Transcript Enhancing Students' Vocabulary Knowledge Beck 2004

Enhancing Students’ Vocabulary Knowledge
Isabel L. Beck
University of Pittsburgh
captivate
enthusiastic
soar
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mesmerize
awe
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What research says about vocabulary?
Which word meanings need to be
taught?
How should word meanings be
introduced?
What are some ways to engage
students with word meanings?
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What I knew about vocabulary research and
instruction before I started studying it
• Vocabulary knowledge is highly
related to reading achievement.
• People have different amounts of
vocabulary knowledge.
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What I didn’t know
The magnitude of “different amounts” of
vocabulary knowledge.
 High-knowledge third graders had
vocabularies about equal to lowestperforming twelfth graders (Smith, 1941).
 Linguistically “poor” first graders knew
5,000 words; linguistically “rich” knew
20,000 words (Moats, 2001).
 Once established, such differences are
difficult to ameliorate (Biemiller, 1999; Hart
& Risley, 1995).
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What else I didn’t know
• There is very little vocabulary instruction in
the schools (Biemiller, 2001; Scott, Jamieson,
& Asselin, 1998; Watts, 1995.)
High vocabulary people not only know
more words, they know more about the
words they know
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An Instructional matter that
made a big impression
•
Which words were selected for instruction.
capable
emanated
familiar
garlic
hurry
odor
peaceful
polite
wonder
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Choosing Words to Teach:
Three Tiers
Tier One:



the most basic words
clock, baby, happy
rarely require instruction in school
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Choosing Words to Teach:
Three Tiers cont…
Tier Three:

words whose frequency of use is quite
low, often limited to specific domains

isotope, lathe, peninsula

probably best learned when needed
in a content area
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Choosing Words to Teach:
Three Tiers cont…
Tier Two:

