Vocabulary Instruction in a Balanced Reading Program

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Children’s word recognition capability,vocabulary growth, and comprehensiondevelopment are essential components

of a balanced reading program. Reading in-struction that focuses on the growth of chil-dren’s vocabulary results in enhancing theirabilities to infer meanings and to better com-prehend what they read. As noted by Daneman(1991), vocabulary is partially an outcome ofcomprehension skills, and reading comprehen-sion is partially an outcome of vocabulary.Thus, they provide a mutual benefit in pro-moting reading development. As children’svocabulary grows their ability to comprehendwhat they read grows as well; furthermore, astheir comprehension skills grow so do theirabilities to learn new words from context.

Children with broad vocabulary knowl-edge are better able to infer the meanings of

Vocabulary instruction in abalanced reading program

Although somewhat overlooked inrecent years, vocabulary (wordmeaning) development is a criticalaspect of successful reading. This article explores the role ofvocabulary in reading developmentand suggests some classroom-testedapproaches for nurturingvocabulary development andinterest in students.

William H. Rupley _________________________________John W. LoganWilliam D. Nichols

unfamiliar words in the texts that they read.Vocabulary knowledge supports the reader’stext processing and interaction with the author,which in turn promote the formation and vali-dation of concepts and learning. The author’sand the reader’s vocabulary and experiencesare woven together to form the fabric of learn-ing, confirming, reasoning, experiencing, en-joying, and imagining.

However, vocabulary instruction has notbeen a focus of recent professional writing anddiscussion. Although The Reading Teacher haspublished articles during the past year on wordrecognition and comprehension instruction,there have been no articles devoted to vocab-ulary instruction. Indeed, only 2% of all sub-missions for The Reading Teacher in 1997dealt with instruction in vocabulary (Padak &Rasinski, 1998). Moreover, Cassidy andWenrich (1998/1999) report that the consensusof literacy leaders is that vocabulary is cur-rently not a hot topic.

Vocabulary instruction is an integral com-ponent of teaching children how to read bothnarrative and informational text. We advocatea balanced approach to teaching vocabulary—at one end of the continuum is writing worddefinitions and at the other end is learning vo-cabulary solely through contextual readingand experience. We recommend an eclecticapproach in which both direct instruction andwide reading are means for fostering vocabu-lary development.

Children who are capable decoders oftenexperience difficulty in reading when they en-counter too many words for which they haveno meaning. As students are expected to usereading to acquire new information, the role of

Copyright 2002 International Reading Association, Inc. All rights reserved.

vocabulary knowledge takes on greater impor-tance. Not having access to the meaning ofwords representative of the concepts and con-tent of what they read causes difficulty in chil-dren’s comprehension of texts, limits theirability to make a connection with their existingbackground knowledge, and inhibits their ca-pacity to make coherent inferences (Heilman,Blair, & Rupley, 1998). Because it further nur-tures children’s comprehension development,vocabulary knowledge is a critical part of abalanced reading instruction program.

Vocabulary growthContinuous cultivation of students’ lan-

guage ability is the foundation for vocabularygrowth. Readers and writers share meaningsthrough their direct experiences with people,places, objects, and events and through theirvicarious experiences, including interactivetechnology, videotapes, pictures, movies, read-ing, and writing. Children’s vocabulary knowl-edge closely reflects their breadth of real-lifeand vicarious experiences. Without someknowledge of the concepts that written wordsrepresent, students cannot comprehend well.Vocabulary is a shared component of writingand reading—it helps the author and the read-er to interact and the reader to comprehendthrough the shared word meanings.

Students’ knowledge of words can rangefrom simple to complex. Word knowledge canbe viewed as a “continuum from no knowl-edge; to a general sense, such as knowing thatmendacious has a negative connotation; to nar-row, context-bound knowledge; to having knowledge but not being able to access itquickly; to rich decontextualized knowledge ofa word meaning” (Beck & McKeown, 1991,p. 792). One form of simple level word knowl-edge is definitional. Definitional knowledge isword knowledge based upon a definition thatmay come from a dictionary, thesaurus, glos-sary, word bank, or other individuals. Often,however, definitions do not help a reader un-derstand or infer the contribution of an un-known word’s meanings to the text. Tocomprehend, a reader needs some idea of notonly a word’s meanings, but also the ways inwhich the meaning contributes to the cohe-siveness of the ideas or information.

