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Biemiller, Vocabulary Development and Instruction 1
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Vocabulary Development and Instruction: A Prerequisite for School Learning
Andrew Biemiller
University of Toronto
A chapter to appear in: the Handbook of Early Literacy Research (Vol 2),
edited by Susan Neuman and David Dickinson,
New York, NY: Guilford Press
(section on Language and Cognitive Underpinnings of Early Literacy Development)
In the first part of this chapter, I will discuss vocabulary development and
implications for academic success. This will include the relationship between early
vocabulary and later literacy, the size and sequence of children's developing vocabulary,
influence on vocabulary acquisition, and some mechanisms for word meaning
acquisition. In the second part of the chapter, I will discuss what can be done to build
vocabulary in schools and child care programs. This will include reported effects of
current schooling on vocabulary development, effects of teaching vocabulary to
preschool or primary grade children, a possible explanation of word meaning acquisition
in context-based instruction, a basis for selecting words for instruction, a recent study of
word instruction in classrooms, and practical implications for classroom programs.
Vocabulary Development and Implications For Academic Success
The Vocabulary-Early Literacy Connection
For adequate reading comprehension from grade three on, children require both
fluent word recognition skills, and an average or greater vocabulary. The presence of
these two accomplishments does not guarantee a high level of reading comprehension,
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but the absence of either word recognition or adequate vocabulary insures a low level of
reading comprehension.
The significance of vocabulary ("oral language") has often been underestimated
because it is not a prerequisite for first or second grade reading success. It is not until
reading texts involve age-normal vocabulary demands that early (kindergarten or pre-
kindergarten) vocabulary becomes a significant predictor of reading comprehension
(Becker, 1978; Scarborough, 2002; Storch & Whitehurst , 2002). Typically, age-normal
vocabulary demands appear in third or fourth grade books (Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin,
1990; Chall & Conard, 1991). Many other studies are now pointing to this conclusion.
Of course, concurrent vocabulary is an even stronger predictor of reading comprehension
by grade three or four and thereafter. Cunningham and Stanovich (1997) have also
shown a substantial relationship between oral receptive vocabulary in first grade and
reading comprehension in eleventh grade (r = .55 or 30% of variance).
In fact for most children, reading problems--word recognition--probably play less
of a role in reading comprehension than knowledge of word meanings. This claim is
made because by the end of third grade, most children can read many more words
correctly than they understand in context (Biemiller, in press)
Will teaching vocabulary change children's general vocabulary or reading
comprehension? A number of vocabulary instruction studies have shown small but
significant effects on general vocabulary or reading with upper elementary children and
older groups (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986; Edwards et al, 2003). Stahl and Fairbanks note
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that studies in which general vocabulary or comprehension effects have been found were
mostly conducted for 6 weeks or longer.
However, teaching 10-50 word meanings, as in typical pilot vocabulary
instruction studies, is not likely to change comprehension or general vocabulary.
Average children acquire many hundreds of word meanings each year during the first
seven years of vocabulary acquisition (Biemiller, in press). In order for a vocabulary
intervention to have a measurable impact on general vocabulary, a child must acquire
several hundred word meanings that would not otherwise be acquired. Most published
reports of classroom interventions with young children have simply not been carried out
for long enough to impact general vocabulary levels.
Many writers emphasize building children's skills for dealing with unfamiliar
vocabulary stressing increased volume of reading rather than teaching word meanings
directly (Dale, & O'Rourke, 1986; Nagy & Herman, 1987; Edwards, Font, Baumann, &
Boland, 2003). Such methods have always presupposed literacy (at least, adequate
reading mechanics)--i.e., children in grade three or older. However, major vocabulary
problems develop during the preliterate period--before children are reading texts with
challenging vocabulary.
Biemiller and Slonim's (2001) findings indicate that once children become
literate, most children add word meanings at about the same rate. Thus from grade three
to grade six, children with relatively small vocabularies show year-to-year gains similar
to gains seen with children who have large vocabularies (cross-sectional data). However,
in the preliterate period, children come to differ by several thousand root word meanings-
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-a gap that is too often not closed in later years. Hence we must find ways of supporting
vocabulary acquisition during the preliterate period.
