Word Knowledge and Comprehension Effects of an Academic Vocabulary Intervention for Middle School Students. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McKeown, Margaret G.; Crosson, Amy C.; Moore, Debra W.; Beck, Isabel L.
• Is Part Of: American educational research journal. Volume 55:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 572
• Page End: 616
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: vocabulary -- reading comprehension -- classroom interventions; Education -- United States -- Periodicals; Education -- Research -- United States -- Periodicals; 370.97305
• DOI: 10.3102/0002831217744181
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-8312

Abstract

This article presents findings from an intervention across sixth and seventh grades to teach academic words to middle school students. The goals included investigating a progression of outcomes from word knowledge to comprehension and investigating the processes students use in establishing word meaning. Participants in Year 1 were two sixth-grade reading teachers and 105 students (treatment n = 62; control n = 43) and in Year 2, one seventh-grade reading teacher and 87 students (treatment n = 44; control n = 43) from the same public school. In both years, results favored instructed students in word knowledge, lexical access, and morphological awareness on researcher-designed measures. In Year 2, small advances were also found for comprehension. Transcripts of lessons shed light on processes of developing representations of unfamiliar words.