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Vocabulary: Defining Best Practice for

“Vocabulary Intervention”

What’s on our Agenda

Learn about how children acquire

word meanings

Examine research findings on

vocabulary instruction

Discuss scientifically-based

instructional approaches

Develop a Vocabulary Support Plan

What are some ways elementary-

school children learn new

vocabulary?

What are some ways elementary-

school teachers typically teach new

vocabulary?

Is the word

vocabulary in your

vocabulary?

Speaking vocabulary

Listening vocabulary

Reading vocabulary

Writing vocabulary

General vocabulary

Technical vocabulary

Meaning vocabulary

Modality

Domain

1755 Dictionary of the

English Language


English Language

114,000 words


English Language

114,000 words

impertransibility

queck

nould


English Language

2005 Oxford English

Dictionary (3rd ed.)

114,000 words


English Language

2005 Oxford English


114,000 words

660,000+ words

2005 Oxford English


660,000+ words

webcam

cyberphobic

doh

English users follow set rules for

coining new words, thus adding

greatly to the number of potential

words in the language.

The postman likes our street

because it is dogless.

A Vocabulary Challenge

To comprehend what we read, at least

95% of the words must be recognized

automatically.

How is this possible given the number of

words in English?

50K

40K

30K

20K

10K

0

K 12

5,000 •

1,500 •

50K

40K

30K

20K

10K

0

K 12

5,000

1,500

45,000

17,000

Oral vocabulary at the end of first

grade is a significant predictor of

comprehension ten years later.

Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich, K.E. (1997). Early reading

acquisition and its relation to experience and ability 10

years later. Developmental Psychology, 33, 934-945.

Why is a large

vocabulary associated

with good

comprehension?

The Instrumental Hypothesis

Vocabulary aids comprehension by

providing the reader with a tool, or

instrument.

The Knowledge Hypothesis

It’s not so much the words themselves

that help, but the knowledge they

represent.

The Aptitude Hypothesis

Comprehension and vocabulary are

correlated “not because one causes

the other, but because both reflect a

more general underlying verbal

aptitude.” – Stahl & Nagy (2005)

The Access Hypothesis

A larger vocabulary means

a deeper understanding of words

(including nuances of meaning)

quicker access to words in the

lexicon

flexibility in deciding among

multiple meanings

The Reciprocal Hypothesis

Being a better reader

makes it possible for

you to read more

Reading more

gives you a bigger

vocabulary

Having a bigger

vocabulary makes

you a better reader.

Four Obstacles to Acquiring a

Large Vocabulary

1. The number of words in English is very

large.

2. Academic English differs from the kind

of English used at home.

3. Word knowledge involves far more than

learning definitions.

4. Sources of information about words are

often hard to use or unhelpful. – Stahl & Nagy (2005)

How do we learn words

from experiences?

gavagai

An aborigine points to a running rabbit

and says “Gavagai.” Can you infer the

word’s meaning?

Each encounter with a word helps a

child narrow its meaning. For

example, if he next hears the word

gavagai used to refer to a sitting

rabbit, the child will infer that

running is not connected with the

meaning.

Young children learn word meanings

from one-on-one interactions with

parents and siblings. These

interactions may be rich or poor.

Consider two examples based on

Hart and Risley’s (1995) comparison

of families of different socioeconomic

levels.

Do I have to

eat these?

Yeah.

Do I have to

eat these?

Yes, because

they have

vitamins that

will help you

grow and get

stronger.

“Motherese”

What does it mean

to know a word?

A Continuum of Word Knowledge

No knowledge

A vague sense of the meaning

Narrow knowledge with aid of context

Good knowledge but shaky recall

Rich, decontextualized knowledge,

connected to other word meanings

lexicon

That part of long-term memory

devoted to word knowledge

How is a word stored

in the lexicon?

cat

/kat/

c-a-t

cat

/kat/ 4 legs

“meow” c-a-t

pet

cat

/kat/ 4 legs

“meow” c-a-t

animal

pet lion

cat

/kat/

mammal

4 legs

“meow” c-a-t

animal

pet lion

cat

/kat/

dog

mammal

4 legs

“meow” c-a-t

animal

pet lion

Dual Coding Theory

Two systems are involved in learning words.

One contains verbal information, the other non-

verbal (images). When we learn a word, real-

world images that we associate with the concept

are also stored. Accessing a word in the lexicon

therefore involves both the verbal system and

non-verbal (imagery) system.

