Language vs Literacy Webinar Handout - salda.org.au

Presented 26 March 2020

Language vs Literacy Webinar Handout

Introduction • Presented by Speech & Language Development

Australia (SALDA) – School Support Services (SSS) team

• SSS team based out of Brisbane and Townsville • The School Support Service is a multidisciplinary

service funded by the Department of Education to provide additional support within schools throughout QLD, to enhance learning outcomes of students

Key Learning Objectives • Attendees will expect to investigate:

o Components of language o Components of literacy o The reciprocal relationship between language

and literacy o Strategies to support students in these areas

Speech vs Language • ‘Speech’ and ‘language’ are two distinctly different

areas (Bishop, Snowling, Thompson, Greenhalgh, CATALISE consortium, 2016)

• Speech: the sounds that we make when talking • Language:

o How we put words together o How we understand words o How we use words in a structured and

conventional way • Language is the information shared between people

– allowing us to communicate our ideas and express our needs and wants (Bowen, 1998)

• Speech is one of the ways that the information is shared

o Other ways of sharing information include writing and signing

• It’s important to know the difference between these areas, as difficulties can frequently co-occur (Eadie,


Morgan, Ukoumunne, Ttofari Eecen, Wake & Reilly, 2014).

Expressive & Receptive Language • Expressive language: the ability to form and convey a

message • Receptive language: the ability to understand a

message (Bowen, 1998)

Language Disorder • Difficulties in expressive and/or receptive language

is referred to as Language Disorder (Pennington & Bishop, 2009)

• Language Disorder is a disability that impacts how a person thinks about, understands and uses language

• Language Disorder can occur in isolation – this is called Developmental Language Disorder

• Language Disorder can also occur in association with another biomedical condition (e.g., ASD or ID)

• Approximately 10% of the population have a known or unknown condition with Language Disorder (Norbury et al., 2016) – this amounts to approximately 2 students per classroom

Components of Language • The different areas of language can be divided into

three broad categories – the Components of Language (Bloom & Lahey, 1978)

o Form: phonology, morphology, syntax o Content: semantics o Use: pragmatics


Syntax (Form) • The arrangement of words in a phrase or sentence to

indicate meaning (Bloom & Lahey, 1978) • Involves word order and sentence complexity • A student with Language Disorder might produce

short, simple sentences or sentence fragments

Morphology (Form) • Patterns of word formation (small grammatical

structures in words) (Bloom & Lahey, 1978) o Root words o Plurals o Tenses o Affixes

• A student with Language Disorder might omit grammatical structures (e.g., ‘hat’ instead of ‘hats’) or use incorrect forms (e.g., ‘runned’ instead of ‘ran’).

Phonology (Form) • Knowledge of the sound system of language (Odden,

2005) • Can affect speech sound production and to literacy • Speech sound production – phonological

processes/errors o A type of speech sound error made within

patterns or groups of sounds, due to the way that the sounds are represented in the language system

• Literacy – phonological awareness

Phonological Awareness Skills • Includes:

o Identifying sounds and syllables o Rhyming o Alliteration o Blending o Segmenting o Manipulating (Gillon & McNeill, 2009)

• ‘Phonemic awareness’ subset of phonological awareness, refers to the skills relating to individual sounds in words (like blending and segmenting)

• A student with Language Disorder may have difficulty:


o Identifying or segmenting words into syllables

o Identifying or producing rhyme o Blending sounds into whole words o Segmenting words into individual sounds

Semantics (Content) • The part of language that holds meaning – our

vocabulary (Bloom & Lahey, 1978) • This includes the known of word meanings, links

between words and how they go together • A ‘mental filing cabinet’ that contains the vocabulary • ‘Files’ in the ‘filing cabinet’ contain word definitions,

information on use, and links to related words • When learning a new word, students link it to known

words to assist them in determining its meaning and how to use it in a sentence

• A student with Language Disorder might have incomplete or disorganised ‘files’, and they might take a long time to retrieve their target word, or they might pull out the wrong word

Pragmatics (Use) • How to use language in various situations – including

the reasons and purposes for which we communicate (Bloom & Lahey, 1978)

• Includes: o Conversation skills o Understanding of social rules o Matching language to specific situations

