Vocabulary Instruction. Funded by U.S. Department of Education Source: The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC Research Corporation in partnership

Vocabulary Instruction

Funded by U.S. Department of Education

Source: The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC Research Corporation in partnership with the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University; Instructional Research Group; the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston; and The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin. 2009

Key areas of instruction: Vocabulary knowledge – an important predictor of reading fluency and reading comprehension for ELLs and non-ELLs (Grabe, 1991; McLaughlin, 1987)Academic language – critical for reading and understanding content


Schools must provide instruction that allows ELLs to acquire content-area knowledge while they are developing proficiency in English (NCLB, 2001).


Teach high utility words that appear often across content areas and are key to comprehension.

Present definitions and examples of use in context.

Provide multiple exposures to meaningful information about the word (Stahl & Nagy, 2006).

Use cognate knowledge (Dressler, 2000).

Teach word analysis and other word-learning skills.

Engage students in learning words through talking about, comparing, analyzing, and using target words.


Native English speakers often depend on background knowledge and inferential skills when reading text.

ELLs seem to rely more on their vocabulary knowledge when reading the same texts.


ELLs’ reading comprehension can be improved with targeted vocabulary intervention (Carlo et al., 2004).

Students may need long-term intervention for maximum impact and comprehension development (McLaughlin, August, & Snow, 2000).


• Key components of instruction for ELLs:• Developing increased flexibility of English-language use• Learning words (vocabulary) in context• Distinguishing between important and unimportant text details and events• Responding orally to texts in increasingly skillful ways• Participating in student conversations related to text

(Anderson & Roit, 1998)


High frequency English wordsGeneral purpose academic wordsContent-area vocabularyEnglish-Spanish cognates (for Spanish-speaking ELLs)Words conveying key conceptsHigh-utility wordsRelevant to content under studyWords that are meaningful to students

(Gersten, Baker, & Unok Marks, 1998; Stahl & Nagy, 2006)



oConversational languageoUsed daily to communicate with othersoBasic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) (Cummins, 1979)oAcademic languageoThe language of text and content areasoCognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1979)


To participate fully in the classroom and learn new content, ELLs must be able to

Use and understand academic language in its various forms, for a variety of purposes;Learn new words (vocabulary) in context;Determine the difference between relevant and less relevant text in a given passage and the necessity of a specific reading and/or language task; and Participate in student conversations related to text. Funded by U.S. Department of Education

Students need Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS).However, good conversational skills may be accompanied by poor academic language skills.Therefore, students need to develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) to deal with academic content (Cummins, 1994).Funded by U.S. Department of Education

to understand teacher explanations, to discuss what is being learned, to read for different purposes, and to write about their learning.


Is difficult for non-native speakers and many native speakers who are struggling readers;

Uses and requires comprehension of a variety of language forms for a variety of purposes; and

Incorporates multiple language structures.Funded by U.S. Department of Education

Vocabulary knowledgeBreadth: knowing the meanings of many words, including multiple words for the same, or related, conceptsDepth: knowing multiple meanings, both common and uncommon, for a given word

Understanding complex sentence structures and syntaxRecognizing written vocabulary as distinct from oral vocabularyUnderstanding the structure of argument, academic discourse, and expository texts


•Classroom and content vocabulary in academic texts differ from conversational vocabulary.•Academic vocabulary is critical to learning higher-level content and to performing well on achievement tests.•Academic language: explains, informs, justifies, compares, describes, classifies, proves, debates, persuades, evaluates.


Scripted books purposefully crafted to reinforce word meaningGames for partner practice using picture cardsGames that give students incentives to listen for new words or previously taught words outside the vocabulary lesson Funded by U.S. Department of Education

Strategic vocabulary interventions may reduce Special Education referrals and placement.(August, Carlo, Dressler, & Snow,

2005)Funded by U.S. Department of Education

ELLs and Special Education

Lower-Order Skills•Recalling facts•Identifying vocabulary•Creating definitions

Higher-Order Skills•Using language to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate


