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Teachers' Instruction and Students' Vocabulary and Comprehension: An Exploratory Study With English Monolingual and Spanish–English Bilingual Students in Grades 3–5
Abstract
The primary aim of this study was to explore the relationship between teachers'
instruction and students’ vocabulary and comprehension in grades 3–5.
The secondary aim of this study was to investigate whether this relationship
differed for English monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual students. To
meet these aims, we observed and recorded reading/language arts instruction
in 33 classrooms at three points during an academic year, and we assessed 274
students on vocabulary and comprehension at the beginning and end of the
year. Using field notes and student utterances to understand the context, we
coded teacher utterances (e.g., questions, comments, prompts) as vocabulary
instruction, comprehension instruction, other instruction, or noninstruction.
We then identified five types of vocabulary-related instruction and five types
of comprehension-related instruction. Using latent difference modeling, we
investigated how the frequency of different types of instruction was associated
with change in students’ vocabulary and comprehension across the
school year. Teachers’ instruction related to definitions, word relations, and
morphosyntax was positively associated with change in vocabulary; teachers’
instruction related to application across contexts and literal comprehension
was negatively associated with change in vocabulary; and teachers’ instruction
related to inferential comprehension was positively associated with
change in comprehension. The findings also revealed an interaction between
language status and teachers’ instruction, such that instruction that attended
to comprehension strategies was associated with greater positive change in
comprehension for bilingual (but not for monolingual) students.
... instruction have primarily focused on the ways teachers support vocabulary development within the context of English language arts (ELA) instruction (Blachowicz, 1987;Carlisle et al., 2013;Nelson et al., 2015;Neugebauer et al., 2017;Silverman & Crandell, 2010;Silverman et al., 2014;Wanzek, 2014;Watts, 1995). To our knowledge, only one early-elementary observational study has examined vocabulary instruction outside of ELA instruction (Wright & Neuman, 2014). ...
... Teachers often dominate classroom talk (Nystrand, 2006;Silverman et al., 2014), yet actively engaging students in word learning is a critical component of vocabulary development (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). Likewise, current recommendations (National Research Council, 2012;NGSS Lead States, 2013) and research (Chen et al., 2016;Gotwals et al., 2022;Herrenkohl & Guerra, 1998;Menninga et al., 2017) in science education call for inquiry-based, dialogic instruction. ...
... In fact, we found that the teacher often used a VTM more than once within a turn; however, because each second-level code could only be applied once to a turn, this repeated use of VTMs within a turn was not captured. Silverman et al. (2014) also encountered this issue when selecting their unit of analysis for their observational study of vocabulary instruction within ELA lessons in Grades 3 through 5. They discovered that several different types of instruction often occurred within a turn and that "coding at the level of the turn appeared to mask the full extent to which teachers provided specific types of instruction" (p. ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which teachers use language to promote vocabulary development (i.e., vocabulary talk moves) during science instruction in early-elementary classrooms. Twenty-four total science lessons were recorded by eight teachers, providing 894.27 min of observational data across three timepoints. Discourse analysis was used to identify specific research-aligned vocabulary talk moves. Findings revealed that the cohort of teachers used considerably more moves for building students’ knowledge of word meanings than for building students’ awareness of words and word learning or for interesting students in words and word learning. Likewise, the cohort used more authoritative moves (teacher telling) than dialogic moves (inviting student exploration and engagement). This study contributes to the field's understanding of the ways that science instruction supports literacy learning and literacy instruction supports science learning in the early-elementary grades. The findings from this study have implications for teacher professional development and policy.
... Research findings support the effectiveness of vocabulary instruction that includes a focus on morphological knowledge (MK). MK has been linked to gains in vocabulary (Silverman et al., 2014), general literacy skills (Bowers et al., 2010), and reading comprehension (e.g., Kieffer & Lesaux, 2008). In an exemplar study, Lesaux et al. (2014) conducted a randomized controlled trial of academic vocabulary instruction with 2082 linguistically diverse students in 14 urban middle schools. ...
... Supplemental instruction focusing on MK has also been shown to improve vocabulary acquisition for students from diverse backgrounds including ELs (Goodwin & Ahn, 2013;Silverman et al., 2014). However, prior literature also suggests that students with varied levels of English proficiency may differ in their ability to utilize MK to infer word meanings, with fluent English proficient students demonstrating better utilization of MK to infer word meanings (Zhang et al., 2020). ...
... The findings of the current study would also support the assumption that students vary in their responsiveness to such instruction which is consistent with studies that suggest that students who vary in their English proficiency show differential sensitivity to English morphological structure (Zhang et al., 2020). It has been posited that emphasis on derivational morphemes or instruction that entails explicit codebased instruction provides a deeper kind of word knowledge instruction that goes beyond definitions of words in single contexts to facilitate students' awareness of the morphological structure of words (August et al., 2020;Goodwin & Ahn, 2013;Silverman et al., 2014). Although the current design does not allow for isolation of effects of specific aspects of the instruction, the potential for instruction that includes a focus on morphemes (roots and affixes) as an active ingredient of academic word learning is supported by the fact that nearly 70% of academic terms have Latin roots (Scott et al., 2012). ...
The aims of the current project were to: (1) describe average change in the use of academic words across the school year in writing and (2) examine potential predictors of growth in academic word use in response to morphology-focused supplemental instruction. Investigators utilized written expository responses of 824 students in 5th grade before and after a 20 week supplemental language instruction that focused on morphological knowledge in academic words. Students received supplemental Word Knowledge Instruction (n = 515) or business-as-usual (n = 307). The sample included students who were English Learners (ELs), previous ELs with fluent English proficiency (FEP), never ELs, and students with language-based learning disabilities (LLD). Small but significant increases in academic word use in written responses were evidenced from fall to spring. Results from a two-level hierarchical linear model with students nested within teachers indicated that a supplemental instructional approach predicted change in academic word use from fall to spring for students with differential effects by EL status. The morphology-focused supplemental instruction was related to larger gains in academic word use in writing than business-as-usual for students with LLD and FEP students. ELs with limited English proficiency showed similar outcomes in both conditions.
... The outcome variable of interest was student reading comprehension at Time 2, measured by the WMLS-R Passage Comprehension (PC2) subtest. Like previous work in multilingual samples, we use this assessment because it has been shown to capture the top-down, bottom-up model of reading comprehension, revealing the importance of language knowledge for reading comprehension (Proctor et al., 2005), particularly emphasizing vocabulary knowledge Montecillo Leider et al., 2013;Silverman et al., 2013). Students read cloze passages in order of increasing length and complexity, and produced a word to complete the sentence. ...
... Stale bread. [P8: 2/8/11] This explicit vocabulary instruction has consistently been shown to positively affect student learning in monolingual and bilingual samples Carlo et al., 2004;Proctor et al., 2011;Scott, Jamieson-Noel, & Asselin, 2003;Silverman et al., 2013). With the predominance of teacher explanations providing definitional language, our finding seems to extend Silverman et al. (2013) finding that word definitions predicted vocabulary; here, this talk move was predictive of reading comprehension. ...
... [P8: 2/8/11] This explicit vocabulary instruction has consistently been shown to positively affect student learning in monolingual and bilingual samples Carlo et al., 2004;Proctor et al., 2011;Scott, Jamieson-Noel, & Asselin, 2003;Silverman et al., 2013). With the predominance of teacher explanations providing definitional language, our finding seems to extend Silverman et al. (2013) finding that word definitions predicted vocabulary; here, this talk move was predictive of reading comprehension. ...
Increasingly, reading research has begun to address how students’ linguistic environments may explain their reading achievement. In this exploratory analysis, we investigated how the rates of specific instructional talk moves predicted student reading comprehension achievement. Transcripts from third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms (teacher n = 31; student n = 236), were coded for nine talk moves established in the literature as involved in literacy and learning outcomes. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling was used to identify sources of linguistic comprehension, a necessary component of student reading comprehension. Controlling for students’ decoding and fluency, semantic-syntactic knowledge, and initial reading comprehension, we found two talk moves significantly predicted reading comprehension. Teacher explanations [γ07(20.89); p ≤ 0.05] and simple follow-up moves [γ06(10.44); p ≤ 0.05] provided students with explicit instruction and exposure to academic language and the positive reinforcement to encourage student attention to the learning tasks and thus potentially more language exposure. In this sample, these moves provide further support for the simple view of reading (Hoover & Gough, 1990) that suggests that fostering student linguistic comprehension is pedagogically important for student reading at these levels.
... More recently, Schick (2014) identified the relative contributions of contextualized home and school literacy practices on low-income Latino preschoolers' emergent literacy development, finding that home-school global literacy practices, linguistically specific and dialogic talk during book-sharing interactions, and unique book-sharing styles across L1 home and L2 school settings were predictive of L2 English emergent literacy outcomes. In school-age EL populations, contextualization through classroom discussion between and among teachers and students has been identified as a facilitator of academic language in linguistic complexity and specificity through vocabulary acquisition and discourse interaction patterns (Silverman et al., 2013;Snow, Lawrence, & White, 2009 While evidence shows that linguistically specific and complex language forms first develop through a range of contextualized language-learning opportunities at home and school, many students struggle to acquire the dominant discourse that marks academic language proficiency, placing them at risk for school failure (Dickinson & Snow, 1987;National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2013;Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Decontextualized language use has been defined as, "important for the literate activities of reading, writing, listening to lectures, talking about language and thought, and mastering school curriculum" (Nippold, 1998, p. 21). ...
... Based on the facilitative role of context in language development, it is unlikely that students acquire language through decontextualized tasks alone, without extensive prior knowledge and experience (receptive and expressive) with the language of instruction (i.e., English) (Gersten et al., 2007). Thus, the development of specific and complex discourse forms marking academic language proficiency resides on the premise that students have experienced contextualized language-learning opportunities such as classroom discussion and dialogic discourse (Silverman et al., 2013;Snow et al., 2009). Unfortunately, most of the conventional language-learning tasks that ELs experience from elementary to postsecondary school focus on the application of decontextualized academic language forms (Boyd et al., 2006;Ford-Connors & Paratore, 2014;Perin, 2011). ...
