1 Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, 6 th International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand November 2006 Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction

2Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, 6 th International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand November 2006

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Research-Based Strategies for Teaching Meaning

Vocabulary

Chulalongkorn University Language Institute’s 6th

International ConferenceBangkok, Thailand

November, 2006







The essence of Meaning Vocabulary Instruction:

1. Helping students learn new concepts or things and the words that signify those things.

2. Helping students learn new words for concepts and things they already know.




Some Definitions




The Word things

The essence of all teaching is teaching the things of the world: i.e.,

• Objects: cells or hieroglyphics,

• Feelings: remorse or empathy,

• Actions: revolutions or osmosis, &

• Ideas: mass or equity.







Why Teach Meaning Vocabulary—i.e.,

Things & Words?




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Reason 1 For Teaching Things & Words

Learning new things and their words changes or increases our perception

and organization of the world




Linus Pauling

If I couldn’t find a place in my mind for some new thing, I would change my picture of the world until I understood where it fit. Or I would throw it out and come back to it later.





Reading comprehension mandates knowing the meaning (thing)

associated with words in the text




Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy

• 1066• 1492• The Alamo• birthday suit• boat people• Neils Boer• buck stops here• bull market

• Mt. Everest• the prodigal son• Thomas Jefferson• Achilles’ heel• Geronimo• Adolph Hitler• Battle of Bull Run• bowdlerize




When students do not know meanings of words used in a written text, comprehension often decreases.

• Jenkins, Stein, & Wysocki, 1984

• Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985

• Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986

• Wittrock, Marks, & Doctorow, 1975

• Graves, 1984







Well Elmo, Authors Use Many Different Words to Say Similar Thing

• Because of the speedy reply, we

made a quick decision.• Because of the speedy reply, we

made a hasty decision• The waiter was prompt in giving us

our check.• The clerk expeditiously processed

my registration.





Learning new things and words facilitates students’ abilities to use words judiciously— which is much

valued in our society







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Four Goals of TeachingThings & Words

1 Facilitate student’s innate curiosity about things & words and joy in learning them by:

a. increasing word consciousness

b. providing ongoing fun activities about words




2 Directly teach students those things & words necessary for school and learning

3 Develop students’ skills and strategies for lifelong learning of things & words




4 Encourage reading—almost any kind of reading—including comics




Goal 1

The first goal is to reinforce the idea that learning new things (new ideas, new objects, new actions, and new feelings) is natural, interesting and stimulating—indeed, usually fun.




• Increasing students’ word consciousness

– Sightings of hard words

– Hard words you recently saw

• Provide ongoing fun activities about words

– Puns, games, derivations of words

– Comics, comic strips




Sample of Hard Words I Have Seen in Comics Last Six Weeks

Miasma

Vanquished

Appeasement

Pike

Bindle

Counsels

Gullible

Venue

Implicate

Heinous

Skullduggery

Nefarious

Cabal

Loiter

Discharged

Diligent


















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Use the Internet

Hundreds of Websites for word references and word fun.




Miriam-Webster Online

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm




But . . .

• Infract

• Infringe

• Encroach

• Enter by stealth




OneLook.com

http://www.onelook.com

http://www.onelook.com/




Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online

E-mail: [email protected]

Password: readingclinic

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online

mailto:[email protected]




Word A Day from Wordsmithcalvity (KAL-vi-ti)

Baldness [From Latin calvities (baldness), from calv-us (bald).]

“He wore his own hair—what there was left of it: short tight curls round a shining calvity, though he was in his thirties.

Patrick O’Brian: Post Captain; W. W. Norton, 1990

[email protected]




Goal 2. Direct Teaching of Meanings of Specific Words

THINK!

Are you teaching a new word for an old thing, or teaching a new thing, to

which you will also attach a word?




