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SHARON VAUGHN

Storybook reading: Improvingvocabulary and comprehension

for English-language learners

Cea\chers can use this strategy to

systematically build the vocabulary andcomprehension skills of primary-gradeEnglish-language leamers through dailyread-alouds.In the last five years, considerable emphasis has

been placed on improving instruction and edu-_cational outcomes for struggling readers.Several reports have synthesized extant researchfindings in the area of early literacy and providedguidelines for researchers and practitioners withregard to essential elements of effective programsfor comprehensive literacy skill development(National Institute of Child Health and HumanDevelopment, 2000; Snow, 2002; Snow, Burns, &Griffin, 1998).

However, very little discussion in these reportshas addressed how to use teacher read-alouds asan effective practice for enhancing two of the criti-cal components of reading instruction: vocabularyand comprehension. Furthermore, practices associ-ated with improving reading outcomes for English-language learners (ELLs) have not been addressedwithin these reports.

English-language learners are one of thelargest groups of students who struggle with liter-acy in general and vocabulary and comprehensionin particular. Often, the language experience andskills of ELLs are heterogeneous. The prior knowl-edge, home literacy practices, language skill,

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language flexibility, and language proficiency ofeach learner varies considerably (Au, 1993; Grabe,1991) and influences learning and instruction.Thus, teachers are faced with the challenging de-mands of planning instruction geared toward thishighly diverse group of language learners.

Vocabulary, comprehension,and ELLs

Researchers in the field of second-languageacquisition have repeatedly stressed the need forinstruction that addresses not only the social lan-guage needs of these students but also the aca-demic, cognitive, and language development thatis critical to success in schools, especially in lightof current accountability standards and standard-ized assessments (August & Hakuta, 1997;Cummins, 1994; Fitzgerald, 1995). Of particularimportance for the academic success of English-language learners are what Cummins described asCognitive Academic Language Proficiency Skills,or CALPS. These include skills associated withcomprehending and using academic language inits various forms, for a variety of purposes, whileincorporating multiple and varied language struc-tures. Central to academic language developmentare the related elements of vocabulary andcomprehension.

A student's level of vocabulary knowledge hasbeen shown to be an important predictor of read-ing ability (fluency) and reading comprehension

ding Association (pp. 720-730)

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for English-language learners (Grabe, 1991;McLaughlin, 1987). Other specific areas of lan-guage and literacy competency critical to English-language learners' development of language andcomprehension skills include, but are not limitedto, the development of increased flexibility ofEnglish-language use; learning words (vocabu-lary) in context; determination of importance andunimportance of text events and details; opportu-nities to respond orally to texts in more skillfulways; and encouraging student conversations re-lated to text (Anderson & Roit, 1998; Au, 1993).Arguing that these competencies are critical butoften neglected in language and literacy instruc-tion for ELLs, Anderson and Roit contended thatthe development of these competencies will leadnot only to increased skill in areas of comprehen-sion but also to more highly developed oral lan-guage proficiency.

Given these critical areas of need, teachers ofEnglish-language learners can provide studentswith ongoing and consistent support required forlanguage development related to literacy and orallanguage growth, particularly in the area of vocab-ulary and comprehension. Practices highlightedin the literature for supporting development inthese areas for ELLs include the following:

* Activating and drawing upon students' back-ground knowledge in relation to story contentto support comprehension and vocabulary re-tention (Schifini, 1994; Ulanoff & Pucci,I 999).

* Integrating the teaching of word meaningswith the content area and context in whichthey will be used, rather than as a separate listof words and definitions (Au, 1993).Particularly important are relating vocabularyto the content area topic and showing con-nections between words through such activi-ties as semantic mapping and word familyassociations (Au, 1993; Nagy, 1988).

* Addressing basic vocabulary that is difficultto visualize (abstract words and modifiers;Anderson & Roit, 1998) as well as vocabu-lary that is rich and evocative, thereby in-creasing student challenge and engagementwith words (Gersten & Baker, 2000).

