Current Issues in Vocabulary

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Literacy Leadership Session Atlanta, GA April 21,
2009
Current Issues in Vocabulary Research and
Practice Michael D. Coyne, Ph.D. Associate
Professor mike.coyne_at_uconn.edu
Center for Behavioral Education
Research www.cber.org Department of Educational
Psychology Neag School of Education University of
Connecticut
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Organizing Questions
• What do we know about vocabulary instruction and
  intervention from one program of research?
• What are the implications of these findings for
  teachers and schools?
• What are some ongoing questions/issues for
  vocabulary researchers and practitioners?

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Program of Research Questions
• How do we best provide direct vocabulary
  instruction?
• Is vocabulary knowledge gained through direct
  instruction maintained over time?
• Does systematic review help students maintain
  vocabulary knowledge
• Does direct vocabulary instruction have benefits
  beyond learning target words?
• Is vocabulary instruction equally effective for
  all students?
• Can Tier 2 vocabulary intervention increase the
  word learning of students at risk of language and
  learning difficulties?

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Research Conduct school-based research on
developing and evaluating evidence based
practices in literacy, behavior supports, and
assessment Translating Research to Practice
Support schools, districts, and states in
adopting, implementing, and sustaining evidence
based practices
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Project VITALVocabulary Intervention Targeting
At-risk Learners
Funded byInstitute of Education SciencesU.S.
Department of Education

• Research Summary
• Six studies
• Four school districts
• Five elementary schools
• Approximately 300 kindergarten students

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Acknowledgements
• Betsy McCoach, Paige Pullen, Sharon Kapp, Susan
  Loftus, Richard Zipoli, Maureen Ruby, Yvel
  Crevecoeur, Athena Lentini, Chrissy Civetelli,
  Sharon Ware, Ashley Capozzoli, Karen Rambo

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Importance of Vocabulary
What we know from research  

•  
• Children enter school with meaningful differences
  in vocabulary knowledge as a result of
  differences in experiences and exposure to
  literacy and language activities. (Hart
  Risley, 1995)
•  
• The vocabulary gap grows larger in the early
  grades. Children who enter with limited
  vocabulary knowledge grow much more discrepant
  over time from their peers who have rich
  vocabulary knowledge. (Biemiller Slonim,
  2001)

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A Conceptual Framework for Reading/Literacy
Instruction
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A Conceptual Framework for Reading/Literacy
Instruction
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Project VITAL

• Implications
• Many students begin school at risk for language
  and comprehension difficulties. Instruction and
  intervention focused on code based skills will
  not be sufficient to meet these students needs.
• Instruction and intervention in meaning based
  skills (e.g., language, vocabulary, listening
  comprehension) should start at the beginning of
  schooling.
• This instruction should often be separate from
  code based instruction, especially in the early
  grades. (i.e., within oral language activities)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Program of Research Questions
• How do we best provide direct vocabulary
  instruction?
• Is vocabulary knowledge gained through direct
  instruction maintained over time?
• Does systematic review help students maintain
  vocabulary knowledge
• Does direct vocabulary instruction have benefits
  beyond learning target words?
• Is vocabulary instruction equally effective for
  all students?
• Can Tier 2 vocabulary intervention increase the
  word learning of students at risk of language and
  learning difficulties?

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Direct Vocabulary Instruction The Challenge

• It is impossible to teach directly all that words
  that students need to know.

How can we best leverage scarce instructional
time?
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Vocabulary Instruction

•  
• Given limited instructional time, do we
• Teach more word meanings but spend less time on
  each word?
• or
• Teach fewer word meanings but spend more time on
  each word?

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Two Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction
•  
• Embedded Instruction
• Simple explanation within the context of the
  story. (e.g., Biemiller Boote, 2006 Penno
  et al., 2002)
• Time efficient allows for introduction of many
  words (breadth).
• Few exposures to target words, limited to context
  of the story  
• Extended Instruction
• Robust approach that offers rich information
  about words and their uses. (e.g., Beck,
  McKeown, Kucan, 2002 Coyne, Simmons,
  Kameenui, Stoolmiller, 2004)
• Time intensive limits instruction to fewer
  words (depth).
• Many encounters with words in varied contexts
  beyond the story.

