Discourse Differences: Teacher Impact on Students’ Science Vocabulary Development

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Academic Language in Content Literacy Classrooms

Abstract

In early childhood classrooms, the effects of teacher facilitation are inextricable from children’s language development (Dickinson & Sprague, 2001). Although vocabulary knowledge is critical for young children to explain conceptual understanding, science vocabulary words are not currently taught in the lower grades with the intensity devoted to word-level reading skills (Silverman, 2007; Spycher, 2009). Students of all socioeconomic levels are more likely to learn science vocabulary and concepts from their teachers than their families (Torr & Scott, 2006), heightening the need for explicit, effective science vocabulary instruction in the lower grades. The purpose of this research is to explore the distinctly different discourse interactions between two teachers and their students during a successful multimodal science vocabulary intervention.

Authors

• Allison Ward- Parsons, George Mason University

• Rebecca Caufman, George Mason University