and develop understanding.

Teach Linguistic Structures Such as Pronouns, Lexical References, and Connectives

Teaching these support students to track and follow the meaning within sentences (Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015).

Example: Marcy was very thirsty for a cold drink* so she gulped her iced lemonade* quickly!

Pronouns: she, he, his her, their, they, them

*Lexical references: when a different word or phrase is used to refer to the original word

Connectives: and, also, because, so, then, before, during, after

Teach Word Functions by Asking Students a Series of Questions About a Sentence

Example from Literacy How: Our wet, hairy dog crawled under my bed during the thunderstorm.

Ask who or what did it? dog (looking for the namer/noun - the who/what)

Ask what did it do? crawled (looking for the action word/verb - the do)

Ask 'how many, what kind, which one? wet, hairy (looking for adjectives describing the namer)

Ask where, when, how, why? under the bed, during the thunderstorm (looking for adverbs that tell about the action)

Teach Sentence Structure, Sentence Types, and How to Build Sentences

Developing syntax can involve examining how sentences are built, learning to expand sentences, and learning to combine short, choppy sentences into longer, grammatically correct sentences. Studies have shown positive effects of sentence combining on reading comprehension (Scott, 2009).

Syntactic Awareness, Teaching Sentence Structure, from Keys to Literacy

Sentence structures that are challenging for children to comprehend. See Juicy Sentence Guidance , from Achieve the Core

Formal Frames/Academic Phrases, from Literacy How (Resource)

Recommendation 3 from the IES Practice Guide "Teaching Elementary Students to Be Effective Writers:" Teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing (Resource) (p. 30-32)

Sentence Expanding, from Iowa Reading Research Center (Resource)

Sentence Combining, from Reading Rockets ** (Resource)

Learn More About Syntax Development

Considerations for Students Learning English

English learners should have equal opportunity to meaningfully participate in all literacy instruction. The WIDA Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development.
Taking Bilingualism into Account
"It's important that young ESL students recognize word order and sentence structure. As students get older and progress with English, it becomes more difficult to correct syntax problems. In many cases, older students translate their native language directly into English without considering the word order that changes between languages" (Lubin, 2020).
Supports for English Learners

Create a rich language environment so English Learners "can be exposed to lots of rich, natural, complex language from which the learner would begin to unconsciously internalize patterns" (Krahshen, 1981).

Support English learners when they encounter complex syntax in academic texts. Such syntax would include passive voice, comparatives and logical connectors, modal auxiliaries, verb phrases containing prepositional phrases, and relative clauses (Freeman, 2004).

"Use cloze activities in which students receive a passage with some of the words missing. Teachers could delete different types of words to help students focus on different aspects of syntax" (Freeman, 2004).

"Use interactive supports to promote comprehension and expose students to a variety of communication styles" (WIDA, Instructional Supports, 2015).

"Spend time and effort engaging students in discussions of the meaning of sentence-level chunks and within the sentence, phrasal chunks, each day. The focus here is to have structured conversations in which children learn how academic discourse works" (English Learner Success Forum ).

Scaffolds to Support English Language Learners in Sentence Writing, from Achieve the Core (Resource)

Interactive reading grade 2, from Colorin Colorado ** (Video)

Text Complexity and Language for English Language and Language Minority Students, from Stanford University (Research)

Sentence Level Fluency for Newcomers, from English Learners Success Forum (Activities)

Do's and Don'ts of EL Instruction, from English Learners Success Forum (Instruction)

The WIDA Instructional Supports provide a reference list of appropriate graphic, sensory, and interactive supports to use with the WIDA Can Do Descriptors when instructing language learners.

References

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: What Works Clearinghouse.

Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y. (2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, esl, spelling, phonics, grammar. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.

Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.

Krashen, S.D. (1981). Bilingual education and second language acquisition theory. In Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework. (p.51-79). California State Department of Education.

Logan, J. (2017). Pressure points in reading comprehension: A quantile multiple regression analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(4), 451.

Lubin, M. (2020, March 23). A Simple Guide to Teaching Young ESL Students About Syntax. Retrieved August 24, 2020

Oakhill, J., Cain, K., & Elbro, C. (2015). Understanding and teaching reading comprehension: A handbook. New York: Routledge.

Scott, C.M. (2009). A case for the sentence in reading comprehension. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 40 2, 184-91.Westby, C. (2012). Assessing and remediating text comprehension problems. In A.G. Kamhi & H.W. Catts (Eds.), Language and reading disabilities (3rd ed., pp1-23). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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