Part 7: Integration of Language Levels and Language Units: Visual to Oral language
However, note that this process occurs across Language Levels or Units! It is NOT just words. We have already outlined how LETTERS become associated with the brain.
Consider suffixes, like the past tense suffix “-ed”. As mature readers, we KNOW that when we hear the /t/ sound at the end of the word “jumped”, we don’t expect to see the letter “t”.
We know that the LETTER SEQUENCE “-ed” is GROUPED, and it has MEANING – it means “past tense”; and we further know that it goes at the end of a BASE WORD, and that it attaches primarily to VERBS, and subtly adjusts the time information relating to when that verb happened.
We FURTHER know that while we see “-ed”, it has 3 separate sounds that it can make: a /t/ sound in “jumped”, a /d/ sound in “hummed”, and an /id/ sound in lifted.
We further have acquired suffix-specific spelling conventions: add the suffix to a base word with a long vowel (heat – heated); double the final consonant letter of a base word with a short vowel sound (hop – hopped); delete a final letter e in a base word with a long vowel sound (bike / biked); change a base word ending with the letter “y” to the letter “I” (try / tried).
What LANGUAGE information do you need to be able to ACQUIRE and PERFORM with the letter sequence -ed?
What does it MEAN: What conceptual information have you acquired about what this letter sequence – “-ed” – means?
What does it SOUND like: It sounds like /t/, /d/, or /id/, but the sound the letters “-ed” SAY is contingent on the LAST SOUND of the SPOKEN base word.
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS MUCH?
You have to FIRST be able to identify the final sound of the base word to even know how to “sound out” -ed !!
MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS MUCH?
You have to FIRST be able to identify a base word to understand that your word is using the Past Tense convention
- Know how many students can’t read “pried” because they don’t recognize the base word “pry”, as a verb, plus the added suffix meaning of “past tense”?
INTEGRATION MUCH?
Know how many students spell “humd” because they don’t recognize the MEANING of what they are spelling (hum + past tense) and don’t recognize that the final /d/ when saying /humd/ is not only a SOUND, but rather it is a meaning-carrying SUFFIX, and therefore has a SPECIAL VISUAL representation?
Remember too that this is just one example – there are MANY verb forms in English that don’t even follow this expected “rule” for past tense, such as fall/fell, speak/spoke, or hit/hit.
The exceptions to the expectations are a whole additional layer of complexity, but again, these words must get “mapped” based on meaning, sounds, and letters. Note that mapping a word like “spoke” requires the student to understand meaning, and what the word “means” is something like: “verb to speak + past tense [exception – no suffix, vowel change]”.
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Watch for part 8 and beyond of this blog series as we consider complex mapping
Read Intro: Why We should STOP teaching Reading Schools
Read Part 1: What are the components of Oral language?
Read Part 2: What is Visual or Written Language, and how is it INTEGRATED?
Read Part 3: Spoken word Structure, Written Word Structure, and Word Meaning: MAPPING Language Units
Read Part 4: More Integration through Mapping – Mapping Words
Read Part 5: Mapping, Word Mapping, “Sight Word” storage, and Irregular Words
Read Part 6: Stop teaching “Reading” and recognize instead that students are learning LANGUAGE
Got questions, concerns, yeah buts? Visit www.speak2read.ca to engage in some delightful conversation on how you can improve your reading instruction or your child’s learning.