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3Academic and Domain-Specific Vocabulary
u Because the range of vocabulary in text grows rapidly after third grade (Anderson & Nagy, 1992), students must continue to expand their knowledge of word meanings in order to construct the meaning of what they are reading. Vocabulary and verbal knowledge play increasingly important roles in supporting reading comprehension as students move from elementary to middle to high school (Schatschneider et al., 2004) (Torgesen et al., 2007, p.7).
u Academic language is “one of the terms. . . used to refer to the form of language expected in contexts such as the exposition of topics in the school curriculum, making arguments, defending propositions, and synthesizing information” (Snow, 2010, p. 450).
u Research shows there is a strong and apparently reciprocal relationship between reading comprehension and knowledge of both conversational and academic vocabulary (Baumann, Kame’enui, & Ash, 2003; Duke & Pearson, 2002; Gersten et al., 2001; NICHD, 2000; Peterson, Caverly, Nicholson, O’Neal, & Cusenbary, 2000; Pressley, 2000).
u “Numerous studies have documented the positive impact of direct, explicit vocabulary instruction on both immediate word learning and longer-term reading comprehension (Baker et al., 1995; Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Biemiller, 2004; Marzano, 2004)” (Feldman & Kinsella, 2005, p. 5).
u “Stahl and Fairbanks (1986) found that vocabulary instruction providing both definitional and contextual information can significantly improve students’ reading comprehension” (Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn, 2000).
u Repetition and multiple exposures to new words are crucial to vocabulary development (National Reading Panel, 2000; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2002; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).
u Learning the spellings of new vocabulary words helps students remember their pronunciations and meanings. Spelling is an especially important part of vocabulary learning for English language learners (Ehri & Rosenthal, 2007).
u Research shows that morphological awareness contributes to vocabulary growth(Boardman et al., 2008; Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006). For every word known, a reader who can apply morphology and context should be able to understand as many as three more words (Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006).
RESEARCH & EXPERT OPINION
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