* Providing guided discussions with studentsand encouraging higher level, elaborated

responses with regard to vocabulary, structure,and use (Anderson & Roit, 1998; Au, 1993).

Using culturally relevant texts as well asthose that incorporate aspects of students' lifeexperiences to draw upon prior knowledgeto promote comprehension and retention oftext concepts and new vocabulary (Barrera,1992; De Le6n & Medina, 1998; Trueba,1988).

Teacher read-alouds are perhaps the most con-sistent activity used by classroom teachers that pro-vides frequent, if not daily, opportunities toenhance the literacy of ELLs by integrating effec-tive vocabulary development practices. Yet, despitethe prevalence of this practice and its importancefor enhancing vocabulary and comprehension(Coyne, Simmons, & Kame'enui, 2004; McKeown& Beck, 2004), there are few specific guidelines forhow teacher read-alouds might be used with ELLs,including those with reading difficulties. Typicallylasting from 20 to 30 minutes a day, this time spentreading aloud to students, when structured to fo-cus specifically on vocabulary and comprehension,can have a powerful impact on students' skill de-velopment in these areas (Coyne et al.). This im-pact only increases in magnitude when consideredin light of the cumulative time students will spendover the course of the school year learning new vo-cabulary and engaging in discussions of text asthey relate not only to the text itself but also to theirown experiences.

The purpose of this article is to describe ateacher read-aloud practice designed specifically toaddress and promote vocabulary and comprehen-sion skill development for first-grade English-language learners with reading difficulties. Thebooks chosen for read-alouds, the materials used,and the language of discussion correspond to thelanguage used in the students' core reading instruc-tion: English for those ELLs learning to read inEnglish as part of their core instruction, andSpanish for ELLs learning to read in Spanish.

Overview of storybook readingThe instructional objective of the daily story

and passage read-aloud sessions conducted withstudents is to assist students in building and

Storybook reading: Improving vocabulary an(l comprehension for English-laniguage learners 29

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c ) C K. C) (C C) C> - (C, a; (extending vocabulary and content knowledge, aswell as expanding their skills in listeningcomprehension and oral expression. Both narrativeand informational trade books can be used forread-alouds, chosen at a reading level that is one totwo grade levels above the students' grade place-ment. Stories and informational texts can be cho-sen on the basis of students' interests and, whengrouped by three or four according to a specifictheme, provide many opportunities to encounterand generalize vocabulary across texts. (See TableI for a sample list of English and Spanish books,themes, and sample words.) The thematic selec-tion of texts provides students with many oppor-tunities to use and extend new vocabulary andcomprehension skills, as well as gain more depthof content knowledge, as each successive book inthe theme is read. Each book is separated into pas-sages of 200-250 words, breaking with the natu-ral flow of the story. Teachers read the completebook over the course of three to five days, with acomplete reading of the entire story and a reviewof particularly important or challenging vocabu-lary on the day after the last passage is read anddiscussed. The duration of each read-aloud sessionis approximately 30 minutes. Table 2 provides anexample of how vocabulary and stories or texts canbe presented, read, and reviewed over five days(for a text or story of about 900-1,000 words).

By dividing texts into smaller units, or pas-sages, the teacher is able to focus on a smallernumber of new vocabulary words and to ade-quately explore their meaning(s) in the context ofhow and where they were used in the story.Limiting the read-aloud to short, consecutive pas-sages also exposes students to a complete storyor informational text over three to five days,which requires that they maintain story and con-tent comprehension and vocabulary knowledgein relation to that text over a longer period of time.Limiting the text also allows for adequate timeand opportunities for vocabulary and comprehen-sion skill development in relation to the text. Afinal, complete reading of the story and review offour to five specific, challenging vocabularywords from the text on the last day allow the stu-dents to hear the entire story and vocabularywords at one sitting and participate in activitiesthat reinforce word meanings (for sample activi-ties for the final day, see Table 2, Day 5).

