Closing the Vocabulary Gap:

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CEC April, 2009
Closing the Vocabulary Gap Current Issues in
Vocabulary Intervention and Research Michael D.
Coyne, Ph.D. Associate Professor mike.coyne_at_uconn.
edu
Center for Behavioral Education
Research www.cber.org Department of Educational
Psychology Neag School of Education University of
Connecticut
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Acknowledgements
• Betsy McCoach, Paige Pullen, Sharon Kapp, Susan
  Loftus, Richard Zipoli, Maureen Ruby, Yvel
  Crevecoeur, Athena Lentini, Chrissy Civetelli,
  Sharon Ware, Ashley Capozzoli, Karen Rambo
• Division for Research, CEC

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Research Conduct school-based research on
developing and evaluating evidence based
practices in literacy, behavior supports, and
assessment Translating Research to Practice
Support schools, districts, and states in
adopting, implementing, and sustaining evidence
based practices
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Questions
• How do we best provide direct vocabulary
  instruction?
• Is vocabulary knowledge gained through direct
  instruction maintained over time?
• Does systematic review help students maintain
  vocabulary knowledge
• Does direct vocabulary instruction have benefits
  beyond learning target words?
• Is vocabulary instruction equally effective for
  all students?
• Can Tier 2 vocabulary intervention increase the
  word learning of students at risk of language and
  learning difficulties?

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Project VITALVocabulary Intervention Targeting
At-risk Learners
Funded byInstitute of Education SciencesU.S.
Department of Education

• Research Summary
• Six studies
• Four school districts
• Five elementary schools
• Approximately 300 kindergarten students

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A Conceptual Framework for Reading/Literacy
Instruction
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A Conceptual Framework for Reading/Literacy
Instruction
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Project VITAL

• Implications
• Many students begin school at risk for language
  and comprehension difficulties. Instruction and
  intervention focused on code based skills will
  not be sufficient to meet these students needs.
• Instruction and intervention in meaning based
  skills (e.g., language, vocabulary, listening
  comprehension) should start at the beginning of
  schooling.
• This instruction should often be separate from
  code based instruction, especially in the early
  grades. (i.e., within oral language activities)

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Direct Vocabulary Instruction The Challenge

• It is impossible to teach directly all that words
  that students need to know.

How can we best leverage scarce instructional
time?
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Vocabulary Instruction

•  
• Given limited instructional time, do we
• Teach more word meanings but spend less time on
  each word?
• or
• Teach fewer word meanings but spend more time on
  each word?

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Two Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction
•  
• Embedded Instruction
• Simple explanation within the context of the
  story. (e.g., Biemiller Boote, 2006 Penno
  et al., 2002)
• Time efficient allows for introduction of many
  words (breadth).
• Few exposures to target words, limited to context
  of the story  
• Extended Instruction
• Robust approach that offers rich information
  about words and their uses. (e.g., Beck,
  McKeown, Kucan, 2002 Coyne, Simmons,
  Kameenui, Stoolmiller, 2004)
• Time intensive limits instruction to fewer
  words (depth).
• Many encounters with words in varied contexts
  beyond the story.

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Project VITAL

• Research Question
• What are the effects of Extended Instruction vs.
  Embedded Instruction vs. Incidental Exposure?

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Project VITAL

• Methodology
• Participants included kindergarten students from
  schools with large at-risk populations.
• Within subjects design with different sets of
  target words taught with different instructional
  approaches. Words were counterbalanced across
  groups.
• All participants listened to multiple readings of
  storybooks in small groups over two weeks.

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Effects of Instruction

• Results
• Statistically significant effect for type of
  vocabulary instruction across all measures in all
  studies
• Extended Instruction gt Embedded Instruction gt
  Incidental Exposure
• Effect Sizes
• Extended vs. Incidental (d .91 2.57)
• Extended vs. Embedded (d .38 1.70)
• Embedded vs. Incidental (d .24 .87)

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Effects of Instruction
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Tri-level Approach

• Incidental Exposure
• Read storybooks to children that contain varied
  and complex vocabulary.
• Much of childrens vocabulary development occurs
  as the result of incidental and cumulative
  exposure.
• Embedded Instruction
• Provide embedded instruction on a subset of
  words from the storybook.
• Target words that students are unlikely to know
  and that they will continue to encounter in
  school and in texts.
• Extended Instruction
• Provide extended instruction on a subset of
  words from the storybook.
• Target words that are essential for understanding
  important ideas and concepts in the story and
  that students need to make immediate use of.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Is vocabulary knowledge gained through direct
  instruction maintained over time?

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Evidence
• In our research, weve found that vocabulary
  knowledge is durable, but higher and more
  complete levels of word knowledge may be more
  susceptible to deterioration over time

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Does systematic review help students maintain
  vocabulary knowledge
• Research Evidence
• Review Conditions Target words were assigned to
  1 of 3 types of review that varied in intensity
  no review, embedded review, or semantically-relate
  d review.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Findings suggest that systematic review or at
  least continued encounters of target words in
  supportive contexts are needed to reinforce and
  maintain strong and complete lexical
  representations
• Review provides a large educational benefit for a
  modest amount of instructional time

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Do the effects of vocabulary instruction and
  intervention transfer to other areas of language
  and literacy?
• A much stronger case could be made for the worth
  of vocabulary instruction if there was evidence
  to suggest that there were benefits beyond just
  learning the meanings of words targeted for
  instruction.
• Possible impacts
• Listening/reading comprehension
• Generalized vocabulary knowledge

