EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE FOR VOCABULARY INTERVENTION …metrospeechlanguagenetwork.org/Docs/Symp_2008Docs/EBP for Voca… · Evidence-Based Practice for Vocabulary Intervention Judy

Evidence-Based Practice for VocabularyIntervention

Judy K. Montgomery, PhD CCC-SLP22nd Annual SLP Symposium Denver

January 26, 2008

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EVIDENCE-BASEDPRACTICE FORVOCABULARYINTERVENTION

Judy K. Montgomery, Ph.D. CCC-SLPChapman University Orange, CAEmail: [email protected]

Abstract

Limited vocabulary is a hallmarkof language learning disability and aserious obstacle to critical literacy skills.Since vocabulary is learned first indirectly,then directly, students may have a smallnumber of words at their disposal due to adisability- or due to a lack of instruction.RTI is used to make that determination.

Purposes

Demonstrate and rehearse evidence-basedpractices (EBP) and correspondingvocabulary interventions linked to statestandards.

Use strategies for tieredinstruction/intervention-- general ed orspecial ed-- for PreK through high school.



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Overview of session

I. Importance of vocabularyII. How children learn vocabularyIII. Given these conditions- many schools

are providing vocabulary interventionswithin RTI models.

IV. Samples of EBP for vocabulary in thethree tiers and special education.

Vocabulary is

• the words we use to communicate• “ready access to lexical items” (Gallagher, 2004)

• gained from experience with extendeddiscourse

• transferred from oral to written language

Vocabulary development

• Begins early in life• Is a marker of

intellect as well aslanguage skills

• Launches turn-taking,or the language“dance”

(Risley, 2006)



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Vocabulary also…

• Plays a critical part in learning to read• Helps students make sense of the words

they see by comparing them to the wordsthey have heard

• Is one of the 5 building blocks of reading• Can be divided into four types

Four types of vocabulary

Listening Speaking Reading Writing

Teaching Students to Read

• Phonemic awareness• Phonics• Fluency• Vocabulary• Text comprehension

National Reading Panel, 2001



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Vocabulary Demands onStudents are Daunting

• 450,000 words inEnglish- largestvocabulary oflanguages in use today

• Students must learn3,000 words per yearby 3rd grade.

• Only 400 words ayear are directlytaught by teachers.

• Academic demandsare high

• However, everydayspeech consists ofonly 5,000- 7,000words.

• Conversation cannotmake up thedifference

(Frey & Fisher, 2007).

Vocabulary

• Typical children beginfirst grade with a 6,000word spoken vocabulary

• Learn 36,000 more wordsby 12 th grade

• Learn 5 words a day• Still need 55,000 words

for printed school English(Chall, 87; Gunning, 04)

State Standards in Vocabulary

• SLPs must tie theirsemantic (vocabulary)interventions toacademicperformance and corecurriculum (statestandards).

•There are standards invocabulary acquisitionat every grade level inevery state.

•Vocabulary is a goodchoice for school-based interventions.



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The Myth of Age orGrade Level Vocabulary

• Students do not learnvocabulary wordsbased on their age ortheir grade.

• They learn wordsbased on theirexperiences.

(Beck, et al, 2002)The Good News? You can neverselect the wrong words to teach.

Bringing Words to Life

• Book by Beck,McKeown, andKucan (2002).

• Presents 3 types ofvocabulary (tiers).

• 1- basic vocabulary• 2- highly functional• 3- subject related

What does research tell us?

• Most vocabulary islearned indirectly

• Some vocabularymust be taught directly

• Poor vocabulary is ahallmark of language,literacy, and cognitivedisabilities



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How Children Learn Vocabulary

• First indirectly:– Conversations with adults– Listening to stories read by adults– Reading extensively on their own

– We call it “picking up words” (Pence & Justice, 2008)

How Children Learn Vocabulary

• Next, directly:– Word consciousness– Word learning strategies– Repetition and review– Direct instruction

Students may fail to expand theirvocabulary because:

• Poor retention (memory) skills• Less instruction overall• Little enthusiasm for word consciousness• Difficulty applying word learning strategies

Why…• Language/learning disabilities?• Poor instruction?



