0% found this document useful (0 votes)
80 views15 pagesBest Practices in Vocabulary
This chapter discusses the significance of effective vocabulary instruction, emphasizing the need for social justice, equity, and emotional learning in teaching diverse student populations. It presents evidence-based practices for vocabulary teaching and highlights the challenges posed by changing demographics and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have exacerbated existing educational inequities. The chapter concludes with best practices for vocabulary instruction, including fostering classroom communities and promoting word consciousness among students.
Uploaded by
antoniaCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
80 views15 pagesBest Practices in Vocabulary
This chapter discusses the significance of effective vocabulary instruction, emphasizing the need for social justice, equity, and emotional learning in teaching diverse student populations. It presents evidence-based practices for vocabulary teaching and highlights the challenges posed by changing demographics and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have exacerbated existing educational inequities. The chapter concludes with best practices for vocabulary instruction, including fostering classroom communities and promoting word consciousness among students.
Uploaded by
antoniaCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
Best Practices in Vocabulary Instruction
Kathy Ganske
THIS CHAPTER WILL:
u Highlight what we know about vocabulary teaching and learning
= Explain the importance of vocabulary instruction that considers social jus-
tice and equity and social and emotional learning needs.
= Present evidence-based practices for teaching vocabulary, including aca-
demic vocabulary
= Consider future directions for vocabulary teaching, learning, and research
INTRODUCTION
The importance of vocabulary knowledge for readers’ comprehension and
success in school and beyond has long and widely been recognized. Unfor-
tunately, importance and long recognition do not always translate into
action, as borne out by evidence that suggests that vocabulary instruction
may not be addressed, or at least not effectively, in primary and middle
schoo] classrooms (e.g., Carlisle, Kelcey, & Berebitsky, 2013; Lawrence,
White, & Snow, 2010). This is not a new problem; lack of attention to
vocabulary development has been documented for decades (see McKeown,
Crosson, Moore, & Beck, 2018). However, changes in demographics and
added challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic make it now
more urgent than ever for teachers to be prepared to develop the vocabulary
of diverse populations of learners and in ways that welcome and encourage
students’ active engagement explore the why and how
of these matters. EVIDENCE-BASED BEST PRACTICES: PREPARING FOR 21ST-CENTURY
POST-COVID VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
When we ponder best practices to promote students’ vocabulary know!l-
edge, we must consider not only what the process entails but also contexts,
such as changing demographics and a pandemic, that can influence the
teaching and learning. We begin with the latter.
‘Taking Stock of Current Contexts
Demographics
According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, in 2017
over $6 million children attended schools in the United States, the vast
majority of which were public schools, with suburban schools outnumber-
ing rural and urban. Chen, Furuya, Harwin, and Herold (2021) examined
a decade of prepandemic NCES data for 30,000 suburban schools in the
nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas to identify enrollment trends. Their
findings reveal a dramatic increase in the diversification of populations
of suburban schools and an increase in free- and reduced-lunch eligibility
{from 30 to 40%). Data also show inereased numbers of English learners
{ELs) in public schools, with Spanish as the language in over 75% of the
homes. Besides these changing demographics, over the past 2 years, the
context for teaching and learning vocabulary has been made more chal-
lenging by the crisis of a global pandemic (as well as natural disasters) that
at the time of this writing, has been a threat for nearly 3 years,
COV1D-19 Pandemic
The pandemic has intensified inequities that many students experience
and widened the gaps in opportunity access, achievement, and outcomes
(Office for Civil Rights, 2021). Time for learning has suffered as well as
quality, as suggested by a 2020 national survey that revealed that a fifth
of the districts surveyed reported being in a “pandemic holding pattern”
(p..2) related to new skills being taught. As the 2020-2021 school year pro-
gressed, instructional time increased and more students received in-person
instruction—however, Latinx, Black, and Asian students were less likely
to be enrolled in such contexts (p. 2). For ELs, children with disabilities,
and others, the absence of access to in-school services during portions of
the pandemic exacerbated the challenges of learning. The situation for stu-
dents was further intensified by other limited educational opportunities
thar include the resources available to children, before- and after-school
experiences, preschool ns at home and within
the neighborhood. The notes that More than a year of “staggering” loss, grief, isolation, and uncertainty has
taken a toll on many students’ mental health, compounding the challenges
students face in the classroom, whether online or in person. [p. 2)
‘The stress of learning in the time of 2 pandemic is evidenced in the
results of a nationwide random-sample survey of some 2,561 parents of
children < 18 years of age. They reveal concerns about children’s (1) poten-
tial loss of academic learning: 60%, (2) social connections: 60%, and (3)
emotional well-being: 59% (Pew Research Center, 2020), Other surveys
highlight similar apprehensions.