Vocabulary Development: Numbers of Word Meanings and Their Sequence
Numbers of word meanings acquired. Research by Jeremy Anglin (1993),
Biemiller & Slonim (2001), and Biemiller (in press) have shown that average children
acquire about 860 root word meanings per year from age one to the end of second grade
or about 2.4 root words per day.1 This results in about acquiring about 6000 root word
meanings. Unfortunately, at the end of grade two the twenty-five percent of children
with the smallest vocabularies have averaged only about 1.6 root words a day, resulting
in about 4000 root word meanings. Some of these children acquire even fewer root word
meanings by the end of grade two. Although many writers have argued that the numbers
of words learned are much larger (e.g., Nagy & Herman, 1987), Nagy and Scott (2001)
have recently agreed with Anglin's and Biemiller's estimates of numbers of root word
meanings acquired.
Is there a sequence of word meanings acquired? The main evidence that
words are acquired in a similar sequence by children from quite different circumstances
is that the correlation between word meaning averages obtained from different samples
are very similar. The correlations between word meaning scores for 50 representative
words from: (a) a normative population of grade two to grade five children; (b) an
advantaged population, same grades; and (c) a group of grade five and six children who
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do not use English at home (English Second Language or ESL) are all above r = .90
(Biemiller, in press). In addition, an analysis of words known by children with different
sizes of vocabulary (irrespective of age) showed that there are words known by all
children studied, but that as vocabulary increases, words higher in the sequence are also
known (Biemiller & Slonim, 2001). In short, there is a rough sequence of words
acquired, and that this order holds across a range of populations.
Why the sequence? Although we do not have clear theory of why word
meanings are acquired in a sequence, the existence of a robust sequence should not be
lightly ignored for instructional purposes. Possible hypotheses affecting this sequence
may include:
• Early developing words may be those prerequisite to understanding words
which are learned later in the sequence;
• It is very likely that the frequencies of word meanings affect word meaning
acquisition. Certainly words not encountered cannot be learned. However,
frequencies of specific word meanings (oral and later printed) are often quite
different than simple printed form frequency. Thus there is little correlation
between printed word frequency and word meaning knowledge (Biemiller &
Slonim, 2001).
• More cognitively complex meanings are usually learned later (e.g., biology)
(Case, 1985; Slonim, 2002). However, cognitive complexity clearly does not
account for sequence in a large majority of word meanings acquired relatively
1 "Root words are monomorphemic lexical entries that consist of single, fee morphemes. Examples
are…closet, flop, hermit, and pep". Anglin, (1993, p 18) Words like hermits and peppy are
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later. Many of these words are non-abstract (i.e., touchable, visible). (See
Appendix A for examples of words known by most, some, or few second
grade children.)
Sources of Vocabulary Acquisition
What determines vocabulary size in the primary and preschool years: Home
support. Studies of factors affecting word acquisition lead to two major conclusions.
The first is that by age four, the size of a child's vocabulary is to a large extent
determined by the number of different words used by the parents, and the total number of
words spoken by the parents (Hart & Risley, 1993; 1999; 2003; Wells, 1985). Clearly,
one cannot acquire words that are not encountered. Beyond this basic observation, more
adult clarification of words in the course of conversation is associated with later
vocabulary size (Beals & Tabors, 1995, Weizman & Snow, 2001). In addition to how
many opportunities the child has to build a large vocabulary, children may vary in how
readily a child adds a word to her stock of familiar word forms while mapping it to a
referent. However, children with small vocabularies do acquire new words during
instruction about as well as children with larger vocabularies, suggesting that much of the
difference is a matter of opportunity rather than ability. Data supporting this conclusion
will be given in the second part of this chapter.
What determines vocabulary size in the primary and preschool years: School
support. Although home factors are clearly associated with the size of children's
vocabulary growth, in the primary grades no comparable evidence has been shown for
multimorphemic, containing both the root meaning and a grammatical inflection.
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school factors affecting vocabulary growth. In fact, the limited available data suggests
that in many classrooms, a year of school experience has no measurable impact on
vocabulary growth. Several studies (none published) have shown that January-born
kindergarten children (oldest in class) have about the same average vocabulary size as
December-born first grade children (youngest in class). These are children who differ in
age by one month, but in schooling by one year. Similarly, January-born first grade
children have about the same size vocabulary as December-born second grade children
(Cantalini, 1987; Morrison, Williams, & Massetti, 1998). In these studies, schooling
was found to have negligible impact on vocabulary size. Thus at present, home, not
school, determines vocabulary size by the end of grade two--the end of the "preliterate"
period for most children. (Some children remain "preliterate" longer.)
