The fourth of the ‘Big Six’ is vocabulary. Vocabulary development plays a fundamental role in the reading process, and contributes greatly to reading comprehension. A reader cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words mean. Students learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language.
When teaching vocabulary to students, teachers need to have students:
Vocabulary development, includes encoding word meanings and networks of meanings as both influence reading ability. The size of a reader’s vocabulary influences the number of words that can be recognised.
In addition, a knowledge of vocabulary predicts comprehension ability (Dewitz & Dewitz, 2003).
Explicitly teaching Prep students vocabulary building skills (synonyms) and sequencing through oral re-tell to improve listening comprehension.
Explicitly teaching vocabulary development when using ‘read-alouds’ to Year 2 students to improve comprehension.
Explicitly teaching Oral Language strategies to Prep students to improve literacy outcomes.
Description: A 13 year study undertaken in Victoria, examines how language continues to develop from infancy through to when children move into adolescence.
Since 2002, the Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) has been helping researchers examine how language skills develop from infancy right through to adolescence. It is the largest study of its kind anywhere in the world.
In 2002, over 1900 eight-month-old babies joined ELVS. Since then, a team of researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has been using various assessments and questionnaires to gain a better understanding of how child language develops. The team also aims to examine factors that predict language pathways, and examine how language development impacts on child emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes.
Researchers continue to collect data from the ELVS participants, in 2016 they turned 13 years old. This will provide some of the most comprehensive data ever gathered that examines how language continues to develop as children move into adolescence and settle in to secondary school.