~ Moral ~

When teaching new words, use pictures and

other images where possible.

cat

/kat/

dog

mammal

4 legs

“meow” c-a-t

animal

pet lion

The Nonverbal

(Imagery) System

New meanings and even new

pronunciations of a word may be

added to a child’s lexicon over time.

produce

próduce

Raw veggies

prodúce

to make

The Vocabulary Catch-22

Children need to learn more words to

read well, but they need to read well to

learn more words.

McKenna, M.C. (2004). Teaching vocabulary to struggling older readers.

Perspectives, 30(1), 13-16.

Perhaps one of the most important

reasons why teachers need to pay

attention to vocabulary is that

vocabulary knowledge is cumulative.

The more words you know, the easier

it is to learn yet more words. – Stahl & Nagy (2005)

What about context

clues?

Four Types of Contexts

1. Directive (provides powerful clues)

“Sue was talkative but Bill was taciturn.”

2. General (helps categorize a word)

“She’d had measles, mumps, and varicella.”

3. Nondirective (offers very little help)

“The dress was taupe.”

4. Misdirective (can be misleading)

“He was huge, muscular, and adroit.”

– Beck & McKeown (2004)

Teaching Students about Context

Remind them that context does

not always provide strong clues.

Remember that many students

may have difficulty making

inferences about words from

context.

Model the process when possible.


How do I know which

words to teach?

Two characteristics that make a word

inappropriate for teaching:

1. We can’t define it in terms that the

students know.

2. The students are not likely to find the

word useful or interesting.


word family

A group of words formed from a

single root word

history

historic

prehistoric

historical

historian

Beck and McKeown’s Three Tiers

Tier 3 • Rare words

• 73,500 word families K-12

• Usually content-area related

• Examples: isotope, estuary

Tier 2 • Important to academic success

• 7,000 word families

• Not limited to one content area

• Examples: fortunate, ridiculous

Tier 1 • The most familiar words

• 8,000 word families

• Known by average 3rd grader

• Examples: happy, go

How intensive should

vocabulary instruction be?

Three Types of Words

To Teach

Graves, M.F. (1986). Vocabulary learning and instruction, In

E.Z.Rothkopf (Ed.), Review of research in education

(Vol. 13, pp. 49-91). Washington, DC: AERA.

1. Words already in the student’s oral

vocabulary, which he or she needs to

learn to recognize in print.

These are words that a child needs to learn to

decode or recognize by sight. (Stahl & Nagy,

2005)

2. Words not in the student’s oral

vocabulary, but which are labels for

concepts already familiar to the student.

The student may need to learn that apologize

means to say one is sorry, or that elaborate means

pretty much the same as complicated. These

words may represent different shades of meaning

from their synonym, but knowledge of the more

frequent synonym will usually get a reader through

a text containing that word. The different shades

will be learned through continued exposure. Less

intensive instruction may suffice. (Stahl & Nagy, 2005)

3. Words not in the student’s oral

vocabulary that refer to concepts new

to the student.

For example, the student may not know the word

osmosis, or feudalism, or exponential. In such a

case, it is not simply a matter of not knowing the

word: The student is likely to be totally unfamiliar

with the concept. In this case, a definition or other

brief explanation is unlikely to help. Rather, a

teacher would need to spend a great deal of time

examining such concepts. (Stahl & Nagy, 2005)

What are some of the

most effective ways of

teaching vocabulary?

Some Research-Based Techniques

Read-Alouds

Semantic Feature Analysis

Graphic Organizers

List-Group-Label

Semantic Maps (word webs)

Word Lines

Word Sorts

Possible Sentences

Where do we start in our schools?

What steps can we take to promote

greater vocabulary growth?

Suggested References Baumann, J.F., & Kame’enui, E.J. (2004). Vocabulary

instruction: Research to practice. New York: Guilford.

Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S.R., & Johnston, F.

Words their way (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Prentice-Hall.

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing

words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New

York: Guilford.

Nagy, W.E. (1988). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading

comprehension. Newark, DE: IRA.

Stahl, S.A. (1999). Vocabulary development. Cambridge,

MA: Brookline Books.

Stahl, S.A., & Kapinus, B.A. (2001). Word power: What

every educator needs to know about teaching

vocabulary. Washington, DC: NEA.

Stahl, S.A., & Nagy, W.E. (2005). Teaching word meanings.

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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