Selection of vocabulary wordsWith so many words to choose from, how do

teachers begin to establish parameters for word se-lection? Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) sug-gested focusing on words of high utility that canbe used across contexts. Identified as Tier 2 words,these words go beyond familiar or basic (Tier I)vocabulary that might not require explicit instruc-tion in a school setting. Yet they are not so abstractand technical that their use is limited (Tier 3) andtherefore requires explicit instruction within aspecified body of content area knowledge (e.g., sci-ence, social studies). In contrast, Tier 2 words canbe defined and associated with words already fa-miliar to the students. (See Table I for samplewords and definitions.)

Using terms with which the student is alreadyacquainted to give meaning to new words enablesstudents to associate the new vocabulary with theirdaily experiences, generalizing it across contexts.In this way, students gain greater sophistication anddepth in their ability to describe familiar situationsand use language in meaningful and importantways (Beck et al., 2002). Tier 2 words are oftenthose that are highly descriptive and imaginativeand of high utility, corresponding with Gersten andBaker's (2000) assertion that these are the types ofwords that are critical to the language developmentof ELLs. Furthermore, these are often the types ofwords students encounter in academic and higherlevel texts, including assessments; introduction tothese words through read-alouds and context-specific discussions provides opportunities for stu-dents to interact with them so that comprehensionis possible when students encounter these wordsin other academic settings with other texts.

In examining texts not only for culturally rele-vant and meaningful content but also for interestingand challenging Tier 2 vocabulary, teachers can askthemselves the following questions, the answers towhich will determine if the text is appropriate forthe purpose of developing vocabulary and compre-hension skills: Will learning the words makestudents better able to describe their own familiarlife experiences because the words or knowledgecan be linked to other words or concepts? Or, in asimilar way, will learning the words facilitate adeeper understanding of a specific context withina story that can also be linked to the students' own

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TABLE 1Sample texts, vocabulary words, and definitions in English and Spanish

Title of book (English) Theme Author Sample vocabulary words and definitions

Julius, the Baby Family Kevin Henkes insulting (adj), mean or rudeof the World admire (v), to think something is special,

good, or beautifuldisgusting (adi), awful, horrible

Lilly's Purple Family Kevin Henkes privacy (n), space to be alone or by oneselfPlastic Purse artistic (adi), like an artist, creative or

colorfulsemicircle (n), half of a circle

Chrysanthemum Family Kevin Henkes scarcely (adv), hardly, barelywilted (v), became sad and lifeless,without lifeinformed (v), told

Bugs Are Insects Creepy crawlies Anne Rockwell pierce (v), stabcommunities (n), groups that work togethercreeping (v), moving slowly and low to theground

Ant Cities Creepy crawlies Arthur Dorros devour (v), eat up quickly and completelyhollowed-out [hollow] (adj), open on theinsidepavement (n), sidewalk or roadway

Spiders Creepy crawlies Gail Gibbons unusual (adj), very different, strangescurries (v), runs quicklysnatches (v), grabs something quickly

Title of book (Spanish) Theme Author Sample vocabulary words and definitions

El sancocho Tradiciones de familia Leyla Torres trueque (n), un cambio de una cosa por otradel sabado entre dos personas

convencer (v), persuadir, hacer creer a unoescualidas (adj), chicas y malas

El polio de los Tradiciones de familia Patricia Polacco intenso (adj), fuertedomingos esparciendo (esparcir) (v), moviendo y

poniendo por todas partes, derramandointentarlo (intentar) (v), tratar de hacerlo

Un silln para mi mama Tradiciones de familia Vera B. Williams mullido (adj), muy suave y c6modotapizado (adi), cubiertoIncendio (n), un fuego muy grande

Delfines Mamfferos marinos Rourke recompensan (recompensar) (v), dar encambio por hacer algoagilmente (adv), muy facilmenteveloces (adj), rapidos

Leones marinos Mamfferos marinos Rourke externas (adj), en la parte que se ve, en laparte de afuerasostlenen (sostener) (v), levantanpalmeadas (adj), que tienen dedos juntadas(unidas) con piel que les hacen masfacil nadar

Nutrias de mar Mamfferos marinos Rourke criaturas (n), seres, animalespromedio (n), tamahoflojamente (adv), muy relajada, facilmente

Storbook reading: 1mprovin, vocabulary and comprehension for English-kIliguage learners 17

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TABLE 2Format for story reading and vocabulary instruction, 1,000-word text

Day 1 * Introduce story (-2 minutes).