... Research on L2 language acquisition supports the idea that context is an interactive scaffold to the attainment of specific academic language forms and their functions (Gersten et al., 2007;Perin, 2011;Saens, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005). Researchers (e.g., Silverman et al., 2013;Snow et al., 2009; see review by Tedick & Cammarata, 2012) explain the need for learning environments that integrate academic language outcomes within contextualized discourse settings to better support ELs to learn new vocabulary and syntactic structures that mark complex and specific academic discourse. In second-language development, contextualized, interpersonal oral language skills of listening and speaking typically are acquired within an interactive environment with L2 meta-language skills (Silverman et al., 2013;Snow et al., 2009). ...
Teacher and student academic discourse was examined in an urban arts-integrated school to better understand facilitation of students’ English language learning. Participants’ discourse was compared across English language arts (ELA) lessons with and without classroom drama in a third-grade classroom of English learning (EL) students (N = 18) with Spanish as their home language (L1) and English as their second language (L2). Students used significantly higher rates of L2 academic language forms as measured by linguistically specific and complex literate language features and language-facilitative speech acts during classroom drama, as compared with conventional ELA lessons. The classroom teacher used more dialogic discourse, as measured by increased rates of requestive and responsive speech acts during drama, as compared with conventional ELA lessons. The findings indicate that the contextualization of ELA content through classroom drama contributed to participants’ dialogic use of specific and complex academic discourse forms over a conventional ELA setting. The implications of arts-integrated instruction for education practice, research, and policy are discussed.
... Previous studies show the importance of going beyond teaching word definitions to develop EBs' depth of word knowledge (Silverman et al., 2013). EBs need to know precise word forms and underlying concepts (e.g., energy, force) and general academic words that appear across content areas (e.g., analyze, documentation). ...
... Expanding EBs' instruction to include semantic word relations involves relating meanings across the same or similar words in home language(s), providing opportunities to encounter and produce words in multiple contexts (Carlo et al., 2004), and using text-based questions to promote discussions about previously encountered words with similar meanings (Silverman & Hines, 2009;Taboada & Rutherford, 2011). Through a translanguaging perspective, teachers eliminate constraints on language use to afford opportunities for students to engage with words (e.g., supplying a synonym, definition, or cognate; Silverman et al., 2013), fostering overall language development. ...
This article provides a “snapshot” of fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) vocabulary instruction before and after implementation of college and career readiness standards. Our exploratory study's findings demonstrate the instructional shifts for teaching deep vocabulary knowledge as required by college and career readiness standards, including a greater frequency of oral discussions. Many emergent bilinguals are placed in classrooms where English-medium instruction is the norm, preventing them from using their home language to make meaning and actively participate in the classroom; this stymies language learning and limits opportunities for developing deep vocabulary knowledge. Instructional strategies that build on the ELA vocabulary directives are suggested using a translanguaging perspective to develop emergent bilinguals’ language and vocabulary knowledge. These instructional suggestions can be implemented by all teachers serving bilingual learners, including those who are not bilingual in English-medium settings.
... the same assumptions of HLM that can be questionable with smaller samples. A CRSE approach estimates a traditional single-level regression model but then applies a statistical correction to the standard errors to ensure that they mirror the hierarchical nature of the data (Silverman et al., 2014). As with HLM, CRSEs are known to be biased with a small number of clusters (Lu et al., 2007); however, there are a handful of small sample corrections that can be successfully applied with as few as 10 clusters. ...
... Some recent evidence shows that student talk in small groups increases ideation and length of argumentative writing (Wagner, Parra, & Proctor, 2017). Importantly, talk and writing are both expressive language skills and are far less privileged in typical classrooms than their receptive counterparts (i.e., reading, listening; Silverman et al., 2014). Given the focus on language in CLAVES, it is also worthwhile to consider research that has explored how reading and writing are related to each other via language (e.g., Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000). ...
Students are expected to comprehend and produce increasingly complex texts in upper elementary school, and academic language and literacy skills are considered critical to meeting these expectations. Notions of academic language are also controversial and require careful deliberation when applied to traditionally minoritized populations, including bilingual learners who negotiate more than one language in their daily lives and have varied linguistic repertoires. In the present study, the authors report on a quasi‐experimental field trial of a theoretically grounded and language‐based reading intervention framed around language components (semantics, syntax, and morphology), language functions, discussion, and reading comprehension. A sample of 239 Portuguese–English and Spanish–English bilingual students in grades 4 and 5 worked in small instructional groups to explore language, apply reading strategies, and discuss and write about big ideas in text. Half of the students were assigned to the intervention group (n = 119) and the other half (n = 120) to a business‐as‐usual control group. Classroom teachers (n = 12) and specialists (n = 10) implemented the intervention with small groups of four to six students. Results showed practically meaningful effects of the intervention on standardized measures of both academic language (Hedges’s g = 0.248) and reading comprehension (Hedges’s g = 0.166), with implications for theory, research, and classroom practice.
... Features of vocabulary instruction found to be effective at helping students grow their lexicons include providing explicit instruction; applying words in multiple, meaningful contexts; and demonstrating the relationships among words (Marulis & Neuman, 2013;Silverman et al., 2013). True acquisition of vocabulary requires that students gain more than a superficial understanding of the words. ...
... Recommendations for teachers to implement it (cf. Strategic Education Research Partnership, n.d.) have been based on research on graphic organizers (Gajria et al., 2007) and vocabulary instruction (Marulis & Neuman, 2013;Silverman et al., 2013) more broadly rather than on the Frayer model specifically. Although the present study cannot establish a causal link between the organizer and students' science outcomes, the findings are helpful in identifying the potential ways in which the use of the theoretically designed Frayer model is related to leveraging students' reading abilities in learning science concepts. ...
This study investigated the content learning of fourth graders (N = 92) randomly assigned to complete electronic Frayer Models on life science vocabulary by themselves or while engaging in synchronous online discussions with a partner. The use of the graphic organizers was interspersed with other science activities. After seven weeks, all students significantly improved their science content knowledge (d ≈ 0.60), but the two treatment groups did not demonstrate significantly different performance after controlling for pretest abilities. Path analysis revealed the rubric scores on students' organizers were more strongly predictive of the posttest science benchmark in the online discussion group than the independent group, suggesting that collaboratively completing Frayer Models may help bolster the relationship between reading and science.
... Historically, classroom teachers have reported minimal training in adapting the curriculum for ELs (García, 2008;Youngs & Youngs, 2001). Silverman et al. (2013) examined teachers' use of strategies for third-to fifth-grade bilingual students by observing 274 bilingual students in their classrooms. Teachers appeared to focus on definitions and word relations during vocabulary instruction, and apply words in various contexts. ...
... Several of the teachers in the current study acknowledged that ELs arrive with various levels of language proficiency, and the teachers were concerned that this challenge made it more difficult for them to effectively teach content. This is disheartening given that differentiated instruction is an effective strategy for facilitating literacy, and that differentiated instruction for ELs should take into account language proficiency (Lawrence-Brown, 2004;Silverman et al., 2013). ...
Aims of the current study were to explore teachers’ background, beliefs, attitudes, and sense of self-efficacy, as well as instructional supports and innovative practices in response to cultural and linguistic diversity in classrooms serving Spanish-English speaking children of migrant workers. A total of 22 teachers participated in semi-structured interviews regarding linguistic diversity in the classroom. Their responses were transcribed and qualitative analysis procedures were utilized to deconstruct units. Individual units were then clustered by similarities and differences into themes and subcategories of themes. Teacher responses to the interview questions produced themes: awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity, issues and challenges, and innovative instructional supports and practices. Participating teachers commented on general supports designed to assist communication between English Learners (EL) and the teacher or peers, facilitate communication with parents of ELs, and embrace and promote responsiveness to cultural linguistic diversity (CLD) in the classroom. Teachers identified specific supports to intensify instruction, including (a) employing multiple modalities, (b) increasing experience and exposure, and (c) providing individualized support. Additional resources and support are warranted to identify and disseminate effective practices to provide intensified instruction and support to ELs.
... In RRQ, a majority of studies reported training reliability information (n = 7). Four of the seven RRQ studies reported Cohen's kappa values for IRR on training observations; two studies reported exact kappa values (Connor et al., 2011, kappa = 0.73;Silverman & Crandell, 2010, kappa = 0.82), while the other two studies reported kappa greater than or equal to 0.80 (Sailors et al., 2014;Silverman et al., 2014). Three other RRQ studies included percentages of exact agreement on training observations ranging from 88% to greater than 90% (Kelcey & Carlisle, 2013;Rodgers et al., 2016;Vaughn et al., 2013). ...
... Three studies reported percentages of exact agreement; two studies reported exact percentages (Rodgers et al., 2016, EA = 85%;Kelcey & Carlisle, 2013, EA = 87%) and one reported agreement greater than 80% (White et al., 2014). The three remaining RRQ studies reported kappa values for reliability during data collection, with two of these studies reporting exact kappa values (Connor et al., 2011, kappa = 0.73;Silverman & Crandell, 2010, kappa = 0.97) and one reporting kappa greater than 0.80 (Silverman et al., 2014). ...
Although inter-rater reliability is an important aspect of using observational instruments, it has received little theoretical attention. In this article, we offer some guidance for practitioners and consumers of classroom observations so that they can make decisions about inter-rater reliability, both for study design and in the reporting of data and results. We reviewed articles in two major journals in the fields of reading and mathematics to understand how researchers have measured and reported inter-rater reliability in a recent decade. We found that researchers have tended to report measures of inter-rater agreement above the .80 threshold with little attention to the magnitude of score differences between raters. Then, we conducted simulations to understand both how different indices for classroom observation reliability are related to each other and the impact of reliability decisions on study results. Results from the simulation studies suggest that mean correlations with an outcome are slightly lower at lower levels of percentage of exact agreement but that the magnitude of score differences has a more dramatic effect on correlations. Therefore, adhering to strict thresholds for inter-rater agreement is less helpful than reporting exact point estimates and also examining measures of rater consistency.