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Given these conditions, schoolsprovide intervention within RTI

• Tier 1- SBRR in core curriculum• Tier 2- SBRR in strategic interventions• Tier 3- SBRR in intensive explicit interventions• Special education

According to NCLB (2001)and IDEA (2004)…

• SLPs may provide assistance to students in allthree tiers, PLUS their more conventional rolewithin special education.

• The purpose of RTI is to prevent un-necessaryidentification of special education.

• Vocabulary impairments may be due to learners’specific language disabilities OR due to lack ofinstruction.

RTI will help to determine…

• If students respond to intervention

• High Responders (due to lack of instruction)Solution: Provide more instruction

• Low Responders (due to a disability).Solution: Provide special ed services



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Children learn word meaningsindirectly in three ways:

• Daily conversationsand oral languageexperience withadults and otherchildren

• Listening to adultsread to them

• Reading extensivelyon their own

Students with special needs, or at risk, oftendo not learn words indirectly because:

• They don’t engage inconversation as often

• They don’t alert to newor interesting words

• They often don’t listencarefully when read to

• They usually don’t readon their own

Who has difficulty withvocabulary?

• Students withcommunication disorders

• Students with cognitivechallenges

• Students with hearingloss

• Students in specialeducation classrooms

• English learners



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All of these students need directinstruction in vocabulary

• Direct instruction/intervention includes:

• Specific word instruction• Word learning strategies• Intensive work• Repetitions• Active engagement

Examples of Evidence-basedPractice in Vocabulary

Intervention in the 3 Tiers,including Special Education

Strategy

These interventions will:

• Include all fourvocabulary types

• Combine print andspeech supports

• Need to be modifiedfor grades and ages

• Require manyrepetitions to besuccessful



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Tier 1- Reinforce CoreCurriculum

• Act It Out (BOV,2007)

• Word Stories(Smith, 2004)

• Loop Writer(www.curriculumproject.com/loopwriter.htm)

Tier 1

WhichInterventions?

Tier 1- EBP Statements

• Semantic developmentrequires 3 significanttasks for the learner-acquiring a 60,000 wordmental lexicon frominfancy to adulthood;learning new wordsrapidly; organizing thisinto an efficient semanticnetwork (Pence & Justice,2008).

• Word understandings arefacilitated in three ways-easy or hard concepts;common or rare soundsequences; degree ofcontextual information(Pence & Justice, 2008).

• Parents of advancedchildren have heard anaverage of 30,000 wordsa day by the age of 3 (Hart& Risley, 1995).

The Bridge of VocabularyJudy K. Montgomery

AGS/Pearsonwww.agspearson.com



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Strategy

• Children’s academic success at age 10is attributable to the amount of talkthey hear from birth to age 3.

• Parents of advanced children talksignificantly more to their childrenthan parents of less advanced children.

• IQ scores and language abilities areenhanced when parents speak to theirchildren often.

Hart & Risley Study, 1995

By Age 3- Average children hear33 million words

• Some hear less than 10 millionwords

• Have practiced 8 million• Not dependent on parenting

style or SES• Amount of family talk is

closely correlated with IQscores at age 3 (r =.77)

• What’s important? TALKMORE TO BABIES.



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Babies need to hear 30,000words a day!

• How to do it?• First business talk: Stop that

come here open up hold still

• Chit chat- this is the rich stuff!Fun talk, running commentary,descriptive, conversational

(Risley, 2006)

Strategy

Babies and Toddlers …• Are awake 110 hours a week• Hear 340 utterances per hour,

1440 words are addressed tothem

• Respond 150 times• Are affirmed 17 times• Have 15,000 hours of learning

time by age 3Fill it with language!!

Word Stories

• Many words have a storyto explain their creation.

• Research and save 20 ormore “word stories”.

