Book Review: Instructional Strategies for Teaching Content Vocabulary, Grades 4-12
Bindu Oommen, bindu.oommen@biola.edu
Harmon, J. M., Wood, K. D., & Hedrick, W. B. (2006). Instructional strategies for teaching content vocabulary, grades 4-12. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. x + 149 pp. US$24.
Instructional Strategies for Teaching Content Vocabulary, Grades 4-12 is a practical reference tool for middle and secondary school teachers who wish to use creative and effective strategies for teaching content vocabulary. This book offers over 40 research-based, concise, ready-to-use vocabulary teaching and learning strategies that skillfully address specific aspects of vocabulary and focus on developing receptive and productive knowledge in English language learners.
Summary
In this book Janis Harmon (of the University of Texas, San Antonio), Karen Wood (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), and Wanda Hedrick (University of North Florida, Jacksonville) introduce five specific aspects of teaching and learning content vocabulary through instructional strategies that they have created or adapted from various resources provided in their reference list. The features of word learning addressed are “integration, clarification, identification, linguistic attention, and meta-cognition” (p. 3). Strategic instruction through integration focuses on teaching words relative to other words, whereas clarification focuses on teaching multiple word meanings along with procedural vocabulary so as to avoid contextual confusion. Identification focuses on the utilization of visual strategies that activate recall and strengthen word learning for students who may need additional support. Linguistic attention focuses on developing the ability to pay deliberate attention to word parts such as affixes, word roots, and cognates. Last, meta-cognition focuses on developing students’ self-awareness and self-assessment strategies. All five features are designed to develop both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in English language learners.
Each of the seven chapters of the book thoroughly and thoughtfully discusses the significance of and provides instructional procedures for teaching core word concepts, associating ideas, long-term learning and recall, word parts, conscious word learning, and word-learning assessment. Instructional procedures include teaching variations and reproducible worksheets that are ready to use in the classroom for whole-class, group, or think-pair-share activities. The introductory chapter discusses word-learning issues that students face, argues for the effective teaching of vocabulary, summarizes current research and the five specific features of content word instruction, and provides advice for teachers. Chapter two helps teachers plan a content lesson by giving advice on how to choose a conceptual idea for teaching, how to develop selective terms and phrases that represent a particular idea, and how to develop “content-specific activities” that “introduce, build, and refine” word meanings before, during, and after reading (p. 7). Chapter three is designed around the notion that “conceptual understanding is at the heart of content learning” and illustrates 13 strategies in detail that help students categorize and exemplify relationships between concepts (p. 17). Chapter four introduces seven strategies that clarify word and procedural phrase meanings through the use of charts for contextual redefinition, comparison, sentence completion exercises, word coding, procedural vocabulary, finding common roots, and signal words. (Note: This chapter is available as a free sample in pdf format at http://www.reading.org/publications/bbv/books/bk9198/toc.html, so you can print out and use its Blackline Masters for each of these types of charts.) Chapter five is designed for students who have difficulty with complex concepts and need additional support. It “emphasizes the use of nine visualization tactics and mnemonic devices” that help them activate word recall and retention (p. 83). Chapter six illustrates teaching strategies that examine word parts. “Morpheme Circles” and “Animal Creations” are used for structural analysis, whereas etymology is explored through “Word Origins” and “Where Did That Come From?” The last chapter illustrates seven strategies that help students monitor and take responsibility for learning and “foster independent word learning habits that transfer to word learning in a variety of areas” (p. 125).
Evaluation
Content word knowledge is fundamental to successful subject matter reading, listening, speaking, and writing comprehension in English language learners. Coxhead (2006) stated that “academic vocabulary is important because understanding and properly using this vocabulary allows students to be part of the academic community” (p. 3). Moreover, Nation (2005) argued that there are “various aspects of knowledge that are involved in knowing a word” such as knowing word form, meaning, concept, association, and use (p. 583). Teachers should offer rich instruction that fosters such aspects along with teaching strategic learning (Coxhead, 2006), and in their second chapter Harmon et al. encourage ESL teachers to teach in such ways. This chapter allows teachers to creatively direct students’ attention to word form, concepts, and associations (connections) by using word lists that semantically categorize content vocabulary. For example, using a list of words having to do with air pollution, the authors group “radon,” “smog,” “sulfur dioxide,” and “carbon monoxide” into the category of “substances in the air” and group procedural phrases such as “consisting of” and “makes up less than” into the category of “procedural terms” to show word concepts, ideas, and relationships (pp. 8-9).