... We listened to teachers who told us that even after they had taught their students all the relevant vocabulary in a text, their students struggled to comprehend the text. This echoed results from intervention studies, which find that research-based recommendations to expand academic vocabulary fail to satisfactorily expand students' reading comprehension (Proctor, Silverman, Harring, & Montecillo 2011;Silverman et al. 2014). By now, in our prior studies we have investigated CALS U.S. English-speaking students and in Spanish-speaking students from Chile, Peru, and Colombia in grades 4 to 8 (Uccelli & Meneses 2015;Uccelli, Barrera, Dryden Peterson, de Barros & Mulimbi, in preparation). ...
... © Instituto Cervantes at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University 26 con los resultados de estudios de intervención enfocados en ampliar el vocabulario académico de los estudiantes como un mecanismo central para mejorar la comprensión de lectura. Estos estudios suelen detectar un impacto positivo en la expansión del vocabulario enseñado, pero suelen fracasar en la meta primordial de avanzar significativamente el nivel de comprensión de lectura de los alumnos(Proctor, Silverman, Harring y Montecillo 2011;Silverman et al. 2014). En las investigaciones enfocadas en las CALS que hemos realizado hasta el momento, han participado estudiantes angloparlantes de grados 4º a 8º que asisten a escuelas en los Estados Unidos, así como también estudianteshispanoparlantes de Chile, Perú y Colombia (Uccelli y Meneses 2015; Uccelli, Barrera, Dryden Peterson, de Barros y Mulimbi, en preparación). ...
... Researchers have proven that such strategies support active engagement with texts, enable readers to monitor their comprehension, and improve understanding (Baker, 2017;Schünemann et al., 2017;Sp€ orer et al., 2009;Wigfield et al., 2008). Therefore, students should be allowed to practice and internalize strategies so they can apply them in new and different situations (Hall, 2012;Pressley, 2006;Silverman et al., 2014). Substantial evidence also suggests that comprehension strategies are especially important for struggling readers and that the instruction of strategy use should be explicit, contextualized, and allow for multiple opportunities of independent practice (Duke & Pearson, 2002;Edmonds et al., 2009;Magnusson et al., 2018;RAND Reading Study Group, 2002;Taylor et al., 2003). ...
Despite robust evidence of effectiveness, many teachers struggle to implement research-based recommendations of reading instruction into everyday practice. This study examined naturally occurring text-based instruction in 237 lower secondary language arts lessons in 62 different classrooms from Norway and Sweden. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we found evidence that explicit strategy instruction and cognitively challenging tasks were rare even in lessons that did focus on deep comprehension of text. We also identified some of the distinct challenges (or missed opportunities) that characterize comprehension-oriented instruction. These findings provide critical insight into relevant areas of future professional development for teachers.
... Under the information environment, student-teacher interaction becomes sufficient. For instance, Fisher D et al. [5] indicated that student perception of their learning environment was mapped through the interaction with teachers, and the teacher-student interaction presented an intense association with learning effect; Rankin et al. [6] deemed that the interaction links in classroom teaching could be increased and revealed that this could effectively support the positive evaluation of students' learning abilities; Kindeberg T [7] stated that teachers exert crucial effects on student willingness to interact and share knowledge, skills and values with teachers, thus it was necessary to improve the teachers' cognition of interactive teaching approach; Silverman R. D. et al. [8]discussed about the relationship between teacher guidance teaching grade 3-5 students and student vocabulary and understanding level, and revealed that teachers' language state interacted with the teachers' teaching effect, and the teaching concerning compression strategy was associated with the greater positive changes in the understanding ability of bilingual students; Minamishima et al. [9] stated that teachers' teaching behaviors were important factors affecting the teaching quality and students enjoyed higher scores in the class, including more participatory behaviors. Schipper T et al. [10] discussed about whether the participatory classroom learning would influence the self-efficacy belief and teaching behaviors of teachers, and determined that positive and effective interaction could obviously enhance the students' enthusiasm for classroom learning; Menninga A. et al. [11] discussed about the Q & A-like interaction of teachers and young students in science class, and the results manifested that richer chapters and more interactions appeared in classrooms through the interactive teaching approach, and the teaching effect could be obviously improved through teachers' open-ended questions and students' reasoning. ...
Under the background of teaching requirements comprehensively satisfied by information hardware, clarifying the influencing factors of teaching behaviors on student activities in the information-based teaching, as well as the influence mechanism. In this paper, a mediator model was established. Next, the collaboration degree in the teaching process was taken as the influencing factor and information monitoring was used as the mediating variable to discuss the effect of teaching behaviors on student activities in the classroom teaching process. Subsequently, the structural equation model (SEM) was used to mine the relationship between teaching behaviors and student activities and the influence on student activities. It was discovered that the overall Cronbach’s a value of questionnaires was 0.920, indicating a favorable questionnaire reliability; the KMO value was 0.916, which represents excellent questionnaire validity; three factors—teachers’ teaching behaviors, collaboration degree, and media monitoring—have shown positively strong correlations with student activities. The research results have provided realistic examination for enriching information-based classroom factors like teaching concepts, teaching resources and teaching quality, mine the existing problems and further provide reform orientation for promoting the high-efficiency development of information-based teaching, completing the effective engagement between information technology and specialized courses, and integrating abundant information-based teaching resources.
... The percentage of female participants ranged from 33% to 77%. One effect size (Silverman, et al., 2014) was excluded from the analyses as it did not define the type of vocabulary assessed. Egger's test was not significant (t = 0.19, p = .85) ...
Successful text comprehension results in a coherent mental model of the situation being described. To achieve this, the reader has to infer certain information by connecting parts of the text to their prior knowledge. An important construct involved in this process is vocabulary knowledge, usually divided into breadth and depth. We conducted a meta-analysis on 23 studies, and explored the fit of five different models to establish an effect size of both dimensions of vocabulary on inference making, as well as its developmental trajectory in children aged 3-12. We found a significant and moderate effect of vocabulary knowledge of both modalities. Vocabulary type was not a significant moderator, but age was, meaning that there was a similar effect for both breadth and depth and that the strength of the correlations decreased with age. Heterogeneity was high overall, meaning that more moderators should be assessed in future studies.
... Simply put, dialogic approaches center student voice in instruction. And while there is ample research showing the benefits of dialogic teaching, its documented use in literacy instruction is limited (Silverman et al., 2014). Much theory and research has identified student talk as a critical dimension of human interaction that can support language, reasoning, and meaning making across a variety of instructional contexts (e.g., Wells, 2007). ...
The authors describe a 3‐year project to design and test a multilingual literacy curriculum that centers language and student voice in the service of literacy development for multilingual learners. In the first 2 years, researchers, teachers, and students worked together to develop the curriculum using design‐based, case study methods. In the third year, teachers participated in a quasi‐experimental implementation of the curriculum that showed positive effects on students’ language, reading, and writing outcomes. This longitudinal work reflects four broad principles for multilingual literacy instruction: (1) focus on language and metalinguistic awareness; (2) enact dialogic approaches to engage students; (3) use multimodal texts and scaffolds to support comprehension and expression; and (4) take a multilingual perspective. The authors provide an overview of the curriculum design process and the quasi‐experimental field trial. Then, each principle is theoretically and empirically unpacked, and instructionally described using qualitative data collected over the full 3 years.
... Teachers' ability of being responsive to and following up on students' contributions promote language learning (Hansen 2018). Recent research on quality of linguistic input has shown that the most impactful language practices were those targeting conceptual information, definitions, and word relations (Bowne, Yoshikawa, and Snow 2016;Neugebauer et al. 2017;Silverman et al. 2014). Moreover, the present study indicated that features building on conceptual definitions and usagebased examples of these in combination with extended discourse can help teachers create enriched language environments for second-language learners. ...
Despite huge investments in interventions designed to support oral language skills in early childhood and beyond, many of the interventions fail to identify impacts on children’s language learning. Programmes may have limited impact because they do not sufficiently succeed in supporting teachers’ instructional talk, and thus, more efficiently promote children’s language learning. The present study examined the extent to which 15 teachers in Norway implementing a language intervention programme designed to enhance students’ second-language learning in first and second grade demonstrated changes in their instructional talk over the 8-week programme. The programme consisted of scripted parts (labelling pictures of targeted words, repeated exposures), as well as soft scripted parts (word relations and definitions) and minimally scripted parts (narratives and explanations that extended the here-and-now). Teachers received professional development that qualified them to implement the programme. Analysis of modifications in teachers’ instructional talk was based on audio-recorded small-group interactions, comparing characteristics of teacher talk at the beginning and end of the 8-week programme. Results revealed that teachers’ instructional talk developed to include more word definitions and extended discourse, talk categories aligned with the less scripted parts of the intervention. Conversely, teacher talk during the scripted parts of the programme did not change.
... Studies among Latino students and low literacy rates demonstrate the importance of phonology, vocabulary, and morphological knowledge regarding improved literacy outcomes. Silverman et al. (2013) found promising results in a vocabulary intervention for Latino students, which included word definitions and word relations. Teachers in the study focused on vocabulary and comprehension skills of Spanish-speaking students in grades third and fifth. ...
Creating proactive classroom experiences for Latino students in K-5 settings requires intentional support and knowledge among classroom teachers. Educating Latino students is a complex task given that elementary school teachers face many questions that include how best to teach literacy? what are proactive ways to teach behavioral skills? and how does culture support student learning? Successful implementation and knowledge of literacy and literacy assessments are critical for improving academic outcomes for Latino students. Historical and current literacy outcomes based on National Assessment of Education Progress underscore the need for more evidence-based literacy practices to increase outcomes for Latino students. Moreover, creating a classroom environment with established expectations and routines, teaching and operationalizing positively stated classroom rules, and behavioral contracts increases pro-social behaviors among Latino students who struggle with behavioral outcomes. Last, recognizing and acknowledging cultural components that enhance the learning of Latino students are necessary for school success. The teaching force in K-5 settings continues to use English as the primary method for delivering instruction. Acknowledging and strategically using the primary language of students can be a vehicle to support Latino student’s academic and behavioral outcomes.
