Running Head: VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Nowack 1

Running Head: VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Vocabulary Acquisition Across Multimodal Learning Opportunities

Samuel Nowack

Marist College

April 28, 2015

Nowack 1

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Abstract

Vocabulary acquisition is an important aspect of literacy development for students in the upper elementary school grades. To teach vocabulary acquisition, students need to have fluency practice, examples, and non examples to support their understanding of the word. To support this need, it is important to plan vocabulary instruction where students can observe, storage of linkage, and consolidate vocabulary knowledge using multimodal strategies including new literacy resources. The purpose of this project is to showcase two strategies to increasing vocabulary acquisition, the educational implications of those strategies and two lesson plans supporting the literature.

Keywords: computer-based, vocabulary instruction, vocabulary acquisition

Vocabulary Acquisition Across Multimodal Learning Opportunities

Literature Review

Mobile learning is a part of the new literacies which includes technology devices, webpages, and other non-print resources that enhance the literacy opportunity for all students. The easy access and portability of mobile learning contributes to this fast growing area in education (Rezaei et al. 2014). As the dynamics of education change from the traditional delivery system to new literacies, language acquisition and vocabulary acquisition also need to meet the demands of multimodal learning. The expansion of learning through multiple representations of media and other resources presents different challenges and strategies to teach language and vocabulary acquisition. Rezaei et al. (2014) states that mobile learning “eliminated the factor of time and place from education restrictions, since the learners can access the information and take part in their desired content as anytime and anywhere. At the same time, vocabulary instruction needs to go beyond rote memorization and drills. Learning will be more effective if learners go through (1) observation, (2) storage of linkage, and (3) consolidation (Rezaei et al. 2014).

Vocabulary acquisition can happen in two ways as described by Rezaei et al. (2014) and includes (1) incidental or “acquisition of vocabulary while doing independent listening or reading activities” (p. 75); or (2) direct or acquisition of vocabulary through direct conscious study. Many teachers use direct vocabulary interventions, specifically teaching content-specific words as they come up in the course content. Whereas, Incidental vocabulary acquisition is completed as the reader “focuses on understanding the meaning” of a text or context in which it is heard. Vocabulary is gained through picking up words from videos, songs, television and supports the ‘pleasurable acquisition’ of new language and vocabulary. Incidental and direct vocabulary acquisition both serve a purpose in acquiring new vocabulary and both can be done by including multimodal instructional opportunities in order to enhance all vocabulary.

Incidental and direct instruction of vocabulary cover the instruction context in which learning takes place, but the type of vocabulary is also important to take into account. Academic vocabulary is broken into two categories including general and discipline-specific (Nagy & Townsend, 2012). Content specific words refer to key concepts through the use of technical terms (Taboada, 2010). Where as general vocabulary are words that span across multiple content areas. For example, ninety-five 5th grade students participated in the study to research across four probes: general vocabulary, science vocabulary, student questioning, and science reading comprehension (Taboada, 2010). The results of this study indicate that general vocabulary and content-specific vocabulary were “significantly correlated with reading comprehension in the content area of science” (Taboada, 2010). Indicating that teaching both types of vocabulary is critical to developing proficiency in reading comprehension.

Taboada (2010) states for second language learners, vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension and is critical to developing good reading comprehension. When vocabulary knowledge is less developed than decoding/fluency skills comprehension decreases as the difficulty of the text increases (Taboada, 2010). While decoding and fluency skills are important components of reading and literacy instruction, vocabulary knowledge and language have a greater impact on reading comprehension as the student is able to understand what the words mean and make connections about the main idea of the whole text.

Sight-Words

Direct instruction of language and vocabulary start with the building blocks of words. Teaching students to phonetically decode words is a research-based strategy that supports fluency and access to a larger range of literacy development. Yet as Taboado (2010) stated, fluency and decoding can only take you so far. Instead of teaching phonetic-based instruction, research has been conducted for using whole-word instruction. Direct whole-word instruction may reduce frustrations with learning new words to help the students build confidence in their abilities (Yaw et al. 2011).

