DEVELOPING VOCABULARY IN SCHOOL

Antoinette Alderete, Sandy Frey, Nadine McDaniel, Marlaina Romero. Dr. Carol Westby, Rosario Roman, MS CCC-SLP University of New Mexico
Philadelphia, PA ASHA November 2004 romanslp@msn.com

Issues in Vocabulary Development

1. Orally tested vocabulary at the end of first grade is a significant predictor of reading comprehension 10 years later. (Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich, K.E. (1997). During the school years, children must acquire 3,000-4,000 words/year (Nagy & Anderson, 1984) Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds enter school with much smaller vocabularies (Hart &
Risley, 1995)

2. 3.

4.

Vocabulary meaning cannot easily be learned from context (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2004).

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) regularly evaluate students vocabulary knowledge with:

1. 2. 3. 4. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III (1997) CASL (1999) Word Test (1990) One-Word Expressive Vocabulary Test and One-Word Receptive Vocabulary Test

SLPs have a significant role in developing vocabulary:

1. Become aware of the vocabulary requirements in the classroom. 2. Become familiar with the specific strategies for promoting vocabulary development.

Four Types of Vocabulary Teaching

Engaging in reading: Interactive book reading strategies that promote language development Direct Vocabulary Instruction: Strategies for explicitly teaching word learning Teaching Word-Learning Strategies: Strategies for using morphological knowledge to determine word meaning Fostering Word Consciousness: Strategies for "playing with language" to increase comprehension of multiple word meanings and figurative language

Engaging in Reading with Blanks Levels of Questioning

Immediate talk about the books
Name objects, characters Describe events

Non-immediate talk that goes beyond what is in the book

Encourage children to make connections to past personal experiences Discuss the meanings of words Make inferences, draw conclusions

Blank, M., Rose, S. A., Berlin, L. J., (1978). The Language Of Learning: The preschool years. Grune & Stratton: New York

Blanks Levels of Language Abstraction

Level Description Example

I. Matching perception

Reporting and responding to perceptually obvious material in the environment

Reporting and responding to perceptual information that is less salient

Point to the bat Heres a star. Point to another star.

What did Papagayo do while the others were sleeping? What color is Papagayo? What does mischief mean? Who is not a night creature? Why did the night creatures ask Papagayo to stop squawking? Why were they afraid of the moon-dog?

II. Selective analysis of perception

III.

Reordering perception

Using language to restructure perceptual information and inhibit predisposing responses Using language to predict, explain, theorize, and reason about relationships

IV. Reasoning about perception

Types of Book Reading Interaction

Before reading: Guided Reading/Picture Walk

During reading: Dialogic Reading After reading: Text Talk

use target vocabulary to describe pictures; make inferences

use immediate and non-immediate talk in discussions during reading.

explicitly discuss target vocabulary after reading.
Verdi was astonished. He was very surprised that the adult green snakes had be able to run and climb at one timenow they just hung in the trees. He thought they had never been able to run. Children say the word astonish. Teacher says, I was astonished the first time I went to the balloon fiesta. (then explains why she was astonished) Children generate their own examples of being astonished Contrast with other words. Weve talked about a time Verdi was astonished. Tell me about a time that Verdi was frantic. When have you been frantic?

Direct Vocabulary Instruction

Categorize vocabulary into 3 levels for instruction

Tier 1: basic words that rarely need to be taught - swing, colors, strong, whiskers
Tier 2: high frequency words for capable language learners; important to have in ones vocabulary - ridiculous, graceful, whimpering, greedily Tier 3: low frequency; usually specific to an academic domain; best learned in the content area Biomass, extraction, emergent, forest floor

Criteria for identifying Tier 2 words

Importance and utility

appear frequently across domains likely to occur in many texts useful in describing experiences can be worked with in a variety of ways, so students can build rich representations relate to other words and ideas adds dimensions to ideas already developed general concept is understood provides precision and specificity in describing concept

Instructional potential

Conceptual understanding

Self Assessment Vocabulary Knowledge

Word Know well, can we explain it, use it Know something about it, can relate to a situation Have seen or heard the word Do not know the word

Ridiculous Graceful

Whimpering
Greedily Scampered Astounded Frantic Astonished

Vocabulary Instruction
Contextualize word for its role in the story.
The night creatures told Papagayo they were afraid of the sunlight. Papagayo thought this was ridiculous. He thought it was silly, foolish, or nonsense because the animals could never be happy if they were always hiding. He laughed at their idea that they should be afraid of the sunlight.

Have children repeat word so they create a phonological representation.

Sound out the word ridiculous

Explain the meaning of the word

Ridiculous means that something is foolish or silly. It doesnt make sense; its laughable

 Give examples in contexts other than the story.

It is ridiculous to wear your shoes on your head. People once thought the world was flat and you could fall off the edge. We now know this was a ridiculous idea. Tell me about a time that you saw or heard something that was ridiculous.