... Patterns of time allocation to these instructional components did not significantly predict end-of-year student achievement. Silverman et al. (2014) observed vocabulary instruction as well as reading comprehension instruction in upper elementary-grade classrooms. They determined that the most prevalent types of vocabulary instruction were (a) activities that encouraged "application across contexts" of new vocabulary learning and (b) provision of definitions. ...
This study examined the amount and types of narrative instruction (i.e., story comprehension, oral storytelling, and story writing instruction) that general education English language arts teachers provide to students in Grades 1 through 4. The research team conducted 121, ~30-minute classroom observations. Educators were asked to teach a lesson focused on narrative comprehension or production (i.e., on “understanding literary text or creating stories”). The amount and type of story instruction provided to students varied across classrooms. Forty-four percent of observed minutes were devoted to story comprehension; 10% of minutes addressed story writing. Teachers spent no time working with students on oral storytelling. Findings suggest that story production may not be an instructional focus in many primary-grade classrooms. In addition, from both a macrostructure and a microstructure standpoint, typical narrative instruction may omit elements of narrative language instruction that are associated with improved narrative comprehension, oral storytelling, and writing outcomes.
... To compound this issue, many teachers report minimal training in adapting curriculum when working to support students' multilingual language and literacy development (e.g., Garcia, 2008;Hélot, 2007;Silverman et al., 2013). This may be a consequence of teacher education programs that do not focus on multilingual differences as part of their curriculum, offering one isolated course in bilingual education at best. ...
The US Census states that Americans under the age of five are a majority- minority with 50.2% of this population from minority backgrounds. As our country continues to grow as a rich, diverse multicultural nation, it is imperative that early childhood teacher educators prepare future teachers to embrace this diversity and provide experiences that affirm all students, families and communities. In our past work, we (teacher educators) synthesized the current research into five frameworks that we believe embody the foundation of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in an early childhood setting. In this article, we review the previous frames and continue this work with additional frameworks that are imperative for developing a culturally responsive early childhood educators and their future classrooms. We situate each framework within the larger context of research, and then we move beyond discussing CRT practices by offering ideas on how culturally responsive classrooms look and how to implement this pedagogy in an early childhood setting with authentic classroom practices.
... Although language-rich learning environments are critical for all children (not just for multilingual learners), it can be challenging to foster meaningful discussions among young children-especially in multilingual classrooms. Studies have found that teachers tend to do most of the talking during literacy instruction (Walsh 2002;Silverman et al. 2014) and that not all of this talk promotes children's language learning (Gavelek & Raphael 1996). In this article, we aim to support teachers by sharing our experiences creating, managing, and sustaining developmentally appropriate opportunities for meaningful talk in prekindergarten classrooms with multilingual learners. ...
... Researchers have suggested that inferencing supports comprehension, whereas increased comprehension supports more advanced inferencing (Cain & Oakhill, 2012). Time spent on inferential comprehension leads to greater reading gains than time spent on literal comprehension (Silverman et al., 2014), and strong readers make high-quality inferences (Carlson et al., 2014). ...
In this article, the authors report findings from a yearlong study that addressed teaching first-grade students to make inferences and engage in inferential discussion about children's literature. Because of the importance of both inferencing and discussion for comprehension, a collaborative team of two researchers and a classroom teacher focused on providing supportive discussion contexts and appropriate texts to foster inferential thinking in small-group discussions. The authors found that ambiguous books, didactic narratives, and fractured fairy tales provided rich sites for inference instruction and practice. The authors also noted the importance of text selection, accepting unexpected responses from students, and the role of the teacher. The article includes transcripts from student discussions with analysis of ways the varied texts fostered inferential talk.
... In addition, supplemental programs may serve to enhance students' vocabulary and comprehension, especially if these programs provide students with extra attention, interaction, and practice to further develop the vocabulary and comprehension skills students are acquiring (e.g., Apthorp et al., 2012;Goodson, Wolf, Bell, Turner, & Finney, 2011). A recent study in typical elementary schools found that 75% of classroom talk was attributed to teachers (Silverman et al., 2014). Assuming this is the norm, there is little time or space for students to talk and actively use words they have learned and skills they are developing. ...
Reading buddies programs, which pair older and younger students to read books together on a regular basis, are common in many U.S. elementary schools. Yet, the research base on these programs is limited. Therefore, we conducted a quasiexperimental study of a reading buddies program targeting vocabulary and comprehension. The program we studied paired fourth-grade students with kindergarten students to read, talk, play, and write together. In all, 16 Grade 4 classrooms and 16 kindergarten classrooms participated in the treatment group and in the comparison group. The treatment included 10 one-hour sessions implemented over the course of roughly 10 weeks. Analyses revealed effects of treatment on proximal measures of vocabulary for both kindergarteners and fourth-grade students. However, there were no effects on distal measures for either group. Teachers' perceptions of the program are presented, and findings are discussed in light of the extant literature.
... Yet many students often struggle to generate and elaborate on arguments about texts, including students who have an emerging proficiency in the English language. Research likewise indicates that teachers do most of the talking during literacy instruction (Silverman et al., 2014), and often struggle with the tension between ceding control of talk to students and ensuring students substantiate claims made about texts (Nystrand, Wu, Gamoran, Zeiser, & Long, 2003;Reznitskaya, 2012). ...
... Drawing from recent meta-analyses and research on impactful vocabulary practices (Gersten et al., 2007;Silverman et al., 2014) as well as the suggested language from the Elements of Reading program, we chose to explore teachers' use of two kinds of language practices: definitions, when teachers provide a ''friendly'' or more accessible definition of a target word, and word relations, when teachers discuss synonyms, related words, and multiple meanings of words. These practices were found by Silverman and colleagues to increase student learning of target vocabulary and are centrally emphasized in the Elements of Reading teacher manual. ...
Research to increase the early vocabulary development of urban students has emphasized the central role of teachers and the ways in which teachers use intervention curricula and strategies in their classroom contexts. This study explores teachers’ fidelity to different components of a vocabulary intervention, specifically their use of prescribed procedural routines and language strategies as well as teachers’ application of language strategies beyond what was scripted by the program, and the association between these different forms of intervention use and curriculum-specific vocabulary. Teacher fidelity to the intervention was explored across thirteen urban kindergarten classrooms. Measures of procedural and process-oriented fidelity were used to capture teachers’ adherence to a vocabulary intervention, and transcripts of teacher language use during intervention observations were analyzed and coded to capture teachers’ use of language extensions, language strategies that went beyond the materials or scripts provided by the intervention. Employing multi-level modeling results indicate that teachers’ use of language extensions positively predicted student curriculum vocabulary performance after the 24 weeks of the intervention above and beyond surface forms of fidelity. Findings from the current study encourage the need for teacher training on evidence-based practices that focus not only on intervention procedures, but also on how to use program features and strategies to more flexibly address the needs of students and anticipate how to intensify or broaden the scope of instruction based on the classroom context.
... Moreover, especially relevant to this review is the understanding that the instructional contexts that contributed to increased word learning (as well as text comprehension) employed in both print-and discussion-based interactions with words. A recent study by Silverman et al. (2013) largely confirmed these findings. In an analysis of the relationship between certain types of vocabulary instruction and the vocabulary learning of monolingual and bilingual students in 33 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms, Silverman et al. found that both monolingual and bilingual students benefited when instruction included attention to explicit definitions, word relations, and morphology and syntax. ...
Increasing the vocabulary knowledge of young adolescent and adolescent students has been a focal point of educational research and many teacher professional development initiatives. Yet many teachers continue to use traditional, but generally ineffective, methods of classroom-based vocabulary instruction. Synthesizing the literature around the general topics of vocabulary instruction, classroom discourse, and teacher talk, this review provides a comprehensive and critical examination of instruction that supports vocabulary learning in older students with a particular focus on practices that promote productive discussions of content.
Text inferencing is a critical factor that would affect discourse comprehension. Growing attention has been paid to the research on inferential processing during text reading, with numerous papers on this topic published in recent decades. To gain a bibliographic landscape of inferential processing during discourse reading, co-citation analysis, cluster interpretations, and citation bursts analysis were conducted via CiteSpace based on the data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection of Thomson Reuters from 2001 to 2021. The results reveal that (1) reading comprehension and working memory are fairly popular topics in recent decades; (2) research exploring predictive inferences, bridging inferences, and causal inferences have been paid much attention; and (3) predictive inference, eye movement, and listening comprehension may be attractive in future studies.
This paper seeks to examine multilingual children’s Javanese across different grades of primary schools with a focus on proficiency, vocabulary, and grammatical development. The data were partially taken from CBLING (Corpus of Bilingual Learners’ Languages), a corpus developed by Universitas Negeri Malang. Using AntConc as a corpus development tool, we measured Javanese proficiency using the Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) method. Our findings on the development of Javanese proficiency and vocabulary growth indicated insignificant improvement across grades. However, the average vocabulary density grows significantly from the first two lower grades to the three higher ones. In terms of grammar, hybrid words showing morphological blendings, such as mastekno or isikno were observed in the participants’ writings. Taken together, our findings are essential for teaching and learning Javanese as a regional home language and generating an important linguistic feature of 21st century multilingual children’s Javanese. Keywords: corpus study, Javanese language, multilingual children, East Java
The contribution of vocabulary to academic achievements in general and to reading comprehension (RC) in particular has led to the development of various tools for vocabulary assessment. However, existing assessments do not distinguish between word types, and specifically, they do not target emotion vocabulary, despite growing recognition of the importance of emotional processing to RC ability. In this study, we first describe the development of a novel vocabulary assessment in Hebrew – Herut – and examine its validity and sensitivity. This assessment includes both emotion words and nonemotion words, and is based on curriculum. Next, we studied the contribution of the emotion and nonemotion words subscales of the Herut to RC in a sample of 1,333 Hebrew-speaking fourth- and fifth-grade students. Both types of vocabulary knowledge made significant independent contributions to RC, and the contribution of emotion words was slightly larger than that of nonemotion words. Finally, the Herut measure was found to be more predictive of RC than a general vocabulary measure in Hebrew.
