CALT Vocabulary Development and Word Knowledge 4

Question 1

A CALT is designing vocabulary instruction for a 10th-grade student with dyslexia who must learn the philosophy unit terms 'epistemology,' 'ontology,' and 'hermeneutics.' According to Beck, McKeown, and Kucan's tiered vocabulary framework, which classification and instructional implication is MOST accurate?

Accepted Answer

Tier 3 words best addressed with brief definitional instruction embedded in subject-specific context

Answer

Beck et al.'s Tier 3 words are domain-specific, low-frequency technical terms tied to a single discipline. 'Epistemology,' 'ontology,' and 'hermeneutics' are philosophy-specific and do not transfer broadly across subjects — the defining criterion separating Tier 3 from Tier 2. While instruction is warranted, the depth-of-processing approach reserved for Tier 2 is disproportionate; brief, definitional instruction with subject context is appropriate. The morphological generativity of Greek roots is real but does not override the domain-specificity classification.

Question 2

In the context of morphological instruction for students with language-based learning disabilities, 'morphological transparency' is MOST precisely defined as:

Accepted Answer

The degree to which a word's meaning can be predicted from the combined meanings of its constituent morphemes

Answer

Morphological transparency refers specifically to meaning predictability from constituent morphemes. 'Sunlight' is fully transparent (sun + light = light from the sun); 'understand' is opaque — the morphemes do not sum to the word's actual meaning. For CALT practice, teaching transparent morphological families first maximizes generative vocabulary learning and helps students unlock unfamiliar derived words. Options A and D describe phonological features; option B confuses transparency with orthographic legibility of boundaries.

Question 3

A CALT introduces Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) to a high school student studying cell biology. Which scenario represents an INAPPROPRIATE application of SFA for vocabulary development?

Accepted Answer

Introducing the isolated term 'photosynthesis' as the student's first exposure to any plant physiology vocabulary in the unit

Answer

Semantic Feature Analysis is a relational instructional tool — its power lies in clarifying distinctions *among* a set of conceptually related words the student has some prior exposure to. Using SFA to introduce a completely isolated term, with no related vocabulary yet established in the student's lexicon, removes the comparative scaffold that makes SFA effective. SFA requires a category of known or co-taught words to compare against; it is not suited as a first-exposure method for standalone novel terms.

Question 4

According to Ehri's phases of word reading development, which phase is most directly associated with the emergence of full orthographic mapping of morphologically complex words as holistic lexical entries?

Accepted Answer

Consolidated alphabetic phase, where multiletter chunks and morphemic units are processed as single units

Answer

In Ehri's model, the consolidated alphabetic phase is when readers begin recognizing recurring multiletter units — syllable patterns, affixes, morphemes — as consolidated chunks rather than sequencing individual grapheme-phoneme correspondences. This enables efficient orthographic mapping of polysyllabic, morphologically complex words. The full alphabetic phase secures simpler words through complete GPC mapping but does not yet consolidate units; the partial alphabetic phase uses incomplete mappings; the pre-alphabetic phase predates phonemic decoding entirely.

Question 5

Stanovich's (1986) 'Matthew Effect' in literacy and vocabulary development predicts which long-term trajectory for students who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge?

Accepted Answer

Compounding vocabulary deficits over time, driven by reduced reading volume and diminishing word exposure

Answer

Stanovich's Matthew Effect (named for the biblical principle 'the rich get richer') describes a self-reinforcing feedback loop: students with strong early vocabularies read more fluently, encounter more words incidentally, and accumulate richer lexicons — while students with limited early vocabulary struggle with texts, read less, and fall progressively further behind. The gap *widens* over time; it does not self-correct in adolescence, nor do students plateau stably. Compensatory oral strategies exist but do not close the reading-vocabulary gap.

CALT - Certified Academic Language Therapist Practice Test

CALT - Certified Academic Language Therapist Practice Test

CALT Vocabulary Development and Word Knowledge 4