The following portion of the literature review highlights a strategy specific to sight-words, but one that I believe can be easily modified to be used for acquiring academic language. Using targeting sight-word interventions has shown to be effective for some students (Yaw et al. 2011). Specifically using constant time delay where the student is given the opportunity to respond, given immediate feedback which differs if the response was incorrect or correct. This also included the student repeating the word after it was heard. A computer-based sight-word reading intervention (CBSWRI) providing flash card-like sight-word training allows the student many benefits when implemented effectively. For example, “the CBSWRI involved words being displayed on a computer screen, one word at a time and students were instructed to try and ready the word before they heard a recording of the word” (Yaw et al. 2011). CBSWRI allows students to be independent and motivated in their word acquisition. Varying the wait time could hinder vocabulary acquisition as the longer the wait time the fewer trials can be conduced which can make it more difficult to learn the word as the student has less practice.

The study of CBSWRI was conducted in an elementary school with a single subject, Craig. Craig is a 12-year-old boy attending a rural elementary school in the Southeastern United States and has been diagnosed with autism (Yaw et al. 2011). Craig was given three lists of 10 Dolch sight-words using PowerPoint as the CBSWRI system. Mastery criteria includes reading the presented word correctly within 2 seconds. During the baseline for all three word lists, Craig was unable to correctly identify more than 1 word from the three lists. The intervention showed an increased ability to read the Dolch sight-words within 2s. From these results, it critical to note that sight-word reading is only functional if the student maintains the ability to read the targeted words after the intervention has been removed (Yaw et al. 2011). As there was only one subject in this study, the generalizability of the study is decreased and additional studies should be conducted utilizing more participants, or participants who are similar to Craig.

While Craig was able to quickly pick up and observe the words, there was not an opportunity for storage of linkage or consolidation (Rezaei et al. 2014). Instead, another strategy allows the vocabulary words to be observed in context providing an opportunity for students to build connections between the word and how it is defined in context.

Video Subtitles and Captions

Hsu, Hwang, Chang and Chang (2012) researched the effects of using video captions to support listening compression and vocabulary acquisition in 5th grade elementary students. Hsu et al (2012) states that “many studies have confirmed that combining captions with audio-visual materials is an effective instructional methods to enhance listening and reading comprehension” as students are able to make connections between the information they hear and the word they see. Using video as a learning resource provides students with visual, contextual, and non-verbal learning opportunity which stimulates greater understanding of language than reading alone (Hsu et al. 2012) or simply using the CBSWRI strategy.

New literacies which use mobile devices include have been labeled and defined in different ways. For example, these new literacies have been labeled as mobile learning or M-Learning (Rezaei et al. 2014) and mobile assisted language learning or MALL (Hsu et al. 2012). For the purpose of this literature review, MALL is a more apt description of how vocabulary is supported through these new literacies as vocabulary acquisition is supported by language acquisition (Nagy & Townsend, 2012).

MALL is an instructional intervention in which students have access to multiple learning opportunities both inside the classroom and in the general community utilizing mobile technology. Using MALL activities, captioned videos can be played within any setting as needed by the student. Learners pay attention to captions, video, and audio in order to acquire the words associated with the visual images (Hsu et al. 2012). Another benefit of using MALL devices, is most students are familiar with how to use and work with multiple devices.

Hsu et al (2012) conducted an experimental research study with three classes of 11-year-old students learning English as a second language in an elementary school is Taiwan. Each class was given different experimental treatments including one class as control (Hsu et al. 2012). Subjects were given a video to watch relating to the lesson where the control group did not receive any captions or subtitles, in either language; experimental group 1 received full English captions and targeted Chinese subtitles; and experimental group 2 receive target-words for English captions and Chinese subtitles. All videos contained the same content and varied the mode of caption.

Based on post-test scores of listening comprehension across the three groups, there was no significant difference between the type of captions on listening comprehension. In contract, there was a significant difference for vocabulary acquisition between the experimental groups and the control group (Hsu et al. 2012). By including captions and subtitles in any combination(full captions or target-words) the experimental groups both made significant gains in achieving proficiency with their English vocabulary acquisition. Hsu et al. (2012) found evidence to support target-word strategies have a greater effect on vocabulary acquisition over listening comprehension. I took this to mean that the students are able to learn how the word is used and defined within the context of the video or storyline. Hsu et al. (2012) also suggest against using full English subtitles because it distracted the students from listening to the material. Future studies can use longer videos as the presented videos were only 20 seconds long. For elementary school-aged students, a short video is appropriate, but for older and more advanced learners the short clips may not be.