Another simple level of word knowledgeis contextual. Contextual knowledge is word

meaning derived from context, which can in-clude a sentence, a passage, a discussion, or apicture (Watts, 1995). However, contextualclues have limitations in enabling children to

derive the meaning of words. Use of contextto derive the contribution of word meaningsto the comprehension of text requires knowl-edge of the content and how the meanings ofwords combine to facilitate communication ofthe content through author and reader interac-tion. Often extracted text (sentence or short para-graphs) has inadequate context for enablingchildren to use their prior knowledge to knowor to infer the meaning of a word. Consider thefollowing:

Randy became very nervous as the doc-tor’s assistant approached him with the sphyg-momanometer.

The sentence context helps to some degreeto understand the general setting of the event(perhaps a doctor’s office), that Randy is ex-periencing fear or excitement, and that thesphygmomanometer is a thing. However, noneof this context is helpful in inferring the mean-ing of the word until we read further.

She asked him to roll up his sleeve so thatshe could take his blood pressure. Wrappingthe wide band tightly around his upper arm,she commented, “This new sphygmomanome-ter is so much more accurate in taking a pa-tient’s blood pressure than the old one we usedto have.”

Able readers integrate information as theyread to construct meaning. If context is notenough to derive meaning from an unknownword, skilled readers use their languageknowledge to help them infer meaning. Theyperform these operations so rapidly and auto-matically that they are not aware of them.

Vocabulary and conceptdevelopment

Readers’ experiential and conceptual back-grounds are extremely important in vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction in a balanced reading program 115


Children’s vocabulary knowledge closelyreflects their breadth of real-life andvicarious experiences.

development. Background experiences arewhat readers use to develop, expand, and re-fine concepts that words represent. Tennysonand Cocchiarella (1986) note that there are twophases in the learning of concepts. The firstphase is an understanding of the function ofconcepts in relation to their attributes (whichthey refer to as prototypes) and then makingconnections of new concepts with existing con-cepts. The second phase is using proceduralknowledge, which is “the classification skills ofgeneralizing to and discriminating betweennewly encountered instances of associated con-cepts” (p. 44). In phase 1, individuals may un-dergeneralize and overgeneralize due to theirlimited experiences with concept. This is oftenevident in young children when, for example,they call all large animals in a pasture “cows”and all liquids for drinking “milk” or “juice.” Inphase 2, children can distinguish between cowsand horses and various liquids for drinking.Vocabulary expands when children have nu-merous opportunities to encounter new wordsand examples that are representative of thesewords in rich contextual settings. Individualsdo not use restricted definitions of words asthey read, but construct word meaning in termsof context for the concepts that represent theirbackground knowledge.

Active processing of vocabularyBy building connections between “old”

vocabulary words and new words found intheir reading, students begin to understand re-lationships among words they encounter.When instruction is based on building connec-tions, students are not just asked to supplywords that fit the example, but rather to de-scribe how words fit in the stories and infor-mational text that they read. As we visit andparticipate in elementary classrooms we seemany children such as Matthew, who just fin-ished reading the first chapter of The DinosaurWho Lived in My Backyard (Davis & Hennessy,1990) and used “enormous” to describe thesize of the dinosaur. His teacher smiled andcommented on his vocabulary, “Can you thinkof some other words that you might expect tofind in the book?”

Matt smiled and said, “Yep, gigantic,huge, and colossal. Kinda like King Kong.”

Such discussions and activities that relateand support the integration of new words and

the concepts they represent to the children’spast experiences help to expand their vocabu-laries in a meaningful manner.

Knowing a word in the fullest sense goesbeyond simply being able to define it or getsome gist of it from the context. Active pro-cessing that associates experiences and con-cepts with words contributes significantly tovocabulary growth, enhanced comprehension,and continuous learning. Vocabulary instruc-tion that encourages children to discuss, elabo-rate, and demonstrate meanings of new words,and provides varied opportunities for them touse new words outside of their classroom hasbeen shown to be effective (Beck, Perfetti, &McKeown, 1982). Such vocabulary instructionis based on and encourages active processingof word meaning.

Active process vocabularyinstruction

Teaching vocabulary in a balanced readingprogram should be grounded in teacher-directed instruction, varied opportunities forstudents to practice and apply their wordknowledge, and exposure to wide reading andwriting activities in both narrative and informa-tional texts. Students ought to be engaged in learning new words and expanding their un-derstanding of words through instruction that isbased on active processing. That is, students arenot just memorizing definitions but are enteringinformation and integrating word meaningswith their existing knowledge to build concep-tual representations of vocabulary in multiplecontextual situations. The following instruc-tional guidelines (Blachowicz & Fisher, 1996;Blachowicz & Lee, 1991) reflect the inclusionof these active processing components.