Production KnowledgeWord and Thing are Used in Speech or Writing: e.g.,

toe

Recognition KnowledgeWord and Thing are

Comprehended in Listening and Reading, but are not used in Speaking and Writing: e.g.,

shrift (as in “short shrift”)

Organized Prior Knowledge

Thing Known and Organized in Schema, but

not activated by Oral/Written Word and may be Communicated

only by Description: e.g., philtrum

Unorganized Knowledge (Trivia)

Fragmented Knowledge of Thing that Cannot be Recalled without External Prompt, but is Capable of Incorporation into Schema: e.g., cadenza

Immediately Learnable Knowledge

Thing Not Known, but have Sufficient Prior Knowledge to

Conceptualize Thing with Verbal or Graphic

Descriptions or Definitions:e.g., pentimento

Potentially Learnable Knowledge

Thing Not Known and Cannot Be Learned with Current Prior

Knowledge, Additional Learning is Required before

Thing May Be Learned : e.g.,kurtosis




Selecting Words to Teach

• Beck, McKeown, & Kucan Tier 1, 2 & 3 Words– Tier 1—easy words that are part of everyday

speaking (do not teach)– Tier 2—high frequency for mature language

users and found across variety of domains: e.g., coincidence, absurd, fortunate

– Tier 3—low frequency words with specific meanings, often technical: e.g., isotope, lathe, refinery




Direct Teaching of Words—RINS

1. Define the thing’s Relevant attributes

2. State its Irrelevant attributes

3. State Non-examples

4. Determine its relation to Similar concepts




Example: estuary1. Relevant attributes: body of brackish

water, where the river meets the sea, home to diverse marine life

2. Irrelevant attributes: size, location (which ocean)

3. Non-examples: lake, stream, reservoir

4. Relation to similar concepts: relation to delta, bay, wildlife refuge


CategoryWhat is it? Properties

What is it like?

Comparisons

IllustrationsWhat are some Examples?

Basic Concept of Definition (CD) Map

climate

CategoryWhat is it?

less than 25 cm. of rainfall

no cloud cover;winds dry land

heat radiates into dry air at night

desertrain

forest

Mojave Gobi Sahara

PropertiesWhat is it like?

Comparisons


Completed Concept Map for Desert

geography

CategoryWhat is it?

ring-shaped island

made of coral

nearly / totally encircles a lagoon

atollislands

Bikini Midway Palmyra

PropertiesWhat is it like?

Comparisons


Completed Concept Map for Atoll

Word or Concept

Category

Properties

Examples

Comparisons

Concept Definition

Vocabulary Word

Derivation

SynonymsAntonyms

Sentences

Learning and Using Word Meanings




Goal 3

Helping students develop life-long strategies for things and the words that signify them.




1. Teaching roots and affixes

2. Teaching dictionary skills

3. Teaching context clues




1. Direct Teaching of Roots and Affixes

• Latin and Greek roots and affixes are the building blocks of many multi-syllabic words

• Knowledge of common root and affix patterns and meanings facilitates word recognition

• This knowledge can improve overall reading comprehension




Direct Teaching of Dictionary Skills

• Students will always need to know how to use paper dictionaries, but – Internet-based dictionaries,– dictionaries on CD-ROM (including

CoBuild), – hand-held electronic dictionaries




3. Context for Word Meaning




Our CVA Research

Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition: A Computational Theory and Educational

Curriculum

A Pilot Research Project Supported byNSF Grant # REC-0106338

William J. Rapaport Michael W. KibbyCo-Principal Investigators

University at Buffalo




What is CVA?

CVA for short, is the active, deliberate acquisition of word

meanings from text.




CVA Results From

• the meaning gained from the text,

• focus given to the hard word(s)

• connection made between text meaning and prior knowledge,

• reasoning used to hypothesize a word’s meaning, and

• assessment of confidence in the hypothesized meaning




Why CVA is important?

• “Skipping” an unknown word in text does not always result in missed comprehension, but it often does.

• Skipping unknown words is a missed opportunity to learn new words.




