Project Activities
The researchers will conduct a longitudinal study of the development of vocabulary breadth and depth and reading comprehension from 2nd through 5th grade for monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English children. Through classroom observations, the researchers will identify promising instructional practices for improving vocabulary breadth and depth in support of reading comprehension for these two groups of students.
Structured Abstract
Setting
Three elementary schools, two in Maryland and one in Massachusetts.
Sample
Study participants are 210 students, 105 monolingual English children and 105 bilingual Spanish-English children, in 2nd through 5th grade and their teachers. The participants come from schools that have recently focused efforts on improving vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension in school districts with fast-growing Latino populations.
In this study, the researchers are examining instructional practices related to vocabulary development (both breadth and depth) in 2nd through 5th grade classrooms to identify possible targets for intervention at the instructional level.
Research design and methods
A cohort-sequential design will be used to create a model of vocabulary and comprehension development from 2nd through 5th grade. A subgroup of students (n = 80) will be observed in the classroom at four separate time points to document individual exposure to vocabulary instruction.
Control condition
There is no control condition.
Key measures
Key measures include the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, 4th Edition (SDRT-4), both the English and Spanish versions of the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey-Revised (WMLS-R), the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL), both the English and Spanish versions of the Extract the Base test, a researcher-designed Semantic Relations test, and the Aprenda: La prueba de logros en espanol, Tercera edicion.
Data analytic strategy
Latent curve models (LCMs) will be used to characterize growth of vocabulary breadth and depth and reading comprehension for English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual students from 2nd through 5th grade, and the relationship between that growth and observed instructional practices in the classroom.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Products: The products from this project include published reports on the development of vocabulary breadth and depth for monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English students from 2nd through 5th grade and the relationship of vocabulary breadth and depth to the development of reading comprehension for these students, as well as identification of instructional practices that may support the development of vocabulary and comprehension in the upper elementary grades, and published reports.
Journal article, monograph, or newsletter
Harring, J.R. (2014). A Spline Regression Model for Latent Variables. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 74(2): 197-213.
Kieffer, M.J., Petscher, Y., Proctor, C.P., and Silverman, R.D. (2016). Is the Whole Greater Than the Sum of its Parts? Modeling the Contributions of Language Comprehension Skills to Reading Comprehension in the Upper Elementary Grades. Scientific Studies of Reading, 20(6), 436-454.
Kohli, N., and Harring, J.R. (2013). Modeling Growth in Latent Variables Using a Piecewise Function. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 48(3): 370-397.
Leider, C.M., Proctor, C.P., and Silverman, R.D. (2014). The Biliteracy Translation Measure: Using Written Translations to Index Bilingualism and Biliteracy in Spanish and English. NYS TESOL Journal, 1(2): 9-24.
Leider, C.M., Proctor, C.P., Silverman, R.D., and Harring, J.R. (2013). Examining the Role of Vocabulary Depth, Cross-Linguistic Transfer, and Types of Reading Measures on the Reading Comprehension of Latino Bilinguals in Elementary School. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(9): 1459-1485.
Michener, C.J., Proctor, C.P., and Silverman, R.D. (2018). Features of Instructional Talk Predictive of Reading Comprehension. Reading and Writing, 31(3), 725-756.
Michener, C.J., Sengupta-Irving, T., Proctor, C.P., and Silverman, R. (2015). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Within Monolingual Language Policy: Variability in Instruction. Language policy, 14(3): 199-220.
Proctor, C.P., and Silverman, R.D. (2011). Confounds in Assessing the Associations Between Biliteracy and English Language Proficiency. Educational Researcher, 40(2): 62-64.
Proctor, C.P., Harring, J.R., and Silverman, R.D. (2017). Linguistic Interdependence Between Spanish Language and English Language and Reading: A Longitudinal Exploration From Second Through Fifth Grade. Bilingual Research Journal, 40(4), 372-391.
Proctor, C.P., Silverman, Harring, J., and Montecillo, C. (2012). The Role of Vocabulary Depth in Predicting Reading Comprehension Among English Monolingual and Spanish-English Bilingual Children in Elementary School. Reading and Writing, 25(7): 1635-1664.
Proctor, C.P., Silverman, R.D., Harring, J.R., and Montecillo, C. (2012). Erratum to: The Role of Vocabulary Depth in Predicting Reading Comprehension Among English Monolingual and Spanish-English Bilingual Children in Elementary School. Reading and Writing, 25(7): 1795-1795.
Silverman, R.D., Proctor, C.P., Harring, J.R., Doyle, B., Mitchell, M.A., and Meyer, A.G. (2014). Teachers' Instruction and Students' Vocabulary and Comprehension: An Exploratory Study With English Monolingual and Spanish-English Bilingual Students in Grades 3-5. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(1): 31-60
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