Academic Vocabulary: Explicit and Incidental Instruction for Students of Diverse Language Backgrounds

Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge is a crucial element of reading comprehension. Academic vocabulary poses particular challenges for students and should be a focus of instruction, particularly for students from diverse language backgrounds. This study was part of a larger literacy in social studies intervention aimed at increasing students’ reading comprehension and engagement. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance indicated that although both emergent bilingual and English monolingual students improved on words that were explicitly taught, only English monolingual students improved in their knowledge of words that were incidentally taught. Qualitative observational notes indicated that teachers’ explicit vocabulary instruction included the use of graphic organizers, think–pair–share activities, and scaffolded discussions. Teachers taught word-learning strategies and developed word consciousness to different degrees. Findings could indicate that emergent bilingual students are less likely to benefit from incidental instruction of academic vocabulary words, which supports previous literature on the crucial role of explicit vocabulary instruction.