Language Disorders:from Infancy through Adolescence:

Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Communicating

Rhea Paul, PhD, CCC-SLPProfessor, Yale Child Study Center

New Haven, Connecticut

Courtenay F. Norbury, PhD

Senior Research Fellow Department of Psychology Royal Holloway University of London London,England

pages 551-594

pragmatics

conversational pragmatic

organizing conversational analysis around four major areas:

a.initiation and responsiveness

b.turn-taking and repair

c.topic structure

d.cohesion/coherence

adolescent conversational analysis

listener role

vocabulary

syntax

main iedas

cooperative manner

gives feedback

speaker role:language featrures

syntax

questions

figurative language

nonspecific language

precise vocabulary

word retrieval

mazes and dysfluencies

speaker role:paralinguistic features

suprasegmental featrues

fluency

intelligibility

speaker role:communication fuctions

give information

receive information

describe

persuade

express opinion/belief

indicate readiness

solve problems verbally

entertain

conversational rules

verbal turns/topics

initiation 

topic choice

topic maintenance

topic switch

turn-taking

repair/revision

interruption

verbal politeness

quantity

sincerity

relevance

clarify

tact

nonverbal

gestures

facial expressions

eye contact

proxemics

norm-referenced conversational assessment

pragmatic rating scale

inappropriate or absent greeting

strikingly candid

overly direct or blunt

inappropriately formal

inappropriately informal

overly talkative

irrelevant or inappropriate detail

content "out of sync" with interlocutor

confusing accounts

topic preoccupation/perseveration

unresponsive to cues

little reciprocal to-and-fro exchange

terse

odd humor

insufficient background information

failure to reference pronouns or other terms

inadequate clarification

vague accounts

scripted,stereotyped discourse

awkward expression of ideas

indistinct or mispronounced speech

inappropriat rate of speech

inappropriate intonation

inappropriate volume

excessive pauses,reformulations

unusual rhythm,fluency

inappropriate physical distance

inappropriate gestures

inappropriate facial expression

inappropriate use of gaze

structured observations

probes for eliciting conversational behavior in adolescents(p.554)

role playing

negotiation strategies

the ability to use language effectively to persuade others,to present our point of view,and to resolve conflicts has a great effect on self-esteem,popularity,and successful adjustment in adolescence and adulthood.

assessing register variation

an example worksheet for use with role-playing activities to assess register variation skill in adolescents with language learning disorder(p.555)

discourse genres

secondary-school classroom discourse

the communication skills high school teachers consider most important for students to display:

narrative skills

logical communication

ability to clarify messages

ability to take another's perspective

appropriate turn-taking

a sample interview to conduct with teachers of secondary students with LLD 

how is (client)doing academically in your class?

what are (client)'s strengths in your class?

how well-organized is (client)?

how does (client) do at following directions?answering questions?completing assignment?understanding with material?getting along with peers?

how would you rate (client)'s listening skills?does he or she understand lectures and classroom conversation?

how would you rate (client)'s vocabulray?

what problems is (client) having in your class?

are the particular routines in which (client) has trouble "getting with the program?"

can you describe a recent classroom activity in which (client) took part that will give me an idea of the kinds of trouble he or she has?

what aspects of your curriculum present the greatest stumbling block for (client)?

what changes would you like to see in (client)'s performance in class?

what is your view of (client)'s realistic potential in this class this years?

other discourse genres 

narrative text

the use and understanding of story-grammar elements relating to characters' internal responses,plans,and motivations;the ability to draw inferences from narrative material and to summarize the story;and the provision of adequate cohesive marking within the text.

assessing story microstructure

protocols for eliciting "frog" stories and personal narratives(p.557)

assessing narrative inferencing

students with LLD are less adept than their peers with advanced language at going beyond what is on the page both to draw conclusions and to organize information for the purpose of providing concise and accurate summaries.

assessing summarizing skills 

when we retell a story,we report all the events included in the original narrative, recounting each episode and including all the events and elements that make it up.

summarizing requires integration and condensation of the material in the story

six abilities that go into summarizing a narrative:

1.understanding the individual propositions and events of the story

2.understanding the connections among the individual propositions of the story

3.identifying the story grammar elements that organize the story

4.remembering the sequence of envents in the story

5.selecting the most salient information to be included in the summary

6.generating a concise and cohesive version of that information

it is important to be sure that the material we present them for summarizing is not at a reading level higher than the level they attained on the basic comprehension test.the adequacy of the summary can be judged by evaluating whether:

1.the summary presents an acceptable representation of the sequence of events in the story?

