Case Studies & Research

Research on Vocabulary & Reading

Teaching Vocabulary
Early, direct, and sequential
by Andrew Biemiller, University of Toronto

Article Highlights:

"What is missing for many children who master phonics but don't comprehend well is vocabulary, the words they need to know in order to understand what they're reading. Thus vocabulary is the 'missing link' in reading/language instruction in our school system."

"...children acquire about 1,200 root words a year during the elementary years with perhaps half that many root words learned per year prior to grade 1.... perhaps twice that many words need to be learned."

"... large vocabulary differences are present at the end of grade 1-- amounting to more than 3,000 root words between high and low quartiles in a normative population."

"... if we could find ways of supporting more rapid vocabulary growth in the early years, more children would be able to comprehend 'grade level' texts in the upper elementary grades."

"To 'catch up,' vocabulary-disadvantaged children have to acquire vocabulary at above-average rates."

Teaching Vocabulary: Early, direct, and sequential - Research Citations

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Only a computer-aided vocabulary and reading program like WordSmart's Reading Acceleration Program can give students the repetitions, practice in context, and motivation they need to catch up in a hurry- raising reading comprehension scores while leaving teachers free to teach higher-order language skills (writing, poetry, literature, and so on).

A teacher-centered vocabulary program, though it might prevent the language gap from growing if begun system wide at an early enough age,  will neither  close the vocabulary gap that exists between today's students (a 3000 word difference between high and low 2nd graders!), nor help make up the language deficit due to TV, video games, and the Internet (15,000 words lost to the average 14 year-old since 1950 --Source: Gallup Poll, 1999).  We have a reading emergency in American schools; and workbooks and didactic instruction are just too slow.

Pilot Test Results - For Vocabulary-Based Literacy Programs