Is the reading proficiency required to construct the meaning of content-area texts and literature encountered in school.Encompasses the kind of reading proficiencies typically assessed on state-level accountability measures, such as the ability to

make inferences from textlearn new vocabulary from contextlink ideas across texts identify and summarize the most important ideas or content within a text

(Torgesen et al., 2007)


Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA)

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)Sheltered Instruction (SI)


Designed to increase ELLs’ achievement (Chamot & O’Malley, 1996)Integrates: content-area instruction, language development, explicit instruction in learning strategies:

Valuing prior knowledgeLearning important content and language skillsDeveloping language awareness and critical literacyUsing appropriate learning strategiesLearning to work with others in social contextLearning through hands-on, inquiry-based and cooperative skillsIncreasing motivationSelf-assessing learning


•Combines reading comprehension strategy and cooperative learning.•Is effective in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms with struggling readers, ELLs, students with learning disabilities, average, and high-achieving students. •Students work in small heterogeneous groups .


Cooperative groups use 4 reading strategies:

Preview (activate prior knowledge)Click and chunk (monitor comprehension during reading, use strategies to understand)Get the gist (during reading, restate main idea of paragraph or section)Wrap-up (after reading, summarize new information, generate questions)


Peer interaction provides opportunities to use academic language in meaningful communication about academic content (Cazden, 1998; Richard-Amato & Snow, 1992).

Teacher acts as a facilitator.


BEFORE BEFORE READINGREADING

1. Preview• Brainstorm:

What do you know about the topic?

• Predict: What do you think you will learn?

AFTER AFTER READINGREADING

4. Wrap-Up• Ask questions

to check understanding

• Review

DURING READINGDURING READING

2. Click and chunk• Find hard-to-

understand words or word parts (chunk)

• Use strategies to fix chunks.

3. Get the gist• Find the most

important person place or thing

• Identify its importance

•A research-based approach to sheltered lesson planning and implementation•Demonstrated success in improving ELLs’ outcomes•Uses high quality strategies to develop ELLs’ academic English skills while learning grade-level content•Effective for all grade levels across the content areas Funded by U.S. Department of Education

Narrowing the Language Gap:The Case for ExplicitVocabulary Instruction

byKate Kinsella

Save the Last Word :A group reading & discussion strategyAnnotate in an article several passages you

find interesting, intriguing, or confusing. As a group, decide who is person #1, #2,

#3, etc. Person #1 identifies and reads aloud

his/her chosen passage. Persons 2, 3, 4,etc. each make one brief

comment in reaction to the passage. Person #1 gets “the last word” and comments. (Comments should be 1-2 minutes.)

In turn, each member repeats the process until all have read their selected passages.

What Doesn’t WorkLooking up words in the dictionary

Using written context to figure out word meanings

Unplanned, extemporaneous vocabulary teaching.

What does work?Comprehensive vocabulary development

Students learned more through targeted vocabulary instruction

Learning through independent reading often led only to superficial understanding

•Pronounce•Explain•Provide examples•Elaborate•Assess

Teach a manageable amount (3-4) of critical words from a particular sectionDistribute a vocabulary note-taking guidePrompt students to assume an active rolePartner students for focused interaction during instructional process.Students take brief notes filling in omitted content as you provide essential information both verbally and in writing (e.g. on the overhead).Present the word in writing (on the board, overhead, computer).Pronounce the word; have students read and pronounce several times.

Clarify the part of speech; whether it is a high-use word/lesson concept, etc.Provide a synonym (if any) using familiar language. Provide two concrete examples to create mental anchors.Actively engage students by assigning a brief partner application task.Provide a sentence starter to frame their oral responses grammatically and syntactically. Assign a brief writing task to guide students in applying word knowledge to a new context.

Use the Observation Tool to analyze Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

1. Read, Cover, Recite, Check2. Vocabulary Study Cards3. Vocabulary Notebooks (see Handout)

1. Big idea words: related to central concepts2. High-use, widely applicable “academic tool kit” words3. High-use “disciplinary tool kit” words4. Polysemous: multiple meaning, e.g. wave5. Academic words that students need to know to engage in academic discourse

Documents

Vocabulary Instruction. Funded by U.S. Department of Education Source: The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC Research Corporation in partnership