Vocabulary

“The essence of vocabulary learning is regarded as associating the meanings of new words with their pronunciations in memory.” (Ehri & Rosenthal, 2007).

My definition: Vocabulary is the working knowledge that students have of words, their meanings, and their uses across different contexts, both in reading and in writing.

Receptive vocabulary: vocabulary that one can understand

Expressive vocabulary: vocabulary that one can use

Shedd, 2008e

Stages of Vocabulary Learning (how a word is learned)

1.                  No knowledge of the word

2.                  General sense of the word

                    o       Usually restrictive to connotative associations

3.                  Narrow, context-bound knowledge

                    o       The ability to use a word in one specific context, but not able to use it outside of that context

4.                  Knowing the word but not always able to recall it for use in all appropriate situations

5.                  Rich knowledge of a word’s meaning

                    o       Ability to decontextualize it and use it for a variety of purposes

                    o       Also knowing it’s relationship to other words and metaphorical uses

Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987

Shedd, 2008e

How Vocabulary is Learned in the Classroom

• Students learning specific words
  • Direct instruction on specific words, their meanings and possible contexts for them
  • Exposure to new words through discussion, writing, reading, etc.
  • A combination of both
  • Students need to know more words than can be directly taught
    • Factors in selecting words for direct instruction:
      • How well students know the words already
      • Importance of a word in the curriculum
      • Importance of the word in larger contexts
      • How much the word is related to other words to be taught
  • Important to teach students how to learn words without direct instruction
• Students learning how to learn words- developing vocabulary strategies
  • Contextual analysis- determining word meaning from the context around the word
  • Morphological analysis- figuring out the meaning of a word through word parts, root, affixes, etc.
  • Lexical resources- use of dictionaries, thesauruses, etc. to determine word meaning
• Word consciousness- great interest in and awareness of words
  • Students should be able to notice when they hear or read an unfamiliar word
  • Wanting to know the meaning of that word
  • Interest in words, ways to play with words, ways in which words are related
  • Teachers should demonstrate enthusiasm for learning new words

Graves, 2006

Shedd, 2008e

• Written language provides a much broader exposure to new vocabulary than oral language
  • More detailed language is needed in written text to convey meaning than in oral language, which also has the benefit of facial expressions and other cues
  • Wide reading and exposure to many different texts helps build vocabulary knowledge
• Activities that encourage word learning:
  • Listing synonyms or antonyms of the word, creating sentences using that word, listing other forms of the word (relates to morphology), identifying Greek or Latin roots of words that can make indications about meaning, draw pictures describing the word, show how the word is related to other words, select important words from a text that are unfamiliar or are crucial to understanding the text
  • These activities also help to develop word consciousness

Yopp & Yopp, 2007

Issues for SLLs

• These students are often still developing their vocabulary in their first language when English is introduced to them and they are forced to develop vocabulary in that language as well
• However, vocabulary knowledge in one language can help to build it in another
  • Knowing a particular word in one language means that the concepts or associations with that word are already developed
  • Words in one language can give clues to the meaning in another (ex: luna in Spanish for lunar in English, gentil in French for gentle in English)
  • Keep in mind that some of these word cognates between languages are not really cognates
• Specific issues:
  • Developing academic vocabulary will be more difficult than informal vocabulary, just as it is for native English speaking students
  • Idioms and other figures of speech can be particularly confusing, ex: “Let the cat out of the bag,” makes sense to someone who knows English to mean revealing a secret, but there is no way other than direct explanation for an SLL to realize this meaning
  • Multiple meaning words can also cause confusion

Shedd, 2008e

MLPP Known Words Assessment

This assessment for emerging readers and writers asks the child to write names of basic vocabulary that should be known at a young age - names of family members, colors, animals, numbers, and then generally asks them to write down any other words they know. The assessment is meant to test their early basic vocabulary.

Michigan Department of Education Early Literacy Committee, 2001

 3rd Grade Fall Vocabulary Assessment

This assessment uses words that intend to test 3rd grade vocabulary, however the concept can be adapted for almost any grade just by changing the words used. It asks the student to color code the words based on whether they know the meaning of the given word, generally have an idea of the meaning of the word, or don't know the word at all. After color coding the words, the child is then asked to write or draw a definition for the words they do know to demonstrate that they do in fact know those words.

Scholastic Printables 5th Grade Vocabulary Assessment

I used this assessment as part of my Child Study project for TE 301. This vocabulary assessment was one part of a larger reading assessment from the Printables service that includes phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. The vocabulary portion of the assessment asks the student for each question to choose from four words the best word that fills in the blank in a provided sentence. Generally knowledge of word meanings as well as contextual knowledge and the ability to draw on context to determine word meaning are used here. As the vocabulary assessment specifically could not be removed from the entire reading assessment until printed the URL for this whole assessment is included here: Diagnostic Placement Test: Grade 5 (Reading). The vocabulary assessment can be found by scrolling down to page 4 in the small window viewer. This same assessment can also be found in Scholastic Printables for 4th and 6th grades.

Resources

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

Diagnostic Placement Test: Grade 5 (Reading). Retrieved November 24, 2008, from Scholastic printables: http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?id=27989&No=48&_TL=QF&N=370+1233+52&Nty=0&_N=1233+370+1212 

Ehri, L.C., & Rosenthal, J. (2007). Spellings of words: A neglected facilitator of vocabulary learning. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(4), 389-409.

Graves, M.F. (2006). The vocabulary book. New York: Teachers College Press.

Michigan Department of Education Early Literacy Committee. (2001). Michigan Literacy Progress Profile. Lansing, MI: Department of Education.

Shedd, M. (2008). More letter-sound knowledge, vocabulary, and morphology. Presentation for TE 301 (e), East Lansing, Michigan.

Strickland, D., & Snow, C. (2002). Preparing our teachers: Opportunities for better reading instruction. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Yopp, H.R., & Yopp, H.K. (2007). Ten important words plus: A strategy for building word knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 157-160.