The Inefficiency of Vocabulary Instruction

McQuillan, Jeffrey Lawrence

doi:10.26822/iejee.2019450789

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The metanalysis by Wasik et al ( 2016 ) revealed that direct explicit vocabulary instruction proved to be more efficient in the learning of new words compared to incidental instruction of new vocabulary. However, this contrasts with other reviews that have taken into account the efficiency of instruction (number of words learned divided by instructional time), along with the feasibility and worth of providing direct vocabulary instruction, which revealed that simply listening to a story was more efficient for vocabulary acquisition than reading plus extended instruction (McQuillan, 2019a , 2019b ; see also Mason et al, 2008 ; Nagy et al, 1985 ). While our study was not designed to assert which of the two approaches is more effective in vocabulary instruction (see Wright & Cervetti, 2017 , for a recent review), what is clear from our experiment is that incidental learning of vocabulary may benefit from a (perceptual) contextual diversity manipulation in the classroom.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?

et al. 2021

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Recent studies have revealed that presenting novel words across various contexts (i.e., contextual diversity) helps to consolidate the meaning of these words both in adults and children. This effect has been typically explained in terms of semantic distinctiveness (e.g., Semantic Distinctiveness Model, Jones et al., Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(2), 115, 2012). However, the relative influence of other, non-semantic, elements of the context is still unclear. In this study, we examined whether incidental learning of new words in children was facilitated when the words were uttered by several individuals rather than when they were uttered by the same individual. In the learning phase, the to-be-learned words were presented through audible fables recorded either by the same voice (low diversity) or by different voices (high diversity). Subsequently, word learning was assessed through two orthographic and semantic integration tasks. Results showed that words uttered by different voices were learned better than those uttered by the same voice. Thus, the benefits of contextual diversity in word learning extend beyond semantic differences among contexts; they also benefit from perceptual differences among contexts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?

et al. 2021

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“…Free reading provides another means of increasing vocabulary. In fact, there is evidence that free reading can be as or more efficient than explicit vocabulary instruction in building vocabulary, as well as being more enjoyable (Krashen, 2012; McQuillan, 2019b; McQuillan, 2020)—particularly when students are empowered to choose reading materials that interest them (e.g., Guthrie and Klauda, 2014; Miller, 2009). It is critical, however, that texts are well‐matched to a student’s instructional level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interaction of Silent Reading Rate, Academic Vocabulary, and Comprehension Among Students in Grades 2–12

Spichtig

Pascoe

Gehsmann

et al. 2022

Reading Research Quarterly

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This study examined silent reading rates (SRRs) in relation to students' estimated academic vocabulary grade levels (EVGLs) and comprehension accuracy (Comprehension Items Correct; compIC). Analyses were based on data from 288,934 students in grades 2-12 who completed an adaptive silent reading assessment that yielded measures of the three variables of interest. Silent reading rate was measured while students read five 150-to 300word passages. Each student's initial passage difficulty was aligned with their EVGL. Each passage was followed by five comprehension questions, such that in total, students could answer up to 25 comprehension items correctly. Twolevel Multilevel Models (MLMs) were fitted to evaluate SRR in relation to EVGL, compIC, and their interactions. The final MLM included the random intercept and three random slopes for the two level-1 predictors (schoolmean-centered EVGL as the focal predictor and school-mean-centered com-pIC as the moderator) and their interactions. Results indicated that: (a) the fixed effect of higher EVGL on SRR was positive and significant, (b) the fixed effect of higher compIC on SRR was negative and significant, and (c) there was a significant interaction indicating that the relationship between schoolmean-centered EVGL and SRR grew stronger as school-mean-centered compIC increased. These results suggest that vocabulary knowledge and SRR increase in concert among students with good comprehension, whereas SRRs measured in the absence of good comprehension are less meaningful and may indicate inadequate skills or insufficient motivation to fully comprehend what is being read.

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“…The will to read influences the skill of reading and vice versa; a reciprocal relationship exists between intrinsic reading motivation and reading skill [54]. Children who frequently read fiction and are avid readers also benefit from an enriched vocabulary [37,55] and a wider knowledge of the world [10]. Additionally, several researchers highlight that the quality and degree of challenge offered by the reading materials, and the later discussion of the text, mediate the impact on reading comprehension and attainment, e.g., [56][57][58][59].…”

Section: Reading Children's Literature and Academic Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responsible Reading: Children’s Literature and Social Justice

Kohls

Cremin

2022

Education Sciences

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In high accountability cultures, primary phase literacy education tends to focus on improving children’s test scores. Driven by each country’s performance in international league tables, this results in narrow, predominantly skills-based programmes designed to address attainment gaps. While scores may have been enhanced in recent years, there is little evidence that policy directives have positioned literacy in the lives of learners in ways that have become meaningful for them or been transferred into ways of thinking that promote social equity. Indeed, teaching practices that exacerbate the challenges for those young people who are already disadvantaged by circumstance have become more prevalent. Teachers, therefore, have an ethical responsibility to redress this through their teaching. This paper argues that literature is core to more equitable literacy development. As not all reading practices are equal, developing literacy education for a more socially just society needs to challenge the dominant pedagogic hegemony. Literature has the potential to spark the kind of mindful disruption necessary to shift standardised paradigms of thought, so literacy education should have children’s literature at its heart. By examining the value of literature through a set of complementary lenses, this paper seeks to reveal its affordances in young people’s lives. Then, through commentary taken from a pair of vignettes drawn from professional learning contexts, we illuminate shifts in teacher perception gained through scaffolded introduction to reading literary texts. The insights teachers gained reveal reconceptualisation of reading and the role of literature in primary education. This has the potential to redirect their future classroom practice. Consequently, we propose that for teachers to be adept at improving literacy outcomes through productive adoption and use of literary texts, they need: an aesthetic appreciation and knowledge of children’s literature; personal experience with reading such literature as social practice; and pedagogic insight into how to use literature to teach literacy and develop volitional readers. We call this knowledge set the additive trio, noting that no ‘step’ or understanding is sufficient on its own, and that together they can enable the development of Reading Teachers who work with literature to advance the social justice agenda.

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The Inefficiency of Vocabulary Instruction

Cited by 11 publications

References 39 publications

Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?

Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?

The Interaction of Silent Reading Rate, Academic Vocabulary, and Comprehension Among Students in Grades 2–12

Responsible Reading: Children’s Literature and Social Justice

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