ACT and SAT word analysis Part 2

 “Instruction should be designed to expand students’ spelling vocabularies, improve phonemic and dictionary skills, instill a desire to spell words correctly, and perfect students’ abilities to detect and correct spelling errors. Furthermore, training in auditory or visual imagery may be beneficial for some poor spellers (Graham, 1983; pg. 562). Therefore, continuing the same thinking and application I did in part 1 of this series, I will analyze the word copious and connect it to the Four-Part Processing Model (Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989) which illustrates how students read or identify words.  

Part 1  

For the lower-level processors (i.e., orthographic & phonological), Moats (2020) asserts that “one can use phonic or dictionary symbols to transcribe the phonetic properties of words, but the disadvantage of such a phonic representation system is that many speech sounds must then be presented with letter combinations…” (pg. 32). We will be analyzing the word copious on page 276 in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition. The phonetic transcription is ˈkō-pē-əs


 

 

1st sound 

2nd sound 

3rd sound 

4th sound 

5th sound 

6th

Phonemes

/k/

/ō/

 

 

/ē/

/ə/

 

Graphemes

c

o

p

i

ou

s

 

These points address what we hear and see when using the dictionaries phonetic symbols (i.e., less than dark print or pronunciation):

·      The 1st most common to spell the sound /k/ is with the letter c. 

o   Note: the letter c spells /k/ when it is followed by a,o, or u. 

·      The 1st most common way to spell the sound /ō/ is with the letter O. However, students should know that spellings for this long vowel sound are complex (Moats, 2022).  

·      The 10th most common way to spell the sound /ē/ is with the letter i as in marine. 

·      The 8th most common way to spell the schwa sound /ə/ are with the letters ou as in double. 

o   Note: “…schwa can be spelled with any of the vowel letters in standard orthography, so students must learn the spelling of vowels on the basis of other, related words or by memorization” (Moats, 2022; pg. 45). 

 

There are six phonemes, which are represented by seven single letters or combination of letters

 

Part 2

 

As I discussed in earlier blogs, at this stage, students are then exposed to multiple meanings of the vocabulary word, which strengthens the meaning processor through accessing the dictionary definitions.  

 

A couple of points when analyzing this Latin word in the dictionary.

·      It is from copiosus, copia (i.e., abundance), and assimilated form of com "with, together" (com-) + ops (i.e., wealth). 

·      com- is a word-forming element that means together. Yet, before vowels and pronounces, it is reduced to co-

·      The base (root) is op- meaning “to work, produce in abundance”. 

 

By equipping students with this type of instruction, they gain fundamental linguistic knowledge through critically analyzing words. 

 

Point 3

 

Therefore, when we critically reflect on the word’s definition and consider all the elements learned, we can put the word into perspective (i.e., context) with the following activity. 

 

Direction: read the sentence and write a definition or synonym for the word. Use contexts clue to help you determine the words meaning. 

 

Sentence 1: I would get teased while sitting in front of class by my peers for taking copious notes during reading class.

 

Sentence 2: Do you take copious notes when scouting your opponents?

 

Can you think of a sentence using the word? 

 

References


Graham, S. (1983). Effective spelling instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 83(5), 560-567.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition

Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to Print. Language Essentials for Teachers. Paul H. 

Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96(4), 523–568.

 

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