The Academic Vocabulary Code

1. The Academic Vocabulary Code Words that Shape Societies Dee Gardner Brigham Young University

4. Based on 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report (from Goldenberg, 2008) “…fourth-grade ELLs scored 36 points below non-ELLs in reading and 25 points below non-ELLs in math. The gaps among eighth-graders were even larger—42 points in reading and 37 points in math.” “Whatever the explanation for these achievement gaps, they bode ill for English learners’ future educational and vocational options.” “They also bode ill for society as a whole, since the costs of large-scale underachievement are very high.”

5. Preventing The Fourth-Grade Slump “Students seem to need three kinds of strengths in order to progress to Stage 3 [Reading to Learn]: sufficient knowledge of the meanings of more academic and abstract words, sufficient reasoning ability to understand the more difficult texts, and facility with reading skills—word recognition, and decoding, and fluency.” (Chall, 2000)

6. Academic Vocabulary Knowledge Academic Reading Skills Academic Success Economic Opportunity Societal Well-Being

7. The Gate-keeping Tests of Education are Primarily Tests of Reading Ability By Extension, They are Also Tests of Robust Vocabulary Knowledge

8. ACT GRE UBSCT SAT CRT LSAT GMAT MCAT

9. UBSCT Sample Spiders Centipedes SowBugs.Spraywebsandplaceswherethese pestscrawl. Hitasmanyas possible. Repeatasnecessarystorageand disposalstatementstoragestore inanareainaccessibletochildren andawayfromheatoropenflame disposalthiscontainermaybe recycledinthefewbutgrowingnumberof communitieswhere aerosolcanrecyclingisavailablebeforeofferingfor recyclingempty thecanbyusingtheproductaccordingtothelabeldonot puncture ifrecyclingisnotavailabledonotreuseemptycontainerwrapthe containeranddiscardinthetrashprecautionarystatementshazards to humansanddomesticanimalscautionharmfulifabsorbed throughtheskin keepoutofthereachofchildrenavoid contactwith skineyesandclothing donotremaininenclosedareasafteruse ventilateenclosedareasbefore returningavoidcontaminationof foodremoveplantspetsandbirdsbefore usingcoverandturnoff fishaquariumswashhandsthoroughlywithsoap andwaterafter handlingstatementofpracticaltreatmentifonskinremove with soapandwaterifirritationpersistsseekmedicalattention environmentalhazardsdonotapplydirectlytowaterthispesticide istoxic tofish

10. Consider our English Language Learners’ Vocabulary Development with the End in Mind Academic Literacy

11. “I am currently tutoring children in an orphanage in beautiful Nepal. The children go to a private English-medium school. One of the boys has been placed in remedial classes because of his math. Everyone has assumed that he is slow, but after I started tutoring him I realized that he has no idea what his teachers are saying in his math class (he has BICS, no CALP). I spent time tutoring him in English vocab for math (based on his textbook), and he can finally complete his math homework in less than 4 hours! Now I spend my time writing math-based English materials for him while he's at school. . . If more teachers understood these issues, a lot more ESL/EFL children would be able to succeed in school!” Rachel Wood (BYU TESOL MA Graduate)

12. 95-98% Vocabulary Threshold for Basic Reading Comprehension

13. When we are -------- -----, I ---- that your ---- of the ---------- ------ ------ -------- -------- will be -------* -------, ---------- with ------- to the --------------- ------------ between ------- --------- and ---------- ---------. 44% Word Knowledge

14. When we are -------- today, I ---- that your ---- of the --------- facing ------language -------- will be ------- forever, ---------- with ------- to the ---------- ------------between reading --------- and vocabulary ---------. 63% Word Knowledge

15. When we are finished today, I hope that your view of the --------- facing second language learners will be changed forever, ---------- with ------- to the ---------- relationship between reading abilities and vocabulary knowledge. 88% Word Knowledge

16. When we are finished today, I hope that your view of the challenges facing second language learners will be changed forever, especially with regard to the ---------- relationship between reading abilities and vocabulary knowledge. 97% Word Knowledge

17. Test Question: What kind of relationship exists between vocabulary knowledge and reading abilities?

18. When we are finished today, I hope that your view of the challenges facing second language learners will be changed forever, especially with regard to the reciprocal relationship between reading abilities and vocabulary knowledge. 100% Word Knowledge

19. Richard Anderson: “We found small but highly reliable increments in word knowledge attributable to reading at all grades and ability levels. The overall likelihood ranged from better than 1 in 10 when children were reading easy narratives [fiction] to near zero when they were reading difficult expositions.” (p. 61) Anderson, R. C. (1996). Research foundations to support wide reading. In V. Greaney (Ed.), Promoting reading in developing countries (pp. 55-77). Newark, Delaware:International Reading Association.

