Yes! Schema! That was the word I knew I should be using but couldn't think of.

Unfortunately, when you get to my age this sort of thing happens all too often.

Bill


>Cognitive views of language propose that all of our knowledge is
>stored in units called schemas or frames. These are like screenplays
>for typical events -- getting up in the morning, applying for a job,
>going grocery shopping, attending a birthday party -- which allow us
>to recognize an event and behave appropriately. Schema theory has
>featured in studies of reading for some time now, because possessing
>and pre-activating a schema related to the topic of the reading
>("anticipatory set") improves reading comprehension, and lacking a
>schema impedes it significantly.
>
>Schemas are the knowledge bases within which the definitions of
>words reside. "Sister" resides in a kinship schema; "candy" isn't
>just anything sweet (fruit is not candy), but also involves notions
>like "treat" (hence extensions to "eye candy" and "brain candy") and
>"not meal food". "Pet" as a sort of animal depends on the notion of
>domesticated animals that serve only as companions, which means they
>have to contrast with beasts of burden and food -- competing animal
>schemas.
>
>A few of you have mentioned putting words together that come from
>the same domain of experience -- nautical words, etc. This exploits
>schemas; it is easier for students to fit a new word into an
>existing schema by relating it to other aspects of the domain.
>
>Early-grade materials often do this: words about the sea; words for
>things in the kitchen, etc. For reasons I do not understand this
>does not continue much in the higher grades. I've seen some lists of
>words like "occupational" or "history" or "science", but a lot of
>the words on the list are not exclusive to that domain. They're in
>the list because they were in the reading.
>
>The other way humans organize their knowledge is in categories of
>like things. My first exercise when I teach about vocabulary is to
>ask my students to name 25 of the words they know that start with
>"m", _in alphabetical order_. This is very hard, of course. We don't
>store words in alphabetical order in our minds.
>
>Then I ask them to name ten kinds of fruit. The whole class starts
>calling out and we have 15 fruit names in less than a minute. Once
>again, teaching materials for young children often work with
>categories (animals; plants; occupations), but again, this
>disappears in the higher grades. Why? Using the natural ways the
>mind organizes words facilitates vocabulary expansion.
>
>I advise my students (for when they become teachers) to work with
>their kids to develop schema- and category-based "dictionaries".
>Each time they get a list of new vocabulary words, they work on
>adding them to these dictionaries. Word processing makes it very
>easy to adapt and change such documents.
>
>The game "Outburst" works on these two principles. It's a game in
>which teams have to guess ten words that are on a card that the
>"emcee" holds. Each list is based on either a category (Clint
>Eastwood movies, hobbies, populous cities, volcanoes of the world)
>or a schema (things you find in a bathroom, things associated with
>San Francisco, things you take to the beach, etc.). I also use this
>in class. It's really excellent for ESL teaching. But having kids
>make up an Outburst game derived from their "dictionaries" could be
>an entertaining way to review vocabulary. Only words from their
>dictionary earn points, just as in Outburst you get no credit for
>naming something that does not appear on the card.
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
>English Department, California Polytechnic State University
>One Grand Avenue  * San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
>Tel. (805)-756-2184  *  Fax: (805)-756-6374 * Dept. Phone.  756-2596
>* E-mail: [log in to unmask] *      Home page:
>http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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