Describes two experiments that examined word recognition processes of second, fourth, and sixth graders. Shows that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (HOD)

Examines whether eighth grade students acquired measurable knowledge about unfamiliar words while reading natural text. Suggests that incidental learning from context accounts for a substantial proportion of the vocabulary growth that occurs during the school years. (HOD)

Offers teaching techniques and strategies for assisting remedial readers with word meanings and categorizing, junior high school students with vocabulary development, and middle grade students with letter writing. (HOD)

Suggests using analogies to aid in reading instruction. (MKM)

Intended for teachers in primary education, this book draws together the most helpful contemporary thinking and research evidence about the learning and teaching of reading, especially in relation to graphophonics, and shows how these findings can be translated into effective classroom practices. The book summarizes evidence on how children learn…

Designed to improve reading comprehension and other complex verbal functions, fertile instruction in word skill focuses on improving accuracy of word knowledge, increasing fluency of access to meanings in memory, and enriching semantic network connections among related concepts. It is particularly appropriate for teaching the high frequency words…

As part of a larger effort to develop a test battery for diagnosing difficulties with various word recognition subskills among mainstreamed students in grades 2 through 5, four experiments were conducted to compare the abilities of good and poor readers to read a frequency-graduated series of irregularly spelled words first in isolation and then…

Forty-four junior high school students were randomly assigned to two vocabulary instruction treatments. One treatment used context-rich, three-sentence passages as sources for target word definition. The other, the semantic mapping treatment, entailed learning new words by identifying the similarities and differences with related, known words.…

This paper contains a report of a theoretical investigation of contextual analysis (CA) that ranked this reading strategy as the most complex of four kindred word recognition skills although many current reading programs advance its use in the beginning stages of formal reading instruction. Three propositions are offered: CA holds kinship with the…

This study involved the development of exercises for teaching the use of context clues in word recognition. Although authorities believe that context clues are best used in combination with other methods of word identification, such as phonetic analysis and word form, no hierarchy of difficulty among the many exercises for teaching context clues…

Two experiments examine use of defining, characteristic, category, and identical semantic features of word concept information in cued recall. College adults and 7- to 11-year-old children were shown word triplets in which context words were related or unrelated to final target word. Results suggest meaning features differ in providing medium for…

Based on college students' grade point averages (GPA) and their scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Tests and the Joy Combining Forms Test, a multiple classification analysis of variance was performed to determine the effects of three different methods of vocabulary instruction on student achievement in a reading and study skills course. The…

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a point of departure for a coherent program of vocabulary growth. The paper offers three premises for a coherent program of vocabulary growth: (1) vocabulary is best learned as it functions in communication settings, (2) teachers can more effectively stimulate vocabulary growth if they attend more…

A study investigated the effect of properties of words and texts on the incidental learning of word meanings during normal reading. Subjects--352 students in third, fifth, and seventh grades--read either expository or narrative passages selected from grade-level textbooks, and after six days were tested on their knowledge of difficult words from…

Describes a study whose purpose was to identify the relative contribution of the nature of instruction and the frequency of encounters in bringing about word knowledge proficiency in fourth-grade children. Results suggest that instruction based on definitional associations is sufficient to affect word knowledge. (HOD)