A Novel Approach for Vocabulary Development of Linguistic- and Cultural-Minority Indigenous Students

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Research in Vocabulary Development

Abstract

The children of the Indigenous communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh, are among the most illiterate in the country and at the highest risk of dropping out from schools. A research study was conducted in eight schools using classroom discussion with culturally relevant storybooks embedded with academic vocabulary words. This paper examines whether indigenous students learn targeted academic words that are explicitly taught in classrooms through discussion, argumentation, and reflection. The sample (n=1325) includes 4th-8th grade students and classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Findings from this study suggest that students who participated in classroom discussion with storybooks, on average, learned more vocabulary words. Results also indicated that students who participated more learned more words.

Author

• Maung T Nyeu, Harvard University