The Importance of Vocabulary Development with ESL Students Shauna Thompson APSY 523 University of Calgary

Vocabulary knowledge is foundational to early literacy development. It provides the building blocks for learning to decode and understand text. Many children, especially English language learners, need support in order to acquire the sizeable vocabulary they will need to become good readers. Research tells us that a students' vocabulary knowledge strongly correlates with their success in reading comprehension, and is also one of the best indicators of verbal ability (August, Carlo, Dressler, & Snow, 2005; Graves, 2006). Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and first grade is also a significant predictor of reading comprehension in the junior high and high school grades. English language learners have much less exposure to the English language and begin schooling with a much smaller lexicon than their same-aged native English-speaking peers. This puts them in a position where they could be evaluated for and assigned to special education classes, even though their struggle may be a result of English-language deficits rather than academic difficulties. Macswain and Rolstad (2006) argue that English language learners continue to be over-represented in special education programs for this very reason. In this paper I will examine the potential struggles of students learning English as a Second Language if they attend school in a primarily English-speaking environment, and discuss some supportive strategies for helping these students in the classroom. The Importance of Vocabulary The importance of vocabulary is witnessed both at school and all around us every day. Since most classroom activities are verbal in nature, knowledge of words and the ability to use the classroom language are essential to success in these activities. Though reading is key to a successful academic career, it alone is not the magic key. My experience in the classroom suggests that more successful students often possess better vocabularies. However, even though many of my students can recite all of the words on a page, if they do not have a strong foundation of vocabulary they are unable to understand what they read, leaving them behind their peers with poorer reading skills but a larger vocabulary in many areas. I can fluently read the Korean Hangeul script, but with my incredibly
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limited vocabulary I am completely in the dark about what I have read - a weak vocabulary lends itself to weak reading comprehension skills. For those without the capacity for good reading comprehension, access to grade-appropriate content knowledge, entry into challenging courses in secondary school, success on the tests required for grade promotion and graduation, and entry into post-secondary education or a chosen field of employment are all much more difficult if not most unlikely. So what is vocabulary really? For our purposes here, vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. As Steven Stahl (2005) puts it, "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world" (as cited in August et al. 2005). Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered, it is something that is always expanding and deepening over the course of a lifetime. Instruction in vocabulary involves far more than memorizing a word, looking it up in a dictionary and using it in a sentence. We acquire vocabulary incidentally through indirect exposure to words (like when we chat with friends, listen to the radio, watch TV, go to school, or listen to someone read aloud) and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies. Vocabulary can be examined in terms of depth and breadth of knowledge. Knowing a word implies knowing many things about the wordits literal meaning, the different shades of the words meaning, its synonyms and antonyms, and different ways we might apply it or see it used. These various aspects are related to the depth of word knowledge, which is as important as learning many words (breadth of word knowledge). It is important to remember that when we read, every word in a paragraph neednt be understood in order to comprehend the paragraphs meaning. Skilled readers can tolerate a small proportion of unknown words in a text without disruption of comprehension and can even infer the meanings of those words from sufficiently rich contexts. However, if the proportion of

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unknown words is too high, comprehension is disrupted (Curtin, 2005) and a clear understanding is lost. Estimates of vocabulary size vary greatly in the relevant literature with no real consensus among authors. According to Graves (2006), once they begin attending school a child's reading vocabulary is likely to soar at a rate of 3,000-4,000 words a year, leading to a reading vocabulary of something like 25,000 words by the time he or she is in eighth grade, and a reading vocabulary of something like 50,000 words by the end of high school. English Language Learners and Vocabulary Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict the vocabulary children learn before beginning school and make attaining an adequate vocabulary a challenging task. Disadvantaged students are likely to have substantially smaller vocabularies than their more advantaged classmates (Graves, 2006). This effect is mirrored with ESL students, even when they come from families of average socio-economic status. Due to a decreased exposure to the English language, a lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor underlying the school failure or special education involvement for disadvantaged and ESL students. In 2006, the English as a Second Language (ESL) student population in Alberta alone was estimated to be over 39,000 (Howard Research and Management Consulting Inc., 2009), a number expected to rise 14% annually. Census information shows that in our province, new arrivals settle predominantly in Calgary (58%) and in Edmonton (29%), with the remainder scattered throughout the province. In most schools in Alberta the bulk of teaching and school interactions occur in English. As a result, students who are less-than-proficient in speaking, reading and writing English are at a high level of risk for learning problems. According to Statistics Canada, Canadians reported more than 200 different mother-tongue languages in the 2006 Census. We can see from these numbers that this issue very much relates to students in our schools today and in the future.

