Some type of hearing impairment
Some type of vision impairment
Other type of physical impairment
Low self esteem due to the language barrier or to some other type of physical
attribute
Lack of opportunities to communicate
Classroom affective domain not present – child is isolated in the classroom and
teacher seems to pay little or no attention to this fact
Teacher has low expectations of the student
Provide strategies for the student to be able to select words and organize them into
phrases and messages. Model using this strategy in a conversation before you give the
strategy to the student. The following strategies can be used for this purpose:
For young students:
o Start with familiar words such as the names of toys or familiar persons and
animals
For older students:
o Provide them with control phrases or sentence starters such as:
It looks like....
It rhymes with....
I think this is...
If this...then....
o You can find a complete list of sentence starters is on page 13 of this manual.
Provide magazines and newspapers to find the vocabulary they need
Provide opportunities to use the Web and look for concepts and interesting readings
Have available picture dictionaries for students to use words that are not currently
being used in different classes
Monitor and assess the different component of the vocabulary acquisition process
[semantics (words), syntax (grammar), morphology (prefixes and suffixes that add
meaning), phonology (sounds of language), and pragmatics (the use of language in
interaction)] as follows:
Observing interaction and conversation with peers in the classroom and out of the
classroom (formal and informal settings)
Recording readings or conversations
Having the student describe objects, retell stories, sing songs, act readings, create
pictures, create timelines or work on graphs based on readings