Purpose: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often have difficulty with word learning. Recent studies have shown that incorporating retrieval practice provides a significant benefit to this learning. However, we have not yet discovered the best balance between the amount of retrieval and the amount of study (hearing the word in the…

Background: Teaching vocabulary may be an effective way to address poor reading comprehension. However, it is unclear how many words or word families a school aged child with poor vocabulary would need to learn to meaningfully impact comprehension. This study provides estimates of vocabulary size for children with differing vocabulary achievement…

An emerging body of research suggests that incorporating randomization schemes in single-case research designs strengthens study internal validity and data evaluation. The purpose of this study was to test the utility and feasibility of a randomized alternating-treatment design in an investigation that compared the combined effects of vocabulary…

Intensive reading and extensive reading (ER) are two activities that have distinct purposes and require different instructional setups. Whereas intensive reading focuses on reading skills that enable students to deconstruct text in order to find the main idea, supporting details, and discrete information, ER allows students to read for pleasure…

In recent years, there have been intensive debates on whether healthy adults acquire new word knowledge through fast mapping (FM) by a different mechanism from explicit encoding (EE). In this study, we focused on this issue and investigated to what extent reteninterval, prior knowledge (PK), and lure type modulated memory after FM and EE. Healthy…

This study investigated the potential of discipline-related television programs as sources for incidental learning of specialized vocabulary used in university lectures and seminars. First, a Medical Spoken Word List (MSWL) of 895 specialized word types was developed from a 556,074-word corpus of medical lectures and seminars based on a mixed…

Learning new words entails, inter alia, encoding of novel sound patterns and transferring those patterns from short-term to long-term memory. We report a series of 5 experiments that investigated whether the memory systems engaged in word learning are specialized for speech and whether utilization of these systems results in a benefit for word…

Disfluencies, such as 'um' or 'uh', can cause adults to attribute uncertainty to speakers, but may also facilitate speech processing. To understand how these different functions affect children's learning, we asked whether (dis)fluency affects children's decision to select information from speakers (an explicit behavior) and their learning of…

To learn a verb, children must attend to objects and relations, often within a dynamic scene. Several studies show that comparing varied events linked to a verb helps children learn verbs, but there is also controversy in this area. This study asks whether children benefit from seeing variation across events as they learn a new verb, and uses an…

When referring to objects, adults package words, sentences, and gestures in ways that shape children's learning. Here, to understand how continuity of reference shapes word learning, an adult taught new words to 4-year-old children (N = 120) using either clusters of references to the same object or no sequential references to each object. In three…

Despite the significant impact of the lexical approach for vocabulary learning, its classroom implementation has not been uniform. While related activities share the common Observe-Hypothesize-Experiment (OHE) elements, practitioners and researchers do not highlight how language input from the observing stage is turned into output and at what…

The present study examines the influence of drama-based pedagogy on English-speaking proficiency. This pedagogical approach immerses students in experiential learning through role-playing, improvisation, and acting-based instruction, thereby fostering engagement with authentic language use. The research investigates the role of drama-based…

As educators, we anticipated the social-emotional learning (SEL) of the children from the neighboring community would be greatly impacted due to the lack of social interaction necessary for human development during COVID. As literacy experts, we thought we could support these children through read-alouds focused on SEL. Our goal was to provide…

This study drew on two case studies to explore the implementation of the Atayal Indigenous book program in Taiwan. Eight teachers from two focal classrooms were invited to use dual language books featuring recurring grammatical structures to help young children learn the Atayal language. This study's purpose was to explore the instructional…

The Texas State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) has implemented new certification requirements, significantly affecting the path for aspiring Pre-K through 8th-grade educators. As of 2022, candidates must pass three exams: the pedagogy and professional responsibility (PPR) exam, a Core Subjects exam, and the newly mandated Science of…