2.the information presented includes the most central elements of the story and excludes minor details.

3.the summary is concise and coherent,so that someone who had not read the text could get the gist of the story.

assessing cohesion in narrative 

some categories  of cohesive markers for assessment at the advanced language stage

lexical cohesion(the use of several words at different points in the text to link ideas to the same concept,these would include the use of comparative and superlative markers

reference(the use of pronouns as well as the use of pro-verbs)

substitution(the use of a synonym for a co-referent)

assessing artful storytelling with leterate language

a sampling of the connectives in english(p.560)

coordinating conjunctions

and,or,but,both,neither,either,nor

subordinating conjunctions

for,so,that,which(ever),because,while,if,after,before,who(m)(ever),what(ever),where(ever), why,how,though,although,whether,as,since,once,except,until,unless,whereas,whereupon

conjuncts

concorddant,similarly,moreover,consequently,therefore,furthermore,for example,discordant instead,ye,however,contrastively,nevertheless,rather,conversely

quasi-coordinators

as well as,as much as,rather than,more than

sample sentences for a judgment task to assess adolescents' comprehension of advanced connectives(p.561)

instruction:listen to each sentence and tell me whether it makes sense (ok) or is silly

expository texts

understanding expository texts

the kinds of deficits in expository text comprehension commonly found in students with LLD include:

a.poorer accuracy in answering questions about the literal content of the text

b.reduced ability to respond to inferential questions on the text

c.recall of fewer propositions and events from the text on retelling or summarizing

d.shorter retellings with reduced syntactic complexity and increased grammatical errors

nelson(2010)suggested that the best assessment of comprehension of expository texts is the use of curriculum-based activities.

we can have the student read a passage,paraphrase or summarize it,and answer both literal and inferential questions posed by the clinician.alternatively,we can have students answer question in the review section of a textbook or demonstrate comprehension by drawing a map of diagram.

if listening comprehension exceeds comprehension of the same material when read independently,we can consult with teachers to provide recorded versions of reading assignments and work with the reading specialist to improve reading comprehension,if comprehension of oral exposition is no better than that of written material,though,we will need to concentrate on improving the student's overall ability to process this kind of text, starting with oral formats and integrating written texts as we go along.

如果學生不能獨立處理，providing scaffolding and support to see whether this aid is sufficient to allow them to complete tasks with expository texts.

producing expository text

premise：a statement of the writer's position on the topic;stated in an introuductory section

reason:an explanation to support or refute the premise

elaboration:an extension or examples of a premise,reason,or conclusion

conclusion:a closing statement

persuasive and argumentative

students with learning disabilities are required to pass the same competency exams as students enrolled in general education in order to new grade levels and to earn a high school diploma.

a variety of types of writing required of adolescents in school,these include personal experience narratives(describe the best experience you ever had);story retelling(book reports);factual retelling(summarize the passage on the exploration of antarctica);fictional stories or guide stories(write your own myth to explain how we came to have four seasons,as the myth of ceres does);explanation on how to do something(explan how to build a log cabin); descriptions(write a description of massachusetts's main industries);reporting(write a report of a sports event you watched);persuasive pieces(write an editorial about why students should be allowed to eat lunch at local restaurants instead of the cafeteria), business letters(write a letter of application for a job),and friendly letters(write a letter to a friend asking him or her to visit during the summer)

phases of writing

there are five steps involved in producing written texts

prewriting(classroom discussion;graphic organizers;brainstorming)

drafting(free writing;concept mapping;outlining)

revising(peer responses;teacher conference)

editing(sentence combining;spelling,punctuation checking;peer review)

publication(word processing;author's theater;binding and illustrating)

assessing the writing process

questions to determine writing demands of curriculum(p.565)

think aloud protocol 

the main goals of procedure are to find out the following:

whether the students identifies the goal or purpose of the writing(when we set the goal by giving the student an assignment,we want to observe whether the student uses the goal as a guide to the writing,chooses the correct genre to fit the goal,and uses sel-reminders of the goal throughout the process.