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Project VITAL

• Research Question
• What are the effects of Extended Instruction vs.
  Embedded Instruction vs. Incidental Exposure?

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Project VITAL

• Methodology
• Participants included kindergarten students from
  schools with large at-risk populations.
• Within subjects design with different sets of
  target words taught with different instructional
  approaches. Words were counterbalanced across
  groups.
• All participants listened to multiple readings of
  storybooks in small groups over two weeks.

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Type of Instruction

• Embedded Instruction
• Simple explanation of target words provided
  within the context of the story. Provides both
  definitional and contextual information.
• (Biemiller Boote, 2006 Stahl Fairbanks,
  1986 Penno et al., 2002)

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These bricks will make a fine sturdy house,
said the third little pig.
Sturdy means strong. Now Ill say the sentence
again with word that mean sturdy. These bricks
will make a fine strong house. In the picture
the little pig says that the bricks (point to the
bricks) will make a sturdy, or strong, house.
Everyone say sturdy.
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Type of Instruction

• Extended Instruction
• Simple explanation of target words provided
  within the context of the story. Extended
  activities after story reading.
• Extended vocabulary instruction is characterized
  by explicit, conspicuous teaching that includes
  using both contextual and definitional
  information, giving multiple exposures of target
  words in varied contexts, and encouraging deep
  processing.
• (Beck, McKeown, Kucan, 2002 Stahl, 1986
  Stahl Fairbanks, 1986)

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Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., Kucan, L. (2002).
Bringing words to life Robust vocabulary
instruction. New York Guilford.
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Type of Instruction
Lets play a game about our magic word
drenched. Ill show you some pictures. If you
think the picture shows something that looks
drenched, or really wet, put your thumb up like
this and whisper, That looks drenched. If
the picture doesnt show something that looks
drenched, dont say anything.
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Type of Instruction
(Show picture) Do these children look drenched?
If you held up your thumb like this, youre
right! The children in this picture look
drenched, or really wet. The children laughed
as they got drenched playing in the water
fountain.
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Type of Instruction
Picture 1 (Man in the rain) The man in this
picture is drenched, or really wet. This
picture reminds me of a time when I was outside
at a picnic. The skies got very dark and it
started to rain. I ran to get inside the nearest
building but it was too late. I got drenched from
the rain. I felt cold and wet until I changed my
clothes. (remove picture) Tell me about a time
when you were drenched from the rain.
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Type of Instruction

• Extended Instruction

• Lets play a word game. Ill tell you about some
  things. If you think it is strong, say Thats
  sturdy! If you think it is not very strong, say
  Uh oh, thats not very sturdy!
• Examples
• A big jet airplane in the sky.
• A little paper airplane on a windy day.
• A tall tower made of cards.
• This school.
• A big huge rock.
• A snowman on a hot sunny day.

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Type of Instruction

• Extended Instruction

Do you think a cauldron is sturdy? Why? Would you
be approaching a cauldron that was full of
snakes? Why? If a storm was approaching, would
you go into a sturdy house ? Why? Would you put a
cauldron on a chair that wasnt sturdy? Why? What
would you do if a dog was approaching your
cauldron full of food? Why?
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Type of Instruction

• Incidental Exposure
• Students hear target words in the context of the
  story. No additional instruction is provided.

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Effects of Instruction

• Results
• Statistically significant effect for type of
  vocabulary instruction across all measures in all
  studies
• Extended Instruction gt Embedded Instruction gt
  Incidental Exposure
• Effect Sizes
• Extended vs. Incidental (d .91 2.57)
• Extended vs. Embedded (d .38 1.70)
• Embedded vs. Incidental (d .24 .87)

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Effects of Instruction

• Effect size
• Magnitude of the effect of an intervention

• Improvement Index the expected change in
  percentile rank for an average comparison group
  student if the student had received the
  intervention.