The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy use on reading comprehension performance in English-speaking monolingual and bilingual students. One hundred fifty-five children in grade 4 through 6 (93 bilinguals and 62 monolinguals) were assessed on receptive vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading strategy use in English. An additional 38 adult bilinguals (i.e., English Language Learners) were assessed on the same measures. Although, the bilingual adult group and bilingual children had significantly lower English vocabulary knowledge relative to the monolingual children, the bilingual adults exhibited reading comprehension performance that was on par with the monolingual children; both groups outperformed the bilingual children. This discrepancy was accounted for by reported strategy use, wherein bilingual adults reported more inferencing, more connecting between sections of text and more reference to the text structure than the children. Reported strategy use also accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension performance above and beyond the contributions of English vocabulary knowledge and word reading fluency. Findings highlight the strategies that successful readers report and emphasize the value of promoting effective strategy selection in addition to language instruction in the development of reading comprehension skill.
This study examined the impacts of a collaborative small-group discussion intervention on fifth graders’ use of vocabulary as they reasoned about literature involving complex social-moral issues. A total of 250 fifth graders (120 males and 130 females) from 12 classrooms in two public middle schools in the Midwestern United States participated in this six-week quasi-experimental study. Classrooms were assigned to one of three conditions: Collaborative Social Reasoning (CSR: intervention), Read Aloud (RA), or Regular Instruction (RI). Use of vocabulary was measured through a reflective essay task before and after the intervention. Results showed that students in the CSR condition generated more academic and relational vocabulary than students in RA and RI conditions. The CSR students outperformed the RI students in the use of social and emotional vocabulary. Findings shed light on possible mechanisms of small-group discussion in promoting fifth graders’ academic and social-emotional learning.
This two-year longitudinal study investigated Swedish L2 middle school students’ reading development and its relation to reported strategy use. Reading comprehension was measured on three occasions and strategy use was examined using the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) scale. The results show that student reading comprehension scores develop significantly over the last two years of middle school (grades 5–6). As expected, second-generation immigrant students score higher than first-generation immigrants, but the differences are not statistically significant. The study shows no gender-related differences in relation to reading strategy use. Boys and girls use strategies to a similar extent. However, good readers reported using all types of reading strategies, particularly global strategies, to a greater extent than poor readers. Interestingly, the reading achievement of boys was strongly correlated to the reported use of global strategies, while the reading achievement of girls was not correlated to strategy use at all. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Cambridge Core - Applied Linguistics - Learning through Language - edited by Vibeke Grøver
The number of English language learners is increasing rapidly in U.S schools. The academic success of these students is a national concern since ELLs lag behind their peers in reading and math, and they have high drop-out rate. Reading is one of the hardest topics for ELL students. This chapter analyzes some common reasons why ELLs lag behind their peers in reading classes, provides some solutions to overcome these challenges, and provides some implications to teach ELLs better for elementary teachers.
The authors examined naturally occurring reading comprehension strategies instruction (RCSI) across four consecutive lessons in 47 Norwegian language arts classrooms at the lower secondary level via video observations (n = 178). Although numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of RCSI for improving reading outcomes, few studies have focused on descriptions of real‐world classroom instruction. This study thus provides additional insights into the extent to which and how language arts teachers in lower secondary schools provide RCSI. Further, the study sheds light on additional aspects of reading comprehension instruction to obtain a broader picture of what this instruction encompasses. The authors address these issues by providing an overview of the amount of RCSI used in language arts classrooms, a characterization of provided RCSI, the frequency of salient features of reading comprehension instruction, and an examination of the possible connections between strategy instruction and students’ gains on national reading tests. The authors used the Protocol for Language Arts Teacher Observation manual to guide the first step of the analytic process, followed by qualitative content analyses of the provided RCSI and inductive coding of the reading comprehension instruction. The findings revealed limited evidence of explicit RCSI. When provided, the explicit instruction varied as either contextual or decontextual instruction. Several teachers demonstrated strategy knowledge, but in many cases, instruction seemed oriented more toward nontransferable activities than explicit strategy teaching. Mainly, the teachers focused their instruction on text‐based discussions and text structure. The authors discuss various reading instructional practices, teachers’ repertoire of strategies, and different approaches to explicit strategies instruction.
Purpose:
This study aimed to examine the effect of an intensive vocabulary intervention embedded in e-books on the vocabulary skills of young Spanish-English speaking English learners (ELs) from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds.
Method:
Children (N = 288) in kindergarten and 1st grade were randomly assigned to treatment and read-only conditions. All children received e-book readings approximately 3 times a week for 10-20 weeks using the same books. Children in the treatment condition received e-books supplemented with vocabulary instruction that included scaffolding through explanations in Spanish, repetition in English, checks for understanding, and highlighted morphology.
Results:
There was a main effect of the intervention on expressive labeling (g = 0.38) and vocabulary on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (g = 0.14; Dunn & Dunn, 2007), with no significant moderation effect of initial Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score. There was no significant difference between conditions on children's expressive definitions.
Conclusion:
Findings substantiate the effectiveness of computer-implemented embedded vocabulary intervention for increasing ELs' vocabulary knowledge.
Implications:
Computer-assisted vocabulary instruction with scaffolding through Spanish explanations, repetitions, and highlighted morphology is a promising approach to facilitate word learning for ELs in kindergarten and 1st grade.
A proposed avenue for increasing students’ vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is instruction that promotes students’ enthusiasm and attention to words, referred to as word consciousness. This study seeks to investigate, at the utterance level, whether and how word consciousness talk is used in classrooms with young word learners and whether this type of talk is associated with student gains in general vocabulary knowledge. Using videotaped classroom (N = 27) observations, this study found evidence of word consciousness talk, with variability of use across classrooms. Multilevel modeling revealed that this kind of teacher talk—operationalized as reinforcing students’ use of words, affirming students’ recognition of word meanings, and helping students make personal connections to words—was positively associated with student gains in general vocabulary knowledge at the end of kindergarten. Findings from this study can provide guidance for teachers seeking strategies to increase students’ general vocabulary knowledge, beyond words taught.
Previous research has identified various factors that contribute to readers' comprehension of expository texts, including strategy expertise, language proficiency, prior knowledge, and more recently, readers' beliefs about knowledge. This study addresses the need to understand the relative contributions of these predictors to readers' comprehension of multiple texts and the processes used by readers to make sense of texts. Eighty-three students (grades 5-7) participated in this mixed-methods study. The sample consisted of monolingual students and emergent and proficient bilingual students who completed measures of expository comprehension, strategic knowledge and awareness, English-language proficiency, prior content knowledge, and epistemic beliefs. Ten bilingual students from this sample also completed a think-aloud protocol to allow for close examination of their meaning-making processes. In a multiple regression analysis, English-language proficiency was the strongest predictor of comprehension, followed by content knowledge. Strategy knowledge and awareness and epistemic beliefs were not related to multiple-text comprehension in the model. The relationship between English-language proficiency and comprehension was stronger for bilingual students than for monolingual students. Students in the think-aloud sample demonstrated emergent knowledge of processes of disciplinary reading of multiple texts, including metacognitive monitoring, theorizing authorial identity, and intertextual integration, while also displaying a tendency to defer to institutionalized authority when evaluating credibility of the texts. The findings provide directions for future research on the way young adolescents comprehend and learn from expository texts in the discipline of science.
The field of language teaching and learning is in dire need of replications of vocabulary and comprehension research with diverse populations of learners. We propose for replication one large-scale vocabulary intervention carried out successfully in a middle-school with monolingual and multilingual students. This study was carried out several years ago, was published in the Reading Research Quarterly , and has been generously cited since then. The findings and the instruments from this study have been leveraged in subsequent extension studies by the same group of researchers, but have not been replicated in different contexts. We offer multiple reasons and methods of replicating this study in high school and adult contexts in which there is a serious need for learners to comprehend technical or academic materials using deep, nuanced foundations of vocabulary.
Engaging in critical-analytic thinking is essential for knowledge construction and school success. However, little is known about how best to promote such thinking in children and adolescents. Since the research base on promoting critical-analytic thinking is nascent, considering research on fostering skills that could be considered its precursors, as well as emerging research on supporting critical-analytic skills per se, is warranted. Indeed, critical-analytic thinking develops over time, and these skills are built on numerous other precursor skills including language skills and social-emotional skills. Thus, it is necessary to consider how to support precursors to these skills and how interventions could promote critical-analytic thinking as it develops in children and adolescents. This review of evidence and interventions, albeit brief, will provide support for how critical-analytic thinking can be fostered via home and school experiences for all learners. Finally, we will conclude by discussing the implications of the evidence reviewed and suggest ways to construct learning environments that nurture critical-analytic thinking in both the home and school contexts.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of employing Concept Mapping (hereafter CM) in
vocabulary instruction on Iranian pre-university students. This study also seeks to find whether there is difference
between male and female students’ vocabulary learning when they are subjected to CM instruction. In so doing, an
Oxford Placement Test was administered among 120 pre-university students in two high schools in Iran. Eighty
students who scored between +1 and -1 standard deviation above and below the mean were selected and randomly
assigned into concept mapping group (CM) and non-concept mapping group (NCM) (20 male and 20 female). The
results indicated that the CM group outperformed the NCM group in vocabulary learning. It was also revealed that there
was no significant difference between males and females. Some pedagogical implications in the EFL context are
discussed in the subsequent section.
