scholarly journals Vocabulary Analogy: Interactive Instructional to Enhance Vocabulary Knowledge

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fajrianor Fajrianor

Vocabulary analogy is a valuable strategy which enriches students’ vocabulary mastery in order to recognize and understand the words or message of a text or passage. Instructional material for reading comprehension in this book specially designed for helping students’ to understand the process of recognizing word and constructing meaning of the text. Illustrations stimulate students’ interest; vocabulary strategies upscale students’ memory and understanding of analogy concepts.

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.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Σοφία Παπαϊωάννου

Development of Cognitive and Academic Abilities in Greek Elementary School Students The development of language and reading skills is closely linked to the maturation ofcognitive abilities. This study focuses on Attention and Executive skills (EFs) and theirconnection with the development of language and reading skills among elementary schoolstudents, with emphasis on reading comprehension. In the context of two studies weexamined: the effect of Attention and EFs on Reading Comprehension controlling for printrelatedskills, the direct and indirect effects of attention, the factors that may moderate theseeffects of cognitive abilities on Reading Comprehension, and the cognitive and academicperformance of children demonstrating teacher-rated ADHD-related symptoms. A battery of tests assessing Sustained Attention, Short-term Memory (STM), EFs, andacademic skills was administered to a representative sample of, largely untreated, Greekelementary school students (N= 597 and N=923, respectively). Attention and EFs contributedsignificant additional variance to the prediction of Reading Comprehension after controllingfor efficiency, accuracy, morphosyntactic and vocabulary knowledge. Attention-relatedabilities contributed to Reading Comprehension indirectly through EFs. The only factor thatmoderated the effects of EFs on Reading Comprehension was Reading Efficiency. Significantdeficits in EFs and STM were restricted to the groups of students displaying inattentionsymptoms. Results demonstrated a close link between EFs, other than inhibition and set-shifting,everyday symptoms of inattention, and achievement in math and word-level reading skills.Reduced performance on EF measures was identified as the most important factor thatdistinguished between students with pervasive academic difficulties and their typicallyachieving peers, regardless of the presence of inattention symptoms. Considering the crosssectionalnature of the present study, our results provide some support to the hypothesis that EF deficits are causally related to developmental academic difficulties, and may set a firmbasis for implementing a cognitive approach to the management of students with ReadingComprehension difficulties and severe inattention symptoms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annina K. HESSEL ◽  
Victoria A. MURPHY

AbstractWe explored the vocabulary and metaphor comprehension of learners of English as an additional language (EAL) in the first two years of UK primary school. EAL vocabulary knowledge is believed to be a crucial predictor of (reading) comprehension and educational attainment (Murphy, 2018). The vocabulary of five- to seven-year-old children with EAL was compared to that of English monolinguals (N = 80). Comprehension was assessed for both verbal (e.g., time flies) and nominal metaphors (be on cloud nine) of varying frequency. Results showed that children in year 2 (age six to seven years) had better comprehension than their younger (age five to six) peers, particularly for low-frequency metaphors. Children with EAL had weaker metaphor comprehension than their monolingual peers, particularly on a reasoning task. The results document how metaphor comprehension develops over the first critical years of schooling and indicates where learners with EAL differ from monolingual peers, thereby supporting targeted vocabulary teaching at primary schools.


Author(s):  
Theresa A Grasparil ◽  
David A Hernandez

Poor literacy achievement among English learners has contributed significantly to their high dropout rates, poor job prospects, and high poverty rates. The National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth has suggested that English learners benefit from the same direct, systematic instruction in the five essential components of reading shown effective for native-English-speaking students: phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Implementing effective reading instructional practices for English learners may reduce the literacy achievement gap between English learners and native English speakers. In this study, we used multiple regression to examine data for 1,376 third-grade Latino English learners to determine the strength of oral English proficiency, oral reading fluency, and academic vocabulary knowledge as predictors of reading comprehension proficiency. Findings of this study indicate a mismatch between English learners’ instructional needs and a widely used reading program component, assessment of words correct per minute (as a measure of oral reading fluency). Significant conclusions of this study suggest that educators seeking to promote the reading comprehension proficiency of Latino English learners consider using WCPM assessments and activities cautiously and strive to allocate more time for instruction and assessment of the prosodic dimension of oral reading fluency and academic vocabulary knowledge and skills.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Cates ◽  
Matthew J. Traxler ◽  
David P. Corina

