VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

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VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

• Lexical competence is a central part of
  communicative competence (DeCarrico, 2001, p.
  285)

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Questions to ponder about vocabulary

• What does it mean to know a word?
• What are the basic components of word knowledge?
• How can we address use, meaning, and function in
  L2 vocabulary instruction?

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Facts About Vocabulary Knowledge

• Students vocabularies grow at an astonishing
  rate
• About 3,000 words per year, or roughly 7 to 10
  new words per day
• By the time students graduate from high school,
  their vocabularies may reach 25,000 words or more

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Questions to ponder

• How many vocabularies do you have?
• What role does identity play in vocabulary
  utilization?
• How do school, family, and community factors
  influence vocabulary development?

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ResearchFacts about Vocabulary

• Vocabulary reflects prior knowledge and concepts
  in a particular area
• There is a strong relationship between the
  knowledge of word meanings (vocabulary) and
  reading comprehension

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More ResearchFacts about Vocabulary

• How do children acquire vocabulary?
• Through wide reading
• From context (but need instruction)
• With the aid of external resources such as the
  dictionary
• From direct instruction in vocabulary

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ELL English vocabulary

• Learning English vocabulary is a challenge for
  ELL students because they are often learning the
  oral and written forms of a word at the same
  time.

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ELL English vocabulary

• Students lack of English vocabulary often
  adversely affects their reading development in
  English.

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Vocabulary Instruction The debate

• Deep processing
• Incidental learning

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Aspects about words

• In order to really know or own a word,
  students must
• Recognize it,
• Know its meaning, and
• Understand its function

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How and when to use direct instruction

• Teacher only a few words central to the content
• Teach in meaningful contexts
• Integrate with activation and development of
  prior knowledge

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How and when to use direct instruction

• Teach words thoroughly by offering rich varied
  information about them
• Expose words in many ways
• Actively involve students in the process of
  learning

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Elements of vocabulary development

• Awareness of words (self-awareness and motivation
  to learn words)
• Wide reading and extensive writing (self-selected
  reading and writing)
• Independent strategies that lead to vocabulary
  learning (direct instruction and independent use)

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Condition 1 Unfamiliar words

• Sight words. Students know the word and what it
  means when they hear someone say it, and can use
  it orally, but they dont recognize its written
  form.

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Condition 2 Unfamiliar word

• New word. Students have a concept related to the
  word, but they are not familiar with the word
  itself, either orally or in written form.

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Condition 3 Unfamiliar word

• New concept. Students have little or no
  background knowledge about the concept underlying
  the word, and they dont recognize the word
  itself.

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Condition 4 Unfamiliar word

• New meaning. Students know the word, but they are
  unfamiliar with the way the word is used and its
  meaning in this situation.

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Why do students have difficulty with vocabulary?

• They may not have the relevant concepts as part
  of their background knowledge
• They may have a different label for the targeted
  concept
• They may have a somewhat different meaning for
  the label

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DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE
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Stages of vocabulary knowledge

• I never heard/saw the word before. (I have never
  before seen nor heard the word Koran.)
• I have heard/seen the word, but I dont know what
  it means. (I have seen the word Koran in a news
  article.)

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Stages of vocabulary knowledge

• I recognize the word in context, orit has
  something to do with (A dowry has something to
  do with money.)
• I know the word. (Draconian is very harsh or
  severe application of the law.)

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Goals of vocabulary instruction

• Teach independent vocabulary learning
• Teach concepts important for comprehension
• Create an environment that promotes general
  vocabulary development

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Guidelines for vocabulary instruction

• Relate the new to the known
• Promote active in-depth processing
• Provide multiple exposures
• Teach students to be strategic

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Characteristics of good direct vocabulary teaching

• Short (limited to a few critical words and
  concepts)
• Connect explicitly to the actual text students
  are to read

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TEACHER BEHAVIOR
Link Relate students past experience with present ones
Elaborate Add more information about the familiar content, or suggest rewording
Input Introduce new vocabulary reinforce through constant use
Connect Tie new words to the activity or activity to new words
Clarify Add examples, illustrations, or descriptions
Question Stimulate thinking about terms through questioning
Relate Show how new words compare w/ what students know
Categorize Group new words, ideas, and concepts
Label Provide names for concepts, ideas, and objects
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Tiers of vocabulary focus for lower grades

• Function words
• A, an, the (articles)
• And, but, or (conjunctions)
• At, into, over (prepositions)
• Could, run,had snowed (auxiliary words)

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Tiers of vocabulary focus for lower grades

• Content words having concrete meaning
• House, car, dog (nouns)
• I, her, they (pronouns)
• Hot, sticky (adjectives)
• Then, neatly, suddenly (adverbs)

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Tiers of vocabulary focus for lower grades

• Content-specific words always having specialized
  meaning within a particular subject area, must be
  learned within the context of that area

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Tiers of vocabulary focus for upper grades

• Basic words
• Building blocks of everyday language
• Do not require specific instruction except in the
  case of ELL

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Tiers of vocabulary focus for upper grades

• General utility words
• More complex terms may be used often in speech
  but these words tend not to be specific to any
  one subject area
• Often involves instruction in common root words
  and affixes
• Can help readers to discover the meaning of
  general-utility words

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Tiers of vocabulary focus for upper grades

• Low-utility words
• Words encountered less frequently
• Found in a particular content
• Should be introduced prior to instruction

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Types of vocabularies for upper grades

• Meaning Vocabulary
• The sum total of a childs understanding of the
  meaning of words
• Readers need to draw from this store as they
  emerge into reading to learn
• Readers draw known meanings and use these to
  figure out new meanings as they read

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Types of vocabularies for upper grades

• Reading Vocabulary
• Is gained when readers learn to decode words
  whose meaning they already know
• Words are already in their meaning vocabulary

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Activity Same word, different meaning

• Use the word conductor in three different
  sentences that convey three different meanings of
  the word.
• Use the word staple in two different sentences
  that convey two different meanings of the word.

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ActivitySame word, different meaning

• Use the word frog in two different sentences
  that convey two different meanings for the word.

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ActivitySame word, different meaning

• How many definitions do you have for the word
  up?
• Write five sentences using the word up in five
  different ways.

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ActivitySame word, different meaning

• Copper is a good conductor of electricity.
• Give your ticket to the conductor.
• The orchestra conductor was quite young

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ActivitySame word, different meaning

• She wanted to staple the three pages together.
• Corn was a staple in the diet of some Native
  Americans.

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ActivitySame word, different meaning

• Look up at the moon.
• Look up the word in the dictionary.
• Lock up the car.
• The drain is stopped up.
• Sam said hes tied up and cant come.