Outlines a vocabulary strategy that transforms students into "word detectives," while immersing them in reading and encouraging them to find out the meaning of unknown words. Describes how "lead detectives" use graphic organizers, briefings on word "suspects," and notes several extensions to this activity. (SR)

Provides a reading on mosquitoes and the various diseases they cause. Discussion questions and a vocabulary development exercise are provided. (Author/VWL)

Examined the effects of semantic and structural elaboration on second language lexical acquisition. English-speaking low-intermediate Spanish learners attempted to learn 24 new Spanish words in three conditions. Results provide evidence that increased semantic processing can inhibit the ability to encode the formal properties of new words.…

Describes for middle school teachers the logic of spelling; how spelling knowledge may be assessed and developed; and how attention to spelling at the middle grades might be organized. Hopes that this broad overview may offer some support in efforts to guide students toward seeing spelling more broadly. (SG)

Describes one teacher's use of color to make classroom instruction more interesting. Techniques included using colored paper for handouts, conducting an experiment to see whether the use of colors could enhance students' memory power, and using colored flashcards to teach vocabulary. (Author/VWL)

Three studies examined 2-year-olds' ability to learn novel words when overhearing these words used by others. Found that children ages 2.5 years were equally good at learning novel object labels and action verbs when they were overhearers as when they were directly addressed. For younger 2-year-olds, this was true for object labels, but results…

Children's acquisition of vocabulary is essential for gains in reading comprehension and reading development. Struggling readers often do not make gains in their reading comprehension because they have a limited reading vocabulary. Enhancing the vocabulary development and growth for children who are experiencing reading difficulties enables them…

This article provides an overview of current knowledge about vocabulary teaching and learning--understandings that influence learning across different disciplines. Research on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in particular subject matter areas, including mathematics, social studies, and science, is discussed. Based upon the instructional…

The Language Vocabulary Acquisition Approach (LVA) to Reading Instruction is a revolutionary new approach to reading instruction for emergent and developing readers in urban settings. The Approach quickly immerses young urban children into print text, bombarding them with a preponderance of words, ideas and general understandings about their…

This article describes the role of lexical acquisition in stuttering by examining the research on word learning and interactions between semantics and syntax in typically developing children and children who stutter. The potential effects of linguistic mismatches, or dysynchronies in language skills, on the possible onset and development of…

In learning the meaning of a new term, children need to fix its reference, learn its conventional meaning, and discover the meanings with which it contrasts. To do this, children must attend to adult speakers--the experts--and to their patterns of use. In the domain of color, children need to identify color terms as such, fix the reference of each…

Young children experience considerable difficulty in learning their first few color terms. One explanation for this difficulty is that initially they lack a conceptual representation of color sufficiently abstract to support word meaning. This hypothesis, that prior to learning color terms children do not represent color as an abstraction, was…

Research demonstrates that students learn to read words in contextual guessing, letter-sound decoding, analogy, and insight. The reading subtest results had demonstrated that the students in the word detectives group read significantly more words correctly than the students in the benchmark word identification program.

Effective second language vocabulary acquisition is particularly important for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners who frequently acquire impoverished lexicons despite years of formal study. This paper comprehensively reviews and critiques second language (L2) reading vocabulary research and proposes that EFL teachers and administrators…

The goal of the present study was to explore the role of expressive vocabulary as a moderator in the relation between shyness and maladjustment in early childhood. Participants were 82 preschool children (39 males, 43 females). Mothers rated children's shyness at the start of the preschool year. Children were interviewed individually to assess…