Taking Stock of the Word-Learning Task
Vocabulary knowledge serves as the lynchpin between word recognition
and comprehension (Perfetti & Stafura, 2014). Readers who know more
words are better at learning new words and they learn the words better,
gaining an understanding of not only word meanings but also of word fea-
tures, such as sounds and spellings, morphology, and syntax. This knowl-
edge interconnects with the reader's personal experiences, resulting in
high-quality word representations that reflect information associated with
multiple situations and concepts and the learner's broader knowledge. For
example, consider the word devour, which means to “eat up or consume
greedily” (see Figure 11.1), For me, the word evokes associations with sev-
etal experiences: a childhood memory of our family dog chowing down his
food while a kitten sat just inches away; a Jurassic Park movie in which one
dinosaur makes a meal of another; eating a chocolate ice-cream cone after
a long and sweltering bike ride; and even immersing myself in a fascinating
new book, such as Stuart Brown's (2010) Play: How It Shapes the Brain,
Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. The integration of these
robust meaning connections with my knowledge of the word’s features
facilitate my retrieval and application of the word in different situations.
Unfortunately, not all children experience the kind of success cycle
just described, Limited vocabulary knowledge of the kind used in school
and needed for academic success can be problematic for students (Graves,
August, & Mancilla-Martinez, 2013; Hart & Risley, 1995), as can lime
ited exposure to this kind of language outside of school, Without academic
vocabulary knowledge, accessing academic content can be difficult or even
impossible. Even words and phrases like nevertheless, because, and for
example that connect sentence parts, can lead to comprehension break-
downs,
Various terms have been used to describe academic vocabulary, Gen-
eral and Tier 2 often refer to words that cross disciplines, such as evidence,
justify, and confer. Domain specific and Tier 3 describe content-specific
words, such as triangle, calculate, and habitat. Domain-specific words are frequently highlighted in content text and, therefore, are more likely to be
taught than general academic vocabulary (GAV). Yer, the importance of
the latter for content learning can be seen in the fact that of the 570 GAV
words on a well-known list of academic vocabulary (Coxhead, 2000), each
of the first 60 words occurs about once in every 4.3 pages of academic text
(p. 228). It is hardly surprising that there is interest in developing this type
of vocabulary knowledge, even in the early grades and preschool (Barnes,
Grifenhagen, & Dickinson, 2021),
How Big Is the Task?
The sheer number of words children are exposed to during their school-
ing complicates the task of learning words, especially for children with
limited vocabulary knowledge. Estimates as to the number of words vary
depending on the method used for counting the words. Typically, counts
are based on word families, soa “word” such as define also includes defini-
tion, defining, redefined, definable, undefined, and numerous other forms
of the word, Word counts of this type usually range from about 88,000
ro 180,000 words, including proper nouns, multiple meanings, and idi-
oms (Anderson & Nagy, 1992), When big data sets of curricular materials
across grades and pubishers. are used, the result is much greater (Fitzgerald, Elmore, Kung, & Stenner, 2017). Differences aside, the number is stagger-
ing and the task is a momentous one,
An even bigger challenge than estimating how many words children
will face during their schooling may be estimating the number of words
children learn. Drawing on a wealth of research, Graves (2016) estimates
that linguistically advantaged children may start first grade with oral
vocabularies of about 10,000 words and graduate high school with reading
and oral vocabularies of about 50,000 words. By contrast, the vocabularies
of linguistically less-advantaged children may be about half of these sizes.
