A Context Driven
Approach to Teaching
Academic Vocabulary
Sarah Robinson, PhD, CCC-SLP
University of North Dakota
Sarah.robinson@und.edu
Goals of today’s talk
Participants will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
explain the importance of vocabulary in reading
comprehension.
state why it is important to explicitly teach vocabulary.
identify target vocabulary words to teach (Tier 2, academic).
use a three-step vocabulary strategy to teach academic
vocabulary.
Reading comprehension
• What is reading?
• What is the SLP’s role in reading?
• Simple View of Reading
(Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990)
Do we need to target reading?
Reading comprehension on the
SATs
• According to the 2013 SAT Total Group Profile Report, the
national reading average is down 34 points since 1972,
whereas math scores currently stand five points above the
1972 national average. (College Board, 2013)
How to target reading
comprehension?
Using context
Bleak darkness was blacking out the sea and jungle when
Rainsford sighted the lights. He came upon them as he turned a
crook in the coast line; and his first thought was that he had
come upon a (1) skanaslok, for there were many lights. But as he
forged along he saw to his great 2) herskimadoo that all the
lights were in one enormous building--a 3) goonle structure with
pointed towers plunging upward into the 4) nackwalm. His eyes
made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial 5) kicknspur; it was
set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to
where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows.
"Mirage," thought Rainsford. But it was no 6) tingpert, he found,
when he opened the tall spiked iron gate. The stone steps were
real enough; the massive door with a leering 7) hankshank for a
knocker was real enough; yet above it all hung an air of 8)
hooshslendoo.
NAEP: Preliminary results of new
data
2012 Congress
Vocabulary instruction
1. What words should we teach?
2. How to teach them?
Tiered vocabulary
Tier Three
Low frequency, specialized
words that may appear in
specific fields or content areas
Tier Two
Frequently occurring words that
are central to comprehension
Tier One
Basic words that appear in most children’s
vocabulary
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002)
More on tiered vocabulary
Tier 3
• Mitosis, integer, cardiovascular, isthmus
• Learned through the learning of academic
concepts
Tier 2
• Derive, alternate, contribute, contrast, generate
• Most need deliberate instruction
Tier 1
• Zebra, spoon, hot, scared, hungry, book
• Generally acquire through natural exposure
Not all tier 2 words are created
equally…..
Academic words
Tier 2
words
But…..
Not all Tier 2 words
academic words
What are academic words?
Typically broken into two categories:
1. General
• Used in academic language with greater frequency than nonacademic words
• Used across disciplines
• Tend to be abstract
2. Discipline Specific
• Words that are typically unique to a particular discipline
• Tier III words
(Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008)
What are academic words?
Words that occur frequently across a variety of academic
materials
Two primary lists:
1. Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000)
• 570 words
• Drawn from a 3.5 million word corpus
• Represents academic journals, textbooks, chapters of books and
laboratory manuals
2. General Service List (West, 1953)
New General Service List (Culligan & Browne, 2013)
• 2,000 words drawn from 2.5 million word corpus
• 963 drawn from a 288 million word corpus
• Represents academic journals, textbooks, non-fiction text,
student essays and academic discourse
New General Service List
abdominal
absorb
absorption
accelerate
acceleration
accent
accumulate
accumulation
accuracy
accurately
acid
acidic
activate
actively
acute
adaptation
adaptive
adjacent
Academic Word List
abandon
abstract
academy
access
accommodate
accompany
accumulate
accurate
achieve
acknowledge
acquire
adapt
adequate
adjacent
adjust
administrate
adult
advocate
Academic Word List (AWL)
• More than 80% of the words on the AWL are of Greek or
Latin origin
Sublists of the AWL
concept
conception
concepts
conceptual
conceptualization
conceptualize
conceptualized
conceptualizes
conceptualizng
conceptually
Academic words resources
• http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/a
wl-headwords/Headwords-of-the-Academic-Word-List.pdf
• http://www.newacademicwordlist.org/
Research with English
Language Learners
• 37 middle-school students, randomly assigned to two
intervention groups
• Intervention lasted for 75 minutes, 4 times per week
• Experimental group received vocabulary instruction using the
AWL
• Results indicated growth in academic vocabulary and scores
predicted a student’s readiness for mainstream academic
subject classrooms
(Townsend, D. & Collins, P., 2009)
Research with English
Language Learners
•
•
•
•
•
6th grade students n=476 (high population of ELL or LM, n=346)
18-week program, 2 week cycle with a week of review
8-9 AWL words targeted per cycle
45 minutes of instruction, 4 days per week
Experimental group vs. control grou
• Gains in experimenter designed multiple choice test
• Showed gains in Gates-MacGinitie reading comprehension test
• Equivalent to 8-9 months of typical growth
(Lesaux et al., 2010)
Middle School AWL
• Middle school students n=697
• Word generation program
• 24 week program, targeting 5 words per week
• Across all subject areas
• Words introduced through novel texts
• Pre-and post-test on 40 targeted words
• Results suggest a 2 year gain in vocabulary abilities
• Ongoing study – longitudinal data to be reported
(Snow et al., 2009)
Report of the National Reading
Panel
The need in vocabulary instruction research is
great. Existing knowledge of vocabulary acquisition
exceeds current knowledge of pedagogy. That is, a
great deal is known about the ways in which
vocabulary increases under highly controlled
conditions, but much less is known about the ways
in which such growth can be fostered in
instructional contexts. There is a great need for the
conduct of research on these topics in authentic
school contexts, with real teachers, under real
conditions. National Reading Panel (2000)
Many researchers conclude that instruction
on academic vocabulary in K-12 classrooms
fail to reach the quality and intensity
necessary for students to demonstrate
knowledge of learned words.
(Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Biemiller, 2006; Gersten, Dimimo,
Jayanthi, Kim & Santoro, 2010; McKeown, Beck, Omanson & Pople,
1985; Scott, Jamieson-Noel, & Asselin, 2003; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986)
Research on vocabulary
instruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
Teach within context
Explicit is more effective than implicit
Promote depth of processing
Provide multiple encounters with target
words
(Beck et al., 2002; Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000; Graves, 2006; Stahl &
Fairbanks, 1986)
Vocabulary instruction
• 72 teachers and reading specialists were polled
• Main concerns:
• How can we develop a consistent approach to
vocabulary learning in my building/district?
(n=28)
• What are the best strategies/activities for
vocabulary teaching? (n=17)
(Berne & Blachowicz, 2008)
Teaching through reading
program
How to teach academic
vocabulary
1. Research-based
• Compare practices of good readers/poor readers
• Comprehension monitoring
• Using context
• Generalizing beyond context
2. Practical
• Simple and efficient for teachers to implement
Word learning process
1. Triggering
• when a sounds sequence (word) is encountered, existing
representations will be activated
• lexical match or new word
2. Lexical configuration
• sound sequence is stored with the referent
3. Lexical engagement
• Memory consolidation linked to episodic memory
(Leach & Samuel, 2007; Storkel & Lee, 2011)
The Strategy
1. Comprehension
monitoring
• Teach kids to
evaluate whether or
not they know
words
2. Apply vocabulary
knowledge scale
(VKS)
• 1: I have no idea
what this word
means.
• 2: I think I’ve heard
this word before.
• 3: I think this word
means……
• 4: I can tell you the
definition of this
word
3. Word web
• Creating context,
making connections,
generalizing
Pilot year in the district
• Asked teachers to try the strategy
• Collected feedback
• Time
• Books
• Practicality
Pilot kindergarten study
• 2 classrooms
• Materials (books) were the same
• Targeted the same 12 words over 15 weeks
• One used the 3 step strategy, other relied on context alone
• Pre- and post-testing using the ZOT
Results
Targeted words
Control words
estimate
inspect
similar
dismay
expert
convince
inspire
approach
exchange
outcome
emerge
anticipate
detect
concentrate*
realize
cycle
investigate
indicate
enormous
require
challenge
create
consult
unique*
Results
Results
Results
Future direction
1. Replicate with greater number of students across several
grades
2. Incorporate into broader language arts curriculum
3. Measure impact on reading comprehension
4. Determine additional level of intervention necessary for
students with language-based learning disabilities