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VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION FOR
DEVELOPING READERS
Presented by Kim, Eugene and Naz
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WHYTEACHVOCABULARY?
What is vocabulary?
y Knowledge of words
y Meaning of words
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WHY ITS IMPORTANT TO TEACH
VOCABULARY?
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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:
y 98% of human teaching and learning is meditated
through language.
y
Words knowledge of primary school can predictstudents reading and comprehension success in high
school. (Cynthia and Drew Johnson )
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2. THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR
GET POORER
Lehr, F.
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3. PROBLEM SOLVING
Marlow Ediger, 1999:
y Words influence self-talk
y Express feelings
y
Think clearly
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4. RAISE SELF-ESTEEM
Increase academic
and social confidence
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5.CAPTURE IDEAS AND MAKE THEM REAL
Talk
Write
Sing
Invent
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6. REFLECTS OUR FEELING AND VALUES
Thoughts
Wishes
Beliefs
________________________________________
Finally, researchers havent been able to find the
upper limit of human capacity to learn!
y (Ediger, 1999)
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WHATS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY?
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TEACHING STRATEGIES
Children learn vocabulary in two main ways:
1) indirectly 2) through instruction
y
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
y Vocabulary by Instruction: Word walls
Semantic Trees
Vocabulary Visit
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5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES
Synonyms & antonyms
y Groups of4-5
y Teacher writes word on board
y
Teams write as many synonyms (and the antonym)as possible in one minutefor table points
Give A Clue
y Choose 2 students to compete at front of room
y Write secret word on board BEHIND them
y Rest of children give one word clues for that secret
word without giving away any part of the word
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5-10 MINUTE WORD GAMES CON
Mind Reader
y Children write 1-5 on paper / mini whiteboard
y Give 5 broad to narrowing clues for the word
y
Children make a guess after each clue
Word Scavenger Hunt
y Give a hunting rule e.g. un words
y
Brainstorm together: unsafe, unlikely, undoy They look for words innewspapers, textbooks,
writing, signs, corridors, books, wherever they can
think of
y How many can they find in10 minutes?
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GAMES TO PURCHASE
Blurt!
Apples to Apples Junior
Outburst Junior
Taboo
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
Asselin, M. (2002):
When is a word learnt?
y Able to define the word
y Can recognize and use it in multiple contexts, and
uses knowledge of the word in combination with
other types of knowledge to construct meaning
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
Biemiller, A. (2003):
How many new words should be learnt per day?
y 9,000 root words acquired by the end of elementary years
y 800-900 root words per year
y 2.2 words per day from age 1 through 8 and ~2.4 words perday from age 9 to 12
y Grade 2 in highest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~7,100root words
Acquiring 3+ root words per day since 1 years old
y Grade 2 lowest quartile had a vocabulary size: ~3,000 rootwords
Acquiring ~1 root word a day
Do not catch up
3.5 or 4 root words per day to catch up with the averagelearner in5-6 years
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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
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
Nation, P. (2003):
Deliberate, Decontextualized VocabularyLearning:
- not readily transfer to communicative use
- small proportion of the vocabulary knowledge
- not in a communicative context does not resultin much learning and does not help latervocabulary use in communicative contexts
+ conjunction with opportunities for learningthrough communicative use will provide a richand reasonably intensive learning environmentfor a positive effect on comprehension
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
Mason, B., & Krashen, S. (2004):
Is direct vocabulary instruction worthwhile?
Incidental Learning vs.Direct Instruction
y Story-only group (15 minutes)y Story-plus study group (85 minutes)
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
Scott, J. A., Jamieson-Noel, D., & Asselin, M.
(2003):
How much time is actually spent in vocabulary
instruction?
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ISSUES / CONCERNS
y Activities involving literacy occupy 51.5% of school
time
y 6% of school time was devoted to the development of
vocabulary in language arts; 8.8% if vocabulary
instruction taught in isolation is addedy 1.4% was devoted to academic discipline-based
vocabulary in social studies, science, math, or art
y Most instruction involved mentioning and assigning
rather than actual teaching