1. Select words for vocabulary instructionthat come from texts that students will read inthe classroom. This helps make the meanings ofwords relevant to the context in which they ap-pear and helps to build connections between ex-isting knowledge and new knowledge. Studentsencounter the new words in a confirmatorymanner rather than as an unknown word.

2. Base instruction on language activities asa primary means of word learning. The focus ofthe activities should be on engaging the studentsin generating the learning of new words to en-hance remembering and deep processing of thewords. Students should be provided multiple

116 Reprinted from The Reading Teacher, 52, 336–346, December 1998/January 1999.


opportunities to use new words in their speaking,listening, reading, and writing activities.

3. Build a conceptual base for learningnew words. Use analogies, language features,and other relationships to known words to ac-tivate students’ background knowledge of con-cepts related to new words.

4. Provide a variety of instructional strate-gies to store word knowledge (mental pictures,visual aids, kinesthetic associations, smells,tastes, etc.).

Instructional activities that allow for a vi-sual display of words and promote students’comparing and contrasting of new words toknown words can be a beneficial means for in-creasing their vocabulary knowledge. Seman-tic mapping, semantic feature analysis, wordmapping, and webbing are effective instruc-tional strategies that incorporate many of theguidelines for active processing of vocabulary.These instructional activities enable studentsto expand their vocabularies, understand rela-tionships between existing and new informa-tion, and learn. Visual displays of words can beused to preteach essential concepts and infor-mation in texts before students read. Theteaching and reviewing of key concept wordsprior to reading help students activate theirbackground knowledge, relate this knowledgeto new concepts, and understand how newwords and concepts are related.

Applications and examples of activeprocess vocabulary instruction

It is important that vocabulary instruction-al practices immerse students in language-richactivities that teach words in meaningful read-ing experiences. Vocabulary emphases includeteacher-directed instruction and appropriatepractice in specific skills along with broadreading and writing opportunities. Vocabularyinstruction is often criticized when it is taughtin isolation of text and becomes a dictionaryactivity in which students copy definitions ofwords and then write sentences using thesewords. Instruction such as this, which avoidsactive student engagement in vocabulary andconcept development, does not connect to stu-dents’ previous knowledge. A richer vocabu-lary experience would be to have students firstwrite sentences using the vocabulary words,then use the dictionary to confirm if the sen-tence context used an acceptable meaning of

the word. Vocabulary instruction, whether it isfocused on narrative or informational text, ismost effective when it relates new words or de-rivations of words to existing vocabulary andbackground knowledge.

The following classroom vignettes are il-lustrative of how a teacher, Ms. Marie Thomas,uses exemplary vocabulary strategies in herclassroom. Ms. Thomas is an amalgamation ofthe countless teachers with whom we haveworked. She embodies characteristics of manyof the teachers we have visited, worked with,and observed over numerous years—teacherswho recognize that vocabulary is the glue thatholds stories, ideas, and content together andthat it facilitates making comprehension acces-sible for children. Ms. Thomas is representativeof teachers who shared with us how their learn-ing about effective vocabulary instruction inreading, science, math, writing, and social stud-ies gave them newfound enthusiasm for teach-ing. She represents the teacher in one of ourstaff development projects who said, “I havegrown not only in my teaching but in my learn-ing, also. I learned how to actively use vocabu-lary instruction in my teaching of science.”

Concept wheel/circleOne instructional technique that builds on

students’ background knowledge, encouragesbrainstorming and discussion, and at the sametime visually displays the connection betweenprevious conceptual knowledge and the newword being encountered is the concept wheel/circle (see Figure 1).

Ms. Thomas teaches science to a fifth-grade class of approximately 20 students. Shebegins her lesson one morning incorporatingthe concept wheel or concept circle into hercurrent science lesson. She explains to herclass, “Today, we’re going to be studying



Vocabulary instruction that encourageschildren to discuss, elaborate, anddemonstrate meanings of new words andthat provides varied opportunities to usenew words outside of their classroomhas been shown to be effective.

several terms that relate to our subject aboutanimals and their environment.” The first wordshe suggests is migrate.

She begins by asking her class, “Okayclass, what are some words that come to mindwhen you think of migrate?”

Suzy raises her hand and calls out,“Whales! Whales in the ocean, not at SeaWorld!”

