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The study of patterns of sounds in a language including rules and patterns.

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Why is phonology important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Why is phonology important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Knowing the sounds of letters and being able to read and write them is essential is learning bigger and longer words in a language. When a student has a strong phonological awareness they are setup to become strong readers.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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1. Beach ball word family - Teachers could set this up using any standard they want to focus on that day. For example, rhymes, blending words, or even vocabulary words that EL students need to know.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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2. Segmenting Syllables, Syllable Slap - This can game can be used with learning syllables and how to break them up. Students can have 2 syllable words or multisyllabic words depending on the EL's proficiency level.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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3. Quick Erase - Teachers will start off with a simple word like mice and have students erase the m and put a sl in the place. This can continue until the students build a bigger word or so on.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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4 classroom activities to support the development of the phonology.

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4. What's the sound? - In this game the teacher will give the students actual words or nonsense words depending on the EL's level and have them repeat it along with the sounds that they hear.

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of the phonology.

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of the phonology.

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Sound scavenger hunt - With this activity the families can start off simple with one letter sounds and then go to blends or digraphs. They will simply say a sound and the child will look for objects around the house or store that begin or end with that sound. The website will give families ideas on how to start and how to help their child with phonology.

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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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Morphology is the study of words and their parts like, prefixes, roots, and suffixes.

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Why is morphology important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Why is morphology important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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When teaching morphology students begin to understand that most words are formed with meaning and patterns of spelling (IMSE, 2022). Regardless of the content area the student is in morphology can help with vocabulary and how to connect words in the same word family.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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1. Decodable readers - These can be set to any level of proficiency. Simply have students highlight the prefixes or suffixes that you are working with them on.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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2. Prefix Tic-Tac-Toe - This game can be accommodated by using base, root, prefixes, suffixes or vocabulary words. Teachers will need to decide on a few learning words and the students can either name a word with that prefix or find choose the correct spelling.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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3. Guess my word. - This is a game lay out like BINGO. The teacher will give hints to the word they are thinking about and the students will go and mark off what it can't be to narrow it down. This activity can be on any proficiency level and on any content vocabulary words.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of morphology.

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4. Building words. - Using legos or blocks students will be able to manipulate words. Teachers will tell them to build a word using their blocks and the students will need to figure out the prefix, base, root, and suffix to use.

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of morphology.

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of morphology.

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Read, read, read. - Parents or guardians can help their child with morphology by introducing them to new words by reading different books. While parents or the child reads have them point out prefixes and suffixes that are being taught.

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8 Creative Ideas to Help Your Child Learn New Words

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How can you expose your child to new words?

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Syntax is the order in which we place our words in phrases and sentences.

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Why is syntax important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Why is syntax important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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To understand syntax, you understand how sentences work. You will be able to make simple sentences compound and/or complex.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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1. Sentence Anagrams - This is an activity where you place word strips down in random order and have students place them in the correct ssentence order. This can be differentiated with ELLs on different proficiency levels by having simple sentences with grammar or words being taught to having vocabulary words and complex sentences.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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2. Sentence Elaboration (who, what, when, where, how) - Every sentence contains a noun and a verb. We want to start off in this activity with a simple sentence then have students add more "w's" to the sentence. For example, "The dog barked." Then, "The dog barked at the squirrel." For ELL differentiation this could be done orally and for more advanced it can be written.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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3. Combining sentences - This is where you get simple sentences and combine them to make a compound or complex sentence. This can be done orally for ELL students who are at the early stages of proficiency or done by writing complex sentence and breaking them into simple sentences for more advance ELL students.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of syntax.

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4. Syntax Clues - This is where students are given a paragraph and after each word they write down if it is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction. This can be differentiated because depending on the level of the ELL student would depend on the complexity of the sentence.

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of syntax

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At-home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of syntax

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Sentence game. - Parents can help their child at home with syntax by cutting pictures out and having their child say sentences that go with the picture for others to guess what is on the picture. This would be done like Pictionary but the child is talking through it.

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by Becky L. Spivey, M.Ed.

