Category: Vocabulary

The Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary (WILD) is organized into four components that facilitate children’s vocabulary learning in two ways: (a) learning new words for concepts the child already has, and (b) learning new concepts and new words that add new ways of organizing the child’s thinking.  During the crucial early years, this process changes children’s understanding of how meanings work — their concept of definition. WILD’s unique organization reflects the challenges involved in these changes and provides the resources a child needs to move among the new words and new concepts.  Each section of WILD focuses on a particular type of word and concept learning. The components of WILD–and the word learning focus for each of them–are the following:

1. PICTURE DICTIONARY: for word-object naming;
2. WORLD: for thematic relations among things in their usual environments;
3. COLLECTIONS: for topical relations (“loose categories”) and taxonomic categories;
4. BOOK: for an alphabetical organization of words, outside of their connections with the world.

Word learning and concept learning are linked together at the core of early learning and literacy. To learn a word, we need to know how and when the word is used. To learn a concept, we need to know why it is used in a particular way.  This how and why of word learning creates a relationship between word learning and the conceptual organization of thought.  And according to Tanya Kaefer and Susan B. Neuman, this relationship is bidirectional: “Increases in word learning lead to increases in taxonomic [conceptual] organization, which in turn leads to further increases in word learning. (Tanya Kaefer and Susan B. Neuman, “A Bidirectional Relationship between Concept Organization and word learning” in Child Development Research, (2013)).  WILD is designed to facilitate this bidirectional relationship by linking the different aspects of word learning and conceptual organization.

The first phase of word learning involves naming things — the word-object naming relation. In this process, the first learning challenge is to distinguish between proper names and categories — between this animal’s name (“Fido” or “Rover”) and “dog”. “Fido” is a particular individual; but the child learns that while Fido is a dog, the word “dog” includes other individuals.  In the Picture Dictionary section, WILD provides multiple images without context to facilitate this process of learning the word “dog.” (The WILD entry for “dog” has 5 images.)

The second phase of vocabulary learning involves thematic relations. In thematic learning, children begin to recognize the associations between objects and the places — settings and situations — in which they are found.  Thematic relations provide important information about associations in the real world — things that typically go together.  The second section of WILD is the WORLD, with multiple settings and situations and the objects that are typically found in those settings.  Each WILD dictionary entry shows the places in WORLD a child will find an object.

The third phase of vocabulary learning involves learning categories. In WILD, the section called COLLECTIONS contains lists of words that identify both “loose categories” or topical relations and  “taxonomic categories” or categorical relations.   The loosely connected categories — such as “Things people do”, “Indoor Activities” or “Baseball words” — are categories in which the boundaries aren’t strictly or logically defined.  Taxonomic categories are also introduced.  In this phase, children are introduced to the power of classification with abstract concepts.  Logical relations such as “Kinds of” something and “Parts of” something are introduced.  The dictionary entry for each word shows a list of the different collections a word appears in.

And finally, the BOOK section presents an alphabetical organization of words, outside their connections with the world.  The alphabet — letters and their sounds — are a key to learning the abstract process of pronouncing a string of letters in reading, before you have heard the word pronounced. In WILD and our other online dictionaries, there is an audio pronunciation to listen to, as well as three different text pronunciation systems — ways of transcribing the sound of a word.

The task of academic literacy is to help the child navigate among these ways of understanding meaning — these different versions of the “concept of definition.”  The task is not merely to learn how to use abstract meanings in grammatically correct sentences, but also to learn how words and abstract concepts emerge from and relate to the real world.  In WILD the child can begin in the concrete world of objects, and move gradually through different settings in the WORLD, to topical and taxonomic concepts in COLLECTIONS, culminating in the alphabetical presentation of the dictionary as a BOOK.

WILD Word Learner is a companion app to the Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary (WILD). This educational game app gives young learners the opportunity to learn close to 1000 carefully selected words from WILD.  These words are distributed over twelve kid-friendly topics and nearly 200 wordlists and make a delightful introduction to the world of English words.

In WILD Word Learner, children choose a topic and a wordlist and start off on a fun word-learning mission!

The WILD Word Learner app, based on the Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary, is designed to help young native speakers and non-native speakers (K to 2) build their vocabulary through engaging word games. WILD Word Learner 1 (Fly Your Kite) is the first app in the WILD Word Learner series. With this app, kids drag and drop icons to match a word’s sound with its picture. Future apps will focus on matching spelling to picture and sound to spelling.

Carefully selected words

Words chosen for the games are those most relevant to children’s everyday lives or to subjects children often study in school—things such as animals, land forms, types and parts of plants, foods, actions and activities, parts of the body, musical instruments, numbers, and shapes. In addition, the “Earth and Space” topic covers different planets in the solar system as well as named regions and geographical features of our Earth, such as its continents, major deserts, mountain ranges, and seas. In the “Language” topic, concepts described by prepositions and verbs are addressed. For fun as well as for enhanced understanding of the concepts involved, all words that are verbs or prepositions under this topic have animated illustrations.

Every word in the Word Learner game is paired with a charming and child-friendly illustration, and all words have human-voiced pronunciation. Simple definitions and example sentences from the Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary can also be accessed, at the child’s choosing, by clicking on the entry icon . This additional data makes the app a rich resource for the understanding of specific concepts as well as for the expansion of general knowledge. It also allows for greater adult-child interaction if the child needs or wishes to have the information read aloud by an adult. It can also serve as a source of simple and enjoyable reading practice and language-learning input.