whether the student takes the audience into account(for students,the audience is often the teacher)

whether the student uses the planning process to revise and refine thinking(many authors claim that they don't know what they think until they write it)

assessing the written product

example writing prompts for secondary students(p.565)

the four primary methods of assessing writing samples such as these include the following:

holistic:the rater provides a numerical score,based on an overall impression of the writing,the score is norm-referenced in that the rater has in mind what typical writing for a given grade level should look like.

primary trait:the rater measures the sample against predeterminded criteria,often in the form of a rubric that provides numerical rating on a 4-5 point scale,with anchors such as unsatisfactory,minimal,satisfatory,elaborated,or superior.

analytic:several specific aspects of the writing are each evaluation separately,using a standard evaluation tool.

curriculum-based measurement:a short,timed sample of writing is elicited in response to a curriculum-based topic or story starter.

a sample of holistic evaluation criteria for assessing students' writing products(p.567)

1.below basic,inadequate:a below-average paper may present some content

2.basic,but minimal:a low-average paper.

3.proficient:an average paper

4.elaborated:a good paper,above average,but not top

5.advanced,superior:a top paper,but not necessarily perfect

a hierarchy of approaches to writing assessment(fluency,lexical maturity,to use an analytic approach to examining sentential syntax)

mechanical errors include poor legibility and errors in spelling,punctuation,capitalization,and paragraph segmentation

when legibility is very poor,it may be wise to use word-processing equiment instead of insisting students write by hand.

worksheet  for summarizing information from written language evaluations(p.568)

assessing the metas

metalinguistics

asking students to edit their own or other's writing samples is,of course,an excellent metalinguistic assessment task,one that can provide information on students' ability to focus on the form rather than the content of written language.

paraphrasing is another important metalinguistic skill for secondary students.it is needed to write information gathered from library or internet research as they prepare papers and to summarize information from classroom texts.

matapragmatics

we can probe metapragmatic skills by asking students to describe the rules of various interactive situations.for example,we ask students to describe how the rules for taking a conversational turn politely differ from the rules for taking a turn in an argument.

給定視頻場景（一個學生試圖加入別人的談話中；一個學生對他人的挑釁作出反應），讓學生選擇合適的ending

questions for assessing awareness of classroom pragmatic rules

when is it important to be quiet in this class?

when is talking ok?

when can you talk without raising your hand?

when can you ask questions?

is it all right in this class to ask another student for help?

what are you supposed to give a short answer,and when should you given an elaborated answer?

how important is using correct grammar and spelling when you write for this teacher?

does this teacher care if you put an "x" when the directions say,"put a check"?

comprehension monitoring

students in secondary grades should be able not only to detect missing information in barrier games,but to be able to identify what is missing and ask an appropriate,specific question to resolve the problem.secondary students who are unable to use such strategies in barrier games would benefit from training and practice in monitoring their comprehesion and resolving problematic messages in this context.

matacognition

metacognition,or executive function,includes a range of cognitive control mechanisms that enable goal-oriented behavior,cognitive flexibility,inhibition of irrelevant information,and self-control,or self-regulation.

reminding the student what the task is ,suggesting the use of a new strategy if the student is having difficulty,reminding the student to use the strategy discussed,and so on.

giving students a problem to solve or task to complete without cueing,having them think out loud,and then periodically prompting them to reflect on their thinking as they go through the task.

assessing functional communication in the advanced language stage

generally,the individualized transition plans addresses progress toward high school gradua-tion,outlines the post-secondary education or traning the student needs,discusses the community-living support required,and makes preliminary plans to help the student succeed in employment and daily living settings,the communication assessment involved in developing the individualized transition plans is community referenced,as we discussed earlier,if a job on the job training placement has been decided on during the student's last years in school, the clinician may want to visit the site to do an ecological inventory of the kinds of listening, speaking,reading,and writing demands placed on the student,if college,community college,or vocational training is part of the plan,assessment of the communicative demands of these settings also will be necessary.

in addition,we want to talk with the family about their plans for having the student make the transition to independent living,their input on the student's need is especially important, since they are most familiar with how the student communicates in everyday life.the family can tell us what they feel are the most important areas in which the student's social communication must improve for an independent-living situation to succeed.