• Interject them to buildword consciousness andimprove memory.

• Verbivore’s Feast bySmith (2004) is a goodsource.

• Ketchup• Clue• Money• Sundae• Frisbee

Strategy



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Loopwriter

• Also known as “ZipAround”

• Students must be ableto recognize words inprint

• However, they do nothave to know all ofthe words initially

• It is a way to practicenew vocabulary

• May use sight words,word families, subjectarea vocabulary,similar sounding words

• www.curriculumproject.com/loopwriter.htm

Strategy

Tier 2- Targeted, Strategic

Tier 2

WhichInterventions?

– Object Description Plan(Zimmerman, 2007)

– Head Shoulders Kneesand Toes (FTP, 2007)

– Golden 20 Prefixes(BOV, 2007)

– Antonyms (BOV, 2007)

Tier 2- EBP Statements• Maximize the number of

responses in a limitedamount of time to getvocabulary growth (Paul,2001; Gillon, 2007)

• Provide a definition and alexical contrast toestablish a more detailedunderstanding and longerretention of new words(Paul, 2001; Gillon, 2007)

• Struggling learners mayneed as many as 25 trialsto acquire novel wordscompared to 9-11 trialsfor typical learners (Pence& Justice, 2008; Gray, 2003).

• Twenty common prefixesaccount for 97% of allprefixed words in English(White, Sowell & Yanigahara,1989).



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Object Description(Zimmerman, 2007)

• Many students cannotretain definitions ofwords.

• Others cannot write orrecall them.

• Writing student-friendlydefinitions is an importantstep in vocabularydevelopment (Beck et al, 2002)

• Students do not knowthe structure of aword definition.

• Combined with poormemory skills, theyfail to store or retrievedefinitions, and thus“forget” words.

Strategy

Object Description1. What is it called? __________2. What is the category? _________3. What do you do with it? What does it do? ___4. What does it look like? __________5. What parts does it have?__________6. What does it feel like?____________7. Where can I find it?___________________

Next, Build a Definition

A _____(#1)______ is a(n)________(# 2)________ that_____(#3)_______. It_______(#4, 5, 6 or 7)_________and ____(#4, 5, 6 or 7)_________.



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Last step, write definitionwithout the frame

A vestibule is an area or spacethat comes before a moreimportant area. It is small, mayhold supplies, and you can find itnear the main door of some homesand buildings.

Words…Syllables…Sounds

• Children learn wordsfirst (meaning-based)

• Then syllablesbecause many wordsare single syllables

• Finally, soundsbecause they havelittle or no meaning.

Funnel Toward Phonics

• 53 activities for individuals or groups• All research-based• Matched to state standards (go to

www.superduperinc.com and type in state)• Meets NCLB and IDEA criteria for students at risk or

identified with special needs (Tiers 1,2)



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Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

• Words are composedof syllables

• Students retain wordswhen they canmanipulate syllables.

• One method to recallwords that studentsknow only marginallyis to recall syllables.

• Clapping not effective formany students.

• A visual/motor techniqueis more compelling.

• Head (1 syllable)• Head and shoulders (2

syllables)• Head shoulders, knees (3

syllables)• Head shoulders, etc Strategy

Affixes and Antonyms(Montgomery, 2007. The Bridge of Vocabulary)

• 20 prefixes account for 97% of all theprefixed words in English.

• To be highly effective and highly efficientteach the Golden 20.

• Samples of intervention activities.Strategy



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Vocabulary Strategy

• Evidence-based statement• Grade level standards link• Upper elementary• Students have small cards

with 5 most commonprefixes

• SLP reads word,definition, asks foropposite

• “Proper- Proper meansthat everything is correctand just the way it shouldbe. What is the oppositeof proper?”

• Student holds up card.Says word. “Improper”

• “What does impropermean?”

• “It’s not the correct way.”



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Uses EB Strategies

• Active engagement• Repetitions of small

number of words• Oral to written

language• Give definition in

student friendly terms• Ask for antonym• Repeat

Tier 3- Intensive

Tier 3

Whichinterventions?

