Early Vocab, 2003 1

Bringing Words to Life inKindergarten and First Grade Classrooms

Isabel L. BeckUniversity of Pittsburgh

captivateenthusiastic mesmerize

soar aw e

Early Vocab, 2003 2

Overview of Our Vocabulary Work

• Analysis of basal readers’ vocabulary lessons(1979).

• Development of vocabulary program and studyof effect on comprehension (1980, 1982, 1983).

• Study of effect of type and frequency ofinstruction (1985).

• Conditions of Vocabulary Acquisition (1991)

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• Analysis of dictionary definitions, development ofalternative definitions, and comparison of theireffects (1993)

• Study of students’ ability to learn from context anddevelopment of instructional approach(1999).

• Putting above together for instructionalpurposes—Bringing Words to Life: RobustVocabulary Instruction (2001).

• Design and study of vocabulary instruction forkindergarten and first grade children (inpreparation).

Overview of Our Vocabulary Work cont.

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What is vocabulary developmentin the early grades?

In practice “vocabulary” often means

• sight word instructiongive, have, were

• pronunciation of words with new or hard spellingpatterns

pour, head, how

There is great need for instruction• that adds the meanings of new words to children’s

word storesabsurd, commotion, immense

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• for the most part not words from the texts that youngchildren read

• words from books that are read to children

• teacher’s (other adult) language

Sources of Words for Vocabulary Developmentin the Early Grades

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The specific questions intwo very recent studies:

• To what extent can instruction increaseyoung children’s knowledge of themeanings of sophisticated words (Study 1)?

• Are there differential results for varyingamounts of instruction (Study 2)?

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• also labeled Tier 2 words

• new words not common to young children’soral language

• high-frequency words for mature languageusers

absurd, commotion, reluctant

• mature or more precise labels for conceptsyoung children have under control

• words more typically found in written language

What are sophisticated words?

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Why vocabulary instruction is needed

• High-knowledge third graders had vocabulariesabout equal to lowest-performing twelfth graders(Smith, 1941).

• Linguistically “poor” first graders knew 5,000words; linguistically “rich” knew 20,000 words(Moats, 2001).

• Once established, such differences are difficult toameliorate (Biemiller, 1999; Hart & Risley, 1995).

This is clearly very bad news!

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Early Vocab, 2003 10

What’s the present situation ofvocabulary instruction in the schools?

Why may this not be bad news?

What should the schools do?

What did we do?

How did we address the present situation invocabulary instruction in schools?

A More Cheerful Perspective

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Text Talk

A read-aloud approach to enhance children’scomprehension and vocabulary acquisition.

• Introducing the story• Stopping and asking open questions• Following up childrens’ response (e.g.

rereading, revoicing)• Strategic use of pictures• Wrapping up• Vocabulary

Context for the Present Studies

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Tradebooks are excellent sources ofsophisticated words

appropriatecharming

concentrateforlorn

exhaustedabsurd

dignifiedexquisite

rambunctiousleisurely

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Two kinds of vocabulary interactions

During readingOn the spot brief explanations to forestallcomprehension problems:

- exquisite means very very beautiful- forlorn means to be very sad

After story vocabulary developmentDirect, rich, lively instruction of several story words

- direct means explaining meaning- rich means requires processing- lively means “not boring”

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sensible: In the story, Fred said “verysensible” when Monty thought the sign said“Help prevent forest fires.” Preventing forestfires would be sensible. If something issensible, it is the right thing to do; it makessense.Let’s say the word together: sensibleSomething sensible is safeto do or good to do. Like itwould be sensible to makea list of what you needbefore going shopping.

Sheepish Tale

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Sheepish Tale cont…

• Let’s say it’s raining out--what wouldbe sensible to do?

• If I said we were going on a long, longwalk and you should wear sensibleshoes, what kind of shoes would thosebe?

• What kind of shoes would not besensible for a long walk?

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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 toprovide their own examples.

Text TalkRich Vocabulary Instruction

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Participants:Poverty DistrictOne school

4 kindergartens2 experimental2 control

4 first grades2 experimental2 control

Study 1

To what extent can instruction increase youngchildren’s knowledge of the meanings ofsophisticated words?

