Considerations for Practice
Academic word knowledge has the potential to increase access to academic texts for all students, and especially for ELLs. This study suggested that the games and activities used are effective approaches for building academic word knowledge among adolescent ELLs. The games were, by far, the most engaging part of the intervention, and they were an essential draw to the program for students who would not have been easily convinced of the immediate value of learning words like factor, variable, and consistent. However, Language Workshop was more than just games. A combination of direct instruction, reading of expository texts, instructional activities, and games were used at every session. The instructional integrity of the games Tag Heuer Replica was based on the larger instructional context in which they were used and on research-based principles of vocabulary instruction. For ELLs, visual support and extra practice are also essential. The games described here were part of the Language Workshop program because they allowed for these principles to be put into practice in very engaging ways. For example, the Picture Puzzlers began the fast-mapping process (Carey & Bartlett, 1978), the first part of incremental word learning, which subsequent matching games built upon. Academic Taboo and Pictionades prompted students to generate new connections between the target words and their background knowledge. The Dice Games and Action Jeopardy! encouraged students to work in teams to make decisions about how to represent and explain words. The Music Puzzlers and Gallery Walk preparation encouraged students to personalize word meanings. And words were revisited repeatedly throughout the 20 sessions, allowing for the extra practice that ELLs need in learning new vocabulary.
The primary focus of Language Workshop was to build enduring understanding of academic vocabulary words. However, future research in this area, and improvements in Language Workshop, should include delayed posttesting to examine whether students’ learning endured as well as the goal of helping students understand the power they gain when they build word knowledge and language awareness. For now, this study provides evidence that middle school ELLs, who generally demonstrate smaller vocabularies (Geva, Yaghoub-Zadeh, & Schuster, 2000) and more difficulties in academic English than some of their NS peers (Corson, 1997), can successfully build academic word knowledge.
All of these activities have the potential to be adapted to other academic words and to the content areas. They can be used as introductory activities, or as review activities. These activities put students in charge of Tag Heuer Replica Watches making connections between words and applying them in new contexts. Stahl (2005) asserted, “Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world” (p. 95). Activities such as the ones referenced in this article have real potential to help students build that knowledge, while having a little fun in the process. Finally! The opportunities for collaboration with peers meet an essential need of adolescents as they learn to navigate the social world and determine their own roles within it.
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