20. Sample Fiction TextFrom A Wrinkle in Time Everybody was asleep. Everybody except Meg. Even Charles Wallace, the “dumb baby brother,” who had an uncanny way of knowing when she was awake and unhappy, and who would come so many nights tiptoeing up the attic stairs to her even Charles Wallace was asleep. How could they sleep? All day on the radio there had been hurricane warnings. How could they leave her up in the attic in the rickety brass bed, knowing that the roof might be blown right off the house and she tossed out into the wild night sky to land who knows where? Her shivering grew uncontrollable. You asked to have the attic bedroom, she told herself savagely. Mother let you have it because you are the oldest. Anglo-Saxon Words: 94.4% Greek-Latin Words: 5.6% Academic Word List: 0%

21. Sample Science TextSource: CK-12 Foundation The early earth had no oceans and was frequently hit with meteorites and asteroids. There were also frequent volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions released water vapor that eventually cooled to form the oceans. The atmosphere slowly became more oxygen rich as solar radiation split water molecules and cyanobacteria began the process of photosynthesis. Eventually the atmosphere became like it is today and rich in oxygen. The first complex organisms on earth first developed about 2 billion years ago. Anglo-Saxon Words: 75% Greek-Latin Words: 25% Academic Word List: 6.5%

22. UBSCT Sample Spiders Centipedes SowBugs.Spraywebsandplaceswherethese pestscrawl. Hitasmanyas possible. Repeatasnecessarystorageand disposalstatementstoragestore inanareainaccessibletochildren andawayfromheatoropenflame disposalthiscontainermaybe recycledinthefewbutgrowingnumberof communitieswhere aerosolcanrecyclingisavailablebeforeofferingfor recyclingempty thecanbyusingtheproductaccordingtothelabeldonot puncture ifrecyclingisnotavailabledonotreuseemptycontainerwrapthe containeranddiscardinthetrashprecautionarystatementshazards to humansanddomesticanimalscautionharmfulifabsorbed throughtheskin keepoutofthereachofchildrenavoid contactwith skineyesandclothing donotremaininenclosedareasafteruse ventilateenclosedareasbefore returningavoidcontaminationof foodremoveplantspetsandbirdsbefore usingcoverandturnoff fishaquariumswashhandsthoroughlywithsoap andwaterafter handlingstatementofpracticaltreatmentifonskinremove with soapandwaterifirritationpersistsseekmedicalattention environmentalhazardsdonotapplydirectlytowaterthispesticide istoxic tofish Anglo-Saxon Words: 68.3% Greek-Latin Words: 31.7% Academic Word List: 9.2%

23. The number one problem for ELLs taking the UBSCT, CRT, and UALPA tests is VOCABULARY, in terms of both understanding the instructions and actually comprehending the content of the tests. From Personal Communication with Delia Allan (ELL Liaison and Test Proctor for Nebo School District)

24. What to do? 1. We must care. 2. We must understand the nature of academic vocabulary: what it is, where it’s found, how it’s distinguished from other vocabulary, etc. 3. We must find ways to prioritize the instruction of academic vocabulary. Time is of the essence! 4. We must develop useful tools to aid academic learners and their teachers

25. Finding the Academic Core • University Word List (Xue & Nation, 1984) • Compiled from four small manually- assembled corpora • Resulted in 800 word families (covers 8.5% of academic texts) • Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) • Compiled from a 3.5 million-word corpus • Four major registers (arts, commerce, law, science) • Approximately 875,000 words (tokens) each • Four major registers subdivided into 7 subject areas (28 total) • Words had to occur 100+ times in corpus • Words had to occur 10+ times in each of the four major registers • Words had to occur in 15 or more of the 28 subject areas • Resulted in 570 word families (covers 10% of the academic corpus)

26. New Academic Core--First Iteration (Davies & Gardner, forthcoming) Compiled from 425 million-word Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Nine major academic subregisters:

27. 5. No assumptions about high-frequency words preceding academic core 6. Academic parameter set for PERC of 1.7 in COCA—means a word is 1.7 times as frequent in “academic” as we would expect, based on the fact that “academic” is one-fifth of COCA. 7. Julliand’s D (dispersion) in academic subregisters set for .854 or higher—means words must nicely distribute across the 9 academic subregisters. 8. To eliminate anomalies, words must appear at least 5 times in at least 8 of the 9 academic subregisters. 9. Resulted in 3,074 lemmas (covers 14.5% of the academic corpus) 10. Subsequently grouped into “optional” word families (600 word families)

28. PERC 1.7 | DISP .854 | ----------- Academic Core---------------- ---High Frequency Core--- -----------Academic Specialized---------

30. Word-Family Possibilities accept (v),   acceptance (n),   acceptable (j),   accepted (j), unacceptable (j),   acceptability (n),   unacceptably (r), acceptably (r),   acceptor (n),   unacceptability (n)  human (j),   human (n),humanity (n), humanist (n),   humanist (j),  humanism (n),   humanistic (j),  inhuman (j), humanly (r),   inhumanity (n),   humanness (n) 

31. Heavily Academic Word-Families structure (n),  structural (j),   structure (v),   structured (j), restructuring (n),  restructure (v),   structuring (n),   structurally (r),   unstructured (j),  structuralist (j),   structuralism (n),  restructured (j) modern (j), modernity (n), postmodern (j),  modernization (n), modernist (j),   modernism (n),  postmodernism (n),  modernize (v),   postmodernist (j),  modernist (n),   modern (n), modernized (j),   modernizing (j),   modernizer (n), modernizing (n),   postmodern (n)

32. Screenshot of Word and Phrase – Showing Academic Word Functionality

33. Screenshot of Word and Phrase – Showing Synonyms in Phrases

34. Screenshot of Word and Phrase – Showing Part of Speech Collocates

35. The Academic Vocabulary Code Words that Shape Societies Dee Gardner Brigham Young University