English Learners' Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary: Instruction Matters, but So Do Word Characteristics

• In Event: 43.076 - Learning Vocabulary in a Second Language: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities Across Levels of Development and Proficiency

Abstract

Objectives. This purpose of this research is to explore the immediate and sustained effects of an interactive shared reading intervention on the development of high-utility English content words and connectives in second-grade Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs), and to examine whether the impact of the intervention differs by word type, including cognate status and level of abstractness

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework. The intervention was informed by a large body of research on teaching individual words to English proficient students (Graves, 2016) and ELs (August et al, 2014; Lawrence, Capotosto, Branum-Martin, White, & Snow, 2012; Mancilla-Martinez, 2010; Silverman, 2007) that shows the effectiveness of direct teaching of individual word meanings that includes both contextual and definitional information, multiple exposures in varied contexts, and experiences that promote deep processing of word meanings.

Methods. The sample consisted of 424 second grade Spanish-speaking ELs in high-poverty schools in a district in the Southwest United States. Twenty-two teachers participated in the study. Within schools, teachers were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions, resulting in 12 treatment classrooms and 10 control classrooms. The intervention consisted of an 18-week shared interactive reading intervention. Each two-week unit was organized around a high-quality children’s trade book and state English language arts content standards. The intervention was designed to explicitly teach both content words and connecting words. Content words were purposefully selected to differ by cognate status and abstractness level.

Data sources. Measures and protocols used to assess vocabulary knowledge included a standardized language assessment (TOLD-P.4), and two curriculum-based measures designed to assess students’ knowledge of intervention vocabulary. A teacher questionnaire was used to collect school demographic information and teacher professional background information and a parent questionnaire was used to collect information on schooling history of the child and home language use. An observation instrument was used to assess fidelity of implementation.

Results. For all data analyses, a random intercepts model with classroom at the between level were fit using SAS. In all models, a random intercept was fit with classrooms at the cluster level. Findings on both the curriculum-based measures and on the standardized measure of oral vocabulary indicated that the intervention was effective in helping ELs acquire high-frequency, academically challenging vocabulary; that effects differed by word characteristics; and ten months after the intervention treatment students still outperformed control students on academic vocabulary learned during the intervention.
Scientific or scholarly significance. This study helps to validate a multifaceted approach that includes immersion in language-rich environments, direct instruction of individual words, instruction in word learning strategies, multimodal and playful language production opportunities, and development of word consciousness.

It expands our knowledge base related to vocabulary development in ELs in a number of ways-- the study sample was less proficient in English than most EL samples; the academic vocabulary knowledge targeted in the intervention included not only content words, but also connecting words; the study examined if the intervention functioned differently across four different content word types: concrete cognates, abstract cognates, concrete noncognates, and abstract noncognates. Finally, the study explored the immediate and sustained effects of this multifaceted vocabulary intervention.

Authors

• Diane L. August, American Institutes for Research

• Lauren Artzi, American Institutes for Research

• Christopher Daniel Barr, University of Houston

• Paola Uccelli, Harvard University