How are Words Acquired--the Role of Context.
Some years ago, Susan Carey introduced the concept of "fast-mapping" word
acquisition. Specifically, Carey observed that preschool children could very quickly
acquire a "conceptual" referent for a new word, but took much longer to have a relatively
complete understanding of the word (Carey, 1978). By "conceptual" referent, Carey
meant the " relevant part of the internal representational system in terms of which the
person or animal describes and understands the world and his own actions in it… Take
for example, the lexical domain of color words, and the conceptual domain of mental
representation of colors." (Carey, p 269). She described "fast mapping" as when "One,
or a very few, experiences with a new word can suffice for the child to enter it into his
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mental lexicon and to represent some of its syntactic and semantic features."2 (Carey,
1978, p 291)
To illustrate "fast mapping", Carey described a study in which children quickly
"mapped" the word dax to a specific doll handed to the child ("Here is dax,"), or in
another condition the child mapped the word as an object category ("Here is a dax,").
This direct connection of an object with a word (along with syntactic specification of dax
as a name or a doll) illustrates how readily children can associate a novel word with a
recognizable object when physically presented. While children's understanding of dax
would continue to become richer with extended experience, this initial "fast mapping" is
necessary in order to continue to enrich the referent information. A number of studies
have recently supported Carey's "fast mapping" theory (e.g., Akhtar, Jipson, & Callanan,
2001; Behrend, Scofield, and Kleinknecht, 2001; Hall, and Graham, 1999; Sandhofer
and Smith, 1999). All of this research has involved children between two and four years
of age.
Some researchers view such transactions as non-instructional and emphasize the
child's inference of what a word means. However, the fact is that a word meaning is not
learned without the direct pairing of the novel word and a referent. For children under
three, that means a physical object, action, or modifier by a more advanced speaker of the
language.
When children reach about three years of age, word meanings are acquired not
only in the presence of specific concrete referents, but also with verbally-created
2 I agree with all of these components of fast mapping except for syntactic categories. I have become
impressed by the degree to which word meanings can be used as nouns (e.g. "plan"), verbs (e.g.,
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referents. Word meaning acquisition is unlikely to occur in the absence of a fairly
specific concrete referent clearly associated with a word and is learned in the context of a
physical task or learned in the verbal context of a task described in a verbal narrative.
The word may be novel, or a familiar word may be given a second meaning. For
example, a parent might say, "Here is some lean meat--there is no fat on it.". Thus both
a task (real or verbally-described) and the provision of a new word for a referent in the
task appear to be necessary conditions for acquiring (or "mapping") a word meaning.3
This body of research suggests to me that the acquisition of root word meanings
requires instruction (overt explanation) in the majority of cases. Derived words (prefixed
or suffixed) and compound words can probably be largely inferred from context when
root words are known. In some cases, instruction will facilitate using prefixes and
suffixes (Baumann, Edwards, Boland, & Olejnik, 2003; Graves, 2003; White, Power, &
White, 1989).
What Can Be Done to Build Vocabulary in Schools and Child Care
Centers?
To summarize this information about vocabulary development:
• Average children acquire approximately 6000 root word meanings by the end
of second grade. Children in the lowest quartile acquire roughly 4000 root
word meanings.
"planning") or modifiers (e.g., "planful").
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• These differences are related to marked variations in home vocabulary
opportunities and support.
• At present, there is little evidence for acquisition of word meanings at school
in the primary years.
• There is empirical evidence of a word sequence but we lack a comprehensive
list of such words.
Children enter school (or child care) differing widely in vocabulary, just as they
differ in knowledge of numbers or awareness of phonemes. Educators have become
increasingly aware of the significance of number knowledge or phonemic awareness.
This provides an opportunity to compensate for areas of knowledge that may not have
been addressed at home. However, at present no similar effort is made to compensate for
differences in language experience. In this section I will be describing the possibility of
helping children to acquire needed vocabulary in the primary grades.