* Introduce three new vocabulary words from this day's 200-250-word passage (-3 minutes).

* Read approximately 200-250 words of the story or text (-5 minutes).

* Check for comprehension (two probes for explicit text information, one probe for students to makeinferences or predictions) (-10 minutes).

* Review new vocabulary words (-2 minutes).

* Reread story or text passage, stopping at each vocabulary word to review, clarify, and checkunderstanding of meaning (-10 minutes).

Day 2 * Review content and vocabulary words from previous day's reading.

* Introduce today's reading.

* Introduce three new words from this day's 200-250-word passage.

* Read approximately 200-250 words of the story or text.

* Check for comprehension (two probes for explicit text information, one probe for students to makeinferences or predictions).

* Review new vocabulary words.

* Reread story or text passage, stopping at each vocabulary word to review, clarify, and checkunderstanding of meaning.

Day 3 * Continue steps from Day 2, with a new 200-250-word passage from the text.

Day 4 * Continue steps from Day 3, with a new 200-250-word passage from the text. For a book of 900-1,000words, depending on the flow of the text, this may be the last day of reading and discussing separatetext sections.

Day 5 * Choose four to five vocabulary words from the previous days' lessons to review with the students (onesthat may have been particularly challenging or difficult to remember).

* Review the words.

* Read the entire story to the students.

* Have students respond to comprehension questions using the vocabulary words chosen for review.

* Have students participate in an activity designed to reinforce the meaning of the vocabulary wordschosen for review. Examples include,

Using all the words to create a new story with student input (e.g., each student is given the wordon a card and must provide a sentence with that word in the context of making a new story withthe sentences).

Using objects to demonstrate the words; for example, having the students demonstrate what manylooks like with objects.

Asking students to determine which vocabulary word out of a list fits best in a given sentence.

Playing "charades" or acting out the meaning of the words.

Asking students to orally match a word the teacher says with one of the vocabulary words (an oralversion of semantic mapping); for example, the teacher says a word (e.g., big) and the studentsmust say the matching, related vocabulary word (e.g., gigantic) from the group of words.

Provide students with examples and nonexamples of word use (e.g., "Can a bear be terrified?Can a tree?").

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Elements of story read-aloudsThe success of this story read-aloud practice

for the increased comprehension and oral languagedevelopment of English-language learners is de-pendent not only on the teacher's selection of textsand vocabulary words but also on the implementa-tion of the lesson design. The basic elements of thisstory read-aloud practice include the followingsteps:

I. Introducing (previewing) the story and threenew vocabulary words.

2. Reading a passage from a narrative or infor-mational text out loud, focusing on literaland inferential comprehension.

3. Rereading the passage, drawing attention tothe three vocabulary words.

4. Extending comprehension, focusing on deepprocessing of vocabulary knowledge.

5. Summarizing what was read and any contentknowledge that was learned.

The following is a brief description of each el-ement referred to along with suggestions for howthe activities can be implemented with ELLs re-ceiving literacy instruction in English or Spanish.Ideas for how to select appropriate vocabularywords are also presented.

Preview story and vocabulary. In this initial step,the goal is twofold: (a) to preview the story or textand (b) to introduce new vocabulary within thecontext of the story to be read. To preview thebook, teachers can show and read the front andback covers of the story, asking the students abouttheir life experiences and knowledge in relation tothe content of the book. This preview and activa-tion of students' prior knowledge and experiencesis vital to English-language learners' comprehen-sion of the text and vocabulary (Barrera, 1992;De Le6n & Medina, 1998; Trueba, 1988). Teacherscan also have students predict what they think thestory might be about and briefly discuss conceptsrelated to the story topic.

