Incidental acquisition of productive academic vocabulary

Academic vocabulary plays a crucial role in academic success. However, mastering academic vocabulary presents challenges due to the density of information and abstract nature of the words. Vocabulary instruction programs typically involve direct teaching of vocabulary words, leading to gains in receptive vocabulary knowledge. In contrast, incidental learning involves developing vocabulary knowledge through language-intensive activities, such as reading books or classroom discussions. Ma et al. (2017) and Pan et al. (2020) pioneered the exploration of the mechanism of incidental vocabulary acquisition in discussions Pan et al. (2020) found that self-use of words in student-centered collaborative discussions was key to vocabulary growth because it mediated the effects of other word factors, such as print exposure and oral exposure by peers. Moreover, peer use of words during discussions reduced the impact of word familiarity on vocabulary learning. Building on both studies, the present research investigated whether fifth graders could also incidentally acquire academic words from their teacher, a more sophisticated user of academic language, in a teacher-led instructional setting. The study design encompassed two discussion conditions (student-centered and teacher-led) and crossed two types of academic vocabulary (domain-specific and general). There were 347 students who participated in the Wolf Reintroduction and Management Unit, a socio-scientific unit concerning a controversy. The productive gain of academic words was measured through a mastery task (the Wolf Essay) and a transfer task (the Whale Interview). The mediation analysis results showed that both discussion groups acquired productive academic words and used them in the Wolf Essay; however, the gain was not transferred to the Whale Interview. Self-use of words in discussion generally mediated the effects of print exposure, word familiarity, peer exposure, and teacher exposure on the use of words in the Wolf Essay. Additionally, peer exposure in student collaborative discussions was effective in fostering productive vocabulary gain and could even compensate for word unfamiliarity. If a student used a domain-specific word and heard peers use it 20 times during the discussion, the chance of using the word in an independent essay was 79%. Overall, the discussion effect (indexed by self-use of words and others’ use of words in discussions) on word learning was more pronounced in the student-centered collaborative discussions. This difference might be attributed to the distinct participant structures in both discussion groups, as revealed by the content analysis of the discussion transcripts. The student-centered group allowed students to actively engage with the words in an authentic academic context and build a shared representation of the words even when they just listened to their peers. The student-centered collaborative discussions could be a viable and economical method to help students incidentally acquire academic vocabulary.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Pan, Pei-Yu (Marian)

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lin, Tzu-Jung
• Christianson, Kiel
• Anderson, Carolyn
• Yan, Xun
• Anderson, Richard C.

• Productive Academic Vocabulary
• Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition
• Student-centered Collaborative Discussion
• Teacher-led Discussion
• Interactive Alignment

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Pei-Yu (Marian) Pan

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124577

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124577