checklist of communication skills considered essential to classroom and occupational success(p.571)

vocabulary

does the student need to :

understand technical terms/jargon?

use technical terms/jargon?

use terms in question form?

comprehend abstract or figurative expression?

read terms in manuals or textbooks?

read terms on diagrams,charts ,and graphs?

write terms in notes,reports,or tests?

spell terms accurately?

summarize project in written report?

identify abbreviations/symbols?

use

is the student required to :

converse with others in group settings?

request tools,supplies,or parts from a stock depot?

follow a step-by-step procedure?

plan or design a schedule/procedure?

explain a procedure to instructor/other student?

ask for specific help?

verbally detail equipment malfunction?

identify and report safety hazards?

orally report assignment/project completion?

attend lecture presentations?

maintain a topic focus?

function

is the student required to verbally:

participate in classroom discussions?

define technical terms?

sequence step-by-step procedures?

report progress?

paraphrase information?

formulate specific questions?

respond to procedural questions?

express/support ideas?

provide suggestions?

give detailed advice?

acknowledge others?

describe equipment breakdown?

explain errors?

retrieve previously learned information>

organization

does the student need to:

keep an organized notebook?

follow prescribed schedule or routine?

anticipate direction from the classroom routine?

manage time based on a syllabus?

use classroom materials independently?

form

does the student need to :

comprehend multilevel directions in complex syntax?

listen for organizational cues or signal words?

dicipher complex information?

understand test directions independently?

use writing mechanics correctly?

relate worksheet information to test format?

pragmatics

is the student expected to:

differentiate speech/register when interacting(e.g.,peers,teachers,authority figures, general public)?

use language appropriate to various settings(e.g.,classroom,group project activities)?

give and react to nonverbal cues?

listen for content importance transmitted by prosody?

modify communication based on feedback?

initiate,take turns,and terminate interaction?

display responsive and appropriate language behavior?

handle concerns and complaints appropriately?

provide and support an opinion?

the 6+1 trait writing scoring continuum（p.589)

6+1 trait writing rubric ideas

ideas:the heart of the message,the content of the piece,the main theme,with details that enrich and develop that theme

1.the paper has no clear sense of purpose or central theme,the reader must make inferences based on sketchy or missing details.

2.the writer is beginning to define the topic,even though development is still basic or general.

3.this paper is clear and focused,it holds the reader's attention,relevant anecdotes and details enrich the central theme.

6+1 trait writing rubric organization

organization:the internal structure,the thread of central meaning,the logical and sometimes intriguing pattern of ideas

1.the writing lacks a clear sense of direction

2.the organizational structure is strong enough to move the reader through the text without too much confusion.

3.the organization structure of this paper enhances and showcases the central idea or theme of the paper;includes a satisfying introduction and conclusion

6+1 trait writing rubric voice

voice:the unique perspective of the writer coming through in the piece through honesty, convinction,integrity,and believability

1.the writer seems indifferent,uninvolved,or distanced from the topic and/or the audience.

2.the writer seems sincere but not fully engaged or involved,the result is pleasant or even personable,but not compelling.

3.the writer of this paper speaks directly to the reader in a manner that is individual, compelling,and respects the purpose and audience for the writing

6+1 trait writing rubric word choice

word choice:the use of rich,colorful,precise language that moves and enlightens the reader

1.the writer struggles with a limited vocabulary

2.the language is functional,even if it lacks much energy

3.words convey the intended message in precise,interesting,and natural way

6+1 trait writing rubric sentence fluency

sentence fluency:the rhythm and flow of the language,the sound of word patterns,the way in which the writing plays to the ear- not just to the eye

1.the reader has to practice quite a bit in order to give this paper a fair interpretive reading

2.the text hums along with a steady beat,but tends to be more pleasant or businesslike than musical

3.the writer has an easy flow,rhythm and cadence,sentences are well built

6+1 writing rubric conventions

conventions:the mechanical correctness of the piece;spelling,grammar,and usage, paragraphing,use of capitals,and punctuation

1.errors in spelling,punctatuation,capitalization,usage and grammar,and/or paragraphing repeatedly distract the reader and make text difficult to read

2.the writer shows reasonable control over a limited range of standard writing conventions

3.the writer demonstrates a good grasp of standard writing conventions(e.g.,spelling, punctuation,capitalization,grammar,usage,paragraphing)