Another good way of helping students understand form, meaning, and use is the “Talking Drawings” strategy. Here, the authors illustrate that teachers can help students during the prereading, reading, and postreading stages of learning by having them produce mental images of a given topic, draw their image on paper, discuss with a partner, read the selection, and create an edited drawing (p. 84). This activity fosters the habit of making topic connections and predictions that lead to increased word retention and recall. This is also a good example of a linked skills activity, which Nation (2005) mentioned “can be a major means of bringing receptive vocabulary into productive use” primarily because such activities “build on each other in a sequence and involve a mixture of listening, speaking, reading, or writing” (p. 589). Furthermore, Nation stated that linked activities foster the conditions necessary for fluency development. In this book, Harmon et al. provide similar teaching variations where students can complete the “Talking Drawings” task by writing one or two paragraphs on the changes they were able to make in their final drawing. The “Sketch to Stretch” strategy also promotes creative thinking while fostering skills of reading, interpretation through postreading sketches, speaking about students’ sketches through group discussion, and writing drafts and essays about their sketches (pp. 86-87).
Nation (2005) asserted that “every course should involve some deliberate attention to vocabulary as well as opportunities to meet the words in meaning-focused use” (p. 585). Nation also stated that “teachers should draw on a range of procedures for getting learners to give deliberate attention to vocabulary” (p. 586). All of the above-mentioned strategies use such procedures. Furthermore, repeated processing, deliberate attention to target words, and ample practice and recycling of target words are vital steps that lead to successful vocabulary acquisition (Coxhead, 2006). I found that Harmon et al.’s collection uses effective strategies that creatively direct students to draw particular attention to new words and enable them to put words to meaningful use. Other examples include teachers creating word walls that can be used to categorize words visually, making the effort to explicitly direct students to pay attention to new words, leading students to take notes as they read, providing them with thought-provoking questions during and after readings, using sentence-completion exercises, assisting in creating semantic maps as a class or in groups, and assisting in creating concept circles. I found these new teaching concepts to be creative, fun, and interesting. I can use them with my students in assisting them to visually categorize relationships between different word concepts and ideas.
There are four important word-learning strategies that learners need to become familiar with to enhance their learning in content areas, namely guessing meaning from context clues, using word cards, using word parts, and using a dictionary (Nation, 2005). I found Harmon et al.’s book to foster all four strategies. For example, chapter six uses “Animal Creations” and “Morpheme Circles,” which actively engage students in learning by categorizing words according to word parts (roots and affixes, pp. 114-117). Personal word-learning journals and strategies such as TOAST (test, organize, assess, say, and test) promote independent word learning (pp. 137-138). Students can also create word or index cards using the LINCS (link, imagine, note, construct) strategy, which helps them self-monitor, use illustrations and stories that are meaningful to them, and self-assess their learning progress (pp. 102-104). One of my personal favorites is the verbal and visual word association strategy, which uses index cards, small definitions, and picture illustrations (pp. 97-98). Cards created for these strategies can be used for group or whole-class activities.
Much like many ESL teachers in content classrooms, I attempt to teach core word concepts by tapping into students’ receptive and productive knowledge and using popular teaching methods. Though this has been effective, I always appreciate and need creative ways in which to implement such lessons. Harmon et al.’s book has proven to be a user-friendly reference for my lesson planning. Each activity is tailored for the middle or secondary school content teacher to address the significant teaching principles of word frequency, repetition, spaced retrieval, and generation that help in content word acquisition (Coxhead, 2006). Strategy activities also address teaching core academic word concepts, encourage word negotiation, and stimulate effective word retention and recall. The teaching variations and reproducible worksheets provided are also convenient for classroom use. Middle and secondary teachers of English language learners should have this affordable new book. It is an excellent resource that supports both teacher and student learning.
Bindu Oommen teaches part-time for the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District and the Giving Tree Education Center (ESL and math) in southern California and is completing her MA TESOL at Biola University. In her free time she likes to read recent TESOL case studies and browse journals on professional development.
References
Coxhead, A. (2006). Essentials of teaching academic vocabulary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Nation, I. S. P. (2005). Teaching and learning vocabulary. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 581-595). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
