CALT CALT Vocabulary Development and Word Knowledge 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best explains why students with dyslexia often have smaller reading vocabularies than their peers despite having average oral language skills?
- They have inherently weaker semantic memory
- Limited print exposure due to reading difficulties reduces incidental vocabulary acquisition (Correct answer)
- They cannot process auditory information efficiently
- Vocabulary is stored separately from phonological processing
Correct answer: Limited print exposure due to reading difficulties reduces incidental vocabulary acquisition
Because students with dyslexia read less, they encounter fewer words in print, limiting the incidental vocabulary growth that fluent readers gain through reading.
Question 2: A CALT introduces the concept of 'word families' to a student. Which set best represents a single word family?
- Act, action, actor, react, enact (Correct answer)
- Read, lead, bead, head, dead
- Run, ran, running, runs, runner
- Nation, national, internationally, nationalize, nationality
Correct answer: Act, action, actor, react, enact
The words act, action, actor, react, and enact all share the base morpheme 'act,' forming a morphological word family.
Question 3: Which instructional sequence reflects explicit vocabulary teaching consistent with Orton-Gillingham principles?
- Students read a passage and guess unknown words from context
- Teacher introduces a word, provides etymology, models usage, and students practice in oral and written sentences (Correct answer)
- Students look up words in a dictionary independently before a lesson
- Vocabulary is taught only as it naturally appears in assigned reading
Correct answer: Teacher introduces a word, provides etymology, models usage, and students practice in oral and written sentences
Explicit vocabulary instruction aligned with Orton-Gillingham principles involves direct teaching of word meaning, structure, and usage across modalities.
Question 4: The term 'polysemy' refers to a word that:
- Has the same spelling but different pronunciation depending on meaning
- Shares the same pronunciation as another word but differs in spelling and meaning
- Has multiple related meanings (Correct answer)
- Sounds the same as its opposite
Correct answer: Has multiple related meanings
Polysemy refers to a single word form that carries multiple related meanings, such as 'bank' (financial institution) and 'bank' (riverbank).
Question 5: When teaching vocabulary to a student with dyslexia, a CALT should prioritize which type of words for intensive instruction?
- Words the student can already read but cannot define
- High-utility words critical for comprehension that the student is unlikely to learn independently (Correct answer)
- Simple CVC words already within the student's decoding ability
- Tier 3 technical words specific to one subject area
Correct answer: High-utility words critical for comprehension that the student is unlikely to learn independently
Intensive vocabulary instruction should focus on high-utility Tier 2 words that students with reading difficulties are unlikely to acquire through independent reading.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of a derivational morpheme?
- The plural '-s' added to 'cat'
- The past tense '-ed' added to 'walk'
- The suffix '-ness' added to 'happy' to form 'happiness' (Correct answer)
- The comparative '-er' added to 'tall'
Correct answer: The suffix '-ness' added to 'happy' to form 'happiness'
Derivational morphemes change the word's grammatical category or core meaning, such as '-ness' transforming the adjective 'happy' into the noun 'happiness.'
CALT CALT Vocabulary Development and Word Knowledge 2
Which of the following best explains why students with dyslexia often have smaller reading vocabularies than their peers despite having average oral language skills?