Effect of Middle School Vocabulary on Learning and Teaching

Abstract

The attempt to measure a student's vocabulary is a daunting task because every student enters the classroom with varying language experiences. Regardless, the findings of this study support that applying direct vocabulary strategies is an effective approach for working with students with learning disabilities. Still, in a morphemic approach, generalization is constrained by students' knowledge of morphemes and root meanings. Student's knowledge of morphemes includes their understanding of prefixes and suffixes. Moreover, in multi-morphemic words, word meaning and contextual understanding is not necessarily derived by simply combining the meaning of individual morpho graphs. This study produced evidence that direct instructional routines for producing the general ability to link the meaning of a prefix to a root words are effective, but there was only minimal transfer to sentence comprehension.Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Literature Review1

Models of service Delivery2

Vocabulary teaching and learning4

Evaluating the impact of SLT collaboration in relation to vocabulary learning5

Solving Mathematical Problems7

Collaboration8

Measuring teachers' knowledge and learning9

Population9

Sampling9

Research Questions10

Criteria for Selection10

Methodology10

Research Approach11

Reliability and validity12

Ethical Issues13

Independent Variable-PrefIx Instruction13

Procedure14

Pre-collaboration16

Post-collaboration16

Results16

Teacher A17

Teacher B18

Teacher C18

Discussion19

Summary22

Limitations22

References25

Effect of Middle School Vocabulary on Learning and Teaching

Introduction

Reading to learn is an essential skill for middle school students (Grades 6-8); however, reading for understanding still remains to be a challenge for many such students. Middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) are particularly vulnerable to the challenges of reading for understanding. For example, middle school students are expected to read greater amounts of information across subject areas com- pared to students in upper elementary grades; however, 21% of secondary students with LD are estimated to be at least five grade levels below their peers in reading. Finn, Rotherham, and Hokanson (2001) report that the identification of students with LD increased 44% for 12- to 17-year-olds over a 10-year period. In addition, students with LD drop out of high school at a rate 3 times more than that for normally achieving peers. Without effective instruction to facilitate access to reading for understanding, reading difficulties at the middle school level can lead to grim out- comes for students with LD.

Literature Review

Acquiring a large vocabulary is not a simple task because each student enters the classroom with different background knowledge, different word associations, and different strategies to learn new words. In general, the vocabulary learning task students face is enormous. There is increasing evidence that a limited vocabulary is a substantial obstacle to success in reading comprehension. Vocabulary is used in a variety of contexts, from understanding and using new words in conversation to expressing a specific idea. In relationship to reading, the NRP narrowed the definition of vocabulary to Oral Vocabulary, or words that are recognized in speaking or listening, and Reading Vocabulary, words that are used or recognized in print. Although it was emphasized that vocabulary in all its forms is extremely important, there are no approaches to vocabulary instruction with definitive research support (Ausubel, 1968).

Models of service Delivery

Traditional models of service delivery, based on extraction and individual therapy, while beneficial for some students, may have ...