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Effects of Instruction

• Results
• Statistically significant effect for type of
  vocabulary instruction across all measures in all
  studies
• Extended Instruction gt Embedded Instruction gt
  Incidental Exposure
• Effect Sizes
• Extended vs. Incidental (d .91 2.57)
• Extended vs. Embedded (d .38 1.70)
• Embedded vs. Incidental (d .24 .87)

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Effects of Instruction

• Two types of vocabulary knowledge
• Breadth of knowledge
• How many word meanings a student knows
• Depth of knowledge
• How well a student knows an individual word
  meaning

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What does it mean to know a word?
• No knowledge
• General sense
• Narrow context-bound knowledge
• Having knowledge of a word but not able to recall
  it readily enough to use it in appropriate
  situations
• Rich, decontextualized knowledge of a words
  meaning, its relationship to other words, and its
  extension to metaphorical uses (Beck, McKeown,
  Kucan, 2002)

Knowing a vocabulary word is not an
all-or-nothing proposition.
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Effects of Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

•  
• Given limited instructional time, do we
• Teach more word meanings but spend less time on
  each word?
• or
• Teach fewer word meanings but spend more time on
  each word?

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Tri-level Approach

• Incidental Exposure
• Read storybooks to children that contain varied
  and complex vocabulary.
• Much of childrens vocabulary development occurs
  as the result of incidental and cumulative
  exposure.
• Embedded Instruction
• Provide embedded instruction on a subset of
  words from the storybook.
• Target words that students are unlikely to know
  and that they will continue to encounter in
  school and in texts.
• Extended Instruction
• Provide extended instruction on a subset of
  words from the storybook.
• Target words that are essential for understanding
  important ideas and concepts in the story and
  that students need to make immediate use of.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Is vocabulary knowledge gained through direct
  instruction maintained over time?

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Evidence
• In our research, weve found that vocabulary
  knowledge is durable, but higher and more
  complete levels of word knowledge may be more
  susceptible to deterioration over time

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Does systematic review help students maintain
  vocabulary knowledge
• Research Evidence
• Review Conditions Target words were assigned to
  1 of 3 types of review that varied in intensity
  no review, embedded review, or semantically-relate
  d review.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Findings suggest that systematic review or at
  least continued encounters of target words in
  supportive contexts are needed to reinforce and
  maintain strong and complete lexical
  representations
• Review provides a large educational benefit for a
  modest amount of instructional time

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Do the effects of vocabulary instruction and
  intervention transfer to other areas of language
  and literacy?
• A much stronger case could be made for the worth
  of vocabulary instruction if there was evidence
  to suggest that there were benefits beyond just
  learning the meanings of words targeted for
  instruction.
• Possible impacts
• Listening/reading comprehension
• Generalized vocabulary knowledge

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Possible mechanisms to explain transfer effects
• Listening/reading comprehension
• Instrumentalist hypothesis (Anderson Freebody,
  1981 Stahl, 1991).
• Teaching the meanings of words that appear in a
  story or passage should improve students
  comprehension of that passage.
• Generalized vocabulary knowledge
• Metalinguistic hypothesis (Nagy, 2007).
• Rich vocabulary instruction may increase
  students ability to reflect on and manipulate
  language in an active and considerate manner.
• Connectionist models of word learning (Landauer
  Dumais, 1997)
• Learning new word meanings helps refine and
  consolidate the lexical constraints of other
  partially known words that are semantically
  associated with the newly learned words.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Elleman, A. M., Lindo, E. J., Morphy, P
  Compton, D. L. (2009). The impact of vocabulary
  instruction on passage-level comprehension of
  school-age children A meta-analysis. Journal of
  Research on Educational Effectiveness.
• Impact of vocabulary instruction
• Standardized measures of comprehension (d 0.10)
• Custom measures of comprehension (d 0.50)
• Standardized measures of vocabulary (d 0.29)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Participants
• Participants included 123 students from three
  elementary schools serving diverse groups of
  students from at-risk populations. 80 students
  were in the treatment group and 43 were in the
  no-treatment control group.
• In two schools, intact classes were assigned to
  either treatment (n 3) or control (n 2) and
  classroom teachers delivered the intervention to
  the whole class.
• In the third school, students from three
  classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (n
  23) or control (n 21) and the intervention
  was delivered by two graduate students in small
  groups of 3-5 students outside of the classroom.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Transfer Measures
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test PPVT-III Norm
  referenced measure of generalized receptive
  vocabulary.
• Listening Comprehension Factual inferential
  questions about a story that contained target
  words (18 target/395 total words). Adapted from
  the SNAP.

