Incidental Acquisition of Domain-Specific Vocabulary in Student-Centered and Teacher-Led Discussions

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Positioning Teachers for Innovations in Literacy Learning (Table 34)

Abstract

The study investigated factors contributing to incidental learning of domain-specific vocabulary (DSV) in the context of teacher-centered and student-centered discussions. A total of 284 fifth graders came crossed 60 domain-specific vocabulary (DSV) words during recurrent discussion. A Bayesian logistic regression with crossed random effects found no difference in DSV use in the essay between the student-centered and teacher-led groups. Students were much more likely to produce DSV in the essay if they actively used the words or heard peers use them in discussion. The potency of self-use and peer modeling further reduced the effect of word familiarity on DSV use in the essay. The evidence supports the benefit of discussion to promote incidental vocabulary learning.

Authors

• Pei-Yu Marian Pan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Shufeng Ma, East China Normal University

• Richard C. Anderson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign