Download nmsa vocab - Chester School District

Vocabulary Teaching and
Learning Across Disciplines
National Middle School Association
Research Summary
Word Knowledge
• Word knowledge is important for learning.
• Word knowledge is complex.
• Metacognition is an important aspect of vocabulary learning.
• Effective vocabulary instruction moves beyond the definitional
level of word meanings.
• Vocabulary learning occurs implicitly in classrooms across
disciplines.
• Vocabulary learning occurs through direct instruction.
Vocabulary
Knowledge
• Vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading
comprehension.
• Research indicates a strong, positive, reciprocal relationship
between word knowledge and reading comprehension.
• The more words students know, the more they are likely to learn
new words easily.
• Students with limited vocabularies tend to read less; therefore,
they have fewer exposures to new words in running texts.
• A tremendous difference in word knowledge exists among
students.
Word Knowledge
is Complex
• Word learning is incremental (Atom- general vs. technical meanings).
• Word knowledge includes the presence of polysemous or multiple
meanings.
• There are different types of knowledge involved in knowing a word:
•
•
•
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The use of words in oral and written language.
Correct grammar usage of words (syntactical knowledge).
Semantic understanding such as appropriate synonyms and antonyms.
Morphological understandings involving correct usage of prefixes and suffixes.
Word Knowledge
is Complex
• Learning a word is inextricably related to knowledge of other
related words. We learn word meanings in relation to other
words and concepts.
• Sixty percent of words encountered in academic texts can be
taught morphologically.
• In an analysis of social studies textbooks, a study found that
approximately 71 percent of the glossary terms contained affixes
and roots that could be directly taught.
Metacognition is an Important
Aspect of Vocabulary Learning
• Word awareness is a critical aspect of a comprehensive vocabulary
program and consists of two components:
• Developing word consciousness.
• The acquisition of sufficient word learning strategies.
• A study found that 6th-9th grade students who read for roughly 20
mins. per day will read almost one million words in an academic
school year. Of those words, 3,000 to 4,000 are unfamiliar.
Therefore, students need to acquire strategies to figure out word
meanings by themselves.
• Two major word learning strategies are:
• The use of context clues.
• The use of morphology clues.
Using the Dictionary
• The use of a dictionary for word learning is an independent
strategy.
• However, researchers have found that using dictionary definitions
as an instructional technique is a limiting practice because
definitions provide a superficial level of word knowledge. For
example:
– One student wrote, “I was meticulous about falling off the cliff ” after
reading the following dictionary definition of meticulous: “very careful or
too particular about small details”. The student focused on the phrase
“very careful” for writing the sentence.
Vocabulary Learning
• Vocabulary learning occurs in language arts classrooms and
content area classrooms, especially with regard to incidental word
learning through context. Studies have shown that upper-grade
students across ability levels can acquire vocabulary incidentally
through reading and listening.
• A study found that middle level and secondary readers acquire
partial understanding of approximately 15 percent of the
unfamiliar words they encounter by reading.
• Studies show a correlation between the amount of time students
spent reading and their achievement scores on standardized
tests. Students with scores at the 98th percentile read
approximately 5 million words per year, while students scoring at
the 50th percentile read approximately 600,000 words per year.
Direct Instruction
• Effective vocabulary instruction places an emphasis on the semantic
relationship among words. Direct instruction activities such as
presenting words in semantic categories, using words in meaningful
sentences, and applying words in new contexts are more valuable
modalities than employing the word definition strategy.
• Studies concluded that both word learning and comprehension were
positively impacted by instruction that:
– Focused on semantic relatedness of words
– Highlighted words central to passage understanding
– Provided students with frequent, meaningful encounters with the words.
• There are other studies on vocabulary instruction that focus on
specific techniques for supporting word learning with young
adolescents. For example, the keyword method, a mnemonic device,
has a solid research base documenting its effectiveness for helping
students remember word meanings.