The formation of language begins at birth. A baby's cries communicate the need for help and attention. The baby responds to a parent's touch by calming down. Later, the baby begins to produce sounds that name or request familiar objects or family members; ba ba (bottle), ma ma (mother), da da (father), pop pop (pacifier). We don't think of this immersion of language as the beginning of developing grammar and syntax, but it is. Children are "speaking" and someone is responding appropriately! As a child's language develops, parents can help children understand how to use their language more effectively through their own use of appropriate (classes of words, their forms, and functions) and (the arrangement of words and how we put them together for a specific meaning). Some children with speech and language difficulties have problems understanding, pronouncing, and using even the simplest and smallest units of a word (-ed, - ing, -s). Therefore, their sentences may present as immature and sometimes illogical.

Children begin to realize that the more words they hear and repeat, the more their world is expanding. As early as two years of age, children are attempting to use prepositions, nouns, pronouns, and verbs together; "Me up mama," "want my ba," "you go dada." The more words children use, the more they experience. Even though children put together crazy sentences (that may make sense to a parent) or questions that are cute and comical, parents should always respond to their child's communication attempts with correct grammar and syntax. Responding to your children with baby talk when they are trying to communicate with you teaches them that this type of talk is correct and appropriate.

Syntax is how we order the words in a sentence to produce a certain meaning. Grammar refers to using the correct word forms in sentences.

Children with speech and language difficulties often:

Use words in the wrong order (their sentences don't make sense or are misleading).

Struggle to use pronouns correctly (identifies self as 'she,' 'her,' or 'me' when 'I' is correct).

Cannot grasp how to use word endings (-ed, -ing, -s) correctly.

Do not understand how to connect sentences or thoughts using conjunctions (and, but, or, yet).

Do not understand verb tenses (past, present, future).

Need practical experiences to understand some concepts.

Need to use concrete material to understand plurals (one doll, two dolls).

Here are some strategies to use with children at home to help improve their use of grammar and syntax.

Use correct grammar and syntax when speaking or responding to your child.
Don't focus on correcting your child. For example, if your child says, "Her hitted me!" you should respond, "Did she hit you?" Always respond as an adult. Don't use baby talk.

Cut pictures of everyday items from magazines, paste them on cards, and have the child give a sentence verbally describing the object to the other players for them to guess the item. ("It has icing you can eat and candles that tell how old you are.")

Cut simple scenes from magazines and glue them on cards.

Give the child open-ended prompts, and have the child complete your prompts verbally or write sentences. ( Picture of dog playing catch with his owner -"What is/was the dog/owner doing?" "The dog is/was/will..., His owner is/was..., The ball is/was..."-this gives the child opportunities to use the correct form/forms of the verbs.)

Cut out cartoon frames from newspaper comics and glue them to cards.
Add a cartoon speech bubble to the cards and have the child write what the character(s) is saying, or have him/her tell you verbally. Ask questions about the cartoon that prompt the child to use different forms of the verb. "What do you think he is saying? What was he saying? What do you think he will say? Where are they going? Where have they been? Where are they?" Write words on note cards - Sentence Scramble. Pick words that make a complete sentence/question and scramble them (include the punctuation mark). Have your child organize the words into a sentence/question that makes sense.

Use closed sentences like "Mad Libs®" for practice using correct word forms.
These kinds of activities are great for practice with verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Use everyday objects around the house to teach plurals.
"I have a spoon. You have two ."

Even before children learn to read and write, they can learn to use correct grammar and syntax. Having a grasp of grammar and syntax will help your child with reading comprehension and writing competence.

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Handy Handout #233: Teaching the Fundamentals of Grammar and Syntax at Home

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by Becky L. Spivey, M.Ed. The formation of language begins at birth. A baby's cries communicate the need for help and attention. The baby responds to a parent's touch by calming down. Later, the baby begins to produce sounds that name or request familiar objects or family members; ba ba (bottle), ma ma (mother), da da (father), pop pop (pacifier).

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Semantics is the meaning of individual words. This is how someone would interpret the meaning. If someone screams, "Duck!" it could mean there is a duck near them or it could mean to get down out of harm's way.

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Why is semantics important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Why is semantics important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Knowing semantics will help students become successful in language comprehension which in turn will help with reading comprehension. When understanding words and phrases ELL students will be able to communicate more effectively with their native peers.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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Act It Out. - When teaching semantics students can act out words you are teaching them. For example, ate and eight, one student would show a picture of an apple that has been eaten and the student would hold up 8 fingers. This activity can be varied for ELL depending on their proficiency level by using visuals for early proficiency, saying phrases like, "It's raining cat and dogs" to more advanced ELLs.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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2. Read narrative or expository text. - With this activity you can choose from a wide variety of text depending on the proficiency level of the ELL student. Talk about vocabulary as much as possible to help students become familiar with unknown words, too.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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3. Do a semantic gradient - This can work with adjectives. Start with a word like "whisper" and end it with "scream". (Reading Rockets, n.d.). Have students name other words that could fit between the two and have them discuss why. For ELL proficiency differentiation you could have vocabulary words for higher proficiency levels or for lower proficiency one could do adverbs or adjectives.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of semantics.

