English Words

1
English Words from Latin Greek Increase
spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension
2
How many words are there in the English Language?

• The Second Edition of the Oxford English
  Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476
  words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.
  To this may be added around 9,500 derivative
  words included as subentries.
• Over half of these words are nouns, about a
  quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs
  the rest is made up of interjections,
  conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc.

3
Yea, yea, so get to the point

• This suggests that there are, at the very least,
  a quarter of a million distinct English words,
  excluding inflections, and words from technical
  and regional vocabulary.
• If distinct senses were counted, the total would
  probably approach.

4
Are you ready for this?

• three quarters of a million
• 750,000

5
Real world demands.

• Only 30 of 4th graders are proficient readers
  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP
  2007)
• 42 million adults in the US are "functionally
  illiterate," meaning that can't read the front
  page of the newspaper. (NAEP 2007)
• Lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor
  underlying the school failure of disadvantage
  students (Becker, 1977 Bielmiller, 1999).

6
Shrinking personal vocabularies

• The average sixth grade student knows
  approximately 25,000 words.
• The average high school graduate knows
  approximately 50,000 words.
• This means that average students learn roughly
  2000-3,000 words a year (Graves, 2007).
• This translates to 8 words a day, 7 days a week,
  52 weeks a year - including weekends or summers.

7

• Some specifics on the importance of vocabulary
• Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict the
  vocabulary children learn before beginning school
  and make attaining an adequate vocabulary a very
  challenging task (Coyne, Simmons, Kame'enui,
  2004 Hart Risley, 1995).
• Less advantaged students are likely to have
  substantially smaller vocabularies than their
  more advantaged classmates (Templin, 1957 White,
  Graves, Slater, 1990).

8
It is estimated that by age 3, some less
advantaged students have heard 30
million fewer words than their more advantaged
peers. It is also estimated these students
vocabularies may be half the size of those of
their more advantaged counterparts (Hart and
Risely 2003 Graves, 2007 ).
9
Bet cha didnt know

• In California they determine how many jail cells
  they will build to house future inmates - by
  calculating how many children are not reading on
  grade level by third grade.

10
Here is a short cut!

• Half of all high-frequency words
• every day words,
• and two-thirds of all academic and technical
  words are derived from Latin or Greek.
• So learn the meanings of roots, prefixes, and
  suffixes and these basic elements make it easier
  to learn new words.

11
Basic Terms root form a word with no prefix or
suffix added may also be referred to as a base
word inspector, thermal affix meaningful part
of a word attached before or after a root or base
word to modify its meaning prefix an affix
which is placed before the stem of a word re-,
un-, dis- suffix an affix which is placed after
the stem of a word -able, -ive, -ly
derivation-a word formed from an existing word,
root, or affix electric, electricity
12
20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts
1. unable 2. review inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible) inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible) inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible)
distrust enlighten (empower) nonsense inside, implant overcome
misguided submarine prefix interrupt forewarn
derail transfer supersonic semicircle antitrust
midterm underfed Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989 Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989 Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989
13
Prefixes Meaning and Connotation
Somewhat Positive Somewhat Positive Somewhat Positive
pro- co- bene-
super- com- be-
en-, em- ad-
Often Negative Often Negative Often Negative
dis-, de- non- sub-
in- un- mis-
mal- anti, contra a-
14
Derivational Suffixes

• Derivational suffixes change the part of speech
• words ending with tion are often nouns
• words ending with ive are often adjectives
• words ending with ish are often adjectives
• words ending with ity are often nouns
• What about -ment, -ous, -ness?

15
Greek Combining Forms
hydro graph geo
pyro polis neuro
ortho scope photo
therm crat psych
chron phobe pseud
onym crypt helio
logy sphere the, theo
16
Counting in Greek and Latin
mono uni di
bi du, duo tri
tetra quadri penta
hexa sept oct
nove deca deci
cent milli poly
multi semi hemi
17
Developing content-specific, academic vocabulary
depends on a basic understanding of Greek and
Latin
Sixty percent of the words in English texts are
of Latin and Greek origin Bear et al., 1996
Henry, 1997
18
Content-Specific Greek Terms Anatomy and Medical
Terms esophagus, thyroid, diagnosis, psoriasis,
dyslexia Studies and Sciences biology,
seismology, morphology, geochronometry Animals
and Plants arachnid, amphibian, chlorophyll,
dinosaur, nectar Theatre and the Arts charisma,
drama, chorus, muse, symphony, acoustics
19

• Look InsideLook Outside
• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
• Look inside the word for known word parts
  prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes.
• Use the analogy strategyI dont know this word,
  but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by
  analogy, this word might have something to do
  with lungs and heat.
• Look outside the word at context clues, visuals
• The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered
  from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
  .

20
So what exactly are we going to do?

• Learn to use context clues effectively
• Study and practice most common root words
• Study and practice most frequently used prefixes
  and suffixes
• Learn to use THEIVES as a reading strategy to use
  all the clues in the text to uncover word
  meaning.

21
Sowhat do you need?

• A fat stack of notecards
• 15 minutes each day to work on Greek Latin
  roots and SAT vocabulary words
• 15 minutes for AP terms and examples