34.077 - Moving Toward a Multicomponent Model of Vocabulary Learning in School

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

A variable that consistently predicts text comprehension is vocabulary. However, school instruction has had a limited influence on changing trajectories of students’ vocabulary (Farkas & Beron, 2004). One explanation for this pattern may lie in current frameworks and models of vocabulary learning, which typically fail to consider the role of multiple variables related to readers, texts, the lexicon, and the activities and context of classrooms and communities. Such models may not yet be available but several research groups are working to elaborate critical components of vocabulary learning in schools. This symposium brings together the current work of researchers from four programs of work that address individual differences of readers, text features, and instructional activities and contexts.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Vocabulary

Chair

• Elfrieda H. Hiebert, TextProject

Papers

• Factors Associated With Individual Differences in Vocabulary Acquisition - Young-Suk Kim, University of California - Irvine

• The Academic Vocabulary of Elementary-Grades Core Disciplinary Textbooks - Jeff Elmore, MetaMetrics; Jill Fitzgerald, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill; Michael F. Graves, University of Minnesota; Heather Hughes Koons, MetaMetrics; Ian F Hembry, MetaMetrics

• An Analysis of the Features of Words That Influence Vocabulary Difficulty - Elfrieda H. Hiebert, TextProject; Ruben Castaneda

• Estimating the Semantic Network of Vocabulary Created by Teacher Talk and Text Reading in a Fifth-Grade Humanities Class - Amy Elleman, Middle Tennessee State University; Donald L. Compton; Laura Steacy, Vanderbilt University; Jeff Elmore, MetaMetrics; Jill Fitzgerald, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Discussant

• Gina Cervetti, University of Michigan