Studies of Teaching Vocabulary to Primary or Preschool Children
Effects of extended interventions in primary classrooms. I know of only two
studies of vocabulary interventions carried out over a year of school. Both were by
Feitelson and her colleagues. Working with kindergarten children speaking Arabic,
Feitelson, Goldstein, Iraqi, and Share, (1991) arranged for twelve books to be read over a
five month period. The books explicitly used a formal version of Arabic (FusHa)
commonly used in print but not in colloquial speech. One book was read to the whole
3 I suspect that function words (articles, prepositions, pronouns, the verb "to be") and grammatical affixes
(e.g., -ed (past tense) or -s (plural) may not involve direct explanation. These function words occur vastly
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class for about twenty minutes at the end of each school day. Each book was read about
9 times over the course of five months. Prior to each reading session, the teachers
explained up to three unfamiliar words. While reading, teachers might also note
colloquial equivalents of words used in the text. On a test of listening comprehension
(not involving content from the 12 stories), children who had been read to were near the
maximum possible score (averaging 6 correct out of 7 items) while those who had not
been read to regularly (but had had language lessons) averaged 3.7 out of 7 items.
Significant gains were also reported on other measures of language performance.
Unfortunately, Feitelson et al did not report any specific data on vocabulary--either
general vocabulary or words from the books read. These results underestimate the effect
of the program--many intervention children could presumably have scored higher if more
advanced test had been used.
Especially noteworthy is the fact that the children were not only acquiring the
vocabulary and knowledge of story structure needed to comprehend this material, but
also the more formal dialect of Arabic used in most written communications. In
disadvantaged English-speaking communities, there is also a need to acquire standard
forms of the language used in “educated” contexts.
In a first grade study, a teacher read to the whole class for about 20 minutes at the end
of the school day over a six month period (Feitelson, Keitel, & Goldstein, 1986). “Hard
words” were clarified as needed. Fifteen books were read from a series about “Kofiko”,
a mischievous monkey who sounds rather like “Curious George. These books were
more frequently than non-function words. (See Sackly and Fry, 1984.)
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extremely popular with the children, many of whom insisted that their parents get copies
of some of the books.
Children in the experimental class were contrasted with children from two control
classes. All came from the same neighborhood, but those in the control classes scored
significantly higher on a vocabulary test (Israeli version of WISC) prior to the reading
intervention. Unfortunately, this vocabulary test was not re-administered at the end of
the study. Despite this difference, by the end of the study the children who had been read
to daily showed higher achievement in comprehension of a reading passage (82 vs. 63
percent accurate), in oral reading of a “technical” passage (94 vs. 79 percent accurate),
and used longer sentences when asked to tell a story (5.6 versus 4.5 words per sentence).
This study suggests that time invested in listening to stories (with clarifications as
needed) is time well spent, even when the time available for instruction is perceived to be
very short.4
Experimental studies of word explanations as books are read orally. There
have been a limited number of studies of vocabulary instruction with children in grade
two or lower. Stahl and Fairbanks' (1986) analysis of 52 studies of vocabulary
instruction found before 1986 included only two studies with children in grade two and
none below grade two. More recently, we have found seven studies of classroom
vocabulary instruction or oral story experience with primary or pre-primary children
(Biemiller & Boote, in preparation). Results in these studies are surprisingly similar:
When stories were read only once without explanation, on average, children understood
4% more word meanings than before the stories were read (Senechal, 1997). When
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stories were read three or four times but no word explanation was provided, 10 to 15%
more word meanings were acquired (Biemiller, 2003; Brabham & Lynch-Brown, 2002;
Elley, 1989; Penno et al, 2002; Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Senechal, 1997; Senechal et al,
1995). When words were read with word explanations, word knowledge gains of 14 to
29% more word meanings were reported (Same references except for Robbins & Ehri's
study.) Explanations of each word were given during one of the repeated readings. Note
that these results refer to the delayed posttest when reported. (Interestingly, delayed
posttest results tend to be slightly higher than immediate posttests.)
Gains ranged from 1.0 to 1.9 word meanings per instructional day. In these
studies, a major determinant of the actual number of words learned was the number of
words taught in each study. This ranged from 10 to 40 instructed words. The
percentages of words learned was similar, so that when more words were taught, more
were learned. One could expect that there is an upper limit to the number of words taught
per day. In the studies reviewed here, there was a range from 3 to 10 words instructed
per day. There was no relationship between the number of words taught daily and the
percentage of words learned.
In the case of word explanation studies, similar methods were used. Stories
would be read, and teachers would interrupt to explain some words. Here are two
examples of word explanations "in context". These examples are from Biemiller 2003a.