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In comparison to children who speak English in their homes (when addressing our situation in Alberta), minority children from homes in which the primary language spoken is not English are often at a disadvantage with respect to their English language development (particularly in vocabulary development). By definition since they do not speak English as their primary language in the home or in their daily lives, ESL students begin to be exposed to vocabulary in English at a later age than English-speaking peers. They are also less likely to be exposed to extensive English oral language experiences at home and in their communities, and therefore their English vocabulary development may be affected by their lack of opportunity. As well, ESL students are less likely than English native speakers to increase their vocabulary knowledge through incidental learning and reading (Proctor, Carlo, August, &and Snow, 2005), requiring more direct intervention and instruction to be successful in this area. Previous research with adults and adolescents indicates that English Language Learners (ELLs) know fewer English vocabulary words than native English speakers. Fluent first-language readers have large recognition vocabularies. Some research suggests that second-language learners need approximately the same number or words in their vocabulary to read at a level comparable to their peers (Goulden, Nation, & Read, 1990). Second-language learners have been shown to have a superficial understanding of vocabulary words, even those that are frequently occurring (Verhallen & Schoonen, 1993, cited in August et al., 2005). It is important that students are taught a depth and breadth of understanding for vocabulary words. In most cases, it takes an ESL student as long as five to seven years to perform as well academically as native English-speaking peers (Drucker, 2003). English language learners also perform more poorly on standardized testing. For example, fourth-grade performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test in the United States shows a 2229 point scaled score advantage for children living in homes where a language other than English was never used, compared with children who lived in homes where a

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language other than English was always used (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). English language learners who experience slow vocabulary development are less able to comprehend text at grade level than their monolingual English-speaking peers. As a result, they may be at risk of being diagnosed as learning disabled when in fact their difficulties could be due to their limited English vocabulary and the resulting poor level of comprehension and understanding, rather than a specific learning disability. Support For ESL Students in the School Possessing a strong, varied, age and grade-appropriate English vocabulary is one of the most crucial tasks for English learners. As noted by Graves (2006), the critical importance of vocabulary for later learning, the volume of words that children need to learn, and the vocabulary deficit faced by some children all argue for creating comprehensive and robust vocabulary programs that are multifaceted and long-term, and can help all students to develop the vocabularies they will need to succeed in school and later in life. In our classrooms we regularly have students of every level of proficiency: those who speak English as their first language with relatively small vocabularies; ESL students with small English vocabularies; others with average vocabularies; still others with rich and varied vocabularies. Vocabulary instruction benefits students at all levels. Recent research underscores students need for and use of a variety of approaches to language learning. Teacher intervention needs to be varied in order to address student learning needs and learning styles. When considering all thats involved in learning the meaning of a word along with the huge number of words students need to know, its good to know that students vocabularies develop through a variety of channels. They learn words when others in the know explicitly tell them the meanings (like a parent, teacher, or knowledgeable peer), through the context of what they see, hear and read. They also learn through what they experience in their lives, like playing with friends, watching TV, chatting on the bus, discussion in Science class, and talking around the dinner table. To
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this end, instruction should also be varied and interactive with new words and meanings presented across a variety of situations and classroom environments (Drucker, 2003). One strategy is for teachers to take advantage of the students first language if it shares cognates with English. Cognates are words that are spelled similarly and have similar meanings across languages. The majority of research I discovered in this area was with Spanish-English learners, where there are many words that share common roots and meanings. Cognates occur commonly in the research specifically relating Spanish (and other Latin-based languages) to English. Studies have shown that more proficient Spanish-speaking English readers recognize more cognates than their lessproficient peers and use this knowledge to infer English word meanings, making them more independently successful in their vocabulary development (Proctor, Carlo, August & Snow, 2005). In Canada we have a more varied and diverse student-population, and I am unaware as to whether or not this strategy would be easy to apply in a typical Canadian classroom. In my current position I rely on cognates and cross-language word pairing often, as the characters of the native language sound very similar to the English alphabet, and there are many shared words and sounds. My young students are able to point out words when I read them aloud if they are similar to words in their first language. While I agree that this strategy is useful in some situations, I believe its overall practicality or usefulness is potentially limited in others . The learning environment should be full of opportunities for promoting incidental and intentional word learning, and should motivate students to be active participants in their own vocabulary acquisition and development. The classroom learning environment should be a rich one in which children's opportunities to read, hear, use, and talk about new vocabulary are many and varied. These environments should include books and other reading materials on a variety of topics appropriate for a variety of reading levels. Books containing rich, engaging vocabulary should be read aloud with students, and the teacher should spend time discussing the new words encountered in these

