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The diverse history of the development of American English has created a complex language that is dominated by wordes forme by suffixation, prefixation and compounding.
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Chompsky redefines language as a generative process in which deep meaning is transformed into surface structure representaions through a series of transformations.
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Emphasis on mental processes and constructive aspects of information processing
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Focuses on the processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration and on the stage-like characteristics of children's thinking.
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Spellings become more regular and predictable when syllable position and stress are taken into account.
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During the 1960's there was a clear shift from control of information presented to eye and ear to how the brain processes, organizes, and makes sense of that information.
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English orthography becomes more sensible and predictable when visual, meaning, and historical patterns as well as letter-sound relationships are taken into account. Making sense of these relationships requires time, experience and a growing understanding of how words work.
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Boder classified a group of students as dysphonetic, dyseidetic, or mixed spellers.
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Read was able to use his research of preschool aged childrens' spelling to assess how we learn to spell prior to gaining adult "bias"
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Analysis of samples of children's writings found results similar to Read, but also saw other patterns as well. The focus was often on celebrating the inventiveness of student spellings.
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Based largely in Read's findings, our view of children'ts spelling transformed from that of passive learning to an active process in which students create spellings based on their current state of knowledge and their hypotheses about how the system works.
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Over time, a refined definition of the developmental stages of spelling were developed, lead by Henderson. These stages included Prephonetic/Prealphabetic, Semiphonetic/Early Alphabetic, Letter Name/Phonetic/Alphabetic, Within Word Pattern/Transitional, Syllable Juncture,
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Research in the early 1980's demonstrated that the number words that can be effectivly tauhgt in a year through focused vocabulary instruction was quite minimal. Beck asserted that most words learned by students that became literate adults are learned in context through wide reading.
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Chall asserted that as students approached the upper elementary level, students ablity to read/pronounce words far exceeded their ability to understand many of the same words.
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Morris and Perney found high significant correlations between midyear spelling scores based on a developmental scale and the acquisition of a sight vocabulary by the end of the year for first-graders.
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Based mostly on the developmental theories of Read, using student writings as an important source of information about student knowledge and ability and as the source of information about students knowledge and ablity and as the source of words for instruction and for rethinking focused, sequential spelling instruction.
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In both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, there was a strong psoitive correlation among a developmental spelling measure, fluency, and word recognition, both in and out of context.
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Hart and Risley noted that 30 months of age, the children whose families received welfare had an average recorded vocabulary of less than half as many words as the children in professional families, and the children on welfare were adding fewer numbers of words to already smaller vocabularies.
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Cunningham and Stanovich found a strong relationship between oral vocabulary in first grade and reading achievement at eleventh.
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A number of researchers have developed assessments organized around stages and levels. Words are chosen for their frequency, familiarity, and relevance to the curriculam but also for features whose spellings reveal studnets' stages.
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In 2000, Blachowicz and Fischer suggested four research-supported principles that should be incorporated to make a vcabulary program effective. 1) studetns should be actively involved in word learning, 2) word learning should include a personalized component 3) students should be immersed in words 4) multiple sources and repeated exposures should be incorporated in instruction.
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Rather than "one-size-fits-all" students are grouped for instruction according to their knowledge and needs. Instruction is aimed at clarifying understandings consistent with their developmental/instructional levels.