Similar methods are described by Brabham & Lynch, Elley, and Penno et al.
From Clifford and the Circus, the text reads: "A smaller sign said
the circus needed help." Teacher repeats the target sentence and explains
4 This section on Feitelson's work is adapted from Biemiller (1998), Language and Reading Success.
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"help". "A sign said the circus needed help. Help in this story has a
different meaning. ' The circus needed help,' means the circus show wants
to hire some people to work at the show--to help put on the show."
From Thomas and the Naughty Diesel, the text reads: "Diesel
could feel his temper rising." The teacher re-reads the sentence, "'Diesel
could feel his temper rising.' Temper rising means Diesel was getting
angry or mad."
Note that selection of words for instruction in these studies was on an intuitive
basis. "Words unlikely to be known" were chosen for instruction. In the following
study, a different method was used for selecting words, which were then given more
intensive instruction.
Instruction of "Tier Two" words. Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda
Kucan (2002) divide words into Tier One, Tier Two, and Tier Three. For them:
• "Tier One consists of the most basic words--clock, baby, happy--rarely
requiring instruction in school."
• "Tier Two are high frequency words for mature language users--coincidence,
absurd, industrious--and thus instruction in these words can add productively
to an individual's language ability."
• "Tier Three includes words whose frequency of use is quite low, often being
limited to specific domains--isotope, lathe, peninsula--and are probably best
learned when needed in a content area." (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002,
pp 15-16)
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They argue that vocabulary in the primary grades should emphasize Tier Two words that
are less likely to be learned at home, especially disadvantaged homes.
Isabel Beck and Margaret McKeown recently reported on a study of story-based
vocabulary instruction using "Tier Two words" (2003, April). Working with first grade
children, they spent a week with each of seven books, teaching six words per week for a
total of 42 taught words. (Note that this is much smaller number of weekly words than
seen in the other "word explanation" studies.) This allowed intensive work on each word,
including how the words were used in other contexts. Examples of Tier Two words in
this study were rambunctious and immense.
Unfortunately, while slightly increasing the percentage of taught words
acquired, a total of just 13 more words were known after the program than
previously. This amounted to about one third of a word per day with vocabulary
instruction. These gains are less than seen in other story plus word instruction
studies in which 1.0 to 1.9 word meanings were acquired per day. (However,
these studies were not run for more than a few days.) I suspect that the Tier Two
words may be too advanced in the sequence of word acquisition to be readily
learned in grade one, even with fairly intensive instruction.
Dialogic Reading. “Dialogic reading differs substantially from the manner that
adults typically read picture books to children. A shift of roles is central: In typical book
reading, the adult reads and the child listens, but in dialogic reading, the child learns to
become the storyteller. The adult then assumes the role of an active listener, asking
questions, adding information, and prompting the child to increase the sophistication of
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his or her description of the material in the picture book. As the child becomes more
skillful in the role of story teller, the adult is encouraged to ask open-ended questions and
avoid yes/no or pointing questions. For example, the adult might say, “What is Eeyore
doing?” or “You tell me about this page” instead of “Is Eeyore lying down?” (Whitehurst
et al, 1994, p. 680 )
Whitehurst et al used a daycare setting for disadvantaged children, in
which caregivers read to groups of 5 four year old children at a time. Some
groups of children were also read to at home. Both the caregivers and the parents
were trained in Dialogic Reading using the videotapes reported in Arnold et al
(1994). A 6-week interval of daily 10 minute Dialogic Reading sessions lead to a
gain of only 2.5 words from the material read, and gains of about 0.5 months on
standardized vocabulary tests, compared with control children who did not
participate in Dialogic Reading. However, if these gains could be sustained over
a year, Dialogic Reading could lead to a six vocabulary month gain on the
Peabody compared with no intervention. Note that there was relatively little
emphasis on learning specific words, and the words chosen could be considered
"Tier Two" words in Beck and McKeown's term.
In a more recent effort to use Dialogic Reading with preschool children
(Hargrave & Senechal, 2000), repeated reading twice without word explanation
was compared to repeated Dialogic Reading twice. A total of ten books were read
during four weeks. Eighteen "book words" were tested (e.g., croquet, llama).
Prior to reading, the children in the Dialogic Reading group knew an average of
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2.2 "book words" (said when shown a picture). After the program, they knew 4.3
of these words. In other words, they acquired about 0.4 words per instruction day.