Excellent 17-18 Year Old Readers Think Aloud During CVA

• Sets of 5-17 texts, each text using same hard word

• Consecutively read each text of a set• Thought aloud when encountering hard

word in each text• Stated hypothesized meaning (abduction)• Recorded and transcribed verbal protocol• Coded verbal protocol




Summary of Our Research Findings




Context is better for helping readers learn

words they DO NOT know for things they do know

then for things and words they DO NOT

know




Context is much less helpful in situations where readers

must learn both a new concept/thing and the word

that signifies that thing




For Nouns, Excellent Readers Used 9 Analytical Processes—But

Not Consistently in this Order 1. Language clues: i.e., traditional context

clues, when available

a. Familiar expressions

b. Connected series

c. Morphological

2. Previous encounters with the word

a. Pre-think aloud

b. Previous passages




CVA Processes observed continued

3. Global (reading comprehension strategies)

a. Visualizingb. Summarizingc. Clarifyingd. Self-questioninge. Insightf. Confirming-confidence





4. Selective encoding—separate relevant and irrelevant information

5. Selective combination—combine relevant information, but not with prior knowledge

6. Recall background knowledge—but not linking it explicitly to the text

7. Selective comparison—combine text information & prior knowledge





8. Abstract reasoning

a. Properties of hard word

b. Function of hard word

c. Comparison-contrast





9. Hypothesisa. First hypothesis (first text)

i. State first hypothesisii. Test hypothesis

b. Prior hypotheses (due to method)a. Confirms b. Revisesc. Questions




Teaching CVA Strategies




Goals of a CVA Curriculum

1. Improve reading comprehension

2. Develop word consciousness

3. Increase meaning vocabulary

4. Increase confidence rating of hypotheses

5. Increase interest in words and motivation to learn more of them




The Four Major CVA Strategies

1. Focus attention on hard words

2. Gather data and information

3. Generate a hypothesized meaning

4. Test hypothesized meaning




1. Focus attention on hard word

1. Note there is a hard word

2. Got an intuitive (automatic) hunch or synonym? Test it!

3. Is text considerate: i.e., are there traditional context clues?




2. Gather data and information

1. Reread sentence carefully

2. Try to think of a synonym to fit

3. Determine hard word’s part of speech




2. Gather data and information continued

4. Summarize relevant text meaning to this point

a. Separate relevant from irrelevant text information (Sternberg’s selective encoding)

b. Combine relevant text cues (Sternberg’s selective combination)





5. Are there other words in text that might be linked to hard word?

6. Activate prior knowledge—think how your knowledge relates to hard word

7. Connect prior knowledge & relevant text meaning (Sternberg’s selective comparison)





8. (Reaction—imagine yourself in this section of the text)




3. Generate hypothesized meaning 1. Reword—reconstruct sentence so

hard word is the subject2. Visualize the meaning of the text3. Reasoning—combine text meaning &

prior knowledge (& reaction)a. Noun reasoning strategiesb. Adjective reasoning strategiesc. Verb reasoning strategies




3. Generate a hypothesized meaning continued

4. Hypothesize—state a hypothesized meaning for hard word




4. Test hypothesis

1. Replace the hard word with your hypothesized meaning

2. Confirm / reject your hypothesized meaning

a. If sentence makes sense, continue

b. If sentence does not make sense, start over or . . .




Major Instructional Stages and Teaching Strategies

1. Modeling through think-alouds

2. Scaffolding student think-alouds

3. Peer group application of CVA

4. Independent application of CVA— including written think-alouds




Do Not Model CVA With Words Whose Meanings are Known!

• The missing aglet made the task difficult.

• The missing aglet made threading the shoelace difficult.

• The missing aglet meant the shoelace had become frayed, so it was difficult to thread.




Example—perhaps ?

• In a chapter on golf in a book on Scotland

– The combination of hitting for distance with the final nicety of approach to an exiguous mark

(ex zig’ you us)




Words for CVA Teacher Modeling & Student Scaffolding

• Teacher modeling —words whose meanings I do not know– importunate– execrable– bastions

• Scaffolding student CVA think aloud

– lachrymose

– risible

– hummock




Words for Peer Group and Independent Application

• Peer Group

– trig

– tatterdemalion

• Independent

– bartizan

– hie

– vet




Goal 4. Encouraging Leisure Reading

WIDE READING




“One of the most powerful things we can do to increase students’ vocabulary is to encourage them to read as widely as possible.”

Steven A. Stahl, 1999




Questions, Comments, Criticisms




For more information, visit

• www.cse.Buffalo.EDU/~rapaport/cva.html

• Write to us care of:Center for Literacy and Reading

Instruction17 Baldy Hall, University at Buffalo

Buffalo, NY [email protected]

Documents

1 Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, 6 th International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand November 2006 Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction