Volume 2 Number 3
October 1962

Alice Crater, Annis Flake, and Ethel Mills

Primary teachers have been plagued for years with these questions from fellow educators and parents: "What happens to children when they reach the intermediate grades? They were doing so well in school and now are simply floundering."

Many factors do influence the educational development of a child. There does seem to be a definite break between the third and fourth grades. The children leave the primary grades and move into a new and more complex situation. The degree to which the child can adjust to a more intensified and comprehensive learning situation varies with each child. English-speaking children, for whom the majority of the curricula is geared, can usually adjust and move smoothly and easily. What happens to the child whose native tongue is not English? What tremendous obstacles await our Indian, Spanish-speaking, and many other children who must compete with English-speaking children? Why does this situation develop at this particular grade in school? Why not in the first grade or the sixth grade? Why is it generally accepted among educators that retardation begins at the fourth grade? In recent years we have begun to recognize that there is a shift in vocabulary emphasis that takes place approximately at this level. This shift in vocabulary emphasis is probably the largest single cause of academic retardation among children who have difficulty with English. Children in the primary grades learn to read words commonly used in the everyday speaking vocabulary. The educated guess of linguists is that these words comprise about five per cent of the total English vocabulary of an educated person. A non-English speaking child may take one or two years to complete first grade, go on to second grade and the first part of third grade without much difficulty. The new reading words are the same as the words used in the conversation of children.

Beginning at about the second semester of third grade, new words are introduced that are not normally used in conversation. English speaking children usually recognize their meanings since they are far more familiar with the English language. But to the bilingual or even to the English-speaking child with a limited vocabulary, these words are often meaningless. They are, however, the beginning of a vast comprehension vocabulary that make up a large part of the English language and they are essential in getting an education.

It is at this point the breakdown starts in our children who are struggling to master the language and compete in regular class rooms. Here is developed a sense of inadequacy, frustration, despair, and other emotions that lead to failure. Here is truly the beginning of pseudo-retardation in bilingual or limited vocabulary English-speaking children.

We feel we have found a procedure that will help these children. It helps the child know the meaning of each new word as it is introduced. Many children learn to read words without knowing the meaning of the word. Our procedure is simple. As each new word is introduced in the story, the child looks it up in a dictionary which has been especially prepared by the teacher. The word has been defined using words which the child has learned in previous readers. No new words are introduced in the definitions.

Only one meaning of the word is used at first so that the child is not confused by several meanings. If one meaning is developed, frequently the child is able to guess other meanings by the use of context clues.

The following is the order of procedure in using the dictionary. We must keep in mind, however, that this procedure supplements the guide of the basic readers and in no way replaces it.

Below are examples taken from the dictionary that accompanies a standard 32 reader. Note the simplicity of the one definition and careful choice of words used. Note again that these definitions are composed entirely of words previously learned.

Example: 32 reader More Streets And Roads, Scott, Foresman.

Below is an example from the test booklet that has been developed to accompany the dictionaries. The same list of words is used but the definitions are scrambled. The child matches them by placing the number of each new word on the dotted line. If the child does not make a hundred on the test, he studies the words and is retested.

Example: Test

1. accident 3 not wide

2. customers 1 something bad you didn't think would

happen

3. narrow 2 people who buy things in stores

4. darkness 6 could do it

5. nephew 4 black as night

6. managed 5 your sister's or brother's son