An experiment compared the impact of more and less semantically connected sentence contexts on vocabulary learning. Third graders (N = 40) were taught the definitions and meanings of six unfamiliar verbs: anticipate, attain, devise, restrain, wield, and persist. The verbs were embedded in four sets of sentences written to fill syntactic and semantic slots that fully activated the verbs' meanings. Students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the cohesive condition, the verbs were embedded in sentences that contributed events to a common scenario such as a birthday party, hence creating semantic connections among the verbs and other content words in the sentences. The meanings of the verbs bore no inherent relationship to the scenarios, so connections arose from the sentence contexts. In the unconnected condition, the verbs were embedded in sentences that were equally meaningful but described independent, unrelated events and hence minimized semantic connections among the verbs and sentences. An experimenter read definitions and sentences orally while students followed along in print. The hypothesis tested was that students would learn verb meanings better in cohesive than unconnected contexts. This was confirmed on posttests assessing memory for definitions, sentence generation, and correct verb usage in sentences. Explanations of the effect of context cohesion on vocabulary learning are drawn from latent semantic analysis and schema theory. Word-reading skill was a stronger predictor of students' vocabulary learning than their general vocabulary knowledge despite no need to decode words, suggesting the contribution of orthographic mapping to vocabulary learning.
The effects of a book reading technique called interactive book reading on the language and literacy development of 4-year-olds from low-income families were evaluated. Teachers read books to children and reinforced the vocabulary in the books by presenting concrete objects that represented the words and by providing children with multiple opportunities to use the book-related words. The teachers also were trained to ask open-ended questions and to engage children in conversations about the book and activities. This provided children with opportunities to use language and learn vocabulary in a meaningful context. Children who were in the interactive book reading intervention group scored significantly better than children in the comparison group on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-M and other measures of receptive and expressive language. Book reading and related activities can promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children.
Research on classroom discourse presents a bleak picture. Teachers dominate talk. Students may ask procedural questions and be procedurally eugaged, but they are rarely substantively engaged. To elucidate conditions that do encourage substantively eugaged student talk, this study examined the discourse in an English as a second or other language (ESoL) classroom in a best-case scenario that contrasted dramatically with more typical school settings. It sampled student critical turns (SCTs) across a six-week literature-rich science unit. Each SCT was a longer conversational turn in which students responded to and in turn elicited response from other students. Each SCT was coded in terms of (1) participant roles and (2) communicative Junctions. Results indicate that SCTs most often functioned to facilitate interpretation. They did so by elaborating on previous utterances. The teacher created a climate that engendered SCTs by similarly facilitating interpretation. This facilitation was achieved by strategic placement of questions. Because findings show that the teacher played a crucial role in extended dialogue among students, they challenge research and theory that denigrate teacher talk in a blanket fashion.
There is accumulating correlational evidence that the effect of specific types of reading instruction depends on children's initial language and literacy skills, called child characteristics × instruction (Cxl) interactions. There is, however, no experimental evidence beyond first grade. This randomized control study examined whether Cxl interactions might present an underlying and predictable mechanism for explaining individual differences in how students respond to thirdgrade classroom literacy instruction. To this end, we designed and tested an instructional intervention (Individualizing Student Instruction [ISI]). Teachers (n = 33) and their students (n = 448) were randomly assigned to the ISI intervention or a vocabulary intervention, which was not individualized. Teachers in both conditions received professional development. Videotaped classroom observations conducted in the fall, winter, and spring documented the instruction that each student in the classroom received. Teachers in the ISI group were more likely to provide differentiated literacy instruction that considered Cxl interactions than were the teachers in the vocabulary group. Students in the ISI intervention made greater gains on a standardized assessment of reading comprehension than did students in the vocabulary intervention. Results indicate that Cxl interactions likely contribute to students' varying response to literacy instruction with regard to their reading comprehension achievement and that the association between students' profile of language and literacy skills and recommended instruction is nonlinear and dependent on a number of factors. Hence, dynamic and complex theories about classroom instruction and environment impacts on student learning appear to be warranted and should inform more effective literacy instruction in third grade.
Some children demonstrate adequate or better reading achievement in early school grades, but fall significantly behind their peers in later grades. These children are often referred to as late-emerging poor readers. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and heterogeneity of these poor readers. We also examined the early language and nonverbal cognitive abilities of late-emerging poor readers. Participants were 493 children who were a subsample from an epidemiological study of language impairments in school-age children. In kindergarten, children were administered a battery of language, early literacy, and nonverbal cognitive measures. Word reading and reading comprehension achievement was assessed in second, fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. Latent transition analysis was used to model changes in reading classification (good vs. poor reader) across grades. Population estimates revealed that 13.4% percent of children could be classified as late-emerging poor readers. These children could be divided into those with problems in comprehension alone (52%), word reading alone (36%), or both (12%). Further results indicated that late-emerging poor readers often had a history of language and/or nonverbal cognitive impairments in kindergarten. Subtypes of poor readers also differed significantly in their profiles of language, early literacy, and nonverbal cognitive abilities in kindergarten. Results are discussed in terms of causal factors and implications for early identification.
Based on concerns about the increasing numbers of English Language Learners in U.S. schools and the documented academic underperformance of this group, particularly in the domain of literacy, the federal government provided funding for a panel of experts to synthesize the knowledge base in the field and provide recommendations for future research. In 2006, the long awaited and much heralded Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth was published in a book entitled Developing Literacy in Second Language Learners (August & Shanahan, 2006). The purpose of this essay review is to describe the contents of this volume, and to examine it through the dual lenses of theory and policy.
Given the increase of bilingual students in the K-12 public school system, understanding reading comprehension performance, especially among this population, has been a major focal point in the research literature. This study explores the nature of reading comprehension among a sample of 123 Spanish–English bilingual elementary students. We add to the existing knowledge base regarding reading comprehension in two significant ways: (1) augmenting the Simple View of Reading by testing the role of both vocabulary depth contribution and dual-linguistic ability in English reading comprehension; and (2) questioning the manner through which reading comprehension is understood through measurement and conceptualization. Specifically, we build a comprehensive model of reading comprehension that tests the effects for vocabulary depth, Spanish oral language, and biliteracy. In line with previous research that suggests different reading measures tap different abilities, we test our model for three different measures of reading comprehension: a cloze exercise, a passage and multiple choice based test, and a timed silent sentence reading judgment task. Our findings converge with previous research on the role of vocabulary depth in reading comprehension and also challenge prior work which has compared different reading measures. Implications for theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding reading comprehension, specifically among Spanish–English bilingual students, are discussed.
Despite acknowledging the complex nature of vocabulary knowledge, researchers have rarely investigated the dimensionality of this construct empirically. This study was designed to test a multi-dimensional model of English vocabulary knowledge for sixth-grade students from linguistically diverse backgrounds (n = 584). Participants included language minority students learning English as a second language (L2) and students who learned English as a first language (L1). Students were assessed on 13 reading-based measures tapping various aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis, we found that vocabulary was comprised of three highly related, but distinct dimensions—breadth, contextual sensitivity, and morphological awareness. This three-dimensional model was found to hold for L2 learners as well as L1 speakers. Although the L2 learners were statistically significantly lower than the L1 students on all three dimensions, the magnitude of the difference for morphological awareness (d = .37) was somewhat smaller than that for vocabulary breadth (d = .52) and contextual sensitivity (d = .49). Results were similar for a subsample of Spanish-speaking L2 learners and for the full sample of L2 learners from various home language groups. Findings support a distinction between word-specific and word-general knowledge in understanding individual and group differences in vocabulary.
This longitudinal study investigated growth in reading-related skills between Grade 1 and 4 for language minority (LM) learners and their native English-speaking classmates from similarly low socioeconomic backgrounds (N = 166). Growth trajectories were compared by language background and by Grade 4 reading difficulties, with the goal of informing decisions about how early LM learners can undergo screening for risk of reading difficulties. As a group, LM learners demonstrated weaknesses in vocabulary and oral comprehension and strengths in phonological awareness that were apparent in Grade 1 and consistent through Grade 4. LM learners also demonstrated early strengths in letter-word identification but fell far below national norms by Grade 4. The subset of LM learners with word reading difficulties demonstrated major weaknesses in vocabulary, oral comprehension, phonological awareness, and working memory, whereas LM learners with specific reading comprehension difficulties demonstrated major weaknesses in vocabulary and oral comprehension; these weaknesses were apparent in Grade 1 and consistent through Grade 4, suggesting the importance of early assessment and intervention.
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of different types of questioning interventions on students' reading comprehension. Fourth-grade students (n = 246) were identified as struggling, average, or good readers and assigned randomly within school to one of three questioning interventions: two inferential conditions (Causal or General) or one literal condition (“Who, What, Where, When” or W-questioning). Teachers delivered the interventions for 20–30 min, 2–4 times per week, for 8–10 weeks. All readers made reliable pre- to posttest comprehension gains as measured by story recall (ps < .001 to .04). Differential effects for intervention were found between two subgroups of struggling comprehenders—elaborators and paraphrasers. Elaborators benefited more than paraphrasers from Causal questioning (d = .86) whereas paraphrasers benefited more than elaborators from General questioning (d = 1.46). These findings suggest that identifying subgroups is important in developing and evaluating the effectiveness of reading comprehension interventions.
A critique of the US Common Core English Language Arts standards.
Twenty-four studies were included in this systematic review of vocabulary research literature. The review corroborates the findings of past studies that several strategies have emerged that increase students' vocabulary knowledge. Findings further reinforce the National Reading Panel's recommendations regarding the context and magnitude of studies needed. Additionally, the analysis of the methodological characteristics of the 24 studies reveals mixed alignment of research methods with standards recommended by educational and research organizations.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for student learning), as observed in comprehension lessons across a year. Third-grade teachers' instruction was analyzed first by measuring their latent propensity to engage in instructional actions in the three dimensions and then by using these latent variables in a multilevel model to examine their students' gains in reading comprehension. Results provided support for the theoretical dimensions, taking into account contextual variables including lesson, student, and teacher characteristics; teachers' engagement in teacher-directed instruction and their support for student learning significantly contributed to their students' reading comprehension. Results suggest that analysis of teachers' instructional actions within and across lessons is a promising approach for the study of effective reading instruction.
