Direct Vocabulary Instruction in Kindergarten: Teaching for Breadth versus Depth

By Michael D. Coyne, D. McCoach, Suzy Loftus, Richard Zipoli Jr., Sharon Kapp. The Elementary school journal, 2009

247 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The purpose of this study was to compare 2 methods for directly teaching word meanings to kindergarten students within storybook read‐alouds that varied in instructional time and depth of instruction along with a control condition that provided students with incidental exposure to target words. Embedded instruction introduces target word meanings during storybook readings in a time‐efficient manner. Extended instruction is more time intensive but provides multiple opportunities to interact with target words outside the context of the story. Participants included 42 kindergarten students who were taught 9 target words, 3 with each method. Target words were counterbalanced in a within‐subjects design. Findings indicated that extended instruction resulted in more full and refined word knowledge, while embedded instruction resulted in partial knowledge of target vocabulary. Implications are discussed in relation to the strengths and limitations of different approaches to direct vocabulary instruction in kindergarten and the trade‐offs between instruction that focuses on teaching for breadth versus depth.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4b8c44f43cdd56160ff472fff269d5709b81c0ce

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Citations in the corpus

Effects of a Supplemental Vocabulary Program on Word Knowledge and Passage Comprehension (2012, methodology): “The TOIW-V is based on a verbal task developed by two members of the research team (Beck & McKeown, 2007 ) and used by Coyne (Coyne, McCoach, Loftus, Zipoli, & Kapp, 2009 ) that involves answering yes or no to questions such as, “Does exhausted mean to borrow something?””
The Effectiveness and Ease of Implementation of an Academic Vocabulary Intervention for Linguistically Diverse Students in Urban Middle Schools (2010, unknown): “…Reading Panel Report in 2000, a handful of studies have been published—some investigating the effects of a comprehensive approach to vocabulary instruction (e.g., Beck & McKeown, 2007; Lubliner & Smetana, 2005; Nelson & Stage, 2007), some comparing single approaches (e.g., Coyne et al., 2009).”
Paucity and Disparity in Kindergarten Oral Vocabulary Instruction (2014, background): “Studies (Coyne et al., 2009) have found that embedded explanations result in partial word knowledge, whereas more extended instruction promotes more full and refined understanding of target words.”
The language of play: developing preschool vocabulary through play following shared book-reading (2018, background): “Although a recent systematic review of book-reading interventions (Wasik et al., 2016) noted that gains are typically modest in terms of the proportion of words that are learned, the authors also argue that book-reading lends itself to the types of opportunities for exposure to and engagement with…”
Book reading and vocabulary development: A systematic review (2016, unknown): “…Blewitt et al. S2 (2009) 8 1 5 5 19 No Coyne et al. (2004) 6 2 5 5 18 No Coyne et al. S1 (2007) 9 3 4 4 20 Yes Coyne et al. S 2 (2007) 8 2 5 4 19 Yes Coyne et al. (2009) 8 2 5 4 19 Yes Coyne et al. (2010) 9 3 5 3 20 Yes Ewers and B. (1999) 8 1 3 5 17 No Gonzalez et al. (2010) 9 2 5 5 21 Yes…”
Direct and Extended Vocabulary Instruction in Kindergarten: Investigating Transfer Effects (2010, methodology): “We have evaluated the effects of this instruction on the short-term word learning of target vocabulary in previous studies (Coyne et al., 2009; Coyne et al., 2007).”
Effects of a Supplemental Vocabulary Intervention on the Word Knowledge of Kindergarten Students at Risk for Language and Literacy Difficulties (2010, methodology): “The instructional procedures employed in the classroom-based instruction condition were developed and evaluated within the context of a previous program of research (Project VI-TAL: Vocabulary Intervention Targeting At-Risk Learners, Coyne et al., 2007; Coyne et al., 2009).”