This is a concern given thar differences in vocabulary tend to persist and
vocabulary knowledge in first grade can predict reading achievement in
middle and high school, Graves further posits that to learn 50,000 words
by 12th grade children need to learn some 3,000-4,000 words a year from
kindergarten to 12th grade, a tall order considering that children actually
learn about 3,000 words each year, Although first graders typically know
some 3,000 word families/root words, acquisition tapers off in the upper
grades to about 13,000 by the end of high school. On a bright note, chil-
dren seem to learn far more words than we teach them, which suggests thar
they are also incidentally learning words in a variety of contexts—through
book reading, talk and discussion in school, electronic media, conversa-
tions out of school with friends and family, and so forth,
What Does it Mean to Know a Word?
Defining what it means to Anow a word is a bit complicated because word
knowledge is multifaceted. It is net about just knowing a definition: There
is breadth of knowledge (number of words for which you know at least one
meaning) and depth of knowledge (number of words for which you know
various meanings} Our understanding of a word develops incrementally:
Over time, we deepen our knowledge as we learn additional meanings and
nuances.
Many conceptualizations of word knowledge focus on either breadth
or depth—however, Cronbach's (1942) five dimensions (see Table 11.1) cap-
ture both, including understanding of individual and multiple meanings
and appropriate use of the word both receptively—listening and reading—
and productively—speaking, and writing. Multiple-mcaning knowledge
is particularly important because polysemons words, those with multiple
meanings, make up 70% of same 9,000 words deemed essential for elemen-
tary students to know (Johnson, Moc, & Baumann, 1983).
Other scholars have also developed means for describing vocabulary
knowledge, Dale's (1965) self-reporting scale—never saw the word before,
beard of the word, vague idea of the word meaning, could define and use
the word—captures the incremental nature of word learning and still is often
used by students to assess their knowledge of vocabulary prior to a unit of TABLE 11.1, Cronbach's Five Dimensions of What It Means to Know a Word
Dimension Demonstrated trait Example of knowledge use
Generalization Define the word. “Tattoo: a permanent mark on the skin
made by pricking or scarring.”
Application Use the word “The sailor had an anchor tattoo on
correctly of define its his right arm.”
COrrect usage,
Breadth Know multiple “Two other meanings for tattoo are a
meanings for a dram or bugle signal that calls soldiers
word, and sailors back to camp, and to beat
or tap rhythmically.”
Precision Know when, and “My brother's nervous tapping on.
when not, to use a the table was like a tattoo, but you
word, probably wouldn't say the siren wailed
like a tattoo, because it's constant."
Availability Apply the word in “We could plan to include a tattoo
discussions and when the band gets to the cemetery on
thinking. Memorial Day,”
Nore. From (lili (2012). Copyright 2012 by The Guilford Press. Reprinted by permission,
study, Variations on this tool, as well as other characterizations of what it
means to know a word, exist, Nation (2004) highlighted receptive and pro-
ductive skills critical for language minority students’ vocabulary learning,
They know the word's form (pronunciation, spelling, and word parts); its
meaning, including associations with other words; and its use (such as gram-
matical functions, other words used with the word, and when and how it's
used),
In sum, in light of the contexts and the task, we can conclude that vocab-
ulary teaching and learning must be engaging and systematically support
students’ risk taking and confidence building. The number of interactions
students will need to “own” words—namely, to be able to use them readily
and appropriately—will depend on the students’ interests and the meaning-
ful nature of the interactions. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that exposure to
the words in multiple contexts and through differing perspectives is key.
BEST VOCABULARY PRACTICES IN ACTION
In this section, we explore five best practices that can be leveraged to
advance children’s vocabulary knowledge. They are (1) classroom com-
munities; (2) interactive read-alouds, enactment, and nonverbal aids; (3) morphology and cognates; (4) context clues; and (5) integration of vocabu-
lary instruction. The listing is not meant to be exhaustive but rather to
provide a solid foundation for developing vocabulary knowledge.
Classroom Communities
Because children learn most words incidentally, and classrooms are spaces
in which this can occur, classroom environments must support, value, and
encourage vocabulary learning. Social miliew, expectancy, and value are
traits of classroom communities (Brophy, 2008) and qualities that support
and promote children’s vocabulary knowledge and language learning. In
such classrooms, students feel part of a social fabric yet have some auton-
omy and competence. Tasks are at “just right” levels of challenge to enable
students to feel they have the power to improve over time, Furthermore,
when activities are interesting and students know why they are engaging in
them, students are motivated and value the learning.
