English and Literacy in Education Flashcards
6 cards from real PGCE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 English and Literacy in Education flashcards as text
What does 'phonemic awareness' mean, and how does it differ from phonics?
Answer: Phonemic awareness is the oral/auditory ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words; phonics links those sounds to written letters
Phonemic awareness is purely auditory (hearing and manipulating phonemes in spoken words); phonics adds the written dimension by linking phonemes to graphemes.
What is a 'reading comprehension strategy' such as 'summarising' intended to develop?
Answer: Active, purposeful processing of a text to construct meaning and identify the most important ideas
Summarising requires pupils to distinguish important from less important information and condense it in their own words, which actively deepens comprehension.
Why is vocabulary instruction particularly important for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds?
Answer: There is a significant vocabulary gap on school entry linked to language exposure at home, which affects reading comprehension and academic achievement
Research (Hart and Risley; EEF) shows children from lower-income families hear significantly fewer words in early childhood, creating a vocabulary gap that compounds across schooling if not explicitly addressed.
What is the purpose of 'guided reading' sessions in primary schools?
Answer: Small groups of pupils read a levelled text at their instructional level with teacher support targeting specific comprehension strategies
Guided reading provides targeted reading instruction for small groups matched to the same reading level, allowing the teacher to teach comprehension strategies and prompt thinking in a supportive context.
What does the term 'morphology' refer to in literacy teaching?
Answer: The study of the structure of words, including prefixes, suffixes and root words
Morphology - knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, root words and word families - helps pupils decode unfamiliar words, understand meaning, and improve spelling.
What is the difference between 'decoding' and 'word recognition' in reading development?
Answer: Decoding is the phonological sounding-out of unfamiliar words; word recognition is the fast, automatic identification of known words as whole units
Decoding (phonics-based sounding out) is used for unfamiliar words; word recognition is the automatic, instant identification of words that have been decoded so many times they are stored as whole units in memory.