• A student with Language Disorder might present with ‘social skills difficulties’ – they might have difficulty establishing social relationships (Nippold, 1993), asking questions of their peers, or have difficulty interpreting social cues like facial expressions


Language as a Foundation for Literacy • Learning to read and right is a crucial component of a

student’s development • Reading and writing enables them to fully participate

in home and school environments • As language is the foundation for literacy, students

with Language Disorder often have difficulties in literacy

Traditional View of Reading • Reading decode printed words to understand

written text • Spelling encode words from speech to written

form • Writing produce written text, from simple words

to extended written texts

Literacy • Diagram adapted from Scarborough (2001) • The top of the rope relates to Oral language and

strands associated with Language comprehension. These individual strands consist of a student’s background knowledge, range and depth of vocabulary, as well as the understanding of language structures eg: grammar, verbal reasoning, and knowledge of literacy concepts eg: types of genres.

• The strands at the bottom of the rope represent a student’s word recognition these include phonological awareness skills, it also considers the ability to decode using letter sound knowledge and sight recognition of familiar words.

• Skilled reading occurs when these skills intertwine together.


• The Report of National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) identified five key elements that were critical to the development of reading, and these have been widely accepted by educational jurisdictions as providing definitive guidelines for early reading instruction.

• Konza (2014): The Big 6 identifies the use oral language and early literacy experiences, phonemic awareness – hear and isolate sound structure of a word, phonics/phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge, reading fluency, vocabulary click and comprehension.

• The order in which we teach these is important to the impact on literacy learning.

• If we look at the end of the pencil, a student will have difficulty comprehending their reading, without automatic reading fluency. Reading fluency occurs when the student is able to decode and apply their vocabulary knowledge.

How Language feeds into Literacy • Language skills form a foundation that literacy skills

are built on – if a student has ongoing impaired language skills, they are at a significantly increased risk of presenting with literacy skill difficulties (Snowling, Duff, Nash & Hulme, 2016)

• e.g., comprehension – all the elements required to comprehend oral language are also required to comprehend written language

• If phonological skills are solid the student might be able to read superficially well, but still have difficulty comprehending what they have read (Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004).

Link between Decoding and Phonological Awareness • Before decoding letters into sounds a student needs

to be able to understand words are made up speech sounds that can be represented by writing, e.g., c/a/ t cat

• Therefore, a student’s phonological awareness is so important. Phonological awareness consists skills related to early reading and writing development.

o Breaking words into syllables o Rhyming o Identifying initial sounds


o Blending sounds to form a word e.g., f-i-sh makes ‘fish’

o Breaking up a word into its separate sounds e.g., ‘dog’ is broken into d-o-g

o Manipulating sounds e.g., stand without a ‘t’ is ‘sand’.

Reading Fluency • As decoding becomes more automatic and accurate,

students can apply prior knowledge and reading accuracy will continue to increase.

• Difficulties wi (Matthews Jenny and Pine Catriona, 2006)th vocabulary, phonological awareness and phonics will impact on fluency - with a flow on affect to reading comprehension. The high cognitive load required for students with language disorder can result in slow, effortful reading, impacting their understanding of what they are reading.

Increased Cognitive Load of Reading Language difficulties will impact reading by contributing to the cognitive load of reading, which already includes: • Identifying the grapheme and matching to the

sound/blend/diagraph • Recalling sight words • Remember left to right orientation • Remembering what they read as they read it • Understanding grammatical structures • Visualising an image as they read

Reciprocal Relationship Between Language and Literacy • Oral language skills form a foundation for literacy

skills (Duff & Tomblin, 2018) • However, new knowledge is accessed through

reading • Things obtained through text enhance and extend

oral language, including: o Vocabulary o Concepts o Grammatical structures o Ways to structure ideas (e.g., persuasive vs

expository)


Where does Phonics fit in? • Letter/sound knowledge is known as phonics • The sound and the way the sound is made in relation

to the matching grapheme or letter. This includes sound combinations e.g., ck and sh.

