Early Childhood Content Test 206

Subarea 2: Language and Literacy Development

Active Participants

Students who take part actively in communication or learning.

Problem and Solution

A text structure where a problem is presented and then one or more solutions are explained

KWL Chart

A graphic organizer with three parts: what students Know, what they Want to know, and what they have Learned.

Speed (when reading)

How quickly a person reads text, usually measured in words per minute, while still understanding it

Supervised Oral Reading

Reading aloud while a teacher or other adult listens, monitors accuracy and fluency, and gives feedback.

Automatcicity

Reading words quickly, accurately, and with little effort so the reader can focus on meaning

Advanced Fluency

The stage when language is used more smoothly and accurately with little support

Cognates

Words in two languages that look or sound similar and have similar meanings.

Critical Period Hypothesis

The idea that there is an optimal time early in life for language learning.

Early Production

An early stage of language acquisition when learners begin using simple words and phrases.

Expressive Language

The ability to communicate thoughts, feelings, and ideas through speaking, signing, or writing.

Intermediate Fluency

A stage when learners can communicate more independently but still need support.

Oral Language

Spoken language, including listening and speaking skills.

Passive Participants

Students who observe or listen more than they actively respond.

Pre-Production/ Silent Period

The early language-learning stage when learners understand more than they can say.

Receptive Language

The ability to understand language heard or read.

Speech Emergence

A language stage when learners begin using simple sentences and expanding vocabulary.

Alphabetic Knowledge

Understanding letters and the sounds they represent.

Alphabetic Principle

The understanding that letters and letter patterns represent spoken sounds.

Directionality

Knowing that English print is read left to right and top to bottom.

Decoding

Using sound-symbol relationships to read unfamiliar words.

Derivational Affix

Electronic Book

A digital book read on a device.

Early Fluent/ Fluent/ Proficient Reader

A reader who reads smoothly, accurately, and with understanding.

Early Reader

A child beginning to use print, sounds, and simple strategies to read.

Emergent Reader

A very beginning reader developing awareness of print and sounds.

Frayer Model

A graphic organizer used to build vocabulary knowledge by defining a word, giving characteristics, examples, and nonexamples.

Grapheme

A written letter or group of letters that represents a sound.

Letter Recognition

Identifying and naming letters.

Language Experience Approach (LEA)

A reading approach that uses children's own language and experiences as text.

Onset and Rime Production

Identifying the beginning sound of a word and the remaining part of the syllable.

Pheme/ Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in spoken language.

Derivational affix

A prefix or suffix added to a base word that changes its meaning and often its part of speech

Phoneme Addition

Adding a sound to a word to make a new word.

Phoneme Blending

Combining individual sounds to form a word

Phoneme Deletion

Removing a sound from a word to make a new word.

Phoneme Isolation

Identifying a single sound in a word.

Phoneme Manipulation

Changing, adding, or deleting sounds in words.

Phoneme Segmentation

Separating a word into its individual sounds.

Phoneme Substitution

Replacing one sound with another to make a new word

Phonemic Awareness / Sound Awareness

Awareness of and ability to work with individual sounds in spoken words.

Phonological Awareness

Broad awareness of the sound structures of language, including words, syllables, and phonemes.

Print Concepts

Understanding how print works, such as directionality, spacing, and punctuation

Rhyme Awareness/ Rhyming

Recognizing and producing words that end with the same sound.

Syllable Awareness/ Syllabication/ Syllable Segmentation

Recognizing and separating words into syllables.

Word Awareness

Recognizing that spoken and written language is made of separate words.

Affix

A prefix or suffix added to a base word

Automaticity

Reading or recognizing words quickly and accurately without much effort.

Bound Morpheme

A word part that cannot stand alone, such as a prefix or suffix.

Connotation

The emotional or associated meaning of a word.

Consonant Blend

Two or more consonants blended together where each sound is heard.

Consonant Diagraph

Two consonants that represent one sound, such as sh or ch.

Context Clues/ Contextual Analysis

Using nearby words or sentences to figure out a word's meaning.

Contextual Analysis

Using the context of a sentence or passage to understand a word.

Conventional Spelling

Correct standard spelling.

Decodable Word

A word that can be sounded out using phonics skills.

Denotative Meaning

The exact dictionary meaning of a word.

Diphthong

A vowel sound that glides from one sound to another within the same syllable.

Dolch Word List

A list of common high-frequency sight words.

Etemology

The study of word origins and historical development

Encode

To spell a word by turning sounds into letters.

Fry Word List

A list of commonly used high-frequency words.

Free Morpheme / Unbound Morpheme

A word part that can stand alone as a word.

High-Frequency Word

A word that appears often in reading and writing.

Homophones

Words that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings.

Invented Spelling

A child's early attempt to spell words using what sounds they hear.

Inflectional Affix

An ending that changes tense, number, or comparison without changing the word's core meaning.

K-W-L Chart

Letter-Sound Correspondence

The relationship between letters and the sounds they represent.

Lexicon

A person's vocabulary or word bank.

Listening Vocabulary

Words a person understands when heard.

Long Vowel

A vowel sound that says its name.

Morphology

The study of word structure and word parts.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit in a word.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in spoken language.

Precommunicative Spelling

An early writing stage where children use marks, letters, or random symbols to represent writing before conventional spelling develops.

Phonics / Graphophonemic Principle

The relationship between letters and sounds used in reading and spelling.

Phonetic Spelling

Spelling words the way they sound.

Phoneme Blending

Putting separate sounds together to form a word.

Prefix

A word part added to the beginning of a base word.

Reading Vocabulary

Words a person recognizes while reading.

Root

The core part of a word that carries basic meaning

R-Controlled Vowel

A vowel sound affected by a following r.

Semiphonetic Spelling

Early spelling that represents some, but not all, sounds in a word.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language.

Short Vowel

A vowel sound that is usually the sound heard in closed syllables.

Sight Word

A word recognized instantly without sounding it out

Sight Word Instruction

Teaching students to recognize common words by sight.

Speaking Vocabulary

Words a person uses when speaking.

Structural / Morphemic Analysis

Using word parts to figure out a word's meaning or pronunciation.

Suffix

A word part added to the end of a base word.

Tense

A verb form that shows time.

Transitional Spelling

A later spelling stage where children use more conventional spelling patterns.

Vowel Diagraph

Two vowels that make one sound.

Vocabulary/ Vocabulary Development

The words a person knows and the growth of that word knowledge.

Word Families

Groups of words that share a common pattern or ending.

Word Wall

A classroom display of important words for practice and reference

Writing Vocabulary

Words a person can use in writing.

Whole Word Reading

Reading words as complete units rather than sounding them out.

Accuracy (when reading)

Reading words correctly.