Education study highlights tactics to teach vocabulary to struggling readers

New research co-authored by College of Education scholars is illuminating the path to teaching academic vocabulary words to students with learning disabilities.

Published in the journal Teaching Exceptional Children, the study reads like an instructional manual for teachers interested in expanded in-class vocabulary training. It examines which words can do the most to help struggling readers, how to effectively teach those words and how integrate the instruction into subject-matter class discussions.

Kristen Beach, assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Child Development, said studies have consistently demonstrated the importance of vocabulary competence to overall reading development. Despite this, many teachers dedicate minimal class time to vocabulary, the research noted.

“Limited vocabulary knowledge is consistently identified as a factor that contributes to low levels of reading comprehension for struggling adolescent readers,” said Beach. “By teaching carefully selecting words with wide-applicability across content areas and contexts, teachers can impact students’ understanding of a wide-range of texts.

“Carefully designed instruction for as little 15 minutes per day can strengthen the word knowledge of many struggling adolescent readers, and may improve reading comprehension,” she added.

Concrete vocabulary instruction is critical for readers with learning disabilities, noted Beach, because “by the time struggling readers reach adolescence their vocabulary knowledge lags behind their typically developing peers, sometimes by thousands of words, which ultimately contributes to poor reading comprehension.

The study, which Beach conducted with College of Education colleague Lindsay Flynn and two professors from other universities, focused on general academic words that are likely to appear across multiple subjects.

“Take for example the academic vocabulary word ‘examine’ and a simple definition: ‘to look carefully at something,’” Beach explained, “Students might examine a math solution for errors, or they might learn how the constitution was examined by each of the framers before being signed. Students might be asked to examine the structure of cells in science class, or to examine the family dog for fleas at home. Students’ understanding of multiple academic and life situations can improve from learning this and other academic vocabulary words.”

The research found teachers should avoid the widespread instructional approaches that ask students to memorize long lists of words unrelated to classroom content. Instead, Beach and her co-authors recommend instructors carefully select thematically related words from course content.

To reinforce the word meanings with students, the study recommends a graduated approach that allows learners to develop an increasingly nuanced understanding:

• Carefully select four to five high-utility, thematically related words for instruction each week

• Provide simple and clear definitions and explanations of words, using the Collins COBUILD Dictionary as a starting point. Provide students with notebooks they can use to record their new words and meanings

• Provide students with multiple opportunities to say words, read words and interact with word meanings every day

• Guide students in examining meanings of words across multiple instructional and authentic contexts that are initially simplified to improve focus on word meaning

• Guide students through playful activities that require them to negotiate nuances of word meanings and recognize contexts in which specific words do and do not apply

• Provide scaffolded writing opportunities to guide students in using learned words appropriately in writing

• Model an interest in and love for vocabulary words and meanings in your class by pointing out clever uses in text books and during class discussions; use rich language yourself with clear explanations to pique students’ interest in vocabulary

The study provides a detailed discourse on these recommendations, illustrated by hypothetical in class examples. Read the full text here.