Language, the primary means by which we cultivate and share under-
standings, is critical in the development of students’ thinking and in the
development of classroom communities and vocabulary knowledge, The
quality of teacher talk has been associated with student learning, including
vocabulary learning (e.g., Barnes et al., 2021; Denton, 2016). Furthermore,
quantity of talk matters: Increases in student talk, with attendant decreases
in teacher talk, have also been associated with greater student learning
(Nystrand, Wu, Gamoran, Zeiser, & Long, 2003), Ford-Connors and Para-
rore (2015) found a number of direct and indirect benefits for discussion
and instructional conversations, among them opportunities for students to
hear and use target words in real contexts and for student interactions that
promote word learning and conceptual understanding.
Word consciousness or awareness of and interest in words may be
considered another important part of a comprehensive program to develop
vocabulary knowledge and a way to foster.a sense of community. In word-
conscious classrooms, teachers promote engagement in words by drawing
attention to interesting language and by providing opportunities, activ-
ities, and materials. for students to play with words and heighten their
appreciation of language, Fascinating words like flibbertigibber (a silly,
scatterbrained or talkative person) or coddiwomple (to travel in a pur-
poseful manner to a vague destination); unusual pronunciations and spell-
ings (e.g. qweue: /kyoof}; a personal connection (spoke: “That's what's
on my bicycle!” as one first grader suddenly realized); and word play:
puns, idioms, oxymora, metaphors, palindromes, riddles, jokes, and so
‘on can pique interest and curiosity in words. Teaching about word ori-
gins and changes in meaning across time is yet another way to develop
word consciousness, One of my first experiences with this aspect of word consciousness was with the word sebool, which originally meant “leisure,”
an awareness that stuns many intermediate-grade students. A recent per-
sonal discovery relates to quarantine, a word with origins in the 1300s and
the Black Death, a plague that wiped out nearly 30% of Europe's popula-
tion, The word comes from the Italian quaranta giorni, a phrase meaning
“40 days,” referencing the time period that ships isolated on islands to stop
the spread of che plague before passsengers were allowed to come ashore,
Thave found that once students develop some word consciousness they
tend to ask more questions about unfamiliar words, enjoy sharing favorite
words, monitor their reading and talk for interesting uses of language, and
feel a sense of empowerment for learning. Their metalinguistic awareness
helps them to better understand word meanings in context through the use
of morphological, syntactic, and semantic clues and to further appreciate
language when reading and writing.
Similarly, classroom climates that value reading can promote vocabu-
lary development. Teachers of young children who value reading are likely
to read aloud more. In the case of older students, how much students read
can contribute significantly to growth in both their vocabulary and gen-
eral knowledge, though a word of caution: Many adolescents don’t like to
read and don’t read enough to affect vocabulary growth (Pord-Connors &
Paratore, 2015, Graves, 2016). This suggests that to leverage vocabulary
development through incidental learning, teachers of older students: must
be able to motivate readers.
Interactive Read-Alouds, Enactment, and Nonverbal Aids
High-quality interactive read-alouds can have a positive impact on young
children’s vocabulary knowledge, while also contributing to a class's sense
of community, During the reading teachers model and engage students
in higher-level thinking. They ask questions to prompt discussion about
vocabulary and comprehension, define words, and reread the rext (Wasik,
Hindman, & Snell, 2016). Bicmiller and Boote (2006) found that rereading
the same story led to a 12% increase in children’s understanding of target
vocabulary, and adding direct explanations of meanings during the read-
ing increased vocabulary 22%. Props, retellings, and extension activities
are sometimes add-ons to the read-aloud. Books need to be sophisticated
enough to afford teaching 5-10 words, When this is not the case, sophisti-
cated words can be incorporated, McGee and Schickendanz (2007) suggest
ways to define words; (1) a short phrase that illustrates the meaning (shy
means he's “tricky” and “sneaky"), (2) pointing to illustrations for clues,
(3) enactment through gestures or body movement, (4) voice expression
(ehined, pleaded), and (5) reading pace (“reading fast to show her words
gushed”), The quality of the intcractions matters because talk abour the text, both during the reading and at other times, has been shown to affect
children’s growth in receptive vocabulary knowledge more than the num-
ber of reading events (Roberts, Jurgens, & Burchinal, 2005), Read-alouds
should be a staple of the literacy diet in early-grade classrooms and, | would
argue, in ary classroom.
