Students,
I have put many of the important terms from the "Language" Text Book here on the website. You can refer to them when needed.
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (Step 1)
Review: Words are made up of syllables.
- A syllable is a word part that has one vowel sound.
- Every word has at least one syllable.
- The syllable type is determined by the syllable's vowel sound.
| Syllable Type | Pattern | Vowel Sound | Diacritical mark |
| Closed | A syllable that ends with a consonant sound. (dig,trans-mit) | The vowel sound is short | |
| r-Controlled | A syllable that has a vowel followed by r. (car, mar-ket | The vowel sound is r-controlled such as: /ar/, /or/, or /er/ | |
| Open | A syllable that ends with a vowel. (she, my, o-pen) | The vowel sound is long | |
| Final Silent e | A syllable that ends in a final silent e. (made, in-flate) | The vowel sound is long |
Word Recognition and Spelling (Step 2)
Syllables: The number of syllables equals the number of vowel sounds.
Every word has at least one vowel sound, so every word has at least one syllable.
Prefixes and Suffixes:
We build longer words and change their meaning by adding prefixes and suffixes.
- Prefixes are added to the beginning of words
- Suffixes are added to end of words
Prefixes for Units 13-17
Prefix Meaning Example anti- against antitoxin con- with confirm dis- non; away, apart distrust, distract in- in, into inside, inflame inter- between, among interact, interstate non- not, without nonskid, nonsense pre- before preregister re- back; again return, review sub- below subcontinent, substandard super- beyond, above supersonic, superman trans- across transcontinental un- not, opposite unlike, unhappy under- below underline, underpass
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PREFIXES CLICK HERE.
For PRACTICE with prefixes and suffixes CLICK HERE.
VOCABULARY AND MORPHOLOGY (Step 3)
Word Relationships What is it? Unit Examples antonyms Words that have opposite meanings after/before; sunrise/sunset synonyms Words that have the same or a similiar meaning today/now; little/small; homophones words that sound the same but have different meaings two/to; their/there; I/eye attributes Words that tell more about the word, such as size, function, parts, color, shape or texture eye/lid; body/arms; shirt/button; minute/ seconds; nickel/ round
Suffixes can change the meaning or function of words.
| SUFFIX Meaning | Example |
| -ed past tense | cried, buttered, hopped |
| -ing on going action | sleeping, cutting, running, |
| -ly how something is done | quickly, suddenly, recently, |
| -s plural, more than one | boots, shoes, trees, pencils, notebooks |
| -'s possession, ownership | dog's collar, Sharon's car, classroom's rules |
| -er the person who... | teacher, farmer, jolkster |
| -en past participle of a verb | frozen, broken, |
| -er can also be used on an adjective to form comparative words between two nouns | smaller pencil, bigger fish, smaller window, bigger tree |
| -est can also be used on an adjective to signal comparison among three or more nouns | biggest prize, easiest test, happiest student, |
Become a better speller. Click this link for info.
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. An adjective tells which one, how many, or what kind. See a list of adjectives.
Adjective, possessive. A word that comes before a noun and is used to describe the noun in terms of possession. Example: my, your, his, her; its, our, and their. Ex. "My desk is messy". "Your car is a mess".
Practice using possessive adjectives.
Grammar and Usage (Step 4)
Grammar Terms
Subject-Nouns serve as the subject. Person, place or thing, or idea
Verb-A verb- describes the action, state of being (is, were) and shows time. Example: acts (present tense, happening now); is dropping (present progressive, ongoing action), acted (past tense, happened in the past); will act (future tense, will happen in the future).
Direct Object-A noun or pronoun that receives the action of the main verb in the predicate. It answers the question: Who or What received the action? Examples: Casey hit the ball. She dropped the mitt.
Indirect Object: Nouns can be the indirect object in a sentence. The indirect object is the noun or pronoun that often comes between the main verb and the direct object. Example: The workers sent their families messages. Families is the indirect object.
S V IO DO
The workers sent their families messages.
Helping Verb-An auxiliary verb that comes before the main verb in a sentence. Helping verbs include forms of be, do, and have. Examples: am opening, did inflate, have created.
Irregular Verbs-Look up Irregular verbs
Present Participle: The -ing verb forms that expresses present action. It follows a helping verb such as am, is, and are. The -ing forms of verbs can also acts as adjectives to describe nouns. Example: She is coming to the picnic. The running water spilled on the floor.
Predicate: One of two main parts of an English sentence. It includes the main verb of the sentence. Examples: He digs. She lost the big dog. (test yourself, click here)
Pronoun: a function word used in place of a noun. Pronouns can be subject, object, or possessive.
subject: I, you, we, he, she, they, their, it,
object: it,
Possessive: my, mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs,
Listening and Reading Comprehension (Step 5)
Types of text
Literary Terms
Signal Words
Speaking and Writing (Step 6)
Different types of sentences
Signal words
Paragraph Organization
Idioms