Examining the Acquisition of Vocabulary Knowledge Depth Among Preschool Students

Hadley, Elizabeth Burke; Dickinson, David K.; Hirsh‐Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Nesbitt, Kimberly Turner

doi:10.1002/rrq.130

Cited by 81 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…This study had several features associated with higher effect sizes in meta‐analyses: A researcher, rather than teachers or childcare providers, delivered the intervention (Marulis & Neuman, ; Mol, Bus, & de Jong, ); author‐created, rather than standardized, measures were used to assess growth (Marulis & Neuman, ); and instruction combined both explicit (e.g., giving definitions) and implicit methods (e.g., embedding target words in guided play; Marulis & Neuman, ). The large effect sizes may also be partially driven by our selection of target words, as the concrete nouns taught in the present study are typically learned more quickly than more abstract words such as verbs and adjectives (Hadley et al., ; Maguire, Hirsh‐Pasek, & Golinkoff, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…To evaluate how comparable study words were in terms of difficulty, we used several metrics. First, we evaluated the relative concreteness of words, as the perceptual accessibility of words has been shown to be a major contributing factor in preschool children's ability to learn those words (Hadley et al., ). We obtained concreteness ratings using Brysbaert, Warriner, and Kuperman's () ratings for 40,000 words, for which participants rated words’ concreteness on a scale from 1 ( highly abstract ) to 5 ( highly concrete ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In summary, the words selected for this study are all highly concrete and thus thought to be all relatively easy to learn (Hadley et al., ). The average age at which study words are typically acquired is also comparable across our groups of words.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The correlation between the PPVT–4 and the depth measure was statistically significant at pretest ( r = .56). These two measures are related, indicating that both assess the larger construct of vocabulary, but the strength of the correlation is only moderate, indicating that they measure the different, but closely related, dimensions of vocabulary breadth and depth (for a fuller discussion of the vocabulary depth measure, see Hadley et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One approach to boosting the impact of book reading is to pair play (or playful activities) with book‐reading sessions (Hadley, Dickinson, Hirsh‐Pasek, Golinkoff, & Nesbitt, ; Roskos & Burstein, ; Weisberg et al., ). An emerging line of research has explored the learning possibilities of guided play, a method in which early childhood teachers play with children while scaffolding them toward specific learning aims such as learning new words (K.R.…”

Section: Factors That Support Depth Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Building Semantic Networks: The Impact of a Vocabulary Intervention on Preschoolers’ Depth of Word Knowledge

Hadley

Dickinson

Hirsh‐Pasek

et al. 2018

Reading Research Quarterly

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In this study, the authors examined the impact of a vocabulary intervention designed to support vocabulary depth, or the building of semantic networks, in preschool children (n = 30). The authors further investigated the effect of specific instructional strategies on growth in vocabulary depth. The intervention employed shared book reading and guided play methods to teach words in conceptually linked categories, such as taxonomic and thematic groups. Using a within‐subjects design, analyses indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on children's depth of vocabulary knowledge. Children showed significantly greater growth in vocabulary depth for words taught in taxonomies as compared with words taught in themes. Three types of semantic information were learned more deeply for taxonomy words as compared with theme words: information about category membership, perceptual features, and object function. Results suggest that fostering deep vocabulary knowledge involves not only teaching single word entities but also introducing systems of conceptually related words to build semantic networks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Factors That Support Depth Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Building Semantic Networks: The Impact of a Vocabulary Intervention on Preschoolers’ Depth of Word Knowledge

Hadley

Dickinson

Hirsh‐Pasek

et al. 2018

Reading Research Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Going beyond defining: Preschool educators' use of knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning about vocabulary instruction

Dwyer

Schachter

2019

Dyslexia

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Previous research investigating both the knowledge of early childhood educators and the support for vocabulary development present in early childhood settings has indicated that both educator knowledge and enacted practice are less than optimal, which has grave implications for children's early vocabulary learning and later reading achievement. Further, the nature of the relationship between educators' knowledge and practice is unclear, making it difficult to discern the best path towards improved knowledge, practice, and children's vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by using stimulated recall interviews and a grounded approach to examine how 10 preschool educators used their knowledge to made decisions about their moment-to-moment instruction in support of children's vocabulary development. Results indicate that educators were thinking in highly context-specific ways about their goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning, taking into account important knowledge of their instructional history with children and of the children themselves to inform their decision making in the moment. In addition, they reported thinking about research-based goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning that went beyond simply defining words for children. Implications for research and professional development are discussed.

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Sound Stories: Using Nonverbal Sound Effects to Support English Word Learning in First‐Grade Music Classrooms

Lawson-Adams

Dickinson

2019

Reading Research Quarterly

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Early vocabulary knowledge is vital for later reading comprehension and academic success. Studies have found that augmenting explicit teaching of word meanings with nonverbal visual aids, particularly pictures and gestures, assists young learners in building rich lexical representations. Research has focused on the effects of visual supports in fostering word knowledge but has not considered the effectiveness of using sound‐based supports. Working from a semiotics perspective, the authors used a music instructional strategy known as a sound story to examine the impact of using sound effects to teach words to first‐grade students. Words were taught with explicit instruction in combination with sound effects or no sound effects during music class. All sound effects were created and performed using musical instruments in the classroom. Students’ receptive and productive definitional word knowledge were assessed. The productive measure was used as a measure of depth of word knowledge. The authors found that students had deeper knowledge of words that were taught with an associated sound effect compared with words taught with no sound effect. Analysis of the types of information students provided about words showed that students gave more contextual information and gestural responses for words that were taught with sound compared with words taught with no sound. These results provide evidence that vocabulary learning can be fostered during specialist music classes using methods familiar to music educators.

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Examining the Acquisition of Vocabulary Knowledge Depth Among Preschool Students

Abstract: or concrete?Level of instruction Theme

Cited by 81 publications

References 55 publications

Building Semantic Networks: The Impact of a Vocabulary Intervention on Preschoolers’ Depth of Word Knowledge

Building Semantic Networks: The Impact of a Vocabulary Intervention on Preschoolers’ Depth of Word Knowledge

Going beyond defining: Preschool educators' use of knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning about vocabulary instruction

Sound Stories: Using Nonverbal Sound Effects to Support English Word Learning in First‐Grade Music Classrooms

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