Word Analysis Activities Prek-12 grade: Erudite

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 erudite in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition pg. 425.  The phonetic transcription \ˈer-ə-ˌdīt, ˈer-yə-\. Note: these variants are based on geographical location. 

 

1st 
sound 

2nd
sound 

3rd sound 

4th sound 

5th sound 

Silent E

Phonemes

/air/

/ə/

 

 

/ī/

 

 

 

Graphemes

Er

u

d

i

t

e


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

·      The third most common way to spell the sound /air/ are with the letters er as in merry. Note there are nine different spelling patterns for this sound. This unit is defined as vowel-r (i.e., R-controlled) because the vowel sound is shaped by /r/.

·      The first common way to spell the /ə/ sound is the letter u. 

o   According to Moats (2020) vowels that represent the schwa sound occur in unaccented syllables. Further, “vowel reduction (to schwa) presents a problem for children learning to spell because schwa can be spelled with any of the vowel letters in standard orthography, so students must learn to spelling of vowels on the basis of other, related words or by memorization” (pg. 45). In fact, there are 28 ways to spell the /ə/ sound. 

·      The letter is e silent and serves as a marker to indicate that the proceeding vowel (i.e., i) is a long sound.

·      There are seven letters, but only five sounds. 

Part 2

 

Students are then exposed to multiple meanings of the vocabulary word, which strengthens the meaning processor through accessing the dictionary definitions. The word is Latin, and we learn that it is assimilated form of ex "out" + rudis. Ex- (pg. 434) is a word forming element in the American English language which has various meanings, but the first is usually "out of, from. 

 

Part 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: To master the lecture content, the most erudite students studied the entire semester. 

 

Can you think of a sentence using the word? 


Until next time, 


Shawn Anthony Robinson PhD 

 

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