Semantic Clues assignment - Essay Example

Semantic Clues Assignment Semantic clues provide information about a word's meaning (see no. 2 below), while syntactic clues provide information about a word's grammatical purpose, its role in a sentence; e.g., whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb (its part of speech). These clues are given by the writer to improve the reader's understanding of what the writer is trying to say by helping the reader understand the meaning of words in the sentence.2. A reader can make use of five examples of semantic clues to understand a word whose meaning they don't know. (1) Determine if the word is defined in the sentence; e.g., an oncologist is a doctor that treats cancer. (2) Discover whether the unknown word is placed in contrast or opposition with a known word using signals like but, however, yet or in contrast; e.g., we are either right- or left-handed, but Rita is ambidextrous. (3) Refer to your background knowledge to guess the meaning of a word; e.g., John has been a teetotaler since his drunken driving accident. (4) Put together some of the main points or attributes associated with a word; e.g., her quick, nervous, and angry greeting signaled her petulance. (5) Look for examples, as when the unknown word indicates a general category and the sentence includes words that would fit under that category (usually works with nouns); e.g., Childhood maladies such as mumps, chicken pox, and measles can be treated easily.3. (a) What did Andrew notice about his baseball cards (b) Who was Andrew's immediate suspect for stealing his cards (c) Whom did Andrew tell about his missing cards4. (a) Why did Andrew suspect his sister (b) Who were the players in the baseball cards that Andrew was missing (c) Why did Andrew's father lack concern for the missing cards (d) How did Andrew show that he was upset5.

Children respond to print through environmental experiences and shared reading of quality texts. By modeling specific phonetic skills, sounding out some words as they are written without explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships, teachers can develop phonemic awareness in children. While some would question the value of developing phonemic awareness before print, the value of this method in terms of oral language development is widely accepted.6. The "Whole language" philosophy of teaching children how to read emphasizes the meaning of texts instead of the sounds of letters (phonemics).

Thus, it would combine speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and a whole language reading series would (allegedly) help the learning reader to construct a personal meaning for a text based on using their prior knowledge to interpret the meaning of what they read.7. This is an example of a word order language specific cue, which in the example shows a literal translation from the Spanish (where perro = dog and negro = black).8. I will speak English following the proper rules of grammar and syntax.

This is the best way for bilingual speakers to learn how to speak English properly. And correct their mistakes.9. Semantic mapping is a useful strategy because it is visual and builds on the prior knowledge or schema of students. It also recognizes the important components needed to expand the vocabulary and extend one's knowledge by displaying in categories different words that are related to one another. Its interactivity is also a positive factor that facilitates reading.10. The greatest challenge is to teach people how to read for pleasure.

Although this is the best argument to encourage someone, especially children, to read, many do not reach this stage because they get stuck in the agony of understanding words and retaining their meanings. Once they realize that the book is much better than the film, you've done your job!