SPED 780 Class 4 Language Judith Mack, MSEd , MSW Adjunct Lecturer

1. SPED 780 Class 4 Language Judith Mack, MSEd, MSW Adjunct Lecturer Department of Special Education

2. Agenda • What is language? • Connection between LD and language • Speech and language impairments • Discussion of Culture and Language

3. Turn & Talk: What do you know? • Describe what you know about the topic already. • What are some classroom situations/students that come to mind when you consider the topic? • What are some questions you have about the topic? • What do you want to know more about?

4. Chapter Outline • What is language? • Are language problems common in learning disabilities? • What are the elements of spoken language and characteristics of students with learning disabilities in spoken language? • How are spoken language abilities assessed? • How can spoken language problems be addressed?

5. What Is Language? Small Group Definitions

6. What Is Language? • Language is a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combination of those symbols. • Language is a mode for communicating thoughts and ideas.

7. What Is Language? • Language is a made up of various modes and three linguistic elements. • Paralinguistic elements – intonation, stress or emphasis, speed of delivery and pauses • Nonlinguistic elements – “body language” • Metalinguistic elements – the thinking and talking about language as well as the analysis of language

8. Are Language Problems Commonin Learning Disabilities? • The definition of learning disability in IDEA: • “In general—the term ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using the language, spoken or written.” • (IDEA S. 1248, Sec 602(29)(A), 2003)

9. Clarifying Terms Associated with Language • Speech – is the physical productions of sounds for communication. • Language – is the socially shared code with rules used to represent topics. • Communication – is the process of encoding, transmitting, and decoding language to express ideas.

10. What Are the Elements of Spoken Languageand Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities in Spoken Language? • Language can be divided into two major categories • Receptive language – the listener’s behavior • Expressive language – the production of language • More students with learning disabilities have difficulty in this area. • Problems with expression include: • Dysnomia • Dysarthia • Apraxia

11. Phonology • Phonology – the study of the sound system of language • Phoneme – the smallest unit of sound • Example: • sin /s/ /i/ /n/ (3 phonemes) • thin /th/ /i/ /n/ (3 phonemes) • thing /th/ /i/ /ng/ (3 phonemes)

12. Phonology • Problems with phonology involve the production of speech and are referred to as articulation problems. • Students with learning disabilities often have difficulties: • Identifying sounds • Segmenting and blending sounds • Auditory discrimination

13. Syntax • Syntax – the patterns or rules people use to put words together into sentences • Kids are faster than kittens. • Kids are not faster than kittens. • The difference in syntax in this sentence is not, but the meaning is completely reversed.

14. Syntax • Students with learning disabilities have difficulty with sentences that have: • Ambiguous meanings • Pronoun references • More complex structures

15. Morphology • Morphology – the intraword rule system that affects the meaning of words • A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language • Students with learning disabilities have significant trouble with morphology, especially morphemes that indicate: • Tense • Possessives • Plurals

16. Phoneme vs. Morpheme • Phoneme- any of a small set of basic units of sound, different for each language, eg. /t/, /d/, /k/, /a/, /oi/, /th/ • Morpheme –minimal grammatical units of a language that cannot be divided into smaller grammatical parts (smallest unit of meaning or lexical unit) eg. s, ish, ness, ly, ic, ism

17. Semantics • Semantics – the study of the meanings of words and words in groups, particularly sentences • An example of semantics is understanding the meaning of the word speech in these two sentences. • The President’s speech gave the country confidence. • The child’s speech is difficult to understand • Students with learning disabilities often have less-developed vocabularies than their nondisabled peers and often have difficulties with ambiguous words.

18. Pragmatics • Pragmatics – the way in which language is used in social situations • Students with learning disabilities often have difficulties: • Providing descriptive information about objects • Interpreting adult nonverbal cues • Mistakes in how they use language may lead to social problems for these students

19. Metalinguistic Awareness • Metalinguistic awareness – thinking about language, including: • Phonemic awareness • Word awareness • Syntactic awareness • Pragmatic awareness

20. Metalinguistic Awareness • Phonemic awareness – identifying and manipulating larger parts of spoken language, such as words, syllables, onsets and rimes—as well as phonemes. • Example: chip ch ip, cat, c at

21. Problems with Metalinguistical Skills • Students with learning problems in language coding struggle with: • Storing verbal language in memory • Using verbal information in working memory • Retrieving information from long-term memory • Using learning strategies

22. What disabilities are associated with language problems? • Hearing loss/deafness • Intellectual Disability • Autism Spectrum Disorders • Traumatic Brain Injury • Brain Damage from Stroke or Disease • Specific Language Impairment • Learning Disabilities

23. Are Language Problems Commonin Learning Disabilities? • Previously the focus was on perceptual processes. • The existing research strongly supports the role of language problems, particularly young children’s skills in phonemic awareness.

