What Research Says about Teaching Vocabulary to ELLs and ESL Students

This blog post highlights a few points that resurface in the research about teaching vocabulary to ELLs/ESL students. Feel free to add your thoughts and share your own experiences with teaching vocabulary!

What the Research Says about Teaching Vocabulary:

•         Explicitly teach vocabulary.

•         Provide repetition and practice of new vocabulary.

•         The use of pictures and context sentences is effective.

•         Provide access to word definitions while engaged in a reading task.

What the Research Says about Explicitly Teaching Vocabulary:

“The [National Reading Panel] review showed that while learning from context is important, direct instruction of vocabulary is effective in improving both vocabulary and comprehension. The implication is that both direct, explicit instruction and learning from context are important. A further implication is that explicit instruction may be useful in closing the gap between the students with the highest levels of vocabulary knowledge and those with the lowest.”1

“Learners need an explicit introduction to vocabulary, accurate and effective support in interpreting new vocabulary, and practice for remembering vocabulary.”2

What the Research Says about Providing Repetition and Practice of New Vocabulary:

“Spaced repetition of vocabulary, occurring either through multiple exposures during reading or listening (serving as a type of
repetition) or through explicit teaching, must additionally receive overt learner attention through simultaneous or follow-up vocabulary tasks supported by strategy instruction.”3

“Research suggests that the more types of help that students use (e.g., verbal help and imagery rather than verbal help alone) the better for their vocabulary acquisition (Yoshii & Flaitz, 2001). In short, more interaction is better for learning words.”4

What the Research Says about Using Pictures and Context Sentences when Teaching New Vocabulary:

“If pictures and definitions were provided by glosses, incidental learning with multimedia annotations yielded 25 per cent accuracy on production tests and 77 per cent on recognition tests.”5

“Students remembered word translation and recalled the passage better when they had selected both written and pictorial annotations while listening rather than one of these types or no annotations.”6

What the Research Says about Providing Access to Word Definitions While Engaged in a Reading Task:

“A number of studies have found that learners who have access to word definitions while they are reading or listening on the computer are able to remember word meanings. Such activities provide an ideal means of teaching vocabulary in context, rather than having students guess meaning from context. Research suggests that the more types of help that students use (e.g., verbal help and imagery rather than verbal help alone) the better for their vocabulary acquisition (Yoshii & Flaitz, 2001). In short, more interaction is better for learning words, and CALL [Computer-Assisted Language Learning] provides some useful types of interactions by offering learners a variety of help.”7

---

1 Chapelle, C. A., and Jamieson, J. (2008). Tips for Teaching with CALL: Practical Approaches to Computer-Assisted Language Learning. White Plains, NY: Pearson, p. 21

2 Chun, D. M., and Plass, J. L. (1996). Effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition. Modern Language Journal 80/2: 183-198.

3 Jones, L. C. and J. L. Plass. 2002. Supporting listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition in French with multimedia annotations. Modern Language Journal 86/4: 546-61.

4 Nyikos, M. and Fan, M. (2007). A review of vocabulary learning strategies: focus on language proficiency and learner voice. In Cohen, A. D.  and Macaro, E. (Eds.) Language Learner Strategies. Oxford University Press, pp. 272-273.

5 Chapelle, C. and Jamieson, J. (2008). Tips for teaching with CALL: Practical approaches to computer-assisted language learning. White Plains, NY: Pearson, p. 21

6 Kamil, M. L. (2003). Adolescents and literacy: Reading for the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education, p. 11.

7 Chapelle, C. and Jamieson, J. (2008). Tips for Teaching with CALL: Practical Approaches to Computer-Assisted Language Learning. White Plains, NY: Pearson, p. 11