I received this from JeanMarie Courtney about Vocabulary Building and Comprehension–What Works and Doesn’t Work. It’s excellent, and worth a read.
“It is difficult to argue against the importance of vocabulary development when it comes to reading and learning across all disciplines. Additionally, domain- or content-specific vocabulary is essential for success in nearly every field of work. A recent study of vocabulary and comprehension instruction in 33 third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms published in Reading Research Quarterly (Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 31-60) offered several interesting insights.
The following strategies were associated with gains in vocabulary achievement:
- · Explicitly teaching definitions of words
- · Helping students see relations among words
- · Providing instruction related to syntax and morphology – breaking down words and analyzing how words are used in different syntactic contexts
In contrast, the researchers found negative or negligible effects on vocabulary achievement when teachers used these two strategies:
- · Trying to get students to think about words in different contexts or use context clues to figure out the meanings of unknown words – “When [instruction on context clues] was seen, teachers tended to point out that students should use context clues to figure out a new word, without explaining, modeling, and/or guiding how to employ the strategy” (48)
- · “Attention to literal comprehension – Based on their findings, the researchers speculated that, “if teachers spend too much time on literal comprehension, they may not provide enough support for deeper word learning” (48)
Vocabulary development is too important to leave to chance. We can’t just assume or hope that students (or even colleagues) will learn new words by chance. We have to be purposeful and deliberate about making sure that those around us really understand on a deep level the words they need to be successful. How do you help students even those you work with learn and remember essential vocabulary?”
- Mike Doughty, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, BOCES