The Effects of Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction on Title I Students' Metacognitive Word-Learning Skills and Reading Comprehension

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shira Lubliner ◽  
Linda Smetana

This study examined the effects of a multifaceted, metacognitive vocabulary intervention on the reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement of fifth-grade children in one of California's lowest performing Title I schools. Instruction was comprehensive, designed to facilitate encoding of student-selected words, mastery of clarifying strategies, and executive control of strategies that maximize word-learning proficiency. Strong gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement and increased metacognitive skills were documented following the 12-week vocabulary intervention. Comparisons of Title I students' scores and those of students in an above-average-performing school revealed large, significant differences before the intervention and small, nonsignificant differences following the intervention, suggesting a narrowing of the achievement gap.

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (05) ◽  
pp. 344-358
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Spencer Kelley ◽  
Howard Goldstein

AbstractVocabulary knowledge of young children, as a well-established predictor of later reading comprehension, is an important domain for assessment and intervention. Standardized, knowledge-based measures are commonly used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to describe existing vocabulary knowledge and to provide comparisons to same-age peers. Process-based assessments of word learning can be helpful to provide information about how children may respond to learning opportunities and to inform treatment decisions. This article presents an exploratory study of the relation among vocabulary knowledge, word learning, and learning in vocabulary intervention in preschool children. The study examines the potential of a process-based assessment of word learning to predict response to vocabulary intervention. Participants completed a static, knowledge-based measure of vocabulary knowledge, a process-based assessment of word learning, and between 3 and 11 weeks of vocabulary intervention. Vocabulary knowledge, performance on the process-based assessment of word learning, and learning in vocabulary intervention were strongly related. SLPs might make use of the information provided by a process-based assessment of word learning to determine the appropriate intensity of intervention and to identify areas of phonological and semantic knowledge to target during intervention.


1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Messmore

This study attempted to investigate the relationship between inferred identification and two types of reading comprehension, molar and specific, at the third grade level. Subjects for this study were selected from six schools located in four midwestern urban centers. The 121 Negro and Caucasian children who participated in the study attended schools designated as Title I schools. Findings suggested that children who identified at high and moderate identification levels achieved significantly higher molar reading comprehension scores than low identifying children of both races. Initial interpretation of these results seems to offer some justification for recent efforts to include diverse ethnic characters in elementary reading texts. A more thoughtful examination of this relationship, however, may indicate the possible presence of a third and as yet unknown factor which acted in conjunction with the identification process and to which the gain witnessed in molar reading comprehension may be attributed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Adlof

Purpose This prologue introduces the LSHSS Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades. The goals of the forum are to provide an overview of the importance of vocabulary to literacy and academic achievement, to review evidence regarding best practices for vocabulary instruction, and to highlight recent research related to word learning with students across different grade levels. Method The prologue provides a foundational overview of vocabulary's role in literacy and introduces the topics of the other ten articles in the forum. These include clinical focus articles, research reviews, and word-learning and vocabulary intervention studies involving students in elementary grades through college. Conclusion Children with language and reading disorders experience specific challenges learning new words, but all students can benefit from high-quality vocabulary instruction. The articles in this issue highlight the characteristics of evidence-based vocabulary interventions for children of different ages, ability levels, and language backgrounds and provide numerous examples of intervention activities that can be modified for use in individual, small-group, or large-group instructional settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawna Duff

Purpose Vocabulary intervention can improve comprehension of texts containing taught words, but it is unclear if all middle school readers get this benefit. This study tests 2 hypotheses about variables that predict response to vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: gains in vocabulary knowledge due to treatment and pretreatment reading comprehension scores. Method Students in Grade 6 ( N = 23) completed a 5-session intervention based on robust vocabulary instruction (RVI). Knowledge of the semantics of taught words was measured pre- and posttreatment. Participants then read 2 matched texts, 1 containing taught words (treated) and 1 not (untreated). Treated texts and taught word lists were counterbalanced across participants. The difference between text comprehension scores in treated and untreated conditions was taken as a measure of the effect of RVI on text comprehension. Results RVI resulted in significant gains in knowledge of taught words ( d RM = 2.26) and text comprehension ( d RM = 0.31). The extent of gains in vocabulary knowledge after vocabulary treatment did not predict the effect of RVI on comprehension of texts. However, untreated reading comprehension scores moderated the effect of the vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: Lower reading comprehension was associated with greater gains in text comprehension. Readers with comprehension scores below the mean experienced large gains in comprehension, but those with average/above average reading comprehension scores did not. Conclusion Vocabulary instruction had a larger effect on text comprehension for readers in Grade 6 who had lower untreated reading comprehension scores. In contrast, the amount that children learned about taught vocabulary did not predict the effect of vocabulary instruction on text comprehension. This has implications for the identification of 6th-grade students who would benefit from classroom instruction or clinical intervention targeting vocabulary knowledge.


Author(s):  
Pui Fong Kan

Abstract The purpose of this article is to look at the word learning skills in sequential bilingual children—children who learn two languages (L1 and L2) at different times in their childhood. Learning a new word is a process of learning a word form and relating this form to a concept. For bilingual children, each concept might need to map onto two word forms (in L1 and in L2). In case studies, I present 3 typically developing Hmong-English bilingual preschoolers' word learning skills in Hmong (L1) and in English (L2) during an 8-week period (4 weeks for each language). The results showed gains in novel-word knowledge in L1 and in L2 when the amount of input is equal for both languages. The individual differences in novel word learning are discussed.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1119-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomasello

Although Bloom gives more credit to social cognition (mind reading) than do most other theorists of word learning, he does not go far enough. He still relies fundamentally on a learning process of association (or mapping), neglecting the joint attentional and cultural learning skills from which linguistic communication emerges at one year of age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Pierluigi Zoccolotti ◽  
Paola Angelelli ◽  
Chiara Valeria Marinelli ◽  
Daniele Luigi Romano

Background. Skill learning (e.g., reading, spelling and maths) has been predominantly treated separately in the neuropsychological literature. However, skills (as well as their corresponding deficits), tend to partially overlap. We recently proposed a multi-level model of learning skills (based on the distinction among competence, performance, and acquisition) as a framework to provide a unitary account of these learning skills. In the present study, we examined the performance of an unselected group of third- to fifth-grade children on standard reading, spelling, and maths tasks, and tested the relationships among these skills with a network analysis, i.e., a method particularly suited to analysing relations among different domains. Methods. We administered a battery of reading, spelling, and maths tests to 185 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children (103 M, 82 F). Results. The network analysis indicated that the different measures of the same ability (i.e., reading, spelling, and maths) formed separate clusters, in keeping with the idea that they are based on different competences. However, these clusters were also related to each other, so that three nodes were more central in connecting them. In keeping with the multi-level model of learning skills, two of these tests (arithmetic facts subtest and spelling words with ambiguous transcription) relied heavily on the ability to recall specific instances, a factor hypothesised to underlie the co-variation among learning skills. Conclusions. The network analysis indicated both elements of association and of partial independence among learning skills. Interestingly, the study was based on standard clinical instruments, indicating that the multi-level model of learning skills might provide a framework for the clinical analysis of these learning skills.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document