As in Whitehurst's work, this poor vocabulary gain may be due to insufficient
focus on word meanings, and selection of rare words.
A Recent Study With Increased Word Meaning Acquisition
Our own work (described below) used methods similar to the "word explanation"
plus cross-referencing words against the Living Word Vocabulary. When data was
reported on individual words in the other studies (e.g., Elley, 1989), some words taught
were in fact previously mostly known. Some words taught were not learned well (i.e.,
there was little change from pretest to posttest).
Current research, increasing the number of words learned. In a recent
investigation of classroom vocabulary instruction with kindergarten, grade one, and grade
two, Catherine Boote and I undertook to increase the numbers of words learned on per
diem basis (Biemiller & Boote, in preparation; Biemiller, 2003). This study involved
regular classroom teachers instructing whole classes. Assessment of vocabulary involved
a context sentence method in which sentences from the stories were read and meanings of
particular words in the sentence requested. For example, to individual kindergarten
children we read, "We saw a sign that said the circus was in town. What does the word
circus mean in this sentence?" Note that this method of assessing vocabulary is more
demanding than a multiple-choice test.
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Our work was done with kindergarten, grade one, and grade two children in a
working class neighborhood. The majority of the children did not speak English at home.
Two teachers taught children at each grade level.
We undertook to increase both the percentage and the number of words learned.
Words were selected partly on judgement ("probably hard for this population"). We
omitted all words that turned out to be at Dale and O'Rourke's (1981) "level 2" words
(i.e., word meanings reported to be known by more than 80% of grade four children). In
addition, word meanings which were known by more than 75% of the children in our
study at pretest were omitted after the pretest. We continued to introduce explanations
similar to those described in this chapter. In other words, we provided one or two
sentence explanations of word meanings anchored in the context of the story being read.
Our collaborating teachers suggested adding reviews of words taught each day. In
addition, we added a final review after reading the book four times (on four separate
days). During the final review, all 25-30 words taught during a week were presented
again but in new sentences, not derived from the storybook used during the week. At the
posttest four weeks after the second book was instructed, using additional new context
sentences, we obtained gains of about 40 to 45 percent in word meaning knowledge.
This resulted in the acquisition of 8-12 word meanings per week. The effect sizes (pre-
post) ranged from 2.09 (grade one) to 2.67 (kindergarten). These were statistically very
significant. Results were the same whether posttest words were assessed with the same
context sentence as used at pretest, or used a second new context sentence not based on
the story read. In kindergarten and grade two, similar rates of word learning were found
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among those with small or large pretest vocabularies. In grade one, children with larger
vocabularies acquired more words.
Assuming that this rate of word acquisition can be sustained over 40
weeks of instruction, 400-500 word meanings can be learned. Since these gains
are in addition to words already known at pretests, they can be seen as additions
to words learned by children at home or in other contexts.
How Are Words Learned Through Narrative-Based Explanations?
"Explaining" word meanings in conjunction with stories generally involves
creating a "verbal referent". Any narrative describes the task or tasks of the characters in
the narrative (often including emotional concomitants ). An "unknown" word meaning
occurring in the narrative can generally be explained as:
• an agent or object in the story (e.g., nouns),
• task setting or location in the story (also nouns),
• an action in the story (e.g., verbs),
• a feature of an object or action in the story (e.g., adjective or adverb),
• or an emotional state in the story.
When unfamiliar words are!situated in a narrative, the meaning can be clarified in
the specific task context of the story. One of the word meanings listed above can be
used.
Children are often aware of the specific context in which word meanings were
first learned (Biemiller, 1999). Similarly, when words are explained in stories, children
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sometimes refer to such story experiences much as they refer to actual experiences when
explaining words. This is true even if the word meaning is assessed using a different
context. Thus word explanations probably create what Carey (1978) called "fast
mappings". Continued experience with the newly acquired meanings will require some
continued experience with these words.
Choices of Words for Instruction.
I propose an approach to selecting words for instruction based (a) on the fact that
children appear to be acquiring words in an identifiable sequence, and (b) that therefore
the best words to teach to children with restricted vocabularies would be the words
already known by those with larger vocabularies.
