LLED 360

I would be lying if I said that the article by Lehr made complete sense to me.  Although I believe I have a solid grasp of the English language, both orally and in term of vocabulary and grammar, some of the language and sentence structure of this article left me slightly puzzled – I can only imagine how an ELL student feels!  That being said, there were certain concepts addressed by Lehr that stood out to me.  The think the concept of ‘acquiring ownership’ of words is a great way to think about how kids acquire and expand their vocabulary knowledge.  I agree with Lehr that both repetitive exposure as well as exposure in different contexts is extremely beneficial and helpful for developing and fully understanding how to use words.  Since English is my primary language, I rarely think about how difficult it is until someone, for example, one of my Greek co-workers asks me how to use a particular word in a sentence and why he cannot be used in the way they originally said.  I have found myself on many occasions at a loss for words or talking in circles in attempts to explain the grammatical ‘rules’.  Another example is when someone asks you to define a word, and although you know they word and have used it, you are unable to provide a helpful definition.  As Lehr suggests, “knowing a word is a matter of degree rather than an all-or-nothing proposition” – it is a process, a sort of continuum that we as educators need to realize in order to better understand why our students may be struggling with what we feel should be simple vocabulary acquisition.  Simply being able to spell a word, does not necessarily indicate an understanding of that word.

Two other aspects I find very important that Lehr mentions are the importance and balance of both reading and oral opportunities for vocabulary development.  I thoroughly enjoy reading (although I do not currently read for pleasure as I have so many school readings to do) and think that it was extremely helpful in developing my own vocabulary and language skills.  I really liked how Lehr explained that although as educators we need to encourage and guide students toward developmentally appropriate reading material, we also need to keep in mind that reading for pleasure that may not always reflect a student’s reading competency is okay.  Reading needs to continue to be fun in order to promote intrinsic motivation within children instead of them reading only when they are forced to.  I remember in one of my English classes in high school, instead of making everyone read the exact same book for their book report, my teacher gave a selection of 10 books for the students to choose from – some were more advanced and others were at the appropriate level.  It was the first time I had ever had a choice of what I wanted to read and it made me WANT to do the report because I actually found the content interesting.  Lastly, I really connected with the idea surrounding both educators and parents providing their children with opportunities to practice their oral vocabulary.  At dinner, my parents always asked me how my day was and the types of things I did at school or camp.  If I gave them a vague “it was good”, they would probe for a more in depth answer and looking back now, I really appreciate it.  I think as educators we will hopefully automatically do that, but I think it is our job to encourage the parents of our students, especially in the younger grades, to do the same.  Make suggestions and explain how this will benefit their child.  Some questions I did think of is how young is too young to start this process?  Should we really be using ‘baby-talk’ and nicknaming objects when our children are infants?  Just something to think about!