Moderating role of reading comprehension in children's word learning with context versus pictures

Sophie Gruhn,Ludo Verhoeven,Eliane Segers

doi:10.1111/jcal.12387

Abstract

AbstractWe investigated pictorial versus contextual support effects over and above teaching of definitions on children's word learning and retention as well as the moderating role of reading comprehension. In a between‐subject pre‐post‐retention test control group design, Dutch fourth graders learned concrete and abstract Dutch words. The context group received definitions and context sentences, the picture group received definitions and pictures, and the control group only received definitions. Children in the picture group outperformed children in the context group but not the control group on all words directly after learning. This learning gain, however, disappeared over time because participants in the context group retrieved the word meanings better than in the other groups 1 day later. Interestingly, reading comprehension moderated the forgetting effect, as low comprehenders in the experimental groups forgot less than those in the control group. Adding pictures to definitions, thus, leads to richer long‐term knowledge for low comprehenders.

Highlights

Vocabulary is an important predictor of reading comprehension abilities across primary school, and reading comprehension in turn is an important skill for vocabulary learning (e.g., Verhoeven, Van Leeuwe, & Vermeer, 2011)
In contrast to context sentences, adding pictures to definitions enhanced direct word learning of children with various reading comprehension abilities on short term better than adding context sentences
This effect disappeared over time, pictures fostered the retention of the acquired knowledge for low comprehenders over and above definitions

Summary

Introduction

Vocabulary is an important predictor of reading comprehension abilities across primary school, and reading comprehension in turn is an important skill for vocabulary learning (e.g., Verhoeven, Van Leeuwe, & Vermeer, 2011). Besides vocabulary breadth (quantity of words in the mental lexicon), vocabulary depth (how much is known) is a significant and unique predictor of reading comprehension (e.g., Cain & Oakhill, 2014) To foster such deeper word knowledge, extended direct vocabulary instruction with richer semantic information has been shown to be effective (e.g., Coyne, McCoach, Loftus, Zipoli, & Kapp, 2009). Such instruction may be especially helpful for children with lower reading comprehension abilities because they have problems in inferring word meanings from context during reading (Cain & Oakhill, 2011).

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