After the text preview, teachers briefly intro-duce three or four new vocabulary words that stu-dents will hear and be listening for in the story:Each word is spoken by the teacher and repeated bythe students, then a definition of each word is

knowledge or life experiences? For example, in thestory Julius, the Baby of the World (Henkes, 1995),the adjective clever would be appropriate for manyEnglish-language learners because the generalmeaning of the word is familiar to many students,and in the context in which it is used in the storystudents will be able to relate the events in the sto-ry in which cleverness is described to events or mo-ments in their own lives when they or others theyknew did something that was "clever."

After selecting three or four words that meetTier 2 criteria in a story, the teacher focuses on de-veloping short explanations of the meanings of thewords, using familiar language that students caneasily understand. To do this, teachers rely on theirknowledge of their students' individual levels offirst- or second-language development and skill toensure that meanings are accurate and at the sametime will be comprehensible to the students theyare teaching. Although dictionaries created foryoung children often provide simpler meanings forwords, teachers will need to rely on their knowl-edge of their particular students' language profi-ciency to discern appropriate meanings for thechosen words. In the case of words with multiplemeanings, depending on students' level of profi-ciency, teachers can focus initially on the meaningof the words as they appear within the context ofthe story and provide alternate meanings as stu-dents' oral language proficiency increases.

Beck et al. (2002) also suggested creatingmeanings for words that focus on the essence of thewhole definition of the word rather than on specif-ic parts or words in the definition that may be mis-leading. In their book Bringing Words to Life:Robust Vocabulary Instruction, Beck et al. contrasttwo definitions for the word meticulous. When theword is initially defined as "extremely carefulabout small details," students can very easily focuson the word careful, often used in the sense ofwatching out for danger, and use meticulous in thewrong context. However, rephrasing the definitionas "being careful and neat about small details" pro-vides a more robust understanding of what theword really means. In another context, the teachermight explain that amble means to walk slowly andeasily as opposed to walking slowly and leisurely,as the word easily is more apt to be understood byyoung children than is the word leisurely.

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provided. Definitions that use everyday language;relate to concepts, words, or phrases with which thestudents are already somewhat familiar; and em-phasize critical attributes or connotations of theword are the most effective (Beck et al., 2002).Last, teachers display the word in written form onan index card and continue with the next word.

Read-aloud/guided comprehension discussion.After previewing the text and orally introducing thenew vocabulary words, the teacher sets the instruc-tional goal by telling students to listen carefullywhile the story is being read, as questions will fol-low that will require each student to tell what thestory was about. Students are also asked to listenfor the vocabulary words in the story as it is readaloud, although comprehension of the read-aloud isthe goal during this element of the activity.

Next, the teacher reads the passage aloud,without stopping, and emphasizes concepts by us-ing appropriate prosody (e.g., intonation and enun-ciation). After reading, the teacher then guidesstudents in a discussion about the content of thepassage, encouraging students to use the three newvocabulary words in their retelling of the story. Ifthe read-aloud session is conducted with a smallgroup (three to five students), then each studentmay have an opportunity to share what he or shehas learned from the passage read. The attentionof all students in the group can be secured by ask-ing all of them to make sure that other students areproviding correct information. If the read-aloudtakes place with a larger group, all students maynot have an opportunity to share. However, theycan all participate by listening to their peers' re-sponses and by confirming the accuracy of theirstatements (thumbs-up signs are particularly help-ful in managing the responses of agreement of theother students in a large or small group).

