A comparison of three methods of vocabulary instruction during read-alouds in kindergarten

This article presents results from 2 studies comparing 3 approaches to teaching vocabulary during storybook reading: (a) contextual instruction, based on connecting words to their use in books and to children's personal experience; (b) analytical instruction, which enhances contextual instruction with semantic analysis of words in contexts other than the books and children's experience; and (c) anchored instruction, which augments analytical instruction with attention to the spoken and written forms of words. Each approach was implemented by classroom teachers in 2 of 6 kindergarten classrooms from 2 schools for 6 weeks. In the first study, I compared the effects of these approaches on 94 children's learning of taught words at the end of the intervention. The second study investigated the effects of instruction with 50 children from the original study 6 months after the intervention, when the children were in first grade. Of the children in the study, about a third were English language learners, and about a third were from low socioeconomic status families. I assessed children's knowledge of the words targeted in the intervention through a picture and oral vocabulary measure that I developed based on the format of the Test of Language Development P:3, which I administered and used as a control for children's general vocabulary knowledge. Results suggested that both the analytical and anchored methods of instruction were significantly more effective than the contextual method at promoting children's learning of words targeted in instruction.