Abstract This study investigates reading comprehension in adult deaf and hearing readers. Using correlational analysis and stepwise regression, we assess the contribution of English language variables (e.g., vocabulary comprehension, reading volume, and phonological awareness), cognitive variables (e.g., working memory (WM), nonverbal intelligence, and executive function), and language experience (e.g., language acquisition and orthographic experience) in predicting reading comprehension in deaf and hearing adult bilinguals (native American Sign Language (ASL) signers, non-native ASL signers, and Chinese–English bilinguals (CEB)), and monolingual (ML) controls. For all four groups, vocabulary knowledge was a strong contributor to reading comprehension. Monolingual English speakers and non-native deaf signers also showed contributions from WM and spoken language phonological awareness. In contrast, CEB showed contributions of lexical strategies in English reading comprehension. These cross-group comparisons demonstrate how the inclusion of multiple participant groups helps us to further refine our understanding of how language and sensory experiences influence reading comprehension.


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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 153450842096638
Author(s):  
Amanda P. Goodwin ◽  
Yaacov Petscher ◽  
Jamie Tock ◽  
Sara McFadden ◽  
Dan Reynolds ◽  
...  

Assessment of language skills for upper elementary and middle schoolers is important due to the strong link between language and reading comprehension. Yet, currently few practical, reliable, valid, and instructionally informative assessments of language exist. This study provides validation evidence for Monster, P.I., which is a gamified, standardized, computer-adaptive assessment (CAT) of language for fifth to eighth grade students. Creating Monster, P.I. involved an assessment of the dimensionality of morphology and vocabulary and an assessment of syntax. Results using multiple-group item response theory (IRT) with 3,214 fifth through eighth graders indicated morphology and vocabulary were best assessed via bifactor models and syntax unidimensionally. Therefore, Monster, P.I. provides scores on three component areas of language (multidimensional morphology and vocabulary and unidimensional syntax) with the goal of informing instruction. Validity results also suggest that Monster, P.I. scores show moderate correlations with each other and with standardized reading vocabulary and reading comprehension assessments. Furthermore, hierarchical regression results suggest an important link between Monster, P.I. and standardized reading comprehension, explaining between 56% and 75% of the variance. Such results indicate that Monster, P.I. can provide meaningful understandings of language performance which can guide instruction that can impact reading comprehension performance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-han Ma ◽  
Wen-ying Lin

The present study aimed to investigate the overall and relative contribution of four subcomponents of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. The four vocabulary subcomponents were vocabulary size, word association knowledge, collocation knowledge, and morphological knowledge. The participants were 124 college students from a university in Taipei, Taiwan. Six instruments were employed: (1) a reading comprehension test, (2) a vocabulary size test, (3) a test on word association knowledge and collocation knowledge, (4) a test of morphological knowledge, (5) motivation attitude scale, and (6) a self-efficacy scale. The results can be summarized as follows. First, after the effects of motivation and self-efficacy have been controlled, the four vocabulary subcomponents altogether contributed significantly (20%) to reading comprehension performance. Moreover, depth of vocabulary knowledge (including word association knowledge, collocation knowledge, and morphological knowledge) provided an additional explained variance (6%) in reading comprehension performance over and above vocabulary size. Finally, among the three subcomponents of depth of vocabulary knowledge, collocation knowledge explained the most proportion of variance (5.6%) in contributing to performance on reading comprehension. Based on these findings, some implications and suggestions for future research were provided.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document