Andrew Biemiller

An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades

Teaching vocabulary to primary grade children is essential. Previous studies of teaching vocabulary (word meanings) using story books in the primary grades reported gains of 20%-25% of word meanings taught. The present studies concern possible influences on word meaning acquisition during instruction (Study 1) and increasing the percentage and number of word meanings acquired (Study 2). Both studies were conducted in a working-class school with approximately 50% English-language learners. The regular classroom teachers worked with their whole classes in these studies. In Study 1, average gains of 12% of word meanings were obtained using repeated reading. Adding word explanations added a 10% gain for a total gain of 22%. Pretesting had no effect on gains. In Study 2, results showed learning of 41% of word meanings taught. At this rate of learning word meanings taught, it would be possible for children to learn 400 word meanings a year if 1,000 word meanings were taught. The feasibility of teaching vocabulary to primary grade children is discussed.

Estimating Root Word Vocabulary Growth in Normative and Advantaged Populations: Evidence for a Common Sequence of Vocabulary Acquisition.

Root word vocabulary was studied in 2 normative samples (English-speaking, wide socioeconomic range) and in an advantaged sample. The authors estimated that in 2nd grade, the mean normative vocabulary was 5,200 root words, increasing to approximately 8,400 root words by 5th grade. During grades 3-5, the lowest quartile added about 3 root words a day, whereas the highest quartile added about 2.3 words a day. However, by 5th grade, children in the lowest quartile had only reached average 4th-grade level because they had such a small vocabulary in 2nd grade. There is evidence that words are learned in roughly the same order. The implications of these findings suggest (a) that greater efforts should be made to foster vocabulary acquisition in the primary years and (b) that a rough vocabulary curriculum sequence can be identified for the elementary years.

VOCABULARY: NEEDED IF MORE CHILDREN ARE TO READ WELL

Vocabulary has long been recognized as a strong determinant of reading success. Despite the importance of vocabulary knowledge, very little information is available about effective strategies for vocabulary instruction in elementary grades and there is a paucity of data on the relative merits of the different programs that are designed to promote vocabulary growth in elementary children. Available information indicates that, until they reach about grade three, children’s vocabulary knowledge is largely determined by informal factors such as parental interaction and other incidental sources such as the TV. In this article, I will address the following topics: (a) individual differences in vocabulary acquisition, (b) the amount of vocabulary needed for successful learning, (c) the predictable sequence of vocabulary acquisition, (d) the need for direct instruction for vocabulary growth, and (e) promising methods for promoting vocabulary knowledge.

Changes in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information as Functions of Passage Difficulty and Reading Achievement Level.

This paper presents results from a study of oral reading errors. The purpose of the study was to compare strategies of information use by readers of differing levels of reading achievement as they read passages of increasing difficulty. The study included 59 first graders from two different reading programs. Four passages were used ranging from preprimer to second grade levels. Achievement groups were formed on the basis of the most difficult passage a child could read without making more than 25% errors. Results indicated that with increasing passage difficulty, children made proportionately more non-response, and graphic substitution errors. On their most difficult passages, the most able readers made higher proportions of graphic errors than other children. These results are interpreted as indicating that when faced with increasingly difficult reading material (for their reading level), children increase their use of graphic information strategies. The results do not support the view that able readers make less use of graphic information than less able readers.

Models of Vocabulary Acquisition: Direct Tests and Text-Derived Simulations of Vocabulary Growth

Determining word meanings that ought to be taught or introduced is important for educators. A sequence for vocabulary growth can be inferred from many sources, including testing children’s knowledge of word meanings at various ages, predicting from print frequency, or adult-recalled Age of Acquisition. A new approach, Word Maturity, is based on applying Latent Semantic Analysis to patterns of word occurrences in texts used with children. This article reports substantial correlations in the .67 to .74 range between Word Maturity estimates and the ages of acquiring word meanings from two studies of children’s knowledge of word meanings, controlling for homographs. The agreement among these markedly different methods for determining when word meanings are understood opens up new research avenues. In addition, we have found that print frequency is associated with Word Maturity and tested knowledge of word meanings and that understanding concrete meanings required less print frequency exposure than verbally defined meanings.

Test-based age-of-acquisition norms for 44 thousand English word meanings

Age of acquisition (AoA) is an important variable in word recognition research. Up to now, nearly all psychology researchers examining the AoA effect have used ratings obtained from adult participants. An alternative basis for determining AoA is directly testing children’s knowledge of word meanings at various ages. In educational research, scholars and teachers have tried to establish the grade at which particular words should be taught by examining the ages at which children know various word meanings. Such a list is available from Dale and O’Rourke’s (1981) Living Word Vocabulary for nearly 44 thousand meanings coming from over 31 thousand unique word forms and multiword expressions. The present article relates these test-based AoA estimates to lexical decision times as well as to AoA adult ratings, and reports strong correlations between all of the measures. Therefore, test-based estimates of AoA can be used as an alternative measure.