– Line Up Like aSentence (Funnel ToPhonics, 2003)

– LanguageLinks (Wilson& Fox, 2007).

– Colorful LetterScramble (BOV, 2007)

– Associated Vocabulary(Davies, 2007)

Tier 3- EBP Statements• A representation of a

word consists ofphonological, semanticand syntactic features(Wilson, 2007).

• Language areas criticalfor later readingdevelopment arestimulated throughsemantic and syntactic

interventions (Gillon, Moran& Page, 2007)

• Word learning dependson the other sounds andwords the child alreadyknows. Relating a newword to existing words(neighborhood density)positively influences thespeed of learning (Hoover& Storkel, 2005).



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Line Up Like a Sentence(Montgomery, 2004)

• Students who strugglewith phonologicalawareness, reading,and decoding often donot recognize wordboundaries.

• A visual display ofword bounds can help.

• Select a group of 5students.

• Say a 5 word sentence.• “Line up like the sentence

and say the word yourepresent”.

• Increase/decrease thenumber of words insentence. Need more orless “players”.

Strategy

Language Links(Wilson & Fox, Leaurate Learning Co. 2007)

• Software programthat developssemantics and syntax.

• From early 2-wordstage to mastery.

• For children withlanguage impairments-or- immaturesyntactic structures

• Students view pictures andanimated scenes, thenchoose one to match thetarget sentence.

• Progress monitoring withstudent report after eachsession

• Intensive, individualizedsessions, 15 min per day,daily for 12 weeks.

Strategy

Co lorfu l Letter Scram b leThe first w ord in each express ion be low is a co lo r. The secondw ord , w hen unscram b led , com p letes a com m on term assoc iatedw ith the co lo r. D iscuss the m ean ing of each express ion .

For exam p le , W H ITE + ESLA = W H ITE SALE.

1 . BLUE + DOBOL2 . ORANGE + W OBL3 . BLACK + TREAM K4 . GRAY + TAM TER5 . PURPLE + THREA6 . W H ITE + GASPE7 . RED + TARCEP8 . YELLOW +REFEV9 . GREEN + BM UTH10 .BROW N + SOEN Strategy



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Associated Vocabulary• Lists of words that are commonly found together -triggers

memory and retention• “slippery” “slippery slope”• “bad” “bad weather”• Phrased verbs: “burned down” “put up”• Promotes authentic phrasing for English learners• http://view.byu.edu• VIEW - Variation in English Words and Phrases by Mark

Davies, PhD at Brigham Young University

Strategy

Over-arching EBP Statement

• Encouraging students to play with wordscreates an interest in knowing more aboutthem-- often referred to as wordconsciousness-- which is essential tovocabulary growth (Stahl, 1999).

State Standards in Vocabulary

– Use simple strategies to determine meaning andincrease vocabulary for reading including the use ofprefixes, suffixes, root words, multiple meanings…(Florida’s Sunshine State Standards Language Arts)

– Analyze idioms … to infer the literal and figurativemeanings of phrases… (Indiana’s Academic Standards-- EnglishLanguage Arts)

– Identify and sort common words into conceptualcategories (Massachusetts English Language Arts CurriculumFramework)



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Why Vocabulary Problems ActuallyIncrease As Students Grow Older

– They also have word finding problems– They often use low information words– This has a negative impact on discourse skills– They rarely expand the meanings of the words

they do know– They read less than their peers

“Given the critical role that reading plays invocabulary development, poor readers’deficits in word knowledge may becompounded with time, leaving them witha smaller data base from which to selectwords for speaking and writing.”

(Nippold, ‘92, p. 5)

Take home messageYou can provide explicit, systematic,

intensive language and reading vocabularyintervention at all 3 tiers of RtI and in

special education SLP services.



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Vocabulary is increased:

• Indirectly by encouragingconversation, oral languagepractice, reading tostudents, and having themread often

• Directly by teaching wordsexplicitly, word learningstrategies, and becomingword conscious.

