EVANTHIA SYNODISENIOR LECTURER DEPARTMENT OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATIONUNIVERSITY OF CRETE

Why preschool children?

They are still learning the rules of their mother tongue in their own indirect, intuitive, natural way (critical period), not by being taught the rules by adults.

Why compound words? A compound word is a word composed of two or more morphemes. There are rules about the way morphemes are joined together.

Why stories? 1. Children love stories. => They are meaningful and attract children’s interest and attention2. Stories are oral or written language.

We have tried a story with compound words in Greek to ascertain what they knowto help children realise the rules of forming compound words.

COMPOUND WORDS IN ENGLISH

Compound words in English have three forms:

1. They can be solid / closed: e.g. housewife, wallpaper, basketball, downtown, sixfold, leftover (ingredients), northwestto overhang, to breastfeed, to underline, to upgrade

2. They can be hyphenated: e.g. house-builder, single-minded, salt-and-pepper, mother-of-pearl ear-splitting, freeze-dried, Afro-Cuban, Anglo-Indian, round-table

(discussion), to out-fox, to out-Herod

Compound words containing the suffixes -er, -ness, -ed or articles, prepositions, conjunctions are often hyphenated.3. They can be open / spaced (mainly nouns & combinations of longer words): e.g.

distance learning, player piano, a Sunday morning (walk), a greatly improved (scheme), to hand wash

The form of the compounds often depends on the writer: e.g. container ship / container-ship / containership.

WHICH MORPHEMES COMBINE IN ENGLISH?

MODIFIERMODIFIER HEADHEAD COMPOUNDCOMPOUND

NOUNNOUN NOUNNOUN FOOTBALLFOOTBALL

ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE NOUNNOUN BLACKBOARDBLACKBOARD

VERBVERB NOUNNOUN BREAKWATERBREAKWATER

PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION NOUNNOUN UNDERWORLDUNDERWORLD

NOUNNOUN ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE SNOW-WHITESNOW-WHITE

ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE BLUE-GREENBLUE-GREEN

VERBVERB ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE TUMBLEDOWNTUMBLEDOWN

PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE OVERRIPEOVERRIPE

NOUNNOUN VERBVERB BROWBEAT BROWBEAT ((αποπαίρνω)αποπαίρνω)

ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE VERBVERB HIGHLIGHTHIGHLIGHT

VERBVERB VERBVERB FREEZE-DRYFREEZE-DRY

PREPOSITION PREPOSITION VERBVERB UPGRADEUPGRADE

NOUNNOUN PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION LOVE-INLOVE-IN (πάρτι) (πάρτι)

ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION FORTHWITHFORTHWITH (αμέσως) (αμέσως)

VERBVERB PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION TAKEOUTTAKEOUT

PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION PREPOSITIONPREPOSITION WITHOUTWITHOUT

USE OF HYPHENS WITH ADJECTIVES AND VERBS

Small appliance industry: a small industry producing appliancesSmall-appliance industry: an industry producing small appliances

A hotly disputed subjectReally well accepted proposal

I held up a bank.

ANALYSABILITY (TRANSPARENCY) OF COMPOUND WORDS

Another way of classifying compound words is according to the semantic relationship of their components. Compound words can be endocentric or exocentric, that is the semantic head can either be part of the compound or not. 1. Endocentric compounds are either Descriptive or determinative compounds. With descriptive compounds the modifier limits the meaning of the head e.g.

a blackboard is a kind of board, a dark-green dress, a dress with a particular green colour.

With determinative compounds the modifier does not limit the meaning of the head, e.g.

a footstool is not a stool that looks like a foot but a stool for feet. CHEESECLOTH, DOORMAN

2. Exocentric compounds are e.g. a redhead who is not a kind of head but a person with red hair. Or a lionheart which is not a type of heart but a person with a heart like a

lion.

Exocentric compounds are usually adjectives and end in –ed, (e.g. two-legged man = a man with 2 legs) while endocentric ones end in -ing and –er /-or (e.g. a people-carrier = a thing that is a carrier of people).

REAL REAL COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

BOOK BOOK IMARINARY IMARINARY COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

HOMEHOME

RINGRING

SUITSUIT

HUMBLEHUMBLE

ANGRYANGRY

SCARLETSCARLET

SLEEPSLEEP

DINEDINE

DRINKDRINK

COOKCOOK

OVEROVER

AT AT

BYBY

REAL REAL COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

CROSSCROSS IMARINARY IMARINARY COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

UMBRELLAUMBRELLA

STREETSTREET

UGLYUGLY

NASTY NASTY

WALK WALK

OVER OVER

AT AT

BYBY

UNDERUNDER

REAL REAL COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

PLAYPLAY IMARINARY IMARINARY COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

GLASSGLASS

MUGMUG

PLATEPLATE

LOVELYLOVELY

BLUEBLUE

DRINKDRINK

WALK WALK

RUNRUN

ONON

WITHWITH

REAL REAL COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

OUTOUT IMARINARY IMARINARY COMPOUNDSCOMPOUNDS

FLOWERFLOWER

PAINTPAINT

COMPARATIVELYCOMPARATIVELY

HASTILYHASTILY

PAINTPAINT

RUNRUN

ONON

WITHWITH

UNDERUNDER

WRITING STORIES TO TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT COMPOUND WORDS

Writing a children's story requires:

A vivid imagination.

