Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition and Teaching

Studies have shown that verb particles are especially difficult and care should be taken to properly teach students. This can be done through direct instruction. This summary features two articles: one about why verb particles and prepositions are difficult to acquire for language-impaired children, and a summary of how direct instruction can be an effective method of teaching both verb particles and prepositions.

Verb particles are a verb and a particle combined that take on meaning (work out, bring up), while prepositions are words paired with a noun or pronoun to show time, location, or direction (at, in). The most common particle and preposition words are in, on, off, down, up, over, and out.

Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition in Language-Impaired Preschoolers

Verb particles and prepositions prove to be especially difficult for language-impaired children to master. Previous studies have shown that language-impaired children struggle with both prepositions and verb particles. However, this study found that it is particularly verb particles that prove difficult for language-impaired students to grasp, and extra attention should be paid to verb particles when teaching students, especially those that are language-impaired.

In this study, the language-impaired and language-matched children performed about the same when it came to prepositions, while language-impaired children struggled significantly with verb particles. The difficulty with verb particles is that a verb particle is combined with another word to form meaning and they function differently with noun and pronoun phrases, while prepositions are independent of the verb.¹

Some reasons why verb particles may be difficult to master are a combination of factors such as verb mastery, difficulty with distributional analysis, and weak processing skills. A lot of language acquisition happens naturally over time through repetition.

• References

  1. Watkins, Ruth V. and Mabel L. Rice, “Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition in Language-Impaired Preschoolers,” Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 34, no. 5 (1991): 1138 , https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3405.1130.

Using Direct Instruction: Teaching Preposition Use to Students With Intellectual Disability

Understanding prepositions is a critical part of language comprehension. Children developing typically start comprehending and acquiring prepositions use naturally, while those children with intellectual disability (ID) do not acquire these skills incidentally and require a much more direct approach.  Direct instruction is a systematic teaching method that is directed by the instructor at the student and can be a great way to teach language to students with intellectual disabilities.

The direct instruction method used in this study revolved around using common school items to demonstrate correct locative preposition use. The instructor would select familiar items like pencils, folders, pens, etc. The instructor would then give both examples and nonexamples using locative prepositions relative to a reference point, such as a table (the pencil is on the table, the pencil is not on the table).

Correct answers were verbally affirmed and reinforced. Incorrect answers were corrected through modeling by the instructor. Later on, reinforcers, or highly-favored items, were used to see if the students could request their desired item using the locative prepositions they just learned. Reinforcers could be food or toys that are preferred by the child. For example, a child would have to request their favorite toy by asking for it based on its location. To maintain the prepositions they learned the students would be retested on the learned prepositions every few days.

The study found that this method of direct instruction was beneficial for both expressive and receptive use of prepositions for students with ID.¹ Another great result of this method was that the students were able to maintain their use of prepositions for up to 8 weeks, which is usually difficult for many students with ID.²

Much success was found with a scripted lesson plan that encouraged repetition and frequent student engagement which allowed for language acquisition.³ Since this method was applied to students between the ages of 7 and 10, it is recommended that this method be started earlier to help students build the foundation for proper language development.⁴ Finally, direct instruction is also a beneifical method to use for teaching verb particles as well.

• References

  1. Hicks, Christy S., et al., “Using Direct Instruction: Teaching Preposition Use to Students With Intellectual Disability,” Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 46, no. 3 (2015): 200, https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_LSHSS-14-0088.

  2. Hicks et al., “Using Direct Instruction,” 201.

  3. Ibid, 205

  4. Ibid, 204.