The English language will adopt its millionth word in April, according to the Global Language Monitor (www.languagemonitor.com). Of course, educators cannot possibly teach students the meaning and pronunciation of a million words, so they teach techniques that students can use to figure out unfamiliar words on their own. Parents can reinforce these lessons by reminding their children of the techniques when they read at home.

If you have an elementary-age child who’s struggling to read a word, ask the child to say the sound of each letter. Then ask the child to say the sounds more quickly and connect them to pronounce the word. You also might want to ask your child to look for familiar chunks in the word. Many children know what this means because “chunks” is a word that teachers use to refer to letter combinations. Encourage your child to read each chunk and then to say the chunks more quickly and connect them.
You might be able to ask your child to look for familiar words within an unfamiliar one. For example, if your child cannot figure out the word “unusual,” point out that it contains the word “usual,” but it has been changed into a word that means the opposite because of the prefix “un-.”

Tell your child to look for clues to the meaning of an unfamiliar word by thinking about the other words in the sentence. For instance, if your child asks what “gleeful” means in a sentence such as “Dawn was gleeful when she got good news,” ask your child to think about another word that would make sense in the sentence besides “gleeful.” You also could ask, “How do people feel when they get good news?” If the child says “happy,” point out that a reader can figure out that “gleeful” means “happy” because of the other words in the sentence.

Make sure your child knows how to use a dictionary. Children enjoy kid-friendly ones such as Merriam Webster Children’s Dictionary or the Scholastic Children’s Dictionary. On the Web, the Little Explorers Picture Dictionary is available at www.enchantedlearning.com/dictionary.html. Merriam-Webster’s Word Central offers a dictionary for students ages 11-14 at www.wordcentral.com. (…)

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal
http://tinyurl.com/4hnpln