Ms. Thomas responds, “That’s good, Suzy!Why did you think of whales?”

Suzy answers, “This weekend my momand I watched a show on TV that said some-thing about whales swimming from one part ofthe ocean to the other looking for food andstuff. My mom told me that whales that live inplaces like Sea World can’t do that becausethey live in a big tank.”

Ms. Thomas calls on Todd: “I think of but-terflies and birds because they fly.”

Greg raises his hand and responds, “Yeah,but birds don’t just fly. I think they fly southor somewhere warmer.”

Ms. Thomas asks the students to suggestwhere the birds might fly, and Amy states, “Iknow. Birds fly to Florida in the winter be-cause it never snows and they can stay warm.”

Ms. Thomas acknowledges that everyonehas responded well and prompts the studentsto continue suggesting a few more words.

Scott raises his hand, and when he is calledon responds, “I think that migrate means totravel or move to another city or something.”When asked to explain, Scott continues, “Well,people and birds or whatever travel to placeswhen they want to be warmer like Greg said.”

“That’s very good, Scott. Does anyoneelse have any suggestions?”

“I think migrate has something to do withwinter, but I’m not sure,” offers Erin.

Alicia calls out, “I think of farmers whenI think of migrate because they’ve got animalslike sheep and cows that move around frompasture to pasture.”

Ms. Thomas asks the students to end thesuggestions and proceeds to generate a list ofwords that fit appropriately with migrate. Sheincludes all of the suggested words, and they arewritten on the chalkboard. Upon the completionof the list she directs the students to turn to page342 in their science textbook, find the word mi-grate, and listen as she reads the glossary defi-nition of the word. The students compare theirgenerated list of words to the definition.

Ms. Thomas then tells the class, “I’d likeeveryone to look over these words on the boardvery carefully. Now based upon the definitionlocated in the glossary, you need to decide onat least three words from this list that will helpyou remember the word migrate. I want youto write your selected words in your wheel andturn in your assignment at 10:30.”

Suzy chooses her words and writes downwhales, birds, and fly south in her conceptwheel.

Another way to use the concept wheel is toallow students to place the correct vocabularyword with the corresponding concept wheel.Then the students identify the concept that isbeing completed by providing a name for thewheel. This approach has several alternativemodifications to fit the various needs ofteacher/student instruction.

Semantic word mapSemantic word maps allow students to

conceptually explore their knowledge of a newword by mapping it with other words or phras-es, which categorically share meaning with thenew word. Words that function as labels forand as a means of integration of concepts donot often clearly demonstrate the meaning be-hind the concept when viewed alone. Wordmaps allow students to learn the connectionamong several words in order to provide aclearer definition of the concept represented.The concept becomes clearer when words aregrouped together by similar criteria such asideas, events, characteristics, examples, and



Figure 1Concept wheel

Migratewhalesbirdsfly southbutterfliesfarmerstravelwinter

Migrate

fly south

whales

birds

so forth. Word maps work best when theteacher allows students time to brainstorm,generate a list, and participate in whole-classor small-group discussion. Once the list is gen-erated the teacher can allow small groups towork together to create a semantic word map.It is important to remember to allow time forthe groups to share their ideas on how theyconstructed their semantic map. Processesused by students often provide teachers with aricher, deeper understanding into students’base of understanding than will the final prod-uct.

Ms. Thomas decides to use a semanticword map while teaching her lessons on dif-ferent forms of energy. She begins her classby asking, “Does everyone remember lastFriday when I explained that we would bespending this week exploring different types ofenergy? Well, we are going to start today’s les-son with solar energy as the first type of ener-gy. I’d like everyone to brainstorm as manywords as they can regarding solar energy.”

For the next half hour, students give sug-gestions similar to Ermine’s, “My dad told methat solar energy comes from the sun and is aform of power.”

Ms. Thomas says, “You’re right, Ermine.The sun is how the energy becomes available,and the power it gives off is an effect of solarenergy.”

More students respond with words relatedto their ideas of solar energy while Ms.Thomas affirms their examples by listing theirwords on the board. Once the class as a wholesuggested all the words they could think of,Ms. Thomas says, “Next, I’d like you to orga-nize the list of words that have been suggest-ed and place the appropriate words under thecategories that we discussed, such as effects,cost, education, and feasibility. You will workin small groups to complete this activity. Inyour groups, I want you to decide which wordsbelong under the appropriate categories. Besure to discuss why you placed the terms underthe selected categories. I’ll give you about 10minutes to complete your word map.”

