Learning Academic Vocabulary

Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91-108.

Background

The paper builds on the growing importance given to proficiency in reading academic texts. As part of this, it looks at the teaching of vocabulary as a way of improving students’ ability to understand academic texts used in content classrooms.

Aims

The writers want to look at the teaching of academic vocabulary as a possible way of helping students improve their ability to work with content subject areas.

Sample

This is a theoretical article so no samples are involved. Instead the writers focus on the literature and some discussion of research results.

Method

The writers emphasize that learning lists of academic vocabulary is not the same as learning the language of academic subjects. They suggest that the latter involves learning to do new things with language and learning the language tools to do these things (which may or may not include vocabulary). They go on to describe the features that tend to be associated with academic vocabulary such as Greek and Latin derivatives, the use of nominalization, etc. They then review a number of interventions and their results.

Findings

In many of the research interventions reported on, the impact of the intervention was statistically significant but the effect was relatively small. In some cases, the amount of effort involved outweighed the results. For example, the writers noted that, despite evidence of a strong correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading competence, there was very little evidence that vocabulary interventions helped improve reading comprehension.

Implications

The evidence suggests that students can improve their knowledge of academic vocabulary with help in the classroom. However, there is still little evidence that this will improve their general or academic reading or improve their scores in tests of the academic subject. Much more research needs to be done in all areas – analysis of texts, teaching approaches, assessment methods – all of which could impact each other in the interpretation of results.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.