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selections and reviewing them in later lessons. Explicit instruction must go beyond the superficial definitional knowledge to ensure students are actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating word relationships. Teachers should reinforce new vocabulary in classroom discussions and design instruction to promote students' use of new vocabulary as they speak and write. Teachers should also model the use of new and sophisticated words and, along with their students, create a classroom environment filled with curiosity and excitement about language, and opportunities to have fun with words (Curtin, 2005). These elements of a language- and word-rich environment promote both incidental and intentional word learning and, importantly, motivate students to develop new word knowledge on their own. It is supported throughout the literature that vocabulary instruction for ESL students should, at least in part, provide explicit instruction of relatively basic English vocabulary. Though they may seem to function well socially in the classroom or with peers, they may not have the same level of skill in their academic vocabulary. It is crucial that teachers ensure that students learning English actually know the meanings of basic vocabulary words. Ensure a regular evaluation of the depth and breadth of the students basic vocabulary knowledge (Carlo et al. 2004). According to the results of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's National Reading Panel (2000), explicit vocabulary instruction is highly effective and can improve reading comprehension for all students in the classroom. Though they present no specific method as a 'best practice' for explicit vocabulary instruction, the National Reading Panel suggests using a variety of direct and incidental methods of vocabulary instruction to help students be most successful learning and understanding new vocabulary. There are more words to be learned than can be directly taught in even the most ambitious program of vocabulary instruction. With the limited amount of classroom time available for direct instruction in vocabulary, it is necessary to use an approach that helps students build a solid