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Possible mechanisms to explain transfer effects
• Listening/reading comprehension
• Instrumentalist hypothesis (Anderson Freebody,
  1981 Stahl, 1991).
• Teaching the meanings of words that appear in a
  story or passage should improve students
  comprehension of that passage.
• Generalized vocabulary knowledge
• Metalinguistic hypothesis (Nagy, 2007).
• Rich vocabulary instruction may increase
  students ability to reflect on and manipulate
  language in an active and considerate manner.
• Connectionist models of word learning (Landauer
  Dumais, 1997)
• Learning new word meanings helps refine and
  consolidate the lexical constraints of other
  partially known words that are semantically
  associated with the newly learned words.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Elleman, A. M., Lindo, E. J., Morphy, P
  Compton, D. L. (2009). The impact of vocabulary
  instruction on passage-level comprehension of
  school-age children A meta-analysis. Journal of
  Research on Educational Effectiveness.
• Impact of vocabulary instruction
• Standardized measures of comprehension (d 0.10)
• Custom measures of comprehension (d 0.50)
• Standardized measures of vocabulary (d 0.29)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Evidence
• 124 kindergarten students (80 treatment, 44
  control)
• Students were taught the meanings of 54
  vocabulary words over 36 half-hour instructional
  lessons (two lessons per week over 18 weeks).

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Transfer Measures
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test PPVT-III Norm
  referenced measure of generalized receptive
  vocabulary.
• Listening Comprehension Factual inferential
  questions about a story that contained target
  words (18 target/395 total words). Adapted from
  the SNAP.

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Vocabulary Instruction
Research Evidence
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Findings suggest that extended vocabulary
  instruction implemented with kindergarten
  students can result in statistically and
  educationally significant differences on both
  proximal measures of target word knowledge and
  transfer measures of generalized language and
  literacy.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Is vocabulary instruction equally effective for
  all students?
• Initial level of receptive vocabulary knowledge
• Language status (ELL, EOL)

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Language Status
• Post hoc determination
• ELL status if any language other than English
  was
• primary language spoken at students home
• students dominant language at school
• Treatment EOL 49, ELL 31
• Control EOL 26, ELL 17

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Vocabulary Instruction
Target Words
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Vocabulary Instruction
Listening Comprehension
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Vocabulary Instruction
PPVT Spring
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Vocabulary Instruction
Mediating Variable
PPVT-Fall (centered)
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Language Status
Target Word Measure
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• Response to the vocabulary instruction was
  moderated by overall receptive vocabulary
  knowledge assessed at pretest
• ELLs, on average, did not respond as strongly to
  the vocabulary intervention as EOLs
• After controlling for initial English receptive
  vocabulary knowledge, language status was not
  related to outcomes

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Project IVIIntensifying Vocabulary Intervention

Funded byInstitute of Education SciencesU.S.
Department of Education

• Purpose
• Draw on validated principles of instructional
  design and delivery to intensify vocabulary
  instruction/ intervention to optimize its
  effectiveness with kindergarten students most at
  risk of learning disabilities.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Question
• Can Tier 2 vocabulary intervention increase the
  word learning of students at risk of language and
  learning difficulties?
• Research Evidence
• All students received whole class Tier 1
  vocabulary instruction
• Students with lower levels of vocabulary
  knowledge (PPVT lt 92) received additional Tier 2
  intervention on half the target vocabulary words

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Research Evidence
• Students at risk for language and learning
  difficulties learned words that receive both Tier
  1 Tier 2 instruction to a greater extent than
  words that received only Tier 1 instruction.
• The word learning of students at risk for
  language and learning difficulties who receive
  both Tier 1 Tier 2 instruction was approached
  the word learning of their peers who were not at
  risk who received only Tier 1 instruction.

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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction
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Vocabulary Instruction

• Implications
• It is likely that vocabulary instruction will be
  more beneficial for students with higher levels
  of vocabulary knowledge
• Students at risk of language and learning
  difficulties will likely require additional
  instruction at higher levels of intensity to make
  gains similar to their peers who are not at risk.
• The vocabulary gap will be extremely difficult to
  close

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What we know
• Students can learn the meanings of sophisticated
  vocabulary through direct instruction
• Greater investment in instructional time
  intensity leads to increased word learning
  (breadth depth)
• e.g., extended instruction, systematic review,
  Tier 2 instruction for students at risk
• What we may know
• In addition to increases in target word learning,
  direct vocabulary instruction may lead to
  generalized gains in language and literacy skills
  and knowledge.

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What were still working on
• What words should we teach?
• How do we best assess vocabulary knowledge?
• What are the long term effects of a systematic
  program of vocabulary instruction and
  intervention?
• How do we combine direct vocabulary instruction
  with instruction in other areas of meaning based
  skills? (e.g., listening comprehension,
  morphology, syntax, figurative language, etc.)
• How do we best support vocabulary development for
  the entire range of learners? (e.g., ELLs, SLI,
  Tier 3 etc.,)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• What words should we teach?
• Tier II words (Beck McKeown)
• Content area vocabulary (Hiebert)
• Developmental sequence of root words (Biemiller)

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Vocabulary Instruction

• How do we assess vocabulary knowledge?
• Current measures are either too proximal or
  distal
• Current measures are not effective or efficient
  for different purposes for assessment
• Screening, progress monitoring, diagnostic
• Current measures are not sensitive to different
  levels of word knowledge

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Vocabulary Instruction
Measure 1
Student C
Student A
Student B
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Vocabulary Instruction
Measure 1
Measure 2
Measure 3
Measure 4
Student C
Student B
Student A
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Vocabulary Instruction
Current approaches to measuring the impact of
vocabulary instruction/intervention are either
too proximal to or too distal
Standardized Measures Of Language Literacy
?
Measures of Individual Word Knowledge