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4. Simon says. - This is something teachers could do for ELL students. Depending on the ELL student's proficiency level, you can provide them with instructions that become more challenging and will help them with prepositional phrases. For example: “Simon says, put the ball under the chair behind the desk.”

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At home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of semantics.

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At home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of semantics.

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Parents and family members can play synonym game. While a parent says a word like "big" the student can say something like "large" for synonyms. This will help build vocabulary with their student. This website goes more into detail about activities for familes.

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Strategies To Build Your Learner’s Ability To Understand Semantic Structures

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A key objective of semantics is to explore how we understand word meanings and use them appropriately either in individual words or in phrases, sentences, and longer linguistic units.

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This is where the listener or reader is looking beyond the literal meaning of a phrase. For example, "It's raining cats and dogs."

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Why is pragmatics important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Why is pragmatics important for language and academic learning for ELLs?

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Learning pragmatics ELL students will be able to communicate more effectively with English speaking peers. When their friend tells them that their phone died, the ELL will understand that the phone needs to be charged since a phone can not die.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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1. Act it out. - Teachers can have students work in partners to act out scenarios. This could be done in different levels of proficiency by having students with a higher level speak and listen in the parts. The students who are lower level proficiency can look at pictures to help understand the scenario better.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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2. Speech skills practice - This is to help students with facial and hands motions as they are talking. Students can work in partners or groups and take turn listening and speaking. ELL students will see how native speakers interact while talking and they can replicate it. For beginner level ELL students, we would want to start off with introductions, hand shakes, fist bumps. For more fluent speakers we will incorporate deeper levels of pragmatics like using context clues when talking.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics.

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3.Taking turns in conversations. - Put students in partners and have them take turn speaking to one another. For entry level ELL students use prompts or have one ask a question while the other answers. For higher level of proficiency these students can take turns talking about a story the class is reading or use vocabulary words in their conversations to help make them meaningful.

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics. 

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4 Classroom activities to help support the development of pragmatics. 

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4. Character interviews. - Have students work in groups and and assign them characters to the book they are reading. Have students ask the "characters" questions about why something happened the way it did in the story or about the setting or plot.

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At home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of pragmatics.

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At home activity and a website link for families to assist with the development of pragmatics.

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Board games are a fun way for families to practice pragmatics. Games like "Guess Who" or "Pictionary" will be great in helping students use social clues when speaking and reading social clues while listening. Even though this website states for kindergarten it can be used for any age group.

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Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12 Preparing for Success: Enhancing Social Communication in Grade 12 As Grade 12 students prepare to embark on their final year of high school, it's important to recognize the significance of social...

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Fun and Engaging Pragmatic Skills Activities for Kindergarten Children | Everyday Speech

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Fun and Engaging Pragmatic Skills Activities for Kindergarten Children Fun and Engaging Pragmatic Skills Activities for Kindergarten Children Welcome to my blog post on fun and engaging pragmatic skills activities for kindergarten children! In this post, I will share with you some exciting activities that can help develop pragmatic skills in young learners.

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Resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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Resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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1. Phonology - This resource has lots of information and tutorials on how to implement phonology in the classroom and at home.

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This toolkit helps teachers and families understand the difference between phonemic and phonological awareness and how to support a child's development of these important reading skills.

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Resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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Resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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2. Morphology - Within- and cross-language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading and vocabulary in Chinese–English bilingual learners

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

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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3. Syntax

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View of "What's the Point of Learning Syntax?" Students' Motivation to Learn Syntax and Their Understanding of Its Functionality

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Return to Article Details "What's the Point of Learning Syntax?" Students' Motivation to Learn Syntax and Their Understanding of Its Functionality

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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4. Semantics - The Effects of Semantics in the Language Development of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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5 resources providing additional professional development and knowledge in the teaching and learning of English language structures

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5. Pragmatics - Raising the pragmatic awareness of language learners