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Vocabulary Instruction
Research Evidence
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Findings suggest that extended vocabulary
  instruction implemented with kindergarten
  students can result in statistically and
  educationally significant differences on both
  proximal measures of target word knowledge and
  transfer measures of generalized language and
  literacy.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Is vocabulary instruction equally effective for
  all students?
• Initial level of receptive vocabulary knowledge
• Language status (ELL, EOL)

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Language Status
• Post hoc determination
• ELL status if any language other than English
  was
• primary language spoken at students home
• students dominant language at school
• Treatment EOL 49, ELL 31
• Control EOL 26, ELL 17

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Vocabulary Instruction
Target Words
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Vocabulary Instruction
Target Words
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Vocabulary Instruction
Listening Comprehension
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Vocabulary Instruction
PPVT Spring
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Vocabulary Instruction
Target Words
Mediating Variable
PPVT-Fall (centered)
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Language Status
Target Word Measure
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Vocabulary Instruction
Listening Comprehension
Mediating Variable
PPVT-Fall (centered)
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Language Status
Listening Comprehension
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Vocabulary Instruction
PPVT Spring
Mediating Variable
PPVT-Fall (centered)
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Language Status
PPVT-Spring Standardized
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Response to the vocabulary instruction was
  moderated by overall receptive vocabulary
  knowledge assessed at pretest
• ELLs, on average, did not respond as strongly to
  the vocabulary intervention as EOLs
• After controlling for initial English receptive
  vocabulary knowledge, language status was not
  related to outcomes

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Project IVIIntensifying Vocabulary Intervention

Funded byInstitute of Education SciencesU.S.
Department of Education

• Purpose
• Draw on validated principles of instructional
  design and delivery to intensify vocabulary
  instruction/ intervention to optimize its
  effectiveness with kindergarten students most at
  risk of learning disabilities.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Can Tier 2 vocabulary intervention increase the
  word learning of students at risk of language and
  learning difficulties?
• Research Evidence
• All students received whole class Tier 1
  vocabulary instruction
• Students with lower levels of vocabulary
  knowledge (PPVT lt 92) received additional Tier 2
  intervention on half the target vocabulary words

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Evidence
• Students at risk for language and learning
  difficulties learned words that receive both Tier
  1 Tier 2 instruction to a greater extent than
  words that received only Tier 1 instruction.
• The word learning of students at risk for
  language and learning difficulties who receive
  both Tier 1 Tier 2 instruction was approached
  the word learning of their peers who were not at
  risk who received only Tier 1 instruction.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• It is likely that vocabulary instruction will be
  more beneficial for students with higher levels
  of vocabulary knowledge
• Students at risk of language and learning
  difficulties will likely require additional
  instruction at higher levels of intensity to make
  gains similar to their peers who are not at risk.
• The vocabulary gap will be extremely difficult to
  close

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What we know
• Students can learn the meanings of sophisticated
  vocabulary through direct instruction
• Greater investment in instructional time
  intensity leads to increased word learning
  (breadth depth)
• e.g., extended instruction, systematic review,
  Tier 2 instruction for students at risk
• What we may know
• In addition to increases in target word learning,
  direct vocabulary instruction may lead to
  generalized gains in language and literacy skills
  and knowledge.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What were still working on
• What words should we teach?
• How do we best assess vocabulary knowledge?
• How do we best support vocabulary development
  within a multi-tiered model?
• How do we combine direct vocabulary instruction
  with instruction in other areas of meaning based
  skills? (e.g., listening comprehension,
  morphology, syntax, figurative language, etc.)
• How do we best support vocabulary development for
  the entire range of learners? (e.g., ELLs, SLI,
  Tier 3 etc.,)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What words should we teach?
• Tier II words (Beck McKeown)
• Content area vocabulary (Hiebert)
• Developmental sequence of root words (Biemiller)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• How do we assess vocabulary knowledge?
• Measuring the impact of vocabulary instruction
  and intervention
• Target word learning
• Transfer to other areas of language and literacy