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Study 1

Complete data for 98

24 experimental kindergartners22 control

28 experimental first graders24 control

Word sources

22 words from 8 stories

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Early Vocab, 2003 20

Informally maintained

After kind of introduction exemplified forsensible. . .

teachers encouraged to post words andrecord use.

teachers encouraged to use words.

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Compared to a control group there was learning,both statistically and educationally.

There was room for a lot more learning.

We reasoned why there wasn’t more learning.

So---Study 2

Are there differential results for varyingamounts of instruction?

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Study 2Participants:Same poverty district as Study 1, different school

3 kindergartens3 first grades

Within subject designChildren were introduced to 42 words from seventrade books.

21 words in the “Rich Instruction” condition21 words in the “More Rich Instruction” condition

Complete data for 40 first grade children.

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Study 2

All words received Rich Instruction as exemplifiedfor sensible (Sheepish Tale).

Words in the More Rich Instruction conditionreceived MORE of the same kind of instruction(distributed across several days).

Six words selected from 7 trade books.Each word in a set of six words was randomlyassigned to one of the two conditions:

- Rich Instruction- More Rich Instruction

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Rich Instruction for all 6 words

More Rich Instruction for 3 of the 6 words

Amos and BorisRichInst

MoreRich Inst

miserable ximmense xleisurely xevade x xstranded x xnecessities x x

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Rich Instruction for immense(Amos and Boris)

• Word contextualized for its role in the story.

• Meaning of the word explained.

• Examples in contexts other than the one in thestory were provided.

Children are asked to think about examples.

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More Rich Instruction

Conceptually the same as Rich Instruction

• What might be good about having animmense book bag?What might be a problem about having animmense book bag?

• Why might someone describe abasketball player’s shoes asimmense?

• Which new word does supersize make youthink of?

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Students who received more“rich instruction” showedmore than twice the gainsthan students who received“rich instruction”.

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Some Questions and Answers

Are the results accurate?

Is it worth it?

Why didn’t children learn more words?

Where does this all leave us?

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First Grade Verbal Tasks

1st Grade Question Yes Question No Definition Yes Definition NoAmos & Boris

miserable If you missedgoing to apartybecause youhad the flu…would youfeelmiserable?

If your teamwon its firstgame…would youfeelmiserable?

Doesmiserablemean feelingveryunhappy?

Doesmiserablemean feelingvery excited?

Immense What if yousawsomethingthe size of anelephant…would it beimmense?

What is yousawsomethingthe size of anant… would itbe immense?

Doesimmensemean verybig?

Doesimmensemean veryhappy?

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Comparison of Pre & Post Picture Task and Verbal Task on all words for Kindergarten and

1st Grade (Study 2)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Pre Kdg. Post Kdg. Pre 1st Post 1st

Verbal

Picture

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Adapted from Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998

Source Rare words per 1,000Newspapers 68Adult books 52Children’s books 31Television shows 21Adult conversation(college graduates)

17

Examples of words at about the rank of 10,000:

nation aliasnarrow robust

Examples of words in the top (i.e., most frequent) 1,000:

fish nearflood voiceshot

What are good sources of rare words?

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Effects reported in studies range from 4% to 40%

Repeated reading or direct explanation is needed

Greater effects occur if:

• word is repeated in story• word is pictured• word is a noun− 24% of nouns learned− 6% of verbs and adjectives learned

Effects vary widely depending on the story:

• 4% - 15% if words are not explained

• 15% - 40% if words are explained

Effects of Reading Aloud on Vocabulary Learning

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So Why Don’t Children Learn More Words?

Learning words that are not typically part of orallanguage is difficult.

Much evidence that it takes lots of repetitions tolearn new words.

It is not surprising that learning not easily picturedwords and non nouns is most difficult.

What the role of learning not easily pictured andnon nouns in language development?

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Word Learning may get more efficientas Vocabulary Grows

There is evidence that the more words oneknows the more words one learns.

This may have to do with interrelationshipsamong words.

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Where does this all leave us?

Children learned a modest but significantamount of the words

• children who are not surrounded bylanguage rich environments can and dolearn sophisticated words

Additional instruction did not reach the pointof diminishing returns

6 words is not too many per week

. . . .but what else did they learn??