StoryTalk Framework • The StoryTalk framework from the Prep Talk project

(2007) is a great example of where the teaching of phonics fits in literacy lessons

• This framework can be used for modelled writing in early years classrooms – Prep to Year 2

• Or as part of a targeted intervention session with learners of all ages

StoryTalk Lesson 1 • Use a student-centred event that is meaningful or

relevant and take a few photos • During this session focus on oral language strategies

and communicative intent • Use strategies such as sequencing, waiting,

commenting and questioning

StoryTalk Lesson 2 • Write up the story together • Use the photos out of sequence, have the students

put them in the correct order • Focus on the writing process. Talk about the

difference between words and sentences • This lesson can help build and increase concepts and

vocabulary – especially around moving from Tier 2 to Tier 3 words


Tiers of Vocabulary • Tier 1 are familiar words used in conversations, not

often explicitly taught, e.g., hop • Tier 2 are more complex words often used in the

classroom. They can have multiple meanings and be used in a variety of contexts, e.g., burrows

• Tier 3 are less-frequently occurring, content specific words often explicitly taught in the context of a lesson, e.g., osmosis

StoryTalk Lesson 2 (continued) • In this lesson a student may originally use the word

“dig” in a sentence - “We had to dig a hole.” • This could be a teachable moment to introduce the

word ‘excavate.’ “We had to excavate to make a hole.”

StoryTalk Lesson 3 • Expand the sentences • Students re-read the sentences already written and

focus on improving the complexity of the sentences • Improving the choice of verbs or adding adjectives or

adverbs • Focus on the sentence structure • Talk about grammar, statements and questions

StoryTalk Lesson 4 • Target phonological awareness • Begin this lesson with the students re-reading what

was previously written • Focus on listening to spoken sounds • Choose words from the writing • Listen to the segments within words e.g.: rhyme,

syllables, sounds, letters • Find examples of morphology • Make links to their spelling


StoryTalk Lesson 5 • The final session looks at the sound production and

phonics • Talk about how sounds are made (voiced/unvoiced)

and match to the grapheme • Include short vowels, diagraphs, blends, etc.

Support Strategies • Different strategies will apply depending on:

o Student’s year level o Current presentation – strengths and

challenges o Specific skills being targeted

• Take complexity of vocabulary into account in all activities – consider the tiers of vocabulary

• Choose vocabulary that is accessible to the student, but also give them a chance to expand and add to their vocabulary banks

• Depending on the student, you might deliver most information at Tier 1 and occasionally jump up to Tier 2, or might focus on Tier 2 before occasionally jumping up to Tier 3

• Always give friendly definitions to help the students to learn new words

• Repetition – multiple oral and written exposures to new words

• Provide friendly definitions- students could attempt to provide a definition to new words in their own words


• Pre-teach new vocabulary before it is introduced in the classroom

• Teach curriculum-specific vocabulary • Explicitly teach the meaning of instructional/

cognitive verbs – very helpful for completing classroom activities

o Students could provide definitions in own words

o Make glossary of terms – could be glued into school diaries

• Word webs provide a visual support for key features of new vocabulary

• Can include semantic (meaning) features, as well as phonological (sound) and orthographic (spelling) features, like the number of syllables, rhyming words, etc.

• Mind maps can be used to visualise whole topics and allow for links to be made between content within the topic

• Broader than simple word webs • Add more information to the map as new content is

covered in class • Use pictures were possible for added visual support

• Teach grammatical structures like root words, suffixes and prefixes, and how these change the meaning of the word

• Visuals such as posters or templates can also help reduce the ‘mental load’ during complex classroom activities


Phonological Awareness • Practise tasks at the student’s level, e.g.:

o Rhyming o Clapping out syllables o Blending sounds o Segmenting words into sounds

• Explicitly teach the concept of letters, sounds and words

• Provide a friendly definition for each • Explain the difference between a ‘letter name’ and a

‘letter sound’

• Use a multisensory approach when students are having difficulties in phonological awareness tasks

o Gestures o Signing o Counters to represent each sound

• Allow students to practise their phonological awareness skills in context

o Sounding out and blending words in a book o Can use books on topics of interest to help

encourage engagement in activity

Phonics • Applying a systematic, synthetic phonics approach

that explicitly connects the representation of sounds with letters

• Use decodable readers to practice newly learned decoding skills

• Teach clusters of similar vowel sounds or visually similar letters to support auditory and visual discrimination.

• Develop automaticity of individual consonants as well as short and long vowels through repeated practice. This will help the reduce the cognitive load during reading.


• Use a multi-modal approach, including visuals, objects and signing.