24. How Are Spoken Language Abilities Assessed? • Standardized assessments • Comprehensive standardized assessments • IQ tests can be a good measure of verbal ability • Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - III

25. How Are Spoken Language Abilities Assessed? • Informal language assessment methods include language observation, specific language tasks, and language samples. • Teachers can collect and analyze language samples: • Spontaneous • Imitation • Elicited

26. How Can Spoken Language Problems Be Addressed? General principles and accommodations for teaching language include: • Teach comprehension and production • Adjust pacing, chunk information, and check for understanding to promote comprehension • Increase wait time to promote production • Use self-talk and parallel talk to describe what you and others are doing and thinking • Use modeling to demonstrate language • Use expansion and elaboration

27. Effective Practices for Teaching Spoken-Language Skills • Semantic feature analysis • Draws students’ attention to features and meanings of words that make them unique, thus increasing vocabulary and understanding • Keyword mnemonics • Provide a visual and auditory memory retrieval device for new and unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts

28. Effective Practices for Teaching Spoken-Language Skills • Phonemic Awareness • Statement repetition • Students with learning disabilities do poorly on these tasks • Helps students to improve their strategies for retaining auditory information and for checking their understanding of spoken language

29. Identification of Language Disorders • 1. Nonverbal aspects of language are culturally inappropriate. • 2. Student does not express basic needs adequately. • 3. Student rarely initiates verbal interaction with peers. http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

30. Identification of Language Disorders • 4. When peers initiate interaction, student responds sporadically/inappropriately. • 5. Student replaces speech with gestures, communicates nonverbally when talking would be appropriate and expected. • 6. Peers give indications that they have difficulty understanding the student. http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

31. Identification of Language Disorders • 7. Student often gives inappropriate responses. • 8. Student has difficulty conveying thoughts in an organized, sequential manner that is understandable to listeners. • 9. Student shows poor topic maintenance ('skips around'). http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

32. Identification of Language Disorders • 10. Student has word-finding difficulties that go beyond second language acquisition patterns. • 11. Student fails to provide significant information to the listener, leaving the listener confused. http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

33. Identification of Language Disorders • 12. Student has difficulty with conversational turn-taking skills (may be too passive or may interrupt inappropriately). • 13. Student perseverates (remains too long) on a topic even after the topic has changed. • 14. Student fails to ask and answer questions appropriately. http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

34. Identification of Language Disorders • 15. Student needs to hear things repeated, even when they are stated simply and comprehensibly. • 16. Student often echoes what she or he hears. http://www.gwu.edu/~cooptchr/SpecialEd/idspedneeds.htm

35. Turn & Talk • What is something new that you learned about language? • How will this knowledge be applied to your teaching?

36. What is academic language? • Academic language is: • Spoken in the classroom and workplace • Written into text • Used in formal assessments • Required for academic success • The language of power Note: To see an extended introduction to academic language, look at chapters 4 and 5 of the Doing What Works’ Digital Workshop about Teaching Reading to English Language Learners.

37. Lisa Delpit • Issues of power are enacted in classrooms. • There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power.” • The rules of the culture of power are a reflection og the rules of the culture of those who have power. • If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. • Those with power are frequently least aware of – or at least willing to acknowledge its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. From, Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, p.24

38. How does Language Relate to Race and Culture? Discuss Lagrander reading • How is language impacted in human development for children with learning disabilities when cultural diversity is a factor? Do these issues affect an individual’s ability to learn? • How can special education professionals enhance language development for individuals with cultural and linguistic differences?

39. For Next Week • Choose a research paper topic • Initial Reflection Paper • Required Reading: • Hallahan, Chapter 12 • King-Sears • Goldstein