Closing the Gap: Addressing the Vocabulary Needs of English-Language Learners in Bilingual and Mainstream Classrooms
Carlo, Mara S.; August, Diane; McLaughlin, Barry; Snow, Catherine E.; Dressler, Cheryl; Lippman, David N.; Lively, Teresa J.; White, Claire E. (2004). Reading Research Quarterly, v39 n2 p188-215. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ684719
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examining16Students, grade5
Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School
Review Details
Reviewed: April 2014
Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School Practice Guide- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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56% English language learners
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) Intervention Report - English Language Learners
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2006
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP).
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Word mastery |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
8.76 |
2.24 |
No |
-- | |
|
Knowledge of multiple meanings of words (polysemy production) |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
2.38 |
0.60 |
No |
-- | |
|
Word association measures |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
4.70 |
1.55 |
No |
-- | |
|
Morphology |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
16.36 |
10.93 |
No |
-- | |
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Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R) |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
15.13 |
17.48 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cloze passages |
Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP) vs. Business as usual |
15-weeks |
Grade 5;
|
2.20 |
0.28 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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100% English language learners -
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California, Massachusetts, Virginia
Study Details
Setting
The California site included classrooms from two schools that primarily served working class Mexican-American children in both bilingual and mainstream classes. The classrooms in Massachusetts were from a school that served working class, mostly Puerto Rican and Dominican students, within both bilingual and mainstream classes taught by bilingual teachers. The Virginia classrooms were recruited from an “English-medium” magnet school that served mainly working class Spanish speakers from the Caribbean and Central America.
Study sample
One-hundred forty-two English language learners1 in the fifth grade participated in this study. Students were recruited from 16 classrooms in California, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Ninety-four English language learner students were in classrooms randomly assigned to the intervention group, and 48 students were in classrooms randomly assigned to the comparison group. Ninety percent (128 students) of the participants had pretest and posttest measures for at least one outcome. Follow-up contact with the first author revealed attrition in the comparison group; one classroom was not included in the analyses because a teacher left the study prior to intervention implementation, but after random assignment of classrooms to conditions (17 classrooms were originally assigned to conditions, but only 16 were in the analysis sample). In addition, some students in the overall sample received a pilot intervention in the fourth grade, and some did not. However, this intervention report focuses on fifth grade outcomes only.
Intervention Group
The intervention implemented in the study was adapted and published by the authors as the Vocabulary Improvement Program for English Language Learners and Their Classmates (VIP). Students read newspaper articles, diaries, documentaries, and historical and fictional accounts related to the topic of immigration. This 15-week intervention included 30–45 minutes of teaching four days a week and focused on 10–12 target words per week. On Mondays participants were given the weekly text to preview in Spanish. On Tuesdays the text was introduced in English, and target words in the text were discussed. On Wednesdays participants formed heterogeneous groups (based on English language proficiency) and completed two types of cloze activities. On Thursdays participants engaged in word association, synonym/antonym, and semantic feature analysis tasks. Then on Fridays either analysis of root words and derivation, or knowledge of multiple meanings of words was stressed. Three lessons were observed (during weeks 4, 9, and 13), revealing that six of the nine of the intervention group teachers implemented more than 70% of the key lesson elements, two 50%–60%, and one 35%.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison group received their regular classroom instruction. The curriculum provided to the comparison group differed greatly across the schools in each region of the country. Teachers in the comparison group received some professional development in vocabulary teaching two years prior to the beginning of the intervention.
Outcome descriptions
The study measured reading achievement using a researcher developed cloze measure. It measured English language development using measures titled Knowledge of Multiple Meanings of Words, Morphology, Word Mastery, Word Association, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) (see Appendix A2 for more detailed descriptions of outcome measures). Assessments were given in the Fall and Spring of the academic year.
Support for implementation
Researchers conducted biweekly Teacher Learning Community meetings with intervention group teachers, providing teachers with curriculum materials including detailed lesson plans, quasi-scripted lesson guides, overhead transparencies, worksheets, homework assignments, and all necessary reading materials. At these meetings, researchers facilitated discussions of practices that worked well in previous lessons and aspects of the curriculum that were problematic. The curriculum was not modified as a result of these meetings.
Additional Sources
In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.
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McLaughlin, B., August, D., Snow, C., Carlo, M., Dressler, C., White, C., Lively, T., & Lippman, D. (2000, April). Vocabulary Improvement in English language learners: An Intervention Study. Symposium presented at the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, Washington, DC.
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For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
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Study findings for this report.
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