Reading Behaviours • Reading behaviours should be explicitly taught. • Pre-reading behaviours include predicting what the

text will be about; skimming & scanning to find key words (I teach this by getting the student to scan the first and last sentence of each paragraph); highlighting key words and discussing definitions of ‘tricky words’ prior to reading

• Post-reading behaviours should include reviewing and reflecting on what has been read. Finding the main idea and determining what was important information from the text.

Reciprocal reading • More than decoding. It targets:

1. Prediction 2. Clarification 3. Questioning using literal and inferential

information to support the visualisation of the story in the student’s mind

4. Summarising – finding the main idea

Reading Fluency: • Timed activities where students are encouraged to

beat their own personal best • Repeated timed activities to reread the same

passage • Explicit teaching of punctuation, such as full stops,

commas and exclamation marks, • Modelling by a skilled reader of what fluent reading

sounds like • Demonstrating a range of expression where the

teacher reads to the class • Encouraging theatre games where students read

aloud from scripts


Technology • Read aloud software • Predictive text • ‘Reading View’ to reduce clutter

Other strategies: • Adjust language complexity of written instructions –

again, consider tiered vocabulary approach • Encourage students to highlight key words in

instructions • Use scaffolding to assist students in structuring their

responses to questions – cloze sentences or paragraph templates

• Idea generation prompts such as a 6 senses brainstorm

Professional Learning • Available on SALDA website: salda.org.au

o Online Learning Modules o Recorded webinars o Upcoming webinars o Range of handouts and resources

Final Notes • Please complete the feedback survey • Consider accessing the SALDA SSS Professional

Network on Facebook for more support • Contact details listed on slide


References

Bishop D.V.M., Snowling, M.J., Thompson, P.A., Greenhalgh, T., CATALISE consortium (2016). CATALISE: A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Delphi Consensus Study. Identifying Language Impairments in Children. PLoS ONE 11(7): e0158753. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158753

Bloom, L. and Lahey, M. (1978) Language Development and Language Disorders. New York: Wiley.

Bowen, C. (1998). Typical speech and language acquisition in infants and young children. Retrieved from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/ on 25 March 2020.

Clarke, P., Snowling, M., Truelove, E. and Hulme, C. (2010) Ameliorating Children’s Reading-Comprehension Difficulties: A Randomized Controlled Trial. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44806745_Ameliorating_Children's_Reading-Comprehension_Difficulties_A_Randomized_Controlled_Trial

Duff, D., and Tomblin, J.B. (2018). Literacy as an outcome of language development and its impact on children’s psychosocial and emotional development. In: Tremblay R.E., Boivin M., Peters R.De.V., eds. Rvachew S., topic ed. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development [online]. Retrieved from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/language-development-and-literacy/according-experts/literacy-outcome-language-development-and-its. on 25 March 2020.

Eadie, P., Morgan, A., Ukoumunne, O.B., Ttofari Eecen, K., Wake, M. and Reilly, S. (2014). Speech sound disorders at 4 years: Prevalence, comorbidities and predictors in a community cohort of children. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 57(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.12635

Gillon, G., and McNeil, B. (2009). Phonological awareness: Effective practices in assessment and intervention. Acquiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing, 11(2).

Konza, D. (2014). Teaching Reading: Why the “Fab Five” should be the “Big Six”. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Vol 39 Issue 12.

Matthews, J. and Pine, C. (2007). PrepTalk Project, Education Queensland.

Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C.M. and Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language impairments in children: Parallels between poor reading comprhenesion and specific language impairment? Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2004/017)

National Reading Panel, (2000) Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/smallbook

Nippold, M.A. (1993). Clinical Forum: Adolescent Language Developmental Markers in Adolescent Language: Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 24(1), 21-28.

Norbury, C.F., Gooch, D., Wray, C., Baird, G., Charman, T., Simonoff, E., Vamvakas, G. and Pickles, A. (2016). The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: evidence from a population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12573

Odden, D. (2005). Introducing Phonology. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pennington, B.F. and Bishop, D.V.M. (2009). Relations among speech, language and reading disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 60. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163548

Snowling, M.J., Duff, F.J., Nash, H.M. and Hulme, C. (2016). Language profiles and literacy outcomes of children with resolving, emerging, or persisting language impairments. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(12). doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12497

Language vs Literacy Webinar Handout - salda.org.au

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