VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

FOR DEVELOPING READERS

Presented by Kim, Eugene and Naz
WHY TEACH VOCABULARY?
 What is vocabulary?
 Knowledge of words
 Meaning of words  
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO TEACH
VOCABULARY?
1. ACADEMIC SUCCESS
 A. Manzo, V. Manz, M. Thomes. 2006
  Words make the learning process easier for children

  less vocabulary = less comprehension

  Researchers have found that:

 98% of human teaching and learning is meditated through
language.
 Words knowledge of primary school can predict students
reading and comprehension success in high school. (Cynthia
and Drew Johnson )
2. “THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE
POOR GET  POORER”
  Lehr, F.
3. PROBLEM SOLVING
 Marlow Ediger, 1999:
 Words influence self-talk
  Express feelings
  Think clearly  
4.  RAISE SELF-ESTEEM

 Increase academic
and social confidence
5. CAPTURE IDEAS AND MAKE THEM
REAL
 Talk
 Write

 Sing

 Invent
6. REFLECTS OUR FEELING AND VALUES
 Thoughts
 Wishes

 Beliefs

________________________________________
 Finally, researchers haven’t been able to find the upper
limit of human capacity to learn! 
 (Ediger, 1999)
WHAT’S THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY?
TEACHING STRATEGIES
 Children learn vocabulary in two main ways:
1) indirectly 2) through instruction

 How to facilitate indirect learning of vocabulary?

 Read Alouds & Reading
 Using same vocabulary words in different activities

 Conversation

 “Put that away”

 “Put the crayons back on the blue shelf in the art centre”

 Vocabulary by Instruction:
 Word walls
 Semantic Trees

 Vocabulary Visit
5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES
 Synonyms & antonyms
 Groups of 4-5
 Teacher writes word on board
 Teams write as many synonyms (and the antonym) as
possible in one minute—for table points

 Give A Clue
 Choose 2 students to compete at front of room
 Write secret word on board BEHIND them
 Rest of children give one word clues for that secret word
without giving away any part of the word
5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES CON…
 Mind Reader
 Children write 1-5 on paper / mini whiteboard
 Give 5 broad to narrowing clues for the word
 Children make a guess after each clue

 Word Scavenger Hunt

 Give a “hunting rule”– e.g. “un—” words
 Brainstorm together: unsafe, unlikely, undo
 They look for words in newspapers, textbooks, writing, signs,
corridors, books, wherever they can think of
 How many can they find in 10 minutes?
GAMES TO PURCHASE
 Blurt!
 Apples to Apples Junior

 Outburst Junior

 Taboo
ISSUES / CONCERNS
 Asselin, M. (2002):
When is a word learnt?

 Able to define the word

 Can recognize and use it in multiple contexts, and uses
knowledge of the word in combination with other types of
knowledge to construct meaning
ISSUES / CONCERNS
Biemiller, A. (2003):
How many new words should be learnt per day?
 9,000 root words acquired by the end of elementary years
 800-900 root words per year
 2.2 words per day from age 1 through 8 and ~2.4 words per day from
age 9 to 12

 Grade 2 in highest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~7,100 root words

 Acquiring 3+ root words per day since 1 years old
 Grade 2 lowest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~3,000 root words
 Acquiring ~1 root word a day
 Do not “catch up”

 3.5 or 4 root words per day to catch up with the average learner in 5-6

years
ISSUES / CONCERNS
Coyne, M. D., McCoach, D. B., Loftus, S., Zipoli, R., & Kapp, S. (2009):
How to best leverage scarce instructional time?

Teaching for Breadth: Embedded Vocabulary Instruction

 Goal: introduce students to as many new words as possible

+ time efficient- minimal instructional time/exposures

+ minimal disruption - students not actively engaged
+ meaningful and within context - limited to partial knowledge

Teaching for Depth: Extended Vocabulary Instruction

 Goal: help students develop sufficient depth of word knowledge to support
comprehension
+ maximum instructional time/ - time required
exposures
+ word consciousness/ - choosing which words to teach
metalinguistic awareness
ISSUES / CONCERNS
 Nation, P. (2003):
Deliberate, Decontextualized Vocabulary Learning:
- not readily transfer to communicative use
- small proportion of the vocabulary knowledge
- not in a communicative context does not result in much
learning and does not help later vocabulary use in
communicative contexts
 
+ conjunction with opportunities for learning through
communicative use will provide a rich and reasonably
intensive learning environment for a positive effect on
comprehension
ISSUES / CONCERNS
 Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (2004):
Is direct vocabulary instruction worthwhile?
Incidental Learning vs.Direct Instruction
 Story-only group (15 minutes)
 Story-plus study group (85 minutes)
ISSUES / CONCERNS
Scott, J. A., Jamieson-Noel, D., & Asselin, M. (2003):
How much time is actually spent in vocabulary
instruction?
ISSUES / CONCERNS
 Activities involving literacy occupy 51.5% of school time
 6% of school time was devoted to the development of
vocabulary in language arts; 8.8% if vocabulary instruction
taught in isolation is added
 1.4% was devoted to academic discipline-based vocabulary
in social studies, science, math, or art
 Most instruction involved mentioning and assigning rather
than actual teaching