During the discussion of the story content, theteacher acts as the facilitator of students' oral ex-pression; in retelling the story or content from thetext, students are not only demonstrating their skillin comprehension, but they are also using oral lan-guage to express and elaborate upon their ideasand thoughts. This is a skill that is important tothe language development of ELLs (Anderson &Roit, 1998; Au, 1993). The teacher guides studentsin determining both the explicit and the implicit, orliteral and inferential, information presented in the

text, encouraging them to use the new vocabularyin their responses when appropriate. Initially, theinstructional goal is for students to comprehendthe main events or information presented in thetext (one to three events or concepts), taken di-rectly from the passage. Retelling of sequentialevents should be emphasized only if it is evidentfrom the story that there is a clear beginning, mid-dle, and end.

First, the teacher asks one student to recountexplicitly what happened in the story, focusing onwho, what, when, and where types of questions.Next, the teacher uses open-ended questions toprompt another student to extend or tell more aboutthe first student's response or asks a second literalcomprehension question directly related to whatwas explicitly read in the text. For example, theteacher might say to the second student, "Adrianatold us that in the beginning of the story Julius, theBaby of the World (Henkes, 1995), Lilly's mothergave birth to a new baby boy. Jaime, what did welearn about the new baby?" or "What happened af-ter Lilly's mother brought her baby brother home?"

Last, the teacher asks a third student an inferen-tial question that focuses the students' attention onsynthesizing information that is not directly pres-ent in the story. During this questioning, studentsare given opportunities to draw conclusions and in-ferences and make predictions based on the storydetails and on their own experiences. The teacher, inthis step, guides students to explain their thinking,offering additional opportunities for students to usehigher level language skills involved in elaboratingupon their ideas and thoughts. For example, theteacher could ask, "How do you think Lilly feelsabout her new baby brother?" With this question,students are asked to make an inference or to draw aconclusion. After a student responds, the teachercan follow up by asking, "Why do you think she feltthat way?" In doing so, the student is asked to ex-plain or elaborate upon his or her thinking and jus-tify his or her response to the group. In this step,teachers also have additional opportunities to gaugestudents' comprehension based on the nature oftheir responses.

Reread passage: Focus on vocabulary. Duringthis step, the teacher has the opportunity to review,reteach, and extend vocabulary knowledge withinthe context of the story. The teacher briefly reviews

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the words and meanings with the students. Thenthe teacher tells students that she or he will rereadthe story, and that each time they hear one of thevocabulary words they can show a "thumbs up"gesture. As the teacher reads the vocabulary wordsat their appropriate place in the story, she or helooks to see if the students have heard them and puttheir thumbs up. If not, the teacher can stop brieflyand explain that one of the vocabulary words wasjust read and that she or he will reread the sectionagain to see if they can show their thumbs up whenthey hear it. After students are able to indicate thatthey have heard the word read in the story, theteacher asks the students to repeat the word and toexplain in their own words what the word means.The teacher confirms or modifies the meanings of-fered by the students and then rereads the word inthe text.

Next, the teacher guides students in creatingtheir own original sentences using the vocabularyword just encountered in the story. If needed, scaf-folds can be used to generate ideas. One type ofscaffold to facilitate sentence building is to pro-vide a model sentence stem or pattern that studentscan complete with their own thoughts. For exam-ple, if the word the students are learning and heardin the passage is extraordinary, the teacher can pro-vide a sentence using the model: "I think _

is/are extraordinary because ," then askstudents to insert their own ideas into the scaffold.The teacher then continues reading the story pas-sage until the students have correctly identified theremaining two words, discussed their meaning, andcreated their own sentences using the words.

Extend comprehension. This step is critical inproviding opportunities for English-languagelearners to engage in meaningful dialogue about atopic related to the story or text (Barrera, 1992;De Le6n & Medina, 1998; Trueba, 1988). This stepnot only allows students to discuss the story in re-lation to their own experiences, thereby enhancingtheir comprehension of the story, but also allowsfurther opportunities for students to generalize useof the new vocabulary words in relation to theirown ideas and experiences. It is important in thisstep that the students are communicating theirthoughts and ideas to one another, relating whatwas read to life and their own experiences. The

teacher's role is to serve only as a facilitator of theconversation.

