Developing Vocabulary Knowledge

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Defined

Vocabulary knowledge is defined as the ability to go from the printed form of a word to its meaning.

Recognized By

The student does not understand the meaning of words commonly understood by students of her age level. The student’s weakness may be reflected in poor performance on tests of vocabulary knowledge. Inadequate vocabulary causes reduced reading comprehension.

Discussion

Reading researchers and reviewers of reading research have reported that a strong relationship exists between vocabulary knowledge and comprehension (Blachowicz, Fisher, Ogle, & Watts-Taffe, 2006; Davis, 1942, 1944; Pearson, Hiebert & Kamil, 2007). Authorities have differing notions about what it means to know the meaning of a word. Part of the problem is that one may know the meaning of a word at five different levels or stages. These stages are listed here from lowest to highest level of vocabulary knowledge.

1. A student has no recognition of a word. Indeed, she may never have seen it before.
2. A student has heard of the word (that is, recognizes that it is a word) but has no knowledge of its meaning.
3. A student recognizes the word in context and has a vague understanding of its meaning.
4. A student knows well the meaning of the word in the context in which it appears.
5. A student knows the multiple meanings of the word (if they exist) and can actually use the word in thinking, speaking, or writing.

Knowledge at level 2 is usually required for a student to decode a difficult word, while knowledge at levels 3 or 4 is required for the student to comprehend what she reads. Thus, one of the important reasons that teachers teach vocabulary is to enable students to understand written material. Adequate decoding ability alone will not enable a student to understand material in either a narrative or content- area book.

Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge

There are two main purposes for assessing a reader’s vocabulary knowledge. The first is to assess the general level of a reader’s vocabulary knowledge to determine if it is sufficient for her grade level. The second purpose is to determine if she knows the meaning of a specific word or set of words to guide immediate instruction.

One method of measuring the general level of a student’s vocabulary is to look at the results of the vocabulary subsection of a standardized test. When a standardized exam contains a subsection that measures the student’s vocabulary knowledge, the student’s performance on that section of the exam is reported in norms. Those norms can be used to estimate the student’s general level of vocabulary knowledge. For example, a common norm used to describe performance on standardized exams is called a grade equivalent score. This score is the grade level of the students in the norm group who performed the same on the vocabulary exam as your student performed on the vocabulary exam. This and other norms can be used to get an idea of the student’s general vocabulary level.