Chapter 10: Vocabulary, Academic Language, And Background Knowledge: Role In Reading Development And Factors That Affect Development

Question 1

Define the role of vocabulary, academic language, and background knowledge in reading development.

Answer 1

Knowledge of technical academic language, difficult words related to a specific topic, become more important as children enter the upper elementary grades or middle school.

Vocabulary: set of words or phrases. 5 different vocabularies: Listening, speaking, writing (use when you write), sight vocabulary (while reading), meaning vocabulary (understand when reading silently).
Vocab and Fluency - Knowing the meaning of words helps in the achievement of swift, accurate world recognition and in all aspects of fluency.
Reading Comprehension and Vocab - if child comprehends the text they can define several key words after they read it.

Academic Language and Comprehension - explains why some students read fluently in history, but not science.

Background Knowledge and Comprehension - student knows little about farms, will be difficult to read a passage

Question 2

Discuss issues related to development of vocabulary, academic language, and background knowledge.

Answer 2

Learning the meaning of words is an incremental process. Rarely do children completely understand the meaning of a word all at once.

1. Matthew Effect - gap between low and high achieving students widens with time. Early intervention is key
2. Vocabulary Knowledge and Concept Learning - more vocab you know, the more concepts you learn and vice versa. The more words you know the greater the background knowledge; greater the background knowledge, the more words you know
3. Vocab Learning as an Incremental Process
   Unknown —>Acquainted—>Established
4. Text is more complex than speech - need to teach vocab, academic language and background knowledge

Question 3

Explain factors to consider in developing students’ vocabulary, academic language, and background knowledge.

Answer 3

When deciding which word meanings to teach direct to students, teachers should select words on the basis of three criteria:

(1) frequency - more frequently the more important
(2) utility - essential to comprehend the text?
(3) level of knowledge - less students know about a word, if it is in the unknown category, the more important it becomes to teach

Tiers of Academic Vocabulary -

1. Everyday words
2. Across multiple areas - tropical, climate
3. Used only in one specific area of study - unicellular, Protozoa

Question 4

11.1 Differences among listening, speaking, writing, sights and meaning vocabularies

Answer 4

Listening - vocabulary you understand when listening
Writing - vocabulary you use while writing
Sight - vocabulary you can recognize and correctly pronounce while reading
Meaning - vocabulary you can understand while reading silently

Question 5

11.1 Difference between technical academic language and nontechnical academic langaguage

Answer 5

Nontechnical academic language consists of words that are used in several subjects: examine, analyze, explain, etc.

Technical Academic Language - a subcategory of academic language, words and phrases related to a specific discipline

Question 6

11.1 Define Background Knowledge

Answer 6

Background Knowledge - what you know about a topic, Students will not comprehend what they are reading if they do not have background knowledge