Students increase theirvocabulary if they have:

• wide rangingexperiences

• sufficient number ofexposures

• active engagement• consistent direct

instruction• useful word learning

strategies

ReferencesBeck, I. M cKeow n & K ucan , L ., (2002). B ring ing w ords to life . NY :

Gu ilfo rd .B iem ille r, A . (2005). S ize and sequence in vocabu lary deve lopm ent:

Im p lications fo r choosing w ords fo r p rim ary grade vocabu laryinstruction . In E .H . H iebert and M . K am il (E ds.), T each ing and learn ingvocabu lary : B ring ing research to practice (pp . 223-245). M ahw ah, N J:Erlbaum .

Frey, N . & F isher, D . (2007). Read ing fo r in fo rm ation in e lem entaryschoo l. Upper Sadd le R iver New Jersey: Pearson.

G illon , G . M oran , C . & Page, F . (2007). Sem antic intervention : Enhanc ingvocabu lary know ledge in ch ild ren w ith language im pa irm ent. In A .Kam hi, J .J . M asterson & K . Ape l (Eds) . C lin ica l dec is ion m aking indeve lopm enta l language d isorders. (pp .165-184). Ba lt im ore : B rookes.

G raves, M . F . (2006) T he vocabu lary book . NY : Teachers Co llegeCo lum b ia .

G ray ,S . (2003). W ord learn ing by preschoo lers w ith spec ific languageim pairm ent: P red ictors and poor learners. JSLHR , 47 , 1117-1132 .

Hart, B . & R is ley , T . (1995). M ean ingfu l d ifferences in the everyday livesof young A m erican ch ild ren . B a lt im ore : B rookes.

Hoover, J .R . & S torke l, H .L . (2005). Understand ing w ord learn ing bypreschoo l ch ild ren : Ins ights from m ultip le tasks, stim u luscharacteristics, erro r ana lys is . A SHA Perspectives on LanguageLearn ing and Education ,12 (3), 8 -12 .



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M ontgom ery, J.K . (2004). Funne l tow ard phon ics . G reenv ille , SC :Super Duper Pub lications.

M ontgom ery, J.K . (2007). The B ridge of vocabu lary . B loom ington,M N : AGS Pearson Assessm ents.

M ontgom ery, J.K . & M oreau, M . R . (2004). East M eets W est: Us ingCh ild ren ’s Books as C lin ica l Intervention fo r Language and Read ingD isab ilit ies. Vo l. 1 and 2 . Springfie ld , M A : M indw ing Concepts

Nationa l Read ing Pane l, (2000). Put Read ing F irst . W ash ington DC :Nationa l Institute fo r L iteracy. w w w .n ifl .gov

N ippo ld , M . (1992). The nature of norm al and d isordered w ord find ingin ch ild ren and ado lescents. T op ics in Language D isorders , 13 (1),1 -14 .

Pau l, R . (2001). L anguage d isorders from infancy throughado lescence: A ssessm ent and intervention . (2nd ed). St. Lou is:M osby-Year Book.

Pence, K .L . & Justice , l.M . (2008). Language deve lopm ent fromtheory to practice . Upper Sadd le R iver, N J: Pearson.

Sm ith , C . M . (2004). V erb ivore’s Feast. He lena, M T : Far Country Press.Stah l, S . (1999). V ocabu lary deve lopm ent . Cam bridge. M A : B rook line .W h ite ,T .G ., Sow ell, J . & Yanag ihara , A . (1989). Teach ing e lem entary

students to use w ord-part c lues. R ead ing T eacher , 4 2 , 302-308 .W ilson , M . S . & Fox, B .J. (2007). LanguageL inks . W inoosk i, VT :

Laureate Learn ing .

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EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE FOR VOCABULARY INTERVENTION …metrospeechlanguagenetwork.org/Docs/Symp_2008Docs/EBP for Voca… · Evidence-Based Practice for Vocabulary Intervention Judy