The Effect of Vocabulary Intervention on Text Comprehension: Who Benefits?

Science Vocabulary and Science Achievement of Children With Language/Literacy Disorders and Typical Language Development

PURPOSE

This study examined science achievement; science vocabulary knowledge; and the relationship between science vocabulary, language skills, and science achievement in school-age children with language/literacy disorders (LLDs) and typical language development (TD).

METHOD

Thirty-nine sixth graders (11 with LLDs) completed standardized assessments and researcher-designed science vocabulary measures over Zoom. Scores for the AIMS Science, a standardized science assessment administered to all fourth-grade public-school students in Arizona, served as the outcome measure for science achievement. Linear regression analyses were performed to examine the relationships among science achievement, general language skills, and science vocabulary knowledge. Group comparisons (TD vs. LLD) were also completed for science achievement and science vocabulary measures.

RESULTS

General language skills, science vocabulary breadth, and science vocabulary definition scores uniquely predicted science achievement, as measured by AIMS Science scores. General language skills predicted performance on the science vocabulary breadth and definition tasks. Participants with LLDs scored significantly lower on science achievement and vocabulary measures relative to their peers with TD.

CONCLUSIONS

Students with LLDs demonstrated poorer science achievement outcomes and more limited knowledge of science vocabulary breadth and semantic depth. Greater science vocabulary knowledge was associated with higher science test scores for children with LLDs and TD. These findings indicate that increasing science vocabulary knowledge may improve science achievement outcomes for students with LLDs or TD.

Predictors of literacy in adulthood: Evidence from 33 countries

What makes a literate person? What leads to literacy gains and losses within and between individuals and countries? This paper provides new evidence that helps answer these questions. The present comparative analysis of literacy is based on large representative samples from the Survey of Adult Skills conducted in 33 countries, with 25-65 year old participants. We provide, for the first time, estimates of relative importance for a comprehensive set of experiential factors, motivations, incentives, parental influence, demands of workplace, and other predictors of influence. We sketch a configuration of factors that predicts an "ideal" reader, i.e., the optimal literacy performance. Moreover, we discover a pivotal role of the age effect in predicting variability between countries. Countries with the highest literacy scores are the ones where literacy decreases with age the most strongly. We discuss this finding against current accounts of aging effects, cohort effects and others. Finally, we provide methodological recommendations for experimental studies of aging in cognitive tasks like reading.

Prologue to the Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades

Purpose This prologue introduces the LSHSS Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades. The goals of the forum are to provide an overview of the importance of vocabulary to literacy and academic achievement, to review evidence regarding best practices for vocabulary instruction, and to highlight recent research related to word learning with students across different grade levels. Method The prologue provides a foundational overview of vocabulary's role in literacy and introduces the topics of the other ten articles in the forum. These include clinical focus articles, research reviews, and word-learning and vocabulary intervention studies involving students in elementary grades through college. Conclusion Children with language and reading disorders experience specific challenges learning new words, but all students can benefit from high-quality vocabulary instruction. The articles in this issue highlight the characteristics of evidence-based vocabulary interventions for children of different ages, ability levels, and language backgrounds and provide numerous examples of intervention activities that can be modified for use in individual, small-group, or large-group instructional settings.

Has Vocabulary Intervention Had an Effect? A Valid, Reliable, and (Fairly) Quick Outcome Measure for Semantic Knowledge

Purpose

Vocabulary intervention should be guided by information from outcome measures that demonstrate whether the student has grown in depth or breadth of understanding of the taught words. However, there is a paucity of tools, to measure depth of vocabulary knowledge, that are available for clinical use.

Method

The challenges of vocabulary measurement are summarized. A procedure to assess semantic knowledge of specific words, both before and after treatment, is outlined: 5 yes/no questions that use the target word in different contexts ( Stallman et al., 1995 ), and definitions, scored on a 5-point scale ( Duff, 2019 ). These combined measures evaluate word knowledge along a wide continuum of semantic knowledge.

Results

Evidence for the validity and reliability of these measures, as well as sensitivity to treatment effects, is reviewed, and implementation resources are provided for clinicians.

Conclusion

This protocol can be used by clinicians to evaluate the effectiveness of vocabulary treatment by comparing a child's semantic knowledge of specific words before and after treatment.