Using this process the students begin to de-termine which words are appropriate and whichwords should be excluded. As each group dis-cusses the construction of their word maps, Ms.Thomas walks around the room observing eachgroup’s progress and assisting when needed.

At the end of the 10 minutes Ms. Thomasinterjects, “Okay, everyone! I saw some goodwork going on within your groups. I’d like tospend the rest of the period allowing eachgroup to come up to the front of the class andpresent your semantic word maps.”

Hector, Alicia, Donald, and Rose Marievolunteer to be first and proceed to explain theirword map and how they decided to choose eachword for the appropriate category. The wordmap in Figure 2 is an example of their work.

WebbingA method that graphically illustrates how

to associate words meaningfully and allowsstudents to make connections between whatthey know about words and how words are re-lated is semantic webbing. It allows studentsto see the relationship between words and con-cepts that they have previously experienced orread. In order to ensure that students grasp thefeatures and purposes of webbing, the teachercan use a web with an empty center. Studentscan begin to understand the relationship ofwords in the web by choosing and consideringwords that might complete the center word.

Following the lesson on solar energy, Ms.Thomas introduces the next energy lesson, onelectricity. “We’re going to do some more brain-storming. Someone give me a word that comesto mind when you think of electricity,” she asks.

As Jerome raises his hand he suggests, “Ithink of lightning when I think of electricity.”

Ms. Thomas responds as she writes thesuggestion on the board, “Good, Jerome. Cansomeone think of a word related to lightning orelectricity?”

Tom calls out, “Yeah! Wasn’t it BenjaminFranklin who flew his kite and discoveredelectricity?”

As the lesson progresses, one student sug-gests Thomas Edison while another personsuggests light bulbs because Thomas Edisoninvented the light bulb. Along with the com-ments, Ms. Thomas writes the words on theboard and links them together appropriately.After one student mentions Christmas lights,Rose Marie asks, “Wouldn’t Santa go withChristmas lights?”

Ms. Thomas writes down her suggestion andredirects the students’ comments back to elec-tricity-related words so that the focus remains





Figure 2Semantic word map

Availability

Sun Materials

Endless supply Requiresmanufacturing

Sand is a non-renewable resource

Effects

Long-term Environmental

Increasing need of power

Mining sand could have a negative effecton environment

Populationincrease

Technologicaladvances

Cost

Equipment Education

Governmentalbudget Cut utility cost 85%

More money needs to be spent on solarenergy materials and research($608 billion spent on nuclear vs. $79 billionfor solar)

Feasibility Education

Commitment Implementation

Need increasingglobal commitment

Easy to do becausetechnology in place and solarpower in use

Needs Implementation

Global awareness Public acceptance

Governmentinvolvement

SOLAR ENERGY



on the key concept. The result of the class dis-cussion can be seen in the example in Figure 3.

Concept of definitionA variation of concept mapping and web-

bing is a procedure that Schwartz and Raphael(1985) refer to as concept of definition, whichprovides a framework for organizing informa-tion in order to define new vocabulary words.Concept of definition instruction enables stu-dents to clarify the meaning of unknown termsby using a hierarchical structure to conceptual-ize the definition of the new term. Concept ofdefinition makes use of categories (What is it?),properties (What is it like?), illustrations (Whatare some examples?), and comparisons (Howare examples same or different?) in order to pro-vide students with a clear understanding of thenew term. After mapping the word, studentsshould supply an oral or written definition forthe given concept, and the teacher should pro-

vide assistance to help students realize that theamount of properties and illustrations may varydepending on the complexity of the new term.

Application of concept of definitions wasevident in Ms. Thomas’s class in a lesson on an-imals and their environment. “Let’s spend sometime today discussing a type of animal and re-lated ideas. The first animal type is fish. I’d likeeveryone to pay attention to the following ideas:categories (What is it?), properties (What is itlike?), illustrations (What are some examples?),and comparisons (How are examples sameand/or different?). With each idea, brainstormtogether to come up with words that you believebelong under each category.”

Amy raises her hand and mentions, “Ithink that fish are scaly.”

Ms. Thomas responds, “That’s true, Amy.What do you think scaly means?”

“Being scaly is when you have rough skinor flakes on your body like a fish.”