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Vocabulary Instruction

• How do we assess target word knowledge?
• Vocabulary knowledge and development is complex
  and multifaceted. However, existing approaches
  for measuring vocabulary are blunt and single
  dimensional.

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Vocabulary Instruction
Measure 1
Student C
Student A
Student B
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Vocabulary Instruction
Measure 1
Measure 2
Measure 3
Measure 4
Student C
Student B
Student A
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Vocabulary Instruction
How do we assess transfer?
Current approaches to measuring the impact of
vocabulary instruction/intervention are either
too proximal to or too distal
Standardized Measures Of Language Literacy
Measures of Individual Word Knowledge
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Elleman, A. M., Lindo, E. J., Morphy, P
  Compton, D. L. (2009). The impact of vocabulary
  instruction on passage-level comprehension of
  school-age children A meta-analysis. Journal of
  Research on Educational Effectiveness.
• Impact of vocabulary instruction
• Standardized measures of comprehension (d 0.10)
• Custom measures of comprehension (d 0.50)
• Standardized measures of vocabulary (d 0.29)

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Vocabulary Instruction
It may be that vocabulary instruction does not
promote far transfer-that is, it is conceptually
incapable of moving beyond the texts to which it
is tied. Hence it shows up in local but not
global indicators ... An alternative, is that
our measures are inadequate to the challenge of
documenting the relationship between word
learning and global measures of comprehension.
That is, it might be that our instruction is
improving vocabulary learning, which might lead
to improvements in general comprehension, but the
instruments we use are so insensitive that they
prevent us from documenting the
relationship. Pearson, P. D., Hiebert E. H.,
Kamil, M. L. (2007). Vocabulary assessment What
we know and what we need to learn. Reading
Research Quarterly, 42, 282-296.
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Vocabulary Instruction
Current approaches to measuring the impact of
vocabulary instruction/intervention are either
too proximal to or too distal
Standardized Measures Of Language Literacy
Standardized Measures Of Language Literacy
Measures of Individual Word Knowledge
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Vocabulary Instruction
Current approaches to measuring the impact of
vocabulary instruction/intervention are either
too proximal to or too distal
Standardized Measures Of Language Literacy
?
Measures of Individual Word Knowledge
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Vocabulary Instruction
How do we support vocabulary development within a
multi-tiered model?
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Vocabulary Instruction
How do we support vocabulary development within a
multi-tiered model?
Language Comprehension
Specific Comprehension Difficulties
Typical Readers
Word Reading
Mixed Reading Difficulties
Word Reading Difficulties
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Word Reading Supports
Language Comprehension Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
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Word Reading Supports
Language Comprehension Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
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Word Reading Supports
Language Comprehension Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 3 Individual Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 2 Targeted Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
Tier 1 Universal Supports
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Vocabulary Instruction
How do we support vocabulary development within a
multi-tiered model?
An effective, comprehensive, reading program
includes reading assessments to accomplish four
purposes
Screening - Assessments that are administered to
determine which children are at risk for reading
difficulty and who will need additional
intervention. Diagnosis - Assessments that help
teachers plan instruction by providing in-depth
information about students skills and
instructional needs. Progress Monitoring -
Assessments that determine if students are making
adequate progress or need more intervention to
achieve grade level reading outcomes. Outcome -
Assessments that provide a bottom-line evaluation
of the effectiveness of the reading program.
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NoteworthyResponses
What does greater than mean?
I can do more gooder stuff you can draw a
picture that doesnt have dinosaur teeth, I can
draw a picture that does have teeth mine is
greater.