Engaging game design with positive feedback

Based on the latest educational theory and research, the game app is designed so that young children can actively engage in their learning process. Kids can choose what they want to learn, which cultivates their motivation for further learning. Positive feedback at every interaction creates an encouraging learning environment that helps children persist with an activity even when they encounter difficulties.

The game’s audio instructions, which can be turned on or off, gently guide kids in their understanding of how the game functions. The instructions can be heard in three languages: English, Chinese, and Spanish.

Safe environment for kids

No log-in is required, and we do not collect any personal data through the app. However, we would like to encourage parents and educators to use our website, kids.wordsmyth.net/wild, to expand their children’s learning through exploration of our 4000-word dictionary for young children—the Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary (WILD). This interactive and highly engaging vocabulary learning resource includes all the data from the app and much, much more.

Having trouble making basic, essential concepts clear to your young students? WILD animations can help!

In addition to thousands of colorful static images created by our artists, the Wordsmyth Illustrated Learner’s Dictionary (WILD) offers animated illustrations for some of the most difficult words to explain and conceptualize.

Check out our animated prepositions and verbs!

WILD’s Language collection has animated illustrations for all of the most important English prepositions as well as for the most common action verbs. Each animation demonstrates the meaning of these types of words both clearly and entertainingly. Have fun taking a look!

The following is a small collection of terms that have been in the news in connection with the pandemic that is now affecting us all.  These terms can be confusing, and we hope this short glossary will help to clarify the meanings of these items and sort out the puzzling aspects.

coronavirus

A coronavirus is technically a type of virus.  The term does not refer specifically to the virus causing the current pandemic, although the term is being used in this way as a shorthand for the term “novel coronavirus,” the specific name of the virus we are dealing with now.  Viruses that have infected populations in the recent past such as SARS and MERS are also coronaviruses.  Coronaviruses are so-named because the outer perimeter of each round virus particle resembles a spiky crown similar in shape to the sun’s corona.  (“Corona” comes from a Latin word meaning “garland” or “crown.”)

novel coronavirus

The current virus that humans are grappling with is called the “novel coronavirus.”  The adjective “novel” differentiates this particular, NEW virus from previous coronaviruses.  Typical symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, shortness of breath, and loss of taste and smell.  The virus spreads very easily from person to person through droplets expelled into the air by a person who is infected.  If the droplets are breathed in by another person or taken into the nose, mouth, or eyes in some other way, this new person can become infected.  Currently there is no cure for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus and no vaccine to prevent people from becoming infected.  The majority of people who catch the virus may become ill but will recover on their own, similar to the way many people recover from the flu.  Hospital treatment for the disease focuses on helping patients with severe symptoms to survive while fighting the disease with their own immune systems.

Covid-19

The term Covid-19 (or “COVID-19”) refers to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. “Co” in Covid stands for “corona,” “vi” stands for “virus,” and “d” stands for “disease.” The number 19 refers to the year 2019, the year in which the initial outbreak of the disease occurred. 

respirator

In the current crisis, the term “respirator” refers to a type of face mask used to both protect the wearer from breathing in droplets of the virus expelled by someone with Covid-19 and to protect other people from catching the virus if the wearer is infected.  However, the term is most often used in connection with protecting doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel from the possibility of catching the virus from infected patients.  The term “respirator mask” is also used.

The word “respirator” has another meaning, which refers to a mechanical device.  This type of “respirator” is a machine that assists a patient with breathing.  In this sense, the word is similar to the word “ventilator.”  (See below.)  Currently, the term “respirator” seems to be used exclusively to refer to the protective face masks rather than breathing machines.  The term “ventilator” refers only to the mechanical device.

ventilator

A ventilator is a machine used in hospitals to help patients breathe.  Because the coronavirus can cause severe damage to the lungs, ventilators may be required to assist patients in breathing. 

intubation

“Intubation” refers to the process of inserting a tube through a patient’s mouth and into their upper respiratory tract so that they can be put on a ventilator.

PPE

PPE stands for “personal protective equipment.”  This is equipment that helps protect medical personnel from catching illnesses from patients.  Because the novel coronavirus spreads very easily from person to person, use of personal protective equipment is particularly critical at this time.  PPE typically includes face masks, gloves, goggles, and surgical gowns.  “Face shields” are also PPE.  These are clear plastic shields that extend from the forehead over the entire face.

epidemic

An epidemic is an outbreak of a disease wherein many individuals become infected over a wide area.

pandemic

A pandemic is a type of epidemic.  It is an epidemic that has spread to various parts of the world.  “Pan” is a word part that means “all.”  The term “Pan-American,” for example, refers to all the Americas—South America, North America, and Central America.  A “pantheon” is a temple dedicated to all the gods of a people.

community spread

During the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, the virus was being seen only in people who had visited other countries where there was an ongoing outbreak of the virus or in persons who had close contact with such people.  However, the virus quickly began to be seen in people who had not been overseas and who had not had close contact with such persons.  The original source of these new infections could not be discovered.  “Community spread” refers to the spread of a disease in a community where the source of the infection is not known.

asymptomatic

When a person is asymptomatic for Covid-19, they are carrying the coronavirus but they are not displaying any of the symptoms.  Although an asymptomatic person does not feel sick at all, they are capable of passing the disease on to other people.