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Four Types of Vocabulary. Listening – Words we understand when others talk to us. Speaking – Words we use when we talk to others. Reading – Words we know when we see them in print (sight words and words we can decode). Writing – Words we use when we write.
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Four Types of Vocabulary Listening – Words we understand when others talk to us. Speaking – Words we use when we talk to others. Reading – Words we know when we see them in print (sight words and words we can decode). Writing – Words we use when we write.
Language Statistics • The number of words heard by children ages 1-3 • Welfare Households – 10 million • Working Class Households – 20 million • Professional Households – 30 million • (Graves & Slater, 1987)
Research on Vocabulary • Vocabulary knowledge is one of the best indicators of verbal ability, reading achievement and success in school. • Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text. • Teaching vocabulary of a selection can improve students’ comprehension of that selection. (Beck, et al. 1992).
Research on Vocabulary • Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict the vocabulary that children learn before beginning school and makes attaining an adequate vocabulary a challenging task. • Disadvantaged students are likely to have substantially smaller vocabularies than their more advantaged peers. (Graves & Slater, 1987).
Research on Vocabulary • Lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students. • Students learn approximately 3,000 to 4,000 words each year, accumulating a reading vocabulary of approximately 18,000 words by the end of elementary school and 40,000 words by the end of high school. (Smith, 1941).
Research on Vocabulary • Some students learn an average of 8 words per day. Others learn as little as one or two. • Words can be known at different levels of understanding. • Directly teaching word meanings does not adequately reduce the gap between students with poor versus rich vocabularies. It is crucial for students to learn strategies for learning word meanings independently. (Miller, 1978).
Research on Vocabulary • The development of strong reading skills is the most effective word learning strategy available. However, those students who are in greatest need of vocabulary acquisition interventions tend to be the same students who read poorly and fail to engage in the amount of reading necessary to learn large numbers of words. [Matthew Effect] (Beck, et al. 2002).
When teaching vocabulary, DO • Teach new subject matter vocabulary in context BEFORE students’ initial reading of the new material. • Explain words in terms of relationships –word families, structural analysis, roots and affixes • Constantly direct students’ attention to the power of words and nuances of meaning
Vocabulary • Implicit vocabulary acquisition • When students engage in rich extensive oral interactions • When students are read to • When students read and discuss what they’ve read • Explicit vocabulary acquisition • Vocabulary activities specifically designed to teach new words
Vocabulary • Explicit vocabulary strategies • Use information and narrative texts • Promote thinking and extend discourse • Encourage use of novel words • Access to print • Semantic mapping • Teach word parts • Teach word origin (older students) • Use graphic organizers
When teaching vocabulary, DO NOT • Rely solely on incidental approaches; but avoid drill. • Teach roots, affixes in isolation. • Make definitions more difficult than the words to be defined. • Forget the different ways of approaching definitions – analogies, synonyms, antonyms, etc.
DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS • Do not give students lists of words to look up in a dictionary under the guise of vocabulary instruction. • This is only dictionary work, not vocabulary instruction. • Students learn the words for the test only.
DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS • Scott and Nagy (1997) report the results of many research studies that show that students cannot use conventional definitions to learn words. • Example from dictionary: redress – set right, remedy. “King Arthur tried to redress wrongs in his kingdom” • Student writes: “The redress for getting well when you’re sick is to stay in bed.”
Dictionary Definitions • Weak Differentiation • Vague Language • A More Likely Interpretation • Multiple Pieces of Information
Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan Three Tiers of Vocabulary Tier One *Rarely require instructional attention *Consist of basic words *Examples: baby, clock, happy, walk, jump, hop, slide, girl, boy, dog
Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan Three Tiers of Vocabulary Tier Three *Made of words whose frequency of use is quite low and often limited to specific domains. *Best learned when a specific need arises *Examples: isotope, lathe, peninsula, refinery
Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan Three Tiers of Vocabulary Tier Two *Contain high frequency words that are found across a variety of domains *Have a powerful impact on verbal functioning *Must be words students have ways to express the meaning of the word. *Examples: coincidence, absurd, industrious, merchant
Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan Three Tiers of Vocabulary Selecting Tier Two Words *Is it a useful word? *Will the student encounter it again? *Does the word relate to other words or ideas? *Will it enhance further learning?
Lesson Plan for Tier Two WordsRead the following third/fourth grade paragraph. Johnny Harrington was a kind master who treated his servants fairly. He was also a successful wool merchant and his business required that he travel often. While he was gone, his servants would tend to the fields and maintain the upkeep of his mansion. They performed their duties happily, for they felt fortunate to have such a benevolent and trusting master. (Kohnke, 2001)
Lesson Plan for Tier Two Words • Work with a partner to do this activity. • Read the paragraph and identify 5 Tier Two words. (Reminder: Tier Two words are words that students should have an understanding of their meaning.) • Make a list of your 5 words and define them using vocabulary that a student would use.
For thousands of years, sinuous strips of bituminous coal have lain beneath the wooded hills and valleys of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Coal lured immigrants to the area in the 1800’s, and helped forge their reputation for hard work and hard living. For generations, men have earned their livelihoods—and all too often have lost their lives—in the mines’ dark confines. (Reader’s Digest, “Nine Alive! Inside the Amazing Mine Rescue”, November 2002, pg. 164)
