Pyrophobia

Build children's language through word derivatives - you may be surprised at how you can pique their interest.

Author Robert MacNeil wrote in his book Wordstruck (Viking Penguin, 1990): "Music heard early in life lays down a rich bed of memories against which you evaluate and absorb music encountered later. Each layer adds to the richness of your musical experience; it ingrains expectations that will govern your taste for future music and perhaps change your feelings about music you already know."

The same holds true with words, reading and writing. We accumulate layers of thoughts about language and literacy activities. As layers thicken, they govern our appreciation, but also cause anxieties about elements of language. They create either hunger for, or rejection of, literacy activities.

Building language. The building of children's language layers dates back from the first words heard as infants and, of course, until the time a child understands speech and is read to. Manners of language are learned a lot like Eliza in My Fair Lady.

A parent may say, "Now, when Grandma comes, be sure to give her a kiss and say, 'I love you.' Now what are you going to say to Grandma?" If the child's answer is something other than I love you, a response might be "No, no, no. Don't say anything until you say, 'Grandma, I love you.'"

This is how children learn to look into someone's eyes when saying hello - they also learn that if they don't, they will be perceived as insecure.

I remember my father saying to me as a young child, "When you shake someone's hand, Susan, be firm. If your handshake is limp, no one will listen to what you say."

Even speech and body movements are important parts of language. How we learn about these elements of language and how those learnings are confirmed, result in expectations for language usage all throughout life.

Language and school. My first recollections of language in school relate to failures in reading group activities. `Take your vocabulary words home, Susan, and make sure you can read them by tomorrow, or you can't go back to your reading group. I'm sure you don't want to go into the lower reading group," were familiar words.

The lovely thoughts about language and reading instilled in me by my mother reading to me as a young child made little difference in that school situation. Poor grades in literacy activities also deterred my desire to engage in reading and writing activities. Results of wrong answers were worse than not responding, so, I said and did nothing. It hurt less than being wrong.

What do you do with children who decline from language learning? Language, reading and word studies for youngsters who have failed must be intrinsic, bearing no resemblance to those which resulted in failure. Camouflaging instruction helps children who've failed to rid themselves of negative expectations.

Begin by treating yourself to The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists 3rd Edition by E.B. Fry, J.E. Kress and D.L. Fountoukidis (Prentice Hall, 1996). It includes every conceivable element of language - sounds, meanings and structures that make English uniquely ours. All you need is this book and some creative lesson formats, and you can teach phonics, spelling and the study of all the words in our language.

Where to begin with turned-off readers? Try beginning with thirdgraders and up and with younger children who can make words like cat to hat or might to fight. Begin by posting a list of word derivations in the classroom at student's eye level.

Introducing derivations is easy. Begin using them in daily language and children, like they do when they learn to speak will "catch" the meaning because of the context in which they're used. You might say to children while eating sandwiches during lunch, "Do you know how a sandwich got its name?" (See Figure 1.) Follow-up with casual conversations about other word derivations when it's appropriate. If you get excited about how words are created, so will children.

Word groups. Words are derived from many sources. Categories of word origins include:

clipped words - those shortened or clipped (limo for limousine; bus for omnibus)

portmanteau - words blended together to make a new one: blot +botch=blotch

compounds - words blended together that sometimes take on a new meaning: back+yard=backyard; wrist+watch=wristwatch; dog+house=doghouse

contractions - words where an apostrophe is used in place of one or more letters: I'm for I and am; you'd for you and would; we'll for we and will

acronyms and initializations first letters of each word used to represent a name: ABC=American Broadcasting Company

onomatopoeia - words borrowed from sounds resembling the real sound that it refers to: arf, bowwow, crash, kerchoo, ding-dong

phobia words - words derived from the Greek word "phobos" meaning "fear": aerophoboia: fear of flying; pyrophobia: fear of fire

ology words - used as a suffix meaning the science of (biology means the science of life)

Next month I'll include ways to guide children to understand and use these word groups.

Susan Mandel Glazer is the Director of the Center for Reading and Writing at Rider University Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and a Teaching Editor with Teaching K-8.

Copyright Early Years, Inc. Nov/Dec 1998
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