Good speech.

Enthusiastic creativity.

The ability to put yourself in the mind of a child.

How and where to start:

Brainstorm story ideas.

Develop your characters.

Make a story outline.

Create a problem / conflict.

Write the climax of the story.

BRAINSTORM STORY IDEAS

The story is perhaps the most important aspect of a good book. Consult some of your favourite books (children's or not) but do what is right for you.

Think of a simple event or conflict, such as a storm or getting all muddy or getting lost or feeling left out and trying to find a new home.

Get a list of things / beings together. It could be about a bee or a butterfly, a lonely bumble bee, or a lonely butterfly.

Find a simple setting that a child could understand. It could be fictional because children will most likely believe it.

Smaller children enjoy stories which play with words or a repeated phrase like, "No, no fat cat. Scat! Scat! Scat!" or “We’ll flatten this valley leckety-quick, house number three is made of brick”.

DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS

In order to have a good story, you need some interesting characters. Before you begin, make an outline of the characters and how they fit into the story. So think about:

Who is the main character of the story?

Is there more than one main characters?

Are the characters human, animal or fantasy or do they include elements of all three?

Introduce your characters and those with whom they come in contact.

Describe physical and personality traits of the characters and their surroundings. The personality of the main character should have mostly positive traits, such as bravery, intelligence, humor, beauty and so on.

Describe characters or places as well as you can, so the young reader may picture it the way you want him/her to. However, do not lose yourself in complicate descriptions, for it may confuse a child and distract him/her from the story itself.

Show the character's personality through speech and actions, but not with bland statements like "Sally is selfish". Try to differentiate between characters by having them react differently to the same situation.

Try not to give the characters long names. Do not give them similar names or even names starting with the same letter. This may confuse the child and make the story harder to follow.

You can have a child as your main character. It should be about the child or from the child's perspective. The child should be instrumental in working out the solution or solving the conflict.

MAKE A STORY OUTLINE & CREATE A PROBLEM / CONFLICT

Keep it nice and simple. You don't want to make your story too complex and difficult to follow, because younger children will quickly lose interest. So you need to have a general understanding of the beginning, middle and end of the story and of how the characters will interact and evolve.

A good story usually has some sort of conflict or obstacle that the main character has to resolve, after which everyone lives "happily ever after". This could be between two people, an internal conflict or one in which the main character overcomes an obstacle in the outside world.

The realm depicted in the story should be bright, colorful and optimistic; a story about a dark, evil world is certainly not a children's story. So AVOID:

1. Writing scary stories, even if they have a happy ending. Avoid even slightly scary overtones when writing for children 3-7.

2. War, which is not a good topic for a children's story. The readers may become worried that what happens in a war might happen to them.

STORY CLIMAX

Write the climax of the story, which will include the main character(s) coming face to face with the conflict.

Show how your character(s) resolves the problem and what happens next.

Any children's story must have a happy end; children don't like when their favourite characters end up badly. They usually feel sorry for them and are disappointed with the story as a whole.

Always end the story on a happy note (no tears).

STORY LANGUAGE

Avoid using slang words or inappropriate language / situations for younger readers. The writing should be of the best quality to encourage young readers to love their language and to want to read more.

Don't use too many difficult words. Keep in mind that a young audience may find it difficult to read a text written in formal language or one that contains too many complicated words. Go back to your work and make sure a child can at least understand what the story is about and the vocabulary that is used. If the child has to stop and ask "what's that word mean?" at every sentence, then you need to simplify (to some degree building vocabulary is good) and that's it.

Use some humor. We all have it. Focus on the 'silly' things that will have both the child and the adult reader laughing together.

Use made-up words and rhyme.

TIPS FOR STORIES FOR CHILDREN AGED 3-6 YEARS

Not too complex sentences explaining the motivation behind actions. Adventures. No Disappointment.

Getting lost and finding your way home. Fighting. Being brave in spite of fear. Learning to spell. Learning to add. Telling the truth. Thinking of others before yourself. Explaining how you feel. Telling parents if someone hurts you or makes you feel bad. How to resolve arguments (though they still need a lot of help at

this age, they can be introduced to healthy argument resolution, especially the idea of sharing and thinking about how others feel).

EXERCISE

Write a story for young children in which you use real and made-up compound words of all types (verbs, nouns, adjectives).

Points about writing a story that can help you include real and made-up compound words: The use of humour. The use of rhyme.

Making a list of things / beings together, eg. a lonely bumble bee. Describing physical and personality traits of the characters and

their surroundings. Playing with words or a repeated phrase.

LIST OF THINGS THAT CAN HELP YOU

List of compound words of the English language.

List of story / fairy tale characters known in the English speaking world.