Academic Vocabulary: Explicit and Incidental Instruction for Students of Diverse Language Backgrounds

Vocabulary knowledge is a crucial element of reading comprehension. Academic vocabulary poses particular challenges for students and should be a focus of instruction, particularly for students from diverse language backgrounds. This study was part of a larger literacy in social studies intervention...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReading & writing quarterly Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 84 - 102
Main Authors Gallagher, Melissa A., Barber, Ana Taboada, Beck, Jori S., Buehl, Michelle M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 04.03.2019
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Academic Language
Bilingual education
Bilingualism
Comparative Analysis
Cooperative Learning
English
English (Second Language)
English language
Foreign language instruction
Grade 6
Incidental Learning
Instructional Materials
Intervention
Language diversity
Learning Strategies
Literacy
Measures (Individuals)
Monolingualism
Multicultural education
Reading Comprehension
Reading Tests
Scaffolding (Teaching Technique)
Second Language Learning
Students
Teaching Methods
Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary instruction
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Summary:Vocabulary knowledge is a crucial element of reading comprehension. Academic vocabulary poses particular challenges for students and should be a focus of instruction, particularly for students from diverse language backgrounds. This study was part of a larger literacy in social studies intervention aimed at increasing students' reading comprehension and engagement. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance indicated that although both emergent bilingual and English monolingual students improved on words that were explicitly taught, only English monolingual students improved in their knowledge of words that were incidentally taught. Qualitative observational notes indicated that teachers' explicit vocabulary instruction included the use of graphic organizers, think-pair-share activities, and scaffolded discussions. Teachers taught word-learning strategies and developed word consciousness to different degrees. Findings could indicate that emergent bilingual students are less likely to benefit from incidental instruction of academic vocabulary words, which supports previous literature on the crucial role of explicit vocabulary instruction.
ISSN:1057-3569
1521-0693
DOI:10.1080/10573569.2018.1510796