Text Analysis and Direct Vocabulary

Instruction

Katherine Stocking & Germán Suárez

SETESOL 2009

What percentage of words in a text do students need to know for

adequate comprehension?

75%?

Most people XXXXX of western XXXXXXXs as XXXXXXing in covered XXXXXs. However, many families XXXXXXed XXXX the Ohio River on flatXXXXs. A flatXXXX was a huge XXXX made of XXXXX planks. All of the XXXXXX’s possessions were loaded onto the flatXXXX. This included their farm XXXXXXs, which were tied to the rear of the XXXX. What do you XXXXX were some XXXXXXXXXs of XXXXXXing in flatXXXXs? Write your XXXXXX on a separate sheet of paper.

80%?

Most people XXXX of western XXXXXXXXs as XXXXXXing in covered wagons. However, many families XXXXXXed down the Ohio River on flatXXXXs. A flatXXXX was a huge XXXX made of heavy planks. All of the family’s possessions were loaded onto the flatXXXX. This included their farm XXXXXXs, which were tied to the rear of the XXXX. What do you XXXX were some XXXXXXXXXs of XXXXXXing in flatXXXXs? Write your XXXXXX on a separate sheet of paper.

90%?

Most people XXXXX of western settlers as XXXXXXing in covered wagons. However, many families XXXXXXed down the Ohio River on flatXXXXs. A flatXXXX was a huge raft made of heavy planks. All of the family’s possessions were loaded onto the flatXXXX. This included their farm animals, which were tied to the rear of the boat. What do you XXXXX were some advantages of XXXXXXing in flatXXXXs? Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper.

Research indicates that you must know between 95-99% of the

words in a text in order to sufficiently comprehend that text.

(Hirsh & Nation, 1992; Waring & Nation, 2004)

How many people in this room speak a second language?

Of those, how many have ever tried to read a book in that

language?

Consider the cognitive demand of reading texts in which your lexical

coverage is relatively low.

“If a text contains too many unknown words, the reader must process the text intensively and

slowly which changes the reading into a study activity rather than a

fluency building one.” (Waring & Nation, 2004, p. 99)

Student Language Proficiencies

Vs.

Readability of Academic Texts

Do your students understand 95-99% of the words in the

texts that you are asking them to read?

The Issue (for students)

The Language of the TextVs.

The Vocabulary that We Teach

How do we select target vocabulary?

The Issue (for teachers)

“While most first and second level courses emphasize vocabulary knowledge through

their textbooks, courses with authentic texts often lack this emphasis. It appears that when the pedagogical focus shifts from medium to message, when students study literacy texts

instead of language texts, that the pedagogical assumption regarding the vocabulary learning

also shifts in emphasis from intentional to incidental.”

(Knight, 1994, p. 285)

Incidental Learning“Incidental vocabulary acquisition is

defined as the acquisition of vocabulary as a by-product of any activity not

explicitly geared to lexical acquisition” (Laufer, 2003, p. 574).

Vs.

Intentional Learning“Intentional vocabulary acquisition …

refers to an activity aimed at committing lexical information to memory” (p. 574).

Vocabulary Instruction

1. Use technology to assist in the analysis of texts, and the selection of target vocabulary.

2. Incorporate direct (intentional) vocabulary instruction into your teaching using technology.

1. Monitor student vocabulary acquisition using the same methods you use to analyze texts.

A Solution

1. Select key vocabulary from text: From each text, select a list of at least 10 words you consider are the key vocabulary terms.

2. Compare lists of selected vocabulary: Exchange your list with another group and compare your selection.

3. Discuss criteria for word selection: Share your selection criteria of the key vocabulary.

4. The Web Frequency Indexer

Identifying the Vocabulary

Text Analysis• Corpus Linguistics

o http://davies-linguistics.byu.edu/personal/o http://www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/o http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/

index.htm o http://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/multicultural/

ESOLCurriculumDocs/All/academicvocabulary2.pdf

• Word cloudso http://www.tocloud.com/o http://www.wordle.net/

• Identifying the vocabulary (frequency)

• Vocabulary Flashcards, games, quizzes http://quizlet.com/

• Tests, games, surveys http://www.quia.com/

• Dictionary http://dictionary.reference.com/

• Thesaurus http://thesaurus.reference.com/

• Writing collaborationhttp://clear.msu.edu/revisions/ docs.google.com

• Writing Crossword, Word search, Bingo, flashcardhttp://www.teachers-pet.org/

Teaching/Assessing the vocabulary

Questions