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foundation, as well as gives them the tools to investigate new words and meanings independently. Explicit instruction incorporates modeling and identifies the strategies and skills a student could use in the context of reading and writing. In addition it is necessary to provide instruction in indirect strategies for inferring the meanings of newly encountered, unfamiliar words. Overt vocabulary instruction (e.g. word, definition, use in a sentence) is best combined with explicit instruction in word-learning strategies; this gives students tools for independently determining the meanings of unfamiliar words that have not been taught in class (Graves, 2006) they may become aware of through schoolwork, a place of employment, and in other areas of life. When encountering an unknown word, the student can examine the context for general clues; they might look at the structure and makeup of the word itself in order to infer the meanings of words composed of the specific elements. Independent (indirect) strategies include using contextual cues, morphological information, and cognate knowledge, as well as using aids such as dictionaries and glossaries. Teaching prefixes, suffixes, and roots that can be combined to make new word forms encourages students to investigate the meaning and origins or new words when reading. Aside from teaching students to deconstruct and analyze individual words to find their meanings, it is also important to teach students to ask for help in the classroom when they don't know a word, as well as how to successfully use outside references materials such as a dictionary, thesaurus or credible sources on the internet to investigate new words and ideas when they read. Finally, though the Howard Research (2009) literature review for Alberta Education sets forward several recommendations on approaches to improve vocabulary acquisition in native-English speakers, they also cite the strategies as best practice approaches for ESL learners. Various approaches have been found to improve vocabulary acquisition in first-language English learning contexts including computer use (Davidson, Elcock & Noyes, 1996), incidental exposure (Schwabenflugel, Stahl & McFall, 1997) repeated exposure (Senechal, 1997), pre-instruction (Brett, Rothlein, &
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Hurly, 1996) and direct instruction (Tomesen & Aarnouste, 1998). The use of these approaches and others for enhancing vocabulary comprehension are recognized as best practice approaches for all early language learners (e.g., National Reading Panel, 2000) and for ESL learners in particular (Hernandez, 2003; Perez & Torres-Guzman, 1996). As readers of this paper may be involved in a school psychology program I thought it would be of value to include a few things to consider when evaluating an ESL student who is not proficient in English. A number of things are very important to keep in mind to ensure that the student is given a fair and culturally-sensitive assessment. It is necessary to choose appropriate assessment tools, including ones that are available in the students home-language when possible (with the services of an interpreter if it is not). It is important to use a variety of assessment techniques and to ensure consistency throughout the assessment, particularly within schools and divisions to ensure fair treatment of students (Howard Research, 2009). When it comes to choosing appropriate assessments, best practice recommendations include ensuring assessments are thorough, encompassing vocabulary recall, conversational skills, oral reading, and a written language sample. Assessments should represent problems likely encountered in real world settings, and observation should be ongoing across setting where possible. Finally, it is always necessary to ensure that the assessment is carried out by a capable professional who is trained in ESL assessment, preferably with experience in the students first-language. Conclusion With decreases in educational funding more and more students are being returned to the mainstream classroom, teachers have to meet the needs of an ever-growing population of students in the inclusive classroom setting. Additional research is certainly required to evaluate the long-term effects of vocabulary instructions in school so a best-practice model could be put forward for vocabulary instruction both in a mainstream classroom and in ESL settings. It would be highly
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beneficial as well if teacher training programs better prepared teachers for the diverse needs of ESL students in inclusive classrooms. It seems to me that by designing a classroom environment that is linguistically rich for all students, much of the work in addressing the needs of ESL students would be addressed, save for evaluation of requirements that may be specific to each individual. Kubota (2006, as cited in Howard Research & Management Consulting) warns not to get carried away with current popular methods of ESL instruction, or in accepting them as a panacea or cure-all to be all and do all for everyone, as it could lead to the painting of all students with the same brush, and the neglect of the specific needs of students. In the best interest of each student, teachers must remain flexible in using various approaches so that can be responsive to the cultural, linguistic, and educational needs of each individual.

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References Anglin, J. M. (1993). Vocabulary Development: A Morphological Analysis. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(10), Serial No. 238. August, D., Carlo, M., Dressler, C., & Snow, C. (2005). The critical role of vocabulary development for English language learners. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 20, 5057. Blachowicz, C.L.Z., Fisher, P.J.L., Ogle, D., & Watts-Taffe, S. (2006). Vocabulary: Questions from the classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 524-539. Carlo, M.S., August, D., McLaughlin, B., Snow, C.E., Dressler, C., Lippman, D.N., et al. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English-language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 188215. Curtin, E. (2005). Teaching practices for ESL students. Multicultural Education. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-130276337/teaching-practices-eslstudents.html Drucker, M.J. (2003). What reading teachers should know about ESL learners. The Reading Teacher, 57, 22-29. Graves, M. F. (2006). Building a comprehensive vocabulary program. The New England Reading Association Journal, 42(2), 1-7. Howard Research & Management Consulting (2009). Kindergarten to Grade 12 English as a Second Language: Literature Review Update. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://education.alberta.ca/media/1182477/esl_lit_review.pdf National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( 2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Reports of the subgroup. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office Proctor, C. P., Carlo, M., August, D, & Snow, C. (2005). Native Spanish-speaking children reading in English: Towards a model of comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(2), 246-56. Statistics Canada (2005). Population Projections of Visible Minority Groups, Canada, provinces and regions, 2001-2017. Catalogue Number 91-541-XIE. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-541-x/91-541-x2005001-eng.pdf

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