In summary, vocabulary acquisition should be supported through developing lessons in which both direct and incidental learning opportunities are supported. Within theses opportunities, targeted academic language should be determined based on the context in which they will be taught. Learning and acquisition of new vocabularies will be more beneficial to the student if they can observe, build linkage, and consolidate their understanding using multimodal learning opportunities including face-paced word recognition as well as captioned video to support listening and reading comprehension.

Educational Implications

Vocabulary within my classroom is learning new language through pictures and sorting those pictures into different categories based on feature, function, and class. As I work with student diagnosed with severe disabilities, I rarely get to expand and apply academic language. Through this literature review key concepts kept occurring throughout each of the research studies. The first is that vocabulary acquisition is a process which needs to include time for the student to experience and use the new language is different ways. As a teacher of students with exceptional needs, this literature review highlights the importance of giving student multiple opportunities with multiple different representations of the new vocabulary. Through the implementation of new literacy resources, students have a greater opportunity to increase their vocabulary knowledge, which in turn will increase their listening and reading comprehension. The educational implications are outlined based on how I could see the presented information being used within my classroom.

With my future students, I know that I could implement the CBSWRI strategy for fluency with both sight-words and learning new vocabulary words. I think that I would change the constant time delay interval to 3s or 5s for larger words or for the students I know are ELL. What I like about this strategy is the immediate feedback as the program gives the student the support within a quick wait time. In contrast, the student has little time to struggle with the word and may just be memorizing how it looks. With younger students and sight-words, that is an appropriate strategy, but as I will be teaching 5th and 6th grades, some sight words need to be taught with their meaning. By only teaching how to recognize and read the word, the student misses out on the time to internalize the word and what it means in context. To modify this strategy I would need to include another activity that focuses on defining in context.

Yaw et al. (2011) also suggest varying the constant time delay interval to further scaffold the acquisition of sight-words. For example, using a short interval at the beginning of the intervention may increase the likelihood of the correct response earlier, then increase the delay to allow the student longer thinking time to retrieve the knowledge they have about the word. Last, decreasing again to increase fluency and automaticity of the students response. Within my classroom, I think that this suggested strategy would work better because of the needs of my students. If I were to use a 1s delay at the beginning, I could double the amount of time my student is being prompted to use and say the word. Increasing to 2s, 3s, and 4s would then allow for independency to develop and allow the student to try to beat the clock. As retrieval is a difficulty for my student, I would not reduce the time at the end, as this would frustrate her and cause her to have more difficulty retrieving the correct word from her memory. This tiered approach to CBSWRI would help my students to (1)observe the word, (2) create appropriate linkage to retrieve the word, and (3) decrease time to consolidate their application of the word.

This strategy helped to teach students to automatically read common words and can improve fluency and confidence within reading abilities. If the student is more fluent, they have a better change of comprehending the vocabulary word and text. Craig was able to learn .47 words for every minute of instruction with a total instructional time of 53.5 minutes. In that time, he was able to learn 25 words. Looking at the small amount of instructional time for Craig to develop this type of fluency is a major take away. If I were to spend 10 minutes every day on intensive vocabulary instruction that would be 50 minutes per week.

While the video and caption strategy may be based on teaching English as a second language, I can modify it to work as the process to learning new English vocabulary. In selecting the words in target, they would depend on the book choice, the video, and the general contents of the lesson. This strategy could be used before reading as a way to build knowledge, then used during reading to make more connections or linkage between the context and the definition of the vocabulary word.

Within my classroom I could use the video captions to teach a multitude of skills relating to vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary application. For example, one thing that I think would be interesting to try would to have the students make the videos themselves as a way to consolidate their understanding. For example, I would have the students read a story, write their summary and record them reading the summary. The student can then put make a short clip to showcase what they learned from the story and highlight the vocabulary words within their video as a caption.

Students need multiple opportunities to use new words and vocabulary within multiple settings and contexts. Nagy & Townsend (2012) referenced Coxhead (2000) and the Academic Word List which includes “570 most common general academic word families in college level texts across four disciplines” (p.96). For me, I would like to find this list because I would like to know what types of words I can start to use within my instructional language to help support my students access to incidental vocabulary acquisition. I would not use direct vocabulary instruction as these words may be too advanced based on the make up of the population of students within my school. While direct instruction may cause confusion and frustration, using those academic vocabulary words will still expand my student knowledge. As I move up to 5th and 6th grade using academic language is going to be more important and critical to the language and vocabulary development of my students.