This study examined the relative contribution of reading comprehension strategies and interactive vocabulary in Improving Comprehension Online (ICON), a universally designed web-based scaffolded text environment designed to improve fifth-grade monolingual English and bilingual students’ reading achievement. Seventy-five monolingual English and 31 bilingual students from six classrooms were assigned to one of three ICON conditions: reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary, or a combined version of comprehension strategies and vocabulary. Students read eight multimedia folktales and informational texts within their respective ICON condition and completed embedded activities, researcher measures of comprehension and vocabulary, and pre- and postintervention standardized reading achievement tests. ANCOVA results indicated that after controlling for initial reading achievement, there was a main effect for condition on the researcher measure of vocabulary, with the combination group and vocabulary groups both significantly outperforming the strategy group. There was also an interaction effect, with differences between monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking students greatest in the strategy group. There was no effect of condition on comprehension, nor was there an effect of language status on narrative comprehension. However, there was a main effect of language status on expository text comprehension and standardized vocabulary achievement, with monolingual students performing more strongly than bilingual Spanish-speaking students. The results add to a growing body of research on the design and use of scaffolded digital text for diverse learners.
The purpose of this article is to respond to a review of the report Developing Literacy in Second-language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth, written by our respected colleague Kathy Escamilla, which appeared in a recent edition of the Journal of Literacy Research. This will also give us the opportunity to offer a brief update of the research on effective reading and writing instruction for English-language learners that has appeared since 2002, the cut-off year for the inclusion of studies in the original panel report.
The authors describe an independent evaluation of the READ 180 Enterprise intervention designed by Scholastic, Inc. Despite widespread use of the program with upper elementary through high school students, there is limited empirical evidence to support its effectiveness. In this randomized controlled trial involving 312 students enrolled in an after-school program, the authors generated intention-to-treat and treatment-on-the-treated estimates of the program’s impact on several literacy outcomes of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders reading below proficiency on a state assessment at baseline. READ 180 Enterprise students outperformed control group students on vocabulary (d = .23) and reading comprehension (d = .32) but not on spelling and oral reading fluency. The authors interpret the findings in light of the theory of instruction underpinning the READ 180 Enterprise intervention.
Teachers today face increasing demands to ensure their students achieve high levels of literacy. They may feel overwhelmed by the challenges of teaching reading comprehension strategies that foster the integration, interpretation, critique, and evaluation of text ideas. The challenges are compounded because students of diverse backgrounds often enter classrooms reading far below grade level. In this article, the authors describe how Question-Answer Relationships (QARs) can provide a framework for comprehension instruction with the potential of closing the literacy achievement gap. QAR can serve as a starting point for addressing four problems of practice that stand in the way of moving all students to high levels of literacy:The need for a shared language to make visible the invisible processes underlying reading and listening comprehensionThe need for a framework for organizing questioning activities and comprehension instruction within and across grades and school subjectsThe need for accessible and straightforward whole-school reform for literacy instruction for higher level thinkingThe need to prepare students for high-stakes testing without undermining a focus on higher level thinking with text.
The authors assert that, in order to teach vocabulary more effectively and better understand its relation to comprehension, we need first to address how vocabulary knowledge and growth are assessed. They argue that “vocabularly assessment is grossly undernourished, both in its theoretical and practical aspects—that it has been driven by tradition, convenience, psychometric standards, and a quest for economy of effort rather than a clear conceptualization of its nature and relation to other aspects of reading expertise, most notably comprehension.”
SGaps in reading performance between Anglo and Latino children are associated with gaps in vocabulary knowledge. An intervention was designed to enhance fifth graders' academic vocabulary. The meanings of academically useful words were taught together with strategies for using information from context, from morphology, from knowledge about multiple meanings, and from cognates to infer word meaning. Among the principles underlying the intervention were that new words should be encountered in meaningful text, that native Spanish speakers should have access to the text's meaning through Spanish, that words should be encountered in varying contexts, and that word knowledge involves spelling, pronunciation, morphology, and syntax as well as depth of meaning. Fifth graders in the intervention group showed greater growth than the comparison group on knowledge of the words taught, on depth of vocabulary knowledge, on understanding multiple meanings, and on reading comprehension. The intervention effects were as large for the English-language learners (ELLs) as for the English-only speakers (EOs), though the ELLs scored lower on all pre- and posttest measures. The results show the feasibility of improving comprehension outcomes for students in mixed ELL-EO classes, by teaching word analysis and vocabulary learning strategies.
This study examines the effects of two different instructional frames for discussion-traditional Recitations and an alternative to Recitations called Collaborative Reasoning-on patterns of discourse in fourth-grade literature discussions. These two instructional frames differ on four key parameters that define an instructional frame: (a) the stance to be taken, (b) who holds interpretive authority, (c) who controls turntaking, and (d) who controls the topic of the discourse. Two research questions were addressed. The first question was whether it is possible for fourth-grade teachers and their students to implement Collaborative Reasoning, an instructional frame that transfers much of the control over discourse to students, during their reading lessons. Quantitative analyses were conducted of features of discourse including turntaking, teacher questions, and cognitive processes manifested in students' talk. The results showed that the teachers and students were generally successful at implementing the new instructional frame. it proved more difficult to shift control over topic and turntaking to students than to shift interpretive authority to students. The second question addressed the effects of the new instructional frame on patterns of discourse. In comparison to Recitations, Collaborative Reasoning discussions produced greater engagement and more extensive use of several higher level cognitive processes, The results provide support for the use of Collaborative Reasoning in fourth-grade reading lessons.
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This article describes the development and implementation of Questioning the Author, an instructional intervention that focuses on having students grapple with and reflect on what an author is trying to say in order to build a representation from it. The implementation involved a social studies teacher, a reading/language arts teacher, and their 23 inner-city fourth-grade students in a small parochial school. Analyses of transcripts of videotaped lessons and classroom observations revealed that teacher talk decreased in quantity and increased in quality with more emphasis on questions focused on constructing and extending meaning and more skill in refining and using students' comments in discussion. Changes in the content of student talk were also documented. These included an increase in the number and complexity of student-initiated questions and evidence of the development of student collaboration. Teachers' journal entries and students' responses in interviews provided insights about their views of the implementation.
This study examined the influence of interactions between first graders' fall language-literacy skills (vocabulary and decoding) and classroom instructional practices on their spring decoding scores. Instructional activities were coded as teacher managed or child managed and as explicit or implicit, as well as for change in amount of time spent in the activity over the school year. Findings revealed that specific patterns of instructional activities differentially predicted children's decoding skill growth. Children with low initial decoding scores achieved greater decoding growth in classrooms with more time spent in teacher-managed explicit decoding (TME) instruction. In contrast, for children with initially high decoding scores, amount of TME had no effect. Children with low initial vocabulary scores achieved greater decoding score growth in classrooms with less child-managed implicit (CMI) instruction but with increasing amounts of CMI instruction as the school year progressed. However, children with high initial vocabulary scores achieved greater decoding growth in classrooms with more time spent in CMI activities and in consistent amounts throughout the school year. Children's initial decoding and vocabulary scores also directly and positively affected their decoding score growth. These main effects and interactions were independent and additive, thus children's first-grade decoding skill growth was affected by initial vocabulary and decoding skill as well as type of instruction received-but the effect of type of instruction (TME or CMI amount and change) depended on children's initial vocabulary and decoding scores. Implications for research and educational practices are discussed.
This important new book provides a critical overview of recent classroom-centered research and its implications for the teaching and learning of languages. Chaudron synthesizes and evaluates crucial research about the way student and teacher behaviours affect language learning and discusses research methods. Second Language Classrooms will be of vital interest to researchers, language teachers, and curriculum specialists, as well as readers with a general interest in education, linguistics, sociology, or psychology.
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This study describes the development and validation of the Extract the Base test (ETB), which assesses derivational morphological awareness. Scores on this test were validated for 580 monolingual students and 373 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in third through fifth grade. As part of the validation of the internal structure, which involved using the Generalized Partial Credit Model for tests with polytomous items, items on this test were shown to provide information about students of different abilities and also discriminate amongst such heterogeneous students. As part of the validation of the test's relationship to criterion, items were shown to correlate with measures of word identification, reading comprehension, and vocabulary measures. Differences in performances for fluent English students and ELLs, students of varied home language environments, and different grade levels were noted. Additionally, the task was validated using a dichotomous scoring system to provide reliability and validity information using this alternate scoring method.
This 5-month ethnographic comparative case study of two culturally and linguistically diverse U.S. elementary classrooms juxtaposes restrictive educational language policies with the theoretical principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore a gap in our understanding of how teachers reflect educational language policies in the range of pedagogical approaches they take. Triangulating data sources from state and local policy documents, classroom observations, and teacher interviews, we identify three salient dimensions of state and local policies that manifested in these two upper-elementary classrooms: teachers’ curricular and pedagogical choices; student–teacher participation structures; and teachers’ views on language. Similarities and differences between the two classrooms highlight how policy exerts influence on these dimensions while also affording degrees of instructional freedom that varied by teacher, with implications for the learning opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Overall, however, a limited range of culturally sustaining practices was observed, highlighting the need to understand the spaces in language policy where teachers can mitigate some of the effects of restrictive regulatory approaches to learning.
In this research we evaluated two methods to improve the reading fluency of struggling readers. Poor readers in Grades 2 and 4 with (n = 17) and without (n = 20) learning disabilities were randomly assigned to one of two fluency practice variations or to a control group. Students in the treatments practiced reading aloud under repeated or continuous reading conditions with an adult listener in 15-min sessions, 3 days per week for 14 weeks. For students in the treatment conditions, growth curve analyses revealed significant differences in fluency and reading comprehension over students in the control. We found no significant differences between practice conditions.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to improve methods for gathering and analyzing data from classroom observations in early literacy. The methodological approach addresses current problems of reliability and validity of classroom observations by taking into account differences in teachers’ uses of instructional actions (e.g., modeling) in specific skill areas (e.g., fluency, reading comprehension). The findings from observations of second- and third-grade teachers’ literacy instruction showed that teachers’ instructional actions differed by literacy skill area and were more consistent within than across skill areas. Furthermore, teachers’ uses of instructional actions in a given skill area were more strongly associated with students’ gains in achievement in that skill area than were teachers’ uses of actions across all skill areas. The approach offers significant improvements in methods to identify features of effective literacy instruction.
