A Way With Words: Strategies for Vocabulary Development

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A Way With Words Strategies for Vocabulary
Development

• Lydia H. Soifer, Ph.D., Director,
• Soifer Center for Learning and Child Development
• lsoifer_at_soifercenter.com
• SWIDA February 22, 2008

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About Word Learning and Knowledge

• Word consciousness
• A metalinguistic skill
• Word knowledge is complex
• Word learning is incremental
• Words are heterogeneous
• Definitions, context, word parts
• Important
• Inherent limitations

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Vocabulary Knowledge and School Success Some
Connections

• Reading comprehension, decoding, spelling
• School achievement in general
• Builds linguistic awareness
• Enhances world knowledge
• Influences conceptual and inferential reasoning

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Good readers and poor readers

• Good readers
• More efficient phonological representations
• Stronger lexical knowledge
• Poor readers
• Poorer phonological memory
• Slower, less efficient word acquisition
• Greater difficulty retaining and accessing
  phonological representations
• Decoding difficulty

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The Matthew Effects (Stanovich, 1986)

• Students with word reading difficulties
• Read fewer and easier books
• Have trouble decoding less familiar words
• Learn fewer words through reading
• Show increasing problems in vocabulary and
  comprehension

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How many words do we know?

• Average first grader 6,000 words
• Average high school senior 45,000 words
• The Math
• 39,000 words over 12 years
• About 3,000 words a year or 10 words a day
• The range
• 1,000 words a year for low achieving children
• 5,000 words a year for high achieving children

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Model of vocabulary acquisition (Litowitz, 1971)

• Stage 1
• Non-verbal or verbally semantically empty
• Stage 2
• Responds with word associated to original
  stimulus word
• Stage 3
• Concrete example of experience associated with
  the stimulus word
• Stage 4
• Demonstrates awareness of definition form
• Stage 5
• Pure definitional form

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Four Stages of Knowing a Word (Dale, 1965)

• Stage 1
• Never saw/heard it before in my life!
• Stage 2
• Heard it, but dont know what it means.
• Stage 3
• I recognize it in context or it has something to
  do with
• Stage 4
• I know it and can use it properly!

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Qualitative Dimensions of Word Knowledge
(Cronbach, 1942)

• Generalization
• Application
• Breadth
• Precision
• Availability

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Goals of a Lexical Learning Program

• To improve lexical knowledge and flexibility
• To improve word sense
• To improve reading comprehension and written
  language
• To improve word retrieval
• To develop strategies for vocabulary organization
• To develop a lifelong love of words

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What does it mean to KNOW a word?

• A preliminary definition
• Read/decode a word
• Understand its meaning and use
• Use it in oral response
• Use it in written work
• Levels of word knowledge
• Unknown
• Acquainted
• Established

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Semantic Processes in Reading Comprehension

• Accuracy
• Fluency
• Richness
• Deep Contextualized Knowledge

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Properties of Effective Vocabulary Instruction

• Direct Instruction is most effective
• Integration
• Repetition
• Meaningful Use

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Characteristics of a Word Rich Classroom

• The Classroom
• Clear, physical signs of word awareness
• Word charts or word walls
• Books on words, word play, thesauri, dictionaries
• Labels
• Word games, puzzle books, software

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Characteristics of a Word Rich Classroom

• The Teacher
• Is excited about words and word learning
• Has FUN with words
• Creates word of the day activities
• Children know the teacher loves words
• Understands the difference and connections among
  spelling, phonics and vocabulary
• Creates the foundation for independence
• Facilitates the use of strategies

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In a Word Rich Classroom

• Foundation for Independence Created
• Students are enthusiastic about words and word
  learning
• Reading is a part of every day
• Students can identify a preferred word game or
  activity
• Students have word banks, personal dictionaries
• Thesauri and dictionaries are used frequently
• Students use strategies when facing unknown words
  (e.g., word parts, context)

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In a Word Rich Classroom

• Teachers Facilitate Strategy Use
• Models, supports and develops strategies
• Direct, interesting instruction on content area
  vocabulary
• Uses graphics to show word meanings
• Provides multiple exposures and opportunities to
  see, hear, write and use new words
• Reading and follow-up discussions of new words
• Encourages word play and motivational activities

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So many words, so little time

• Beck, McKeown Kucan, 2002
• A three tier approach
• Tier one words the most basic
• Tier two words high frequency for mature users
  found across a variety of domains
• Tier three words low frequency and very
  specific
• 400 Tier two words a year should do it!

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Questions to ask yourself about WHAT words to
teach and HOW to teach them

• WHAT Words
• Importance to understanding of text
• Degree of prior knowledge
• Frequency of occurrence
• Multiple meaning
• Need for pre-teaching learned from context
• Grouping possibilities
• HOW to teach them
• Incidentally, mediated support, direct
  instruction
• Facilitate meaningful use in multiple contexts

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Strategies, Techniques and Demonstrations

• Word cemeteries
• Word walls
• Synonym challenges
• Word banks and associated activities
• Predict-o-gram
• Knowledge rating systems
• Exclusionary brainstorming

• Attribute webs
• Semantic continuum
• Word maps
• Concept ladders
• Definition maps
• Context Essential, Text General and Incidental
  Word Charts
• Label, Group, List Thinking in Categories

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Creating SPARKLE

• Richness of Vocabulary
• Literate Language Style
• Conjunctions
• Elaborated noun phrases
• Mental and linguistic verbs
• Adverbs

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Words for a Literate Lexicon (based on Nippold,
1993)

• Words for technical and curricular activities
• Verbs for cognitive and linguistic processes
• Metacognitive
• Metalinguistic
• Verbs with presuppositional aspects
• Factive
• Non-factive

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A Basic Five Step Approach (Blachewicz, 1986)

• Activate prior knowledge
• Make connections among words and topics
• Use both spoken and written contexts
• Refine and reformulate meanings
• Use the words for writing and additional reading

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Supporting Developing Word Knowledge in the
Classroom

• Repeat in various contexts
• Describe words
• Support with visuals
• Connect to students lives
• Extend meaning with anecdotes
• Make associations
• Give definitions

• Compare and contrasts
• Question
• Chart characteristics
• Rephrase sentences
• Analyze structure
• Provide tactile examples
• Give examples of correct and incorrect use