Reading, enactment, explicit instruction, and even the arts, can be
combined as a means for advancing students’ vocabulary knowledge in a
fun way, Such was the case during a summer reading program with ris-
ing first- and second-grade ELs from a low-performing school, who were
taught sophisticated vocabulary (Giineke & Lawson-Adams, 2021), Aca-
demic vocabulary was substituted for certain words in a script adaptation
of Maurice Sendak’s (2012) Where the Wild Things Are. A sample excerpt
follows [emphasis added};
STORYTELLER 1; Once upon a time ina far, far away place... Maxine was
making mischief in her wolf suit... .
MorHer: Maxine, you area wild thing!
MaXINE: Watch out! | am going to devowr you [“eat you up" |! Yum! Yum!
The approach afforded the children many meaningful interactions
with the words and explicit instruction. For the latter, children saw the
spellings, called our the lecters, viewed images that depicted the words’
meanings (see Figure 11,1), and enacted the meanings of target words
with large and/or smal! gestures. During the dramatization portions of
the day, children followed along as the script was read aloud, learned
their parts, and performed for family, teachers, and friends. The activities
enhanced student motivation and reinforced the vocabulary-learning value
of drama-based activities and nonverbal aids, such as images and gestures
(Rowe, Silverman, & Mullan, 2013; Toumpaniari, Loyens, Mavilidi, &
Paas, 2015),
Morphology and Cognates
Being able to identify and understand the morphemes (prefixes, suffixes,
and roots) that comprise multisyllabic words is another useful stranegy for
developing students’ vocabulary knowledge, including struggling readers
and bilingual students (e.g., Goodwin & Ahn, 2013). Students can really
leverage this approach since abour 60% of the nearly 90,000 words they
encounter can be understood with morphology (Nagy & Anderson, 1984).
Instruction in morphology should begin with morphemic units that
are more transparent and of higher frequency—for example, the prefixes
in wntie, redo, and incorrect are obvious and are attached to base words,
making the reader’s task of understanding the new words a fairly casy ‘one. By contrast, consider that the prefix in- is also found in frregelar and
inamobile but a spelling change masks the identity of each word, resulting
in a less-apparent meaning connection. The nine prefixes and several suf-
fixes shown in Table 11.2 comprise 76% of all prefixed words and 80% of
all suffixed words (White, Sowell, & Yanagihara, 1989), These are well
worth students knowing. Yet, when White et al., tested chird-and fourth-
grade students, they found thar just 63% of them knew even the most
common prefix wv-, A small set of Greek and Latin roots (14 total) also
hold much potencial for enabling students to understand unfamiliar words:
They can be combined with other morphemes to create 100,000 words
(Brown, 1947)—however, it is important to note that these roots can be
quite opaque—for example, sist means to “stand,” “endure,” or “persist,”
as in resistant (which literally means to “be in a state to persist again”),
The meaning connections are even less evident when the spelling for sist
changes to stat, sta, and stan, Yet, even with their potential to be complex,
roots are an important tool students should learn when they are ready for
the challenge. Root study can begin with those thar are more transparent,
such as audio, bio, phon, vis, and the like.
Affixes and roots should be explicitly taught. Word webs are excellent
for this. The prefix, suffix, or root targeted for instruction is written in the
center, with student-generated words that include the affix or root added to
the web as shown in Figure 11.2. Teachers should discuss any noncxamples
(such as weite for wn-) thar may be suggested, as well as relevant meaning
connections. For instance, in the Figure 11,2 example, students might be
invited to explain the connection of tri to triangle (a shape or object that
has three angles), This talk often arouses curiosity that leads to talk of
words, as trident and the fact that dent means “tooth” (dental, dentist),
so trident literally means “three teeth,” a good name for a three-pronged
TABLE 11.2. Power-Packed Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefix Suffix i
wr (not, apposite of) of, ne
re- (hack, again) od
int, dem, dl, ir» (not) -iny
dis- \opposite of oly
en, ent- (put into}