Children provide their own examples

Children say word again to reinforce its phonological representation.

Segment the word ridiculous by tapping out syllables

Teaching Word Strategies

Understanding Morphology
Teach students how to use word parts to determine meaning Teach inflectional morphology
Verb tenses Plurals, possessives

Teach derivational morphology: Define meanings of:

Prefixes Suffixes Root words

Root Words, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Root -dict-morph-ject-tract-portPrefix predeBasic Meaning To say Form To throw To pull, drag To carry Basic Meaning Before Away, off Example word Diction Metamorphic Eject Attract Deport Example word Preview Deforest

disunderreSuffix -tion -ment -ous

Not, not any

Not enough Again Basic meaning Action Action Suffix added to verbs or nouns makes an adj. Cause to be Forms verbs from nouns and adjectives

Disbelief
Underweight Rebuild Example word Extinction Endangerment Ridiculous

-ate -ize

activate Jeopardize

Steps on Word Analysis

Explain meaning of prefix: a prefix is a group
of letters that goes in front of a word. Un- is a prefix. It means not. Re- is a prefix that means to do again.

Give examples
They sat silent, blinking in the unfamiliar sunlight
The sunlight was not familiar to them. They were not used to being out in the sunlight. He was not afraid. He was not worried. He had an idea of what he could do about the moon-dog. Appear is to be seen. The moon-dog reappeared each night. The animals saw him again and again.

Papagayo was unafraid of the moon-dog.

The moon-dog reappeared each night.

-

Word Analysis Strategy Follow-up Activities

Work on spelling rules for suffix addition

When adding ly, less or ness to words ending in y, change y to i

Penny: penniless Hungry: hungrily happy: happiness greedy: greedily

Emphasize dictionary skills, combining instruction in the entomology of words

Ecology

Ecology = the study of the environment

Eco = environment -logy = the study of

Photosynthesis

Photo- = light synthesis = to put together photosynthesis = to put together using light

Two Word Sorts: Put words into two

piles based on a morphological rule Precipitation Vegetation Conservation Deforestation Extinction Thunderous Ridiculous Delicious Raucous Ferocious

Fostering Word Consciousness

Logology (all forms of word play)

Onomastics: proper names

Words named after people, e.g., Douglas fir, Bartlett pear Names appropriate to an occupation, e.g., Mr. Forrest, the ecologist; Ms. Aves, a bird specialist (Aves is the scientific name for birds)

Word formations: affixes, compounds, acronyms

(BRIDGE) twisters

Word games: alliteration, rhymes, riddles, tongue

 Figurative language (a specific form of logology)

Idioms
The turtles are shy, but are coming out of their shells. The fish always go with the flow.

Similes/Metaphors
The giraffe was like a flagpole in the jungle. Quick as lightening

Proverbs
The early bird catches the worm.

 Games

Strategies for Developing Word Consciousness

Card games creating pairs of words using figurative language, morphological rules, vocabulary definitions
Not feeling well Prefix DeRidiculous Under the weather Away, off Foolish

Board games playing board games by having students use figurative language, morphological rules, vocabulary definitions
The giraffes had their heads in the _____ . Most animals live in this layer of the rainforest.

 Meta-cognitive Manipulation of words/word parts

Word riddles manipulating words to make jokes or riddles

Word: Monkey Related words: ape, chimp, banana, tree, swing Riddle: What do you call the monkey who won first place in

the swinging race?

Answer: The chimpion

Name riddles using names with related word parts to create riddles or jokes
Riddle: What monkey freed the slaves? Answer: Aperaham Lincoln

 Active engagement with discussion

Categories: Using a grid to fill words associated with the theme.

C
Cover

A
Animal shelter

N
Network of branches & vines

O
Ocelot

P
Pathway to nests & food

Y
Yellow viper

Word Fluency: Using categorization to learn vocabulary. The teacher provides a category and students name as many words as they can related to the category

Rainforest animals: frog, bat, ocelot, sloth, toucan Layers of the rainforest: treetops, canopy, understory, forest floor

deck and the other students ask yes/no questions to try and guess the word

20 Questions: One student selects a word from a

 Art (students make drawing to represent idioms) Drama (act out idioms) Figurative language chart
Word or Phrase Tongue tied Literal Meaning A tongue that is tied into a knot Figurative Meaning Not being able to speak because you are shy, nervous, excited

Turning over a new leaf

Turning a leaf onto a new side

A fresh start, a new beginning

Poetry (encourage students to use alliteration,

rhyming, similes, and metaphors in poetry)

Willaby Dillaby Dallaby Doh, Help me pick my ripe mango. If you do youll get one bite, Now pull and pull with all your might.

Tingo Tango Mango Tree Marcia Vaughn J.F. Baumann & E.J. KameEnui. (Eds.). (2004). Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice. New York: The Guilford Press.