Building Academic Vocabulary in After‐School Settings: Games for Growth With Middle School English‐Language Learners

Abstract

Adolescent English‐language learners (ELLs) encounter increasingly difficult academic language as they progress through school. This article describes the design of an after‐school intervention, Language Workshop, created to help middle school ELLs build their knowledge of academic vocabulary words. Evidence‐based principles of vocabulary instruction for ELLs are explained, such as the importance of multiple exposures to words in multiple contexts, opportunities to practice and personalize word meanings, and visual support for words. Accompanying activities and games are also described. Because the intervention took place in a voluntary after‐school program, engagement was a priority. Therefore, the games and activities are highly interactive and collaborative while also linked to empirical vocabulary research. The article provides a description of the Language Workshop study, demonstrating the effectiveness of the program. يواجه دارسو اللغة الإنكليزية المراهقون لغة أكاديمية متزايدة في الصعوبة مع تقدمهم في الدراسة. إذ تصف هذه المقالة تصميم برنامج التدخل بعد المدرسة يسمى ورشة اللغة تم خلقها كي تساعد دارسي اللغة الأنكليزية في المدرسة الإعدادية في بناء معرفتهم بمفردات أكاديمية. وقد تم شرح مبادئ تعليم المفردات المبنية على الشواهد مثل أهمية تعددية التعرض للكلمات في سياقات متعددة وفرص الممارسة ويضفي طابعاً شخصياً لمعاني الكلمة والدعم البصري للكلمة وكذلك يتم وصف أنشطة وألعاب مصاحبة. ولكون حلول التدخل في برنامج متطوع بعد المدرسة احتل التشغيل المرتبة الأولى من الأولويات. لذا الألعاب والأنشطة متفاعلة ومتعاونة في الوقت أنها مرتبطة بأبحاث مفردات مبنية على مراقبات وتجارب. وتوفر المقالة وصف دراسة ورشة اللغة تظهر فعالية البرنامج. 青少年英语学习者在接受学校教育期间会遇到越来越艰深的学术语言。本文描述一项称为「语言工作坊」的课后干预教学，其设计旨在帮助英语学习者培养他们的学术词汇知识。作者解释为英语学习者而设的词汇教学的循证原则，例如：多方面接触单字在多重语境中的使用的重要性、有机会练习使用单字及把单字意义个人化的重要性，以及为单字学习提供视觉支援的重要性。本文亦描述一些伴随着这语言工作坊的活动与游戏。因为这项干预教学是自愿参加的课后学习计划，学生的投入是一项优先的考虑。因此，游戏与活动是以高度互动式和协作式进行，同时亦连结到词汇研究的实验依据。本文提供一个「语言工作坊」研究的报告，并说明这项研究计划的成效。 Les adolescents qui apprennent l'anglais comme langue seconde (ELL) éprouvent des difficultés croissantes en langage académique au fur et à mesure qu'ils passent d'une classe à l'autre. Cet article présente le plan d'une intervention après la classe, un Atelier de langue, créé pour aider les ELL du second degré à développer leur connaissance du vocabulaire académique. On explique les principes de l'enseignement du vocabulaire basé sur la recherche, comme l'importance des expositions multiples aux mots dans des contextes différents, les occasions de pratiquer et de personnaliser la signification des mots, et l'intérêt que les mots disposent d'un support visuel. On décrit également des activités et des jeux d'accompagnement. L'investissement personnel était une nécessité première, l'intervention ayant lieu après la classe, sur la base du volontariat. De ce fait, les jeux et les activités étaient hautement interactifs tout en étant liés à une recherche de vocabulaire empirique. Cet article fournit une description de la recherche Atelier de langue, et met en valeur l'efficacité de ce programme. Подростки, для которых...

Vocabulary Instruction: A Critical Analysis of Theories, Research, and Practice

“…Also popular within RT and JAAL was the use of games for increasing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation [41,43,58,78,80,106,114,122,125]. Townsend described a variety of games that can be used to build the English vocabulary of ELLs, including picture and music puzzlers, matching and dice games, taboo, jeopardy, and pictionades [125]. She found that 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" [125] (p. 250).…”

“…Townsend described a variety of games that can be used to build the English vocabulary of ELLs, including picture and music puzzlers, matching and dice games, taboo, jeopardy, and pictionades [125]. She found that 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" [125] (p. 250). Technology-based games and programs were also recommended in several articles as a strategy for creating student interest in word learning [41,43,129].…”

Preparing English Language Learners for the Mainstream: Academic Language and Literacy Practices in Two Junior High School ESL Classrooms

“…These scholars and others (e.g., Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002;Townsend, 2009) instruction in all content areas. Furthermore, Francis et al (2006) argued that reading comprehension activities should help students focus on the process of comprehension (teaching students to be strategic and to monitor, select, and reflect upon the reading strategies they use), not just the products of comprehension (such as answering questions at the end of a passage).…”

“…The lack of qualified faculty to teach ELLs, a national movement toward English-only education, and efforts to fully include ELL children in mainstream 1 education to give them more access to the core curriculum and English-speaking peers have moved ELLs quickly into mainstream classrooms (August & Hakuta, 1997;Platt & Harper, 2002;Platt, Harper, & Mendoza, 2003;Valdés, 2001). Still greater challenges in educating ELLs have arisen at the secondary level, where students are faced with increasing language and literacy demands in order to catch up with mainstream peers, all in a language that is unfamiliar to them (Faltis & Coulter, 2008;Lucas, 1992;Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007;Townsend, 2009). It is important to consider, then, how ELLs, especially secondary students, are being prepared to meet the demands of mainstream classrooms before they arrive and what challenges arise along the way.…”

What Is Academic Vocabulary?

“…Examples of words within each type are shown in the second column. Terms scholars have used that roughly correspond to the five types are in the third column, and the final column lists sources of words, when (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008) • Technical vocabulary (Fisher & Frey, 2008) • "Language" of academic domains (Jetton & Alexander, 2004) • Academically technical terms (Harmon, Wood, & Hedrick, 2008) • Technical terms (Harmon, Wood, & Medina, 2009) • Tier 3 words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002 • Building Academic Vocabulary: Teacher's Manual (Marzano & Pickering, 2005) analyze, assume, code, conduct, context, document, error, link, minor, period, project, range, register, role, sum (all selected from Coxhead's, 2000, list) • General academic vocabulary (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008) • Academic words (Coxhead, 2000) • General academic vocabulary (Townsend, 2009) • Specialized vocabulary (Fisher & Frey, 2008) • Tier 2 words (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002 (continued) S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0 which they appear. We recommend using the Marzano and Pickering (2005) procedure described previously for determining which of the domain-specific academic vocabulary would be worthy of instruction.…”