high-frequency words for mature
language users

coincidence, forlorn, industrious

instruction in these words can add
productively to an individual’s
language ability
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Two of the Most Essential Criteria for
Choosing Tier Two Words
Importance and Utility
Words that are characteristic of ma ture
language users and appear across a variety
of domains.
Conceptual Understanding
Words for which students understand the
general concept but provide precision and
specificity in describing the concepts.
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Word Tier-anny: Where do these fall?
forlorn
ceiling
triumphant
oboe
absurd
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hungry
hostile
corner
colonial
break
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Other instructional matters that
made a big impression
 All words selected for instruction
treated the same
 Typical instruction was limited
Often - only a definition and sentence
or example
 Content of example often dull, ordinary.
Quarrel: an argument, disagreement
The teacher told the boys to stop quarreling.
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So big impressions led to research
Better instruction
• Intermediate grade studies
• Primary grade studies
• What’s better instruction?
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What’s better instruction
 Interesting words with mileage.
 Explanations in everyday connected language,
rather than dictionary definitions.
 Providing several contexts in which a word
can be used.
 Things for kids to do that require them to
process the meanings of words.
 At least some of the examples, situations, and
questions are interesting and less pedantic.
 High frequency of encounters.
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Introducing Vocabulary
How effective are definitions?
Studies that provided dictionary definitions and
asked students to create sentences or answer
brief questions about the words showed:
63 percent of the students’ sentences were
judged to be “odd” (Miller & Gildea, 1985)
60 percent of students’ responses were
unacceptable (McKeown, 1991; 1993)
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Student-friendly explanations tell
what a word means in everyday
connected language
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Dictionary
Friendly
Contagious: able to be
spread by contact
An illness is contagious if
you can catch it easily
from another person who
is sick with it.
Attention: thoughtful care
or kindness
If someone is getting
attention they are being
well-taken care of.
Unexpected: not expected;
surprising
If something is unexpected
you are surprised about it.
Eavesdropping: listening
secretly to a conversation
If you are eavesdropping,
you are listening to what
other people are saying
without them knowing.
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Things for kids to do that require them
to process meaning of words
Sentence E ndings
If you wanted to eavesdrop on
someone in the next room. . .
a) . . . that people on the street
stopped to listen.
The doorbell wasn't audible
from the kitchen. . .
b) . . . you can hear better if you
put your ear up to the keyhole.
Jack answered the phone, but
the din of music and
voices. . .
d) . . . so we didn’t know that the
guests had arrived.
The farmer heard a commotion
outside and then ran out to
find. . .
e) . . . that two puppies had gotten
into the chicken coop.
The serenade that the man
played for his sweetheart was
so beautiful. . .
f) . . . made it hard for him to hear
who was on the other end.
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Things for kidsto do that require them
to process meaning of words
Sentence stems:
The newspaper called Mr. Bowman a
philanthropist because. . . .
I told my teacher I wanted to be a
spectator at the play because. . . .
I scrutinized my mom’s face because. . . .
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At least some of the examples,
situations and activities are fun
Word Lines
How surprised would you be if . . .
1. you saw your friend vault over the moon?
2. your teacher commended you for doing good work?
3. a dog started bantering with you?
4. the mayor urged everyone to leave town?
5. a coach berated his football team for not making a
touchdown?
Least -------------------------------------------------------------------- Most
Surprised
Surprised
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What can be gotten from better
kinds of instruction
Encounters Accuracy RT
Compr
Traditional
4
+
-
-
Traditional
12
+
+
-
Rich
4
+
-
-
Rich
12
+
+
+
McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople
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Most recent big impressions
No evidence of early grades’ school
curricula making a difference
What’s considered vocabulary
development in the early grades
What should the schools do?
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Tradebooks are excellent sources
of Tier 2 words
appropriate
charming
concentrate
forlorn
exhausted
absurd
dignified
exquisite
rambunctious
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Rich Vocabulary Instruction
Each word is contextualized for its
role in the story.
The word's meaning is provided
through student-friendly explanations.
Examples beyond the story context
are provided.
Children are asked to think about
examples and to provide their own
examples.
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Sheepish Tale
sensible: In the story, Fred said “very
sensible” when Monty thought the sign said
“Help prevent forest fires.” If something is
sensible, it is the right thing to do; it makes
sense.
It would be sensible to make
a list of what you need before
going shopping.
...
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Sheepish Tale cont…
 Let’s say it’s raining out--what
would be sensible to do?
 If I said we were going on a long,
long walk and you should wear
sensible shoes, what kind of shoes
would those be?
 What kind of shoes would not be
sensible for a long walk?
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Study 1
To what extent can instruction increase
young children’s knowledge of the
meanings of sophisticated words?
Participants: Poverty District, One School
4 kindergartens
2 experimental
2 control
4 first grades
2 experimental
2 control
22 words from 8 stories
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Compared to a control group there was
learning, both statistically and
educationally. (Beck & McKeown, in press)
There was room for a lot more learning.
We reasoned why there wasn’t more
learning.
So---Study 2: What are the differential
results for varying amounts of instruction?
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Study 2
Participants:
Same poverty district as Study 1,
different school
3 kindergartens
3 first grades
Within subject design
6 words from seven trade books = 42 words
21 words in the “Rich Instruction”
condition
21 words in the “More Rich Instruction”
condition
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Study 2
miserable
immense
leisurely
evade
stranded
necessities
Rich
Inst
x
x
x
x
x
x
More
Rich Inst
x
x
x
Rich Instruction for all 6 words
More Rich Instruction for 3 of the 6 words
21 words in each category
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Percentage of Gains across Instructional Conditions
on Picture Task for First Grade
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
32
30
16
15
2001 Study 1 Rich Instruction
(Experimental Group)
2002 Study 2 Rich Instruction
(Within Subject)
20
10
0
2002 Study More Rich Instruction
(Within Subject)
(Beck & McKeown, in press)
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Is it worth it. . .
needs to be asked in comparisonto what?
• accepting the status quo
NOT AN OPTION
• in relationship to other read-aloud
vocabulary learning.
. . . Let’s see
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Effect on vocabulary learning from
other read aloud studies
• Effects range from 4 % to 40 %
• Why do results range so widely?
Higher learning reported when
Story is repeated at least 3 times
Explanation of the word is included
each time
Word is illustrated in the story
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Different Results for Type of Word

If words are concrete/imageable results are
in upper range (often that means nouns).

In Elley’s (1989) study, children learned 24%
of the nouns and only 6% of the adjectives
and adverbs.

Important to acknowledge the role of
learning not easily pictured and more
abstract words in language development.

In Beck et al. studies, the majority of the
words were adjectives and adverbs.
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Why teach sophisticated words to young
students since they are not likely to
encounter them?
 Actually children who are read to will
encounter the words—after all the words
came from read alouds
 Strong evidence that the earlier word
meanings are acquired the more readily
they are accessed in later life.
 In later texts, knowing some hard words
may allow a steeper vocabulary trajectory.
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How sure am I that
young poverty children can
learn sophisticated words?
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Thank You
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