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Enhancing the Tier 2
Vocabulary Development of
English Language Learners
An Action Research Study by Kenneth McKee
Word Tiers
Tier 1
(everday speech words)
Tier 2
(general academic vocabulary)
Tier 3
(domain-specific vocabulary)
Basic words that require little to no instruction.
Precise or sophisticated words that appear across domains.
Low-frequency words that appear in specific domains.
Book, girl, sad, run, etc.
Adjust, translation, depend, structure, etc.
Allegory, monarchy, hypotenuse, mitosis, etc.
Tier 2
Knowledge
Why focus on General Academic (Tier 2)
vocabulary?
Students who lack extensive knowledge of general academic
vocabulary are at a serious disadvantage in academic
environments (Baumann & Graves, 2010; Coxhead, 2000).
General academic vocabulary is most commonly an academic
barrier for English Language Learners (ELL’s) and economically
disadvantaged native English speakers (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2010).
Generative Morphology
Prefixes
Suffixes
Roots
Students generate“known” words to link to“new”words.
Cognates
There are positive correlations between students’ comprehension in English texts
and their ability to recognize cognate relationships.
There are negative correlations for students who do not recognize cognate
relationships.
(Nagy et al., 1993)
Participants
Six high school students, whose first language is Spanish, taking an
ESL course
Research Questions
Does morphological knowledge assist students in unlocking the
meanings of general academic vocabulary?
Which instructional strategies best develop students’ general
academic word knowledge?
What impact does accessing student background knowledge of
words have upon new word learning?
Innovation
Students will read a short, engaging text.
One or two Tier 2 words that are essential to comprehending the text will be selected for
vocabulary instruction. These words will be introduced before reading the text (Kelley,
Lesaux, Kieffer, & Faller, 2010), and I will give explicit instruction on the meanings of
morphemes within the words.
Students will work in groups to generate all the words they already know (including
Spanish cognates) that share morphemes and meaning with the target morpheme
(Flanigan, Templeton, & Hayes, 2012; Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008). These words will be
captured on morpheme web charts will be displayed.
Each lesson will ask the students to use the words in some way (talking or writing) as a
closure activity to the lesson (Kelley et al., 2010).
Let’s try it.
…Reading is more difficult than other more concrete concepts because readers have to
demonstrate a grasp of several components at once. What so many students do implicitly
when reading strategically, many others do not. We need to more explicitly explain the
reading process and use prompts that encourage students to self-monitor, reflect, and make
decisions. (Zuerblis, 2014)
Here is our word:
components
Com, con, co, col
=
“with; together”
Pon; pos
=
“put, place”
Word-Generation
Data Collection and Analysis
Quantitative
Adapted vocabulary knowledge rating pretest and posttest
Student attitude surveys
Qualitative
Ongoing interviews with the regular classroom teacher
Researcher journal
Student work and photographs of instructional practice
Timeline
July-August: Determine area of focus, conduct literature review, develop action plan, begin researcher journal.
August-October: Meet students and learn more about their individual literacy needs using WIDA and Access testing results, develop data collection instruments, choose texts for lessons determining the general academic vocabulary of focus, develop vocabulary lessons.
October-December – Administer pretests, teach lessons, complete researcher journal, conduct ongoing teacher interviews, formatively assess progress and make adjustments, conduct posttests.
January-February – analyze and interpret data, develop professional development
March –April: Write up findings in article, create suggested action plan, present study, findings, and instructional approaches at the NC Reading Association conference.
April-June: Disseminate findings, create Homebase PD module.
References
Baumann, J. F., & Graves, M. F. (2010). What is academic vocabulary? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 4-12. doi:1598/JAAL.54.1.1
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238. doi:10.2307/3587951
Flanigan, K., Templeton, S., & Hayes, L. (2012). What’s in a word? Using content vocabulary to generate growth in general academic vocabulary knowledge. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(2), 132-140. doi:10.1002/JAAL.00114
Hiebert, E. H., & Lubliner, S. (2008). The nature, learning, and instruction of general academic vocabulary. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.). What research has to say about vocabulary instruction (p. 150-181). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Kelley, J. G., Lesaux, N. K., Kieffer, M. J., & Faller, S. E. (2010). Effective academic vocabulary instruction in the urban middle school. The Reading Teacher, 64(1), 5-14. doi:10.1598/RT.64.1.1
References
Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2010). Morphing into adolescents: Active word learning for
English language learners and their classmates in middle school. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 47-56. doi:1598/JAAL.54.1.5
Nagy, W. E., Garcia, G. E., Durgunoglu, A. Y., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1993). Spanish-English
bilingual students’ use of cognates in English reading. Journal of Reading Behavior,
25(3), 241-259.
Zuerblis, N. (2014, September 19). Four ways to foster independent readers and writers
[Web log post]. Retrieved from http://inservice.ascd.org/education-resources/four-
ways-to-foster-independent-readers-and-writers-2/
Zwiers, J. (2008). Building academic language: Essential practices for content teachers,
grades 5-12. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.