Semantics
"The study of meaning in language" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 204)
Semantics can be broken apart into two fields:
Lexical Semantics - study of how words mean
Compositional Semantics - study of how words and syntax work together to make sentences mean
(Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 204)
It is important to work on building our ELLs mental lexicons, which is essentially an organizational system within the brain for words in a person's vocabulary. Helping ELLs make connections and build upon their background knowledge is imperative. As ELLs build their mental lexicon, they will be strengthening their lexical fields, or connections they make between words to show some kind of relationship. In this way when you say the word geography, your students will begin to think of all the words they relate to geography such as land, mountain, river, explorer.
Emphasis on word relationships is important - hyponymy - a set of hierarchical semantic relationships, meronymy - relation of whole to part, synonymy - words with similar meanings, antonymy - words with opposite meanings.
Lexical Semantics - study of how words mean
Compositional Semantics - study of how words and syntax work together to make sentences mean
(Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 204)
It is important to work on building our ELLs mental lexicons, which is essentially an organizational system within the brain for words in a person's vocabulary. Helping ELLs make connections and build upon their background knowledge is imperative. As ELLs build their mental lexicon, they will be strengthening their lexical fields, or connections they make between words to show some kind of relationship. In this way when you say the word geography, your students will begin to think of all the words they relate to geography such as land, mountain, river, explorer.
Emphasis on word relationships is important - hyponymy - a set of hierarchical semantic relationships, meronymy - relation of whole to part, synonymy - words with similar meanings, antonymy - words with opposite meanings.
How to help ELLs with Semantics:
- Label items in the classroom, including student names. This will make word use concrete for students and help with build their mental lexicons.
- Targeted instruction with word relationships (hyponymy, meronymy, synonym, and antonymy) Synonym and Antonym Game will help with connections students form in their lexical fields.
- Make academic language accessible to students by making connections to known words, using songs and movement helps reinforce meaning.