本研究旨在改善早期读写教学课堂观察研究的资料蒐集方法和分析方法。这方法学研究针对当前有关课堂观察的可靠性和有效性问题,并考虑到教师在一些特定技能领域(例如,流畅度、阅读理解)方面所采取不同教学行动(例如,示范)上的差异。从二和三年级教师的读写教学课堂观察所得的研究结果显示,教师在教授不同读写技能时,其教学行动是有所差异的,而他们的教学行动,在各读写技能领域内的一致性却比跨读写技能领域的一致性较高。此外,教师在某一读写技能领域内所采用的教学行动,与学生在该技能上所取得的进步成绩有较强的关联,而在跨技能领域所采用的教学行动,与学生在这些技能上所取得的进步成绩的关联则较弱。这研究方法能识别出有效读写教学的特点,显著地改进了这方面研究的资料蒐集方法和分析方法。
El propósito de este estudio es contribuir a los esfuerzos de mejorar los métodos de recoger y analizar información de las observaciones de clases de alfabetización temprana. El acercamiento metodológico aborda los problemas recientes de confiabilidad y validez de las observaciones de clases tomando en cuenta las diferencias entre las acciones de adiestramiento (por ejemplo, modelar) que los maestros usan en áreas específicas de destrezas (por ejemplo, fluidez, comprensión de lectura). Los hallazgos de las observaciones de la instrucción de alfabetización de maestros de segundo y tercer grado mostraron que las acciones de adiestramiento de los maestros eran diferentes dependiendo del área de destreza y eran más constantes dentro de áreas de destreza que a través de ellas. Además, el uso de acciones de adiestramiento de los maestros en cualquier destreza específica se asociaba más con el mejoramiento de los estudiantes en dicha destreza que en sus acciones de adiestramiento a través de todas las áreas. Este acercamiento ofrece mejoras considerables en los métodos para identificar elementos de la instrucción efectiva.
تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى مساهمة الجهود الرامية إلى تحسين طرق جمع المعطيات وتحليلها المأخوذة من ملاحظات غرفة الصف في التعلم المبكر. ويعالج هذا المدخل المنهاجي المشاكل الجارية بصدد ثبات ملاحظات غرفة الصف وصدقها من خلال مراعاة الاختلافات في أنشطة المعلمين التعليمية (مثل تقليد السلوك) في مجالات معينة (مثل مرونة القراءة والاستيعاب). وقد بينت نتائج الملاحظات من تعليم معرفة القراءة والكتابة لدى معلمي الصفين الثاني والثالث أن أنشطة المعلمين التعليمية اختلفت حسب مجال مهارة التعلم وكانت أكثر تطابقاً ضمن مجالات المهارات من عبرها. وبالإضافة إلى ذلك، حظت استخدامات الأنشطة التعليمية لدى المعلمين في مجال مهارة معين بأكثر ترابطاً مع تقدمات الطلاب في الإنجاز في مجال المهارة هذا من استخدامات الأنشطة لدى المعلمين عبر كل مجالات المهارة. توفر هذه الطريقة تحسنات ملحوظة فيما يتعلق بالطرق لتعيين معالم تعليم معرفة القراءة والكتابة الفعالة.
Цeль иccлeдoвaния – дoпoлнить и coвepшeнcтвoвaть cyщecтвyющиe мeтoды cбopa и aнaлизa дaнныx o cтaнoвлeнии гpaмoтнocти. Для peшeния пpoблeм вaлиднocти и нaдeжнocти дaнныx, пoлyчaeмыx в пpoцecce нaблюдeний нa ypoкax, пpeдлaгaeтcя мeтoд, yчитывaющий paзличия в yчeбныx дeйcтвияx yчитeлeй (нaпpимep, мoдeлиpoвaния) пpи paзвитии oпpeдeлeнныx нaвыкoв (нaпpимep, бeглocти чтeния или пoнимaния пpoчитaннoгo). Peзyльтaты нaблюдeний зa yчитeлями втopыx и тpeтьиx клaccoв пoкaзaли, чтo для paзвития paзныx нaвыкoв yчитeля иcпoльзyют caмыe paзныe yчeбныe дeйcтвия, oднaкo, paзвивaя oдин и тoт жe нaвык, oни дeйcтвyют cxoдным oбpaзoм. Кpoмe тoгo, дeйcтвия yчитeлeй, cвязaнныe в coзнaнии yчeникoв c oпpeдeлeнным нaвыкoм, бoлee знaчимы, чeм дeйcтвия, кoтopыe oни пpимeняют пpи cтaнoвлeнии цeлoгo pядa paзличныx нaвыкoв. Дaнный пoдxoд cyщecтвeннo coвepшeнcтвyeт мeтoды для oпpeдeлeния нaибoлee эффeктивнoгo oбyчeния гpaмoтнocти.
Cette étude a pour but de contribuer aux efforts réalisés pour améliorer le recueil et l'analyse des données provenant des observations relatives à l'entrée dans l’écrit. L'approche méthodologique présentée concerne les problèmes courants de fidélité et de validité des observations faites en classe, en prenant en compte les différences d'utilisation par le maître de ses interventions pédagogiques (par exemple, recourir à un modèle) dans des domaines de compétence bien définis (par exemple, la lecture courante, la compréhension de la lecture). Il est apparu, dans des observations de la littératie en 2e et 3e année, que les interventions pédagogiques des enseignants ne sont pas les mêmes selon la compétence en littératie considérée et qu'elles sont plus constantes pour un domaine donné que d'un domaine à l'autre. De plus, les interventions pédagogiques des enseignants dans un domaine de compétence donné sont liées plus fortement aux progrès des élèves dans ce domaine de compétence qu'aux interventions pédagogiques des maîtres dans l'ensemble des domaines de compétence. Cette approche propose des améliorations significatives dans les méthodes visant à identifier les caractéristiques d'un enseignement efficace de la littératie.
Methods of latent curve analysis (latent growth modeling) have recently emerged as a versatile tool for investigating longitudinal change in measured variables. This article, using higher order factor models as suggested by McArdle (1988) and Tisak and Meredith (1990), illustrates latent curve analysis for the purpose of modeling longitudinal change directly in a latent construct. The construct of interest is assumed to be indicated by several measured variables, all of which are observed at the same multiple time points. Examples with simultaneous estimation of covariance and mean structures are provided for both a single group and a two-group scenario.
To clarify the role of decoding in reading and reading disability, a simple model of reading is proposed, which holds that reading equals the product of decoding and comprehension. It follows that there must be three types of reading disability, resulting from an inability to decode, an inability to comprehend, or both. It is argued that the first is dyslexia, the second hyperlexia, and the third common, or garden variety, reading disability.
Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative. Its power is frequently mentioned in articles about learning and teaching, but surprisingly few recent studies have systematically investigated its meaning. This article provides a conceptual analysis of feedback and reviews the evidence related to its impact on learning and achievement. This evidence shows that although feedback is among the major influences, the type of feedback and the way it is given can be differentially effective. A model of feedback is then proposed that identifies the particular properties and circumstances that make it effective, and some typically thorny issues are discussed, including the timing of feedback and the effects of positive and negative feedback. Finally, this analysis is used to suggest ways in which feedback can be used to enhance its effectiveness in classrooms.
The growing population of English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools and the low academic achievement of many of these learners have been the subject of much debate. A significant related issue is determining the sources of ELLs' difficulty, namely, understanding the distinction between learning disabilities (LD) and learning difficulties due primarily to contextual factors and second-language learning. This article addresses the future directions for research in this area, with an emphasis on the need to build consensus through converging lines of evidence. Issues of sample definition, study design, and methods are discussed; also emphasized in the article is that in order to answer questions about the sources of difficulty for ELLs who are struggling, an understanding of the trajectories and experiences of those not experiencing difficulties is needed. Throughout the article, parallels are drawn between this emerging field of research and the LD research conducted with monolingual English speakers. An example of a study for which the design, analyses, and dissemination relates to many of the issues raised in the article is presented.
This quasi-experimental study compared the effects of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction (MC) with the effects of textbook vocabulary instruction (TV) that was integrated into social studies textbook lessons. The participants were 157 students in eight fifth-grade classrooms. The results indicated that (a) TV students were more successful at learning textbook vocabulary; (b) MC students were more successful at inferring the meanings of novel affixed words; (c) MC students were more successful at inferring the meanings of morphologically and contextually decipherable words on a delayed test but not on an immediate test; and (d) the groups did not differ on a comprehension measure or a social studies learning measure. The results were interpreted as support for teaching specific vocabulary and morphemic analysis, with some evidence for the efficacy of teaching contextual analysis.
We describe a multistep method for (a) identifying effective teacher-developed instructional procedures based on assessments of achievement gain and classroom engagement and (b) translating them for wide-scale use by other teachers. The method employed a combination of both objective and naturalistic assessments leading to reliable procedural protocols for use in the training of other teachers and evaluation of their implementation of these same procedures. The implications of this particular product-process approach to the identification of effective teacher-developed practices and to instructional improvement are discussed.
This study was conducted to explore two research questions: (a) How do teachers teach meaning vocabulary during reading lessons? and (b) What are teachers' stated purposes for teaching meaning vocabulary? The data were collected in six classrooms, three each at the fifth- and sixth-grade levels, in a large urban school district. Reading instruction in each of the six classrooms was observed over the course of 4 months, for a total of 47 observations. At the end of the observation period, participating teachers were interviewed. Data analysis consisted of a search for dominant themes through open and axial coding. A taxonomy of methods for teaching vocabulary was developed in order to further describe the nature of observed instruction. New words were taught most often as a prereading activity and there was a distinct pattern of discourse surrounding word meaning instruction. Teachers typically used more than one method for teaching words, most frequently employing definitional and contextual types of instruction. Characteristics associated with effective instruction in the research literature such as activation of prior knowledge, multiple exposures, and provision of strategies for independent word learning were rarely observed. Teachers' stated purposes for vocabulary instruction were congruent with the requirements of the basal reading series used to teach reading in their school district. Teachers defined the importance of vocabulary knowledge in terms of the immediate classroom environment and requirements thereof, and not within the context of larger environments such as the school or society.