Summarize. The teacher summarizes what waslearned by briefly reviewing the name and authorof the story passage, the main events and ideasfrom the particular passage read for that day, andthe new vocabulary words. The teacher can leavestudents with a challenge to listen for and use thenew vocabulary words they have learned through-out the day.

When continuing with the story the followingday, the teacher begins the lesson by activating stu-dents' prior knowledge of the story, reviewing whatwas read and learned the day before, and then pre-viewing this day's text. For example, the teachercan show the students the first page of the story, ac-tivating their prior knowledge by emphasizing keywords and asking them to summarize a few mainevents from the prior day's reading. The teacheralso reviews the vocabulary words from the previ-ous day, asking students to briefly tell what eachword means while the teacher scaffolds and modi-fies as appropriate. For the last step of the reviewprocess, the teacher asks students if they have en-countered the words in conversations with others(e.g., with parents, teachers) and encourages themto keep listening for and using the words whenev-er possible.

The teacher continues by previewing whatmight happen in the text (e.g., "Today, we are goingto learn what things Lilly's new brother likes todo"). Students might be asked to predict what willhappen or to share knowledge or life experiencesrelated to the content of the next story passage. Theteacher then introduces the three new vocabularywords by using the same procedure as the first day.

On the day following the last day of readingsections from the text, the format of the lessonchanges slightly. On this day, the teacher rereads orretells the entire book with the students and con-ducts an activity designed to review four or fiveparticularly challenging or difficult vocabularywords from the previous days' lessons. The goalof the activities for this final day is for students tounderstand the meanings and use of vocabularywords that may need extended teaching foradequate comprehension. The teacher, after read-ing the entire text, reviews the challenging wordswith students and then asks them to participate in

Storybook reading: Imzproviig vocab ulary and comprehension for English-laniguage learniers 2T73

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activities such as acting out the meaning of thewords through a game of charades, using props asappropriate, or creating a short story of their own,as a group, using all of the target words. Anothertype of scaffold particularly relevant to languagedevelopment for English-language learners is tohave students orally "match" a word or phrase theteacher says with one of the vocabulary words(e.g., the teacher says "big," the students say,"enormous"). This is a form of semantic mapping(Au, 1993; Nagy, 1988).

The storybook reading practice is appropriatefor both ELLs receiving literacy instruction initial-ly in their primary language and for those receivinginitial literacy instruction in a secondary language.Explicit vocabulary instruction for both types ofstudents might include ways to integrate newwords with those formerly taught, providing fre-quent encounters with a word over time, and cre-ating opportunities to deeply process conceptstaught (Decarrico, 2001). One way to assist stu-dents in making the transition from learning to readin their primary language to reading in a secondlanguage might be to focus on text that includescognates. English-language learners in general mayalso benefit from brief discussions on idiomatic ex-pressions that appear in storybooks (Schifini,1994). Vocabulary introduced through the story-book practice may later lead to more specific in-struction in word families or simple discussionson word associations by focusing on meanings as-sociated with certain words (e.g., pen is associatedwith paper) so that students can see broader rela-tionships between words.

When teaching English-language learners, onebecomes aware that students might not always befamiliar with knowledge or concepts necessary tounderstand new vocabulary words or comprehendtopics within the storybook. This scenario is evenmore challenging when instructing students in asecondary language who lack certain concepts orknowledge in their primary language. This situa-tion might be remedied through careful scaffold-ing, which may focus on using pictures in thestorybook to facilitate discussion of vocabularywords or other concepts central to the story, or mayinclude briefly demonstrating concepts with simpleobjects or providing nonexamples (e.g., "this is notused for cooking but for eating").

