{"id":1718,"date":"2020-10-29T22:01:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T21:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/blog\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2020-10-29T22:01:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T21:01:39","slug":"word-families-what-do-they-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/word-families-what-do-they-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Families: What Do They Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Word families have a base word in common, to which prefixes or suffixes have been added. Members of the <\/span>word family<\/b> based on the headword, base, stem, or root <\/span>word<\/b> work include rework, worker, working, workshop, and workmanship, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Benefits of a word family<\/b><\/h3>\n

Word families are important because they help young children recognize word patterns when they are learning to read. In teaching analytic phonics, a teacher uses word families to help children understand these patterns and the fact that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds.<\/span>
\nLet’s take the word family “all” or word family “ing” as an example. This allows students to learn simple spelling words such as “ball” or “calling.” However, this understanding can be built up when you consider how many other words belong to the word family “all” or word family “ing.” Starting with “ball,” students can progress to more difficult words such as install, and squall.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many word families are there in the English language?<\/b><\/h3>\n

There are about 100,000-word families in the English language. A native English speaker knows between 10,000 (uneducated) and 20,000 (educated) word families, and Professor Paul Nation found that a person must know 8,000 words to 9,000-word families to enjoy reading a book. Learners of traditional languages found that a person with a vocabulary of 2,500 passive and 2,000 active word families can speak a language fluently.<\/span>
\nAccording to the National Council of Teachers of English, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck, ug, ump, unk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are word families phonics?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Effective phonics and word recognition<\/a> instruction builds steadily on children\u2019s understanding and use of both spoken and written language, and includes the following elements:<\/span><\/p>\n