For work with preliterate children (i.e. before grade three), I suggest that we use
words typically known by average and advanced children by the end of grade two, but
not by children with more limited vocabularies. Statistically, this means omitting both
word meanings known by most children by the end of grade two and also omitting word
meanings known by few children by the end of grade two. We find that most second
grade children, even children not speaking English at home, know most meanings
reported by Dale and O'Rourke as "known by 80% of grade 4 children" (Dale &
O'Rourke, 1981). (These are also the words used by Dale and Chall in their Readability
Scale (Chall & Dale, 1995).) Words reported to be known at grade eight or higher are
unlikely to be known by grade two children. In current research, we are finding that
about 45 percent of grade 4 words (known by 67-80% of grade 4 children) and 35% of
Biemiller, Vocabulary Development and Instruction 21
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grade 6 words are likely to be known by grade two children with advanced vocabularies,
but not by grade two children with less advanced vocabularies.5 Appendix A provides
examples of well-known meanings, teachable meanings, and little-known meanings.
Most of the words identified by statistical procedures are relatively less dramatic
(e.g., sliver, fresh (new, not spoiled), or stock (provide, supply) than the Tier Two words
recommended by Beck and McKeown (e.g., extraordinary, radiant). However, the fact
is that children with large vocabularies know these words by grade two, while those
making slower progress have not yet learned them.
If we are to raise the vocabularies of children with smaller vocabularies during
kindergarten to grade two, we should concentrate on words that fall into this "known by
40-75%" category. I estimate that this includes approximately 4000 root word meanings.
Success would be for low vocabulary children to learn about half of these word
meanings. The difference between the vocabulary of average children and children in the
lowest quartile is two thousand root word meanings.
Practical Implications.
Used in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two, the rate of word acquisition from
instruction seen many of these studies is sufficient to make a serious impact on children's
readiness for academic learning in grades three and higher.
The missing link at this point is identifying words to be taught. At present, the
solution would be to apply teachers' or publishers' judgement to the lists of root word
5 I am currently conducting research on all grade four and grade six words to determine which are likely to
be useful for primary education.
Biemiller, Vocabulary Development and Instruction 22
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meanings at levels 4 and 6 in Dale and O'Rourke's (1981) Living Word Vocabulary.
There are also a few primary-appropriate word meanings even at Dale & O'Rourke's
levels 8 and 10.
I hope teachers will begin seriously attempting to teach significant numbers of
words to children. At this point, pick words that are above grade two and use your
judgement on which will be needed to understand stories, plus good opportunities for
learning. We haven't experimented with expository texts as bases for vocabulary
instruction, and really don't know whether they are as good for teaching word meanings.
However, I'm not sure that expository text--without a narrative thread--will prove to be as
effective as narratives for vocabulary instruction in the primary grades.
Teaching words (through stories or any other effective method) takes time. Most
of these studies involved about half an hour per day. Setting aside half an hour a day in a
busy primary classroom may seem a lot--though it is not as much time as is routinely
devoted to decoding. As I said at the beginning of this chapter, reading print and
understanding words are the two conditions needed for success in reading "grade-level"
books. At present, we spend a lot of time teaching (and assessing!) reading mechanics--
the skills needed to read words on pages. But we spend almost no time on systematically
building vocabulary. Until we do so, we cannot see significant gains in reading
comprehension for the majority of disadvantaged children--children whose vocabularies
are well below average.
Biemiller, Vocabulary Development and Instruction 23
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Appendix A
Examples of Word Meanings Known by Most, by Some, and by Few at the End of Grade
Two6
6 Meanings sampled from the Living Word Vocabulary (Dale & O'Rourke, 1981) with data from Biemiller
& Slonim (2001).
Known by Most
fish A water animal
spread to distribute over
a surface (e.g.
buttering)
throat Passage from
stomach to
mouth
near Close
café eating place
stab Stick knife into
subtract Take number
from another
loop A circled string
done Finished doing
drop Fall
fuss Cry and scream
math School subject
Known by Some
sliver Tiny piece of
wood
space Room
buckle To fasten
fresh New, not spoiled
secure Free from fear
justice Fair dealing
tally count
through From start to
end
blab Tell secret
litter Disorder
stock Supply, provide
possum Animal
shimmer Faint gleam
parcel package
Known by Few
know Recognize
period A time in history
because For the reason
that
victim Injured person
lash Fasten with rope
tree Rack for shoes,
hats
text Schoolbook
guard A defense
narrow Lacking a broad
view
induct To bring in
curious Odd, strange
alias False name
(and many more
advanced words)
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