Having observed teachers implementing thestorybook practice, I am aware of some pitfalls toavoid. With the instructional goal of developingoral language proficiency via dialogues in whichstudents retell events from a story and make sim-ple inferences about what was read, there is a nat-ural tendency for teachers to take the lead and domost of the talking. This may occur more oftenwhen reluctant students or those with the most lim-ited oral language proficiency are called upon tolead the discussion. It is important that teacherspreview the text prior to teaching and carefully notethose words or concepts that might require moreskilled explanations or scaffolding. One scaffoldthat may assist students in expressing theirthoughts is to use a sentence stem to facilitateretelling (e.g., "Lilly shows that she dislikes herbaby brother by..."). Another scaffold might be touse words depicting sequential order to promptretelling (e.g., "How did Lilly feel before her babybrother was born? How did she feel after he wasborn?") or to assist students in making an inference(e.g., "How might you feel before having a newbaby brother?"). The goal is to scaffold quickly andefficiently so that the dialogue is robust and movesalong at a lively pace, with students leading theconversation.

There is also the tendency to teach too much-to capitalize on every opportunity to introduce re-lated concepts or vocabulary associated with thetopic in the story. It might be more effective toteach a few concepts well than to overwhelmEnglish-language learners with too much informa-tion. Separating the storybook text into shorter dai-ly passages provides more opportunity to introducerelated concepts and vocabulary as appropriate,with careful scaffolding.

Keys to effective vocabularyinstruction

Students who are ELLs will require effectiveand ongoing instruction in vocabulary and compre-hension to improve their oral language skills and toincrease the likelihood that they will read withmeaning and learn from text. Teachers have manyopportunities throughout the day to provide struc-tured instruction in vocabulary and comprehension

* * 00 The Reading Teacher Vol. 57, No. 8 May 2004

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to these students. One of the most available andvaluable times is during storybook reading.

Keys to effective vocabulary instruction arekeeping the process simple and feasible yet makingthe instruction powerful by explicitly relatingwords to familiar concepts, integrating new wordswith context-specific concepts by building on pri-or knowledge, providing frequent encounters withthe words, and providing opportunities for studentsto process the words deeply by using new vocabu-lary to describe experienced reality (Nagy, 1988).Furthermore, by relying on engaging text, thestorybook read-aloud practice incorporates eachof these important elements of effective vocabularyinstruction, promoting both oral language devel-opment and listening comprehension.

Hickman teaches at Arcadia University (450 S.Easton Road, Taylor 310B, Glenside, PA 19038,USA). E-mail hickmanpCaarcadia.edu. Pollard-Durodola teaches at the University ofTexas-Houston Health Science Center, Centerfor Academic Reading Skills in Houston, Texas,USA. Vaughn teaches at the University ofTexas-Austin.

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reading research. TESOL Ouarterly, 25, 375-406.Henkes, K. (1995). Julius, the baby of the world. New York:

HarperTrophy.Henkes, K. (1996). Chrysanthemum. New York: HarperTrophy.Henkes, K. (1996). Lilly's purple plastic purse. New York:

Greenwillow.Leones marinos. (1991). Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Enterprises.McKeown, M.G., & Beck, I.L. (2004). Direct and rich vocabu-

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Brain scans shed light on dyslexiaMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to discover what parts of the brain

are active when various tasks are performed. Researchers from the Center for the Studyof Learning, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., used MRIs to watch brainfunction in a group of people (age 6 to 22) while they read. The Georgetown re-searchers found that young readers, while using areas on both sides of the brain, dif-fer from older readers in their use of an area in the right hemisphere associated withvisual images. To help researchers distinguish between how the brain reacts to seeingsomething and to reading something, the children in this study were told to look for tallletters in real.words and in "false font" nonsense symbols.

The nonsense symbols were unreadable, but the researchers found that the children,without instruction, read the real words automatically. By comparing MRIs,researchers could isolate the extra regions of the brain associated with reading. Thisresearch can now be compared with brain scans of dyslexic children to see where thedifferences lie.

Adapted from McGough, R. (2003, May 20). MR stake a look at reading minds. The Wall Street Journal, p. D8.

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