The Efficacy of Teaching Context Clues from Text, for Word Learning, to Older School-Age Children with Specific Language Impairment

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cahill, Marie^a | Murphy, Carol-Anne^b

Affiliations: [a] Speech and language therapist, South Tipperary HSE, Cashel Health Centre, Co. Tipperary | [b] Lecturer, Dept. of Speech and Language Therapy, Health, University of Limerick

Abstract: Research has shown that children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties with word learning (Leonard, 1998). There are limited studies suggesting optimal ways of improving word learning in older children with SLI. The aim of this research was to investigate the efficacy of teaching context clues for word learning to school-age children with SLI. One child with SLI took part in an exploratory single-case study. This experimental treatment targeted the ability to use context clues from school and other texts to learn new words while reading. Definitional tasks, designed to reflect changes resulting from the context clue teaching strategy, were carried out pre- and post-therapy. The paper reports both quantitative and qualitative improvements in the subject’s ability to use context clues in text to define unknown words and in his metalinguistic strategies. Issues arising during the implementation of the therapy approach, suggestions for modification of the intervention and questions for further research are discussed.

Keywords: Specific Language Impairment, word learning, context-clue strategy, metalinguistics, reading comprehension

DOI: 10.3233/ACS-2008-16108

Journal: Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 69-93, 2008