Figure 3Semantic web

Electricity

Ben Franklin

Thomas Edison

light bulbs

Christmas lights

Santa Claus

hydro-electricity

thunder storms

lightning

wires

shock

generators

dams

rain



Ms. Thomas writes scaly on the chalkboardand asks Amy for the category of the word.Amy says, “I guess it would fall under proper-ties because it describes what the fish is like.”

As each student provides different words,Ms. Thomas asks for a definition and wherethe word should be placed. After the comple-tion of the organizer Ms. Thomas asks the stu-dents to write a description of fish similar toones located in their science text. The studentsthen compare their written descriptions withthe text. Ms. Thomas’ class created the conceptof definition in Figure 4.

Semantic feature analysisSemantic feature analysis can also help stu-

dents understand relationships among words

and relate their background knowledge to newwords. This approach is beneficial to studentswhen words are closely related by class orcommon features. In order for students to ana-lyze common vocabulary the teacher lists sev-eral familiar words that are related, such astypes of fish, on a chart. Next, the teacherguides the students to discuss features or char-acteristics associated with the words listed. Asstudents suggest features, these are writtenacross the top of the chart (e.g., location, size,behavior), creating a matrix that the studentscan complete in terms of presence (+) or ab-sence (–). As the students broaden and definetheir concepts, the teacher adds words and fea-tures to the list and analyzes them. Semanticfeature analysis is a strategy that can be used

Figure 4Concept of definition

Animal Vertebrate

Categories What is it?

Salt water

Dolphins

Freshwater

Fish

Sea mammals

Scaly

Gills

Fins

Trout

Whales

PropertiesWhat is it like?

ComparisonsSame/Different

IllustrationsWhat are some examples?

GoldfishBassShark



for both narrative and informational texts. Thearrays can be developed and expanded as stu-dents’ background knowledge grows. During asubsequent lesson, Ms. Thomas brings excitingnews to class, “I have thought of a good wayto conclude our unit on fish. How does anaquarium set up in our classroom sound?”

The students are unanimously excited.Alicia offers an idea. “Ms. Thomas, my dadhas an aquarium in his restaurant and it hasgoldfish in it. Could we have goldfish in ourstoo? They’re really colorful.”

Billy raises his hand and asks, “Whatabout angelfish?”

Ms. Thomas explains, “These are all goodsuggestions. Let’s decide which types of fishwe want, where they would live in the aquari-um, how big they’re going to be, and how theywill interact with other fish. So far we havetwo types, angelfish and goldfish. Let’s figureout their characteristics as well as suggestsome more kinds of fish.”

After much discussion the students and theteacher decide on the three following charac-teristics: location, size, and behavior. The classreached the decision that they wanted anaquarium that was peaceful and had as manyfish as possible located throughout the tank.Ms. Thomas then asked her students to com-plete the semantic feature analysis based ontheir existing knowledge about the varioustypes of fish that they listed.

Once the students completed their orga-nizer she said, “Now, I would like you to usethe variety of texts about fish located in the sci-ence center to check your predictions andcomplete your semantic feature analysis.”

The students enthusiastically began theirscientific investigation using the selected re-sources provided by the teacher. Once all stu-dents had completed their organizer Ms.Thomas shared her completed organizer sothat the students could compare their own re-search with hers (see Figure 5).

Figure 5Semantic feature analysis

Types of fish FeaturesLocation Size Behavior

Bottom Middle Top Small Middle Large Peaceful Aggressive Violent

AlgaeEater

Angelfish

BlackMolly

DwarfGourami

Goldfish

Guppy

NeonTetra

Piranha

SiameseFighting

Zebra-fish



Teaching vocabulary versus incidentallearning of words through wide reading shouldnot be viewed as competing philosophies.Some students may not benefit from incidentallearning but do benefit from teacher-directedinstruction that initially teaches word mean-ing by application in meaningful narrative andexpository text (McKeown, 1993). Much ofthe criticism leveled at vocabulary teachingconcerns practices in which students are notactively involved in the personal discussionand use of words, such as defining words usinga dictionary and writing sentences for thosewords. Any instructional practice must becalled into question that neglects the teachingof words in meaningful context and fails to im-merse the students in vocabulary-rich activi-ties. Vocabulary instruction that is geared tothe active process of learning and connectsnew information to previously learned experi-ences provides the means for students to makethe connection between new words and theirpast experiences. The key to successful vocab-ulary instruction builds upon students’ back-ground knowledge and makes explicit theconnections between new words and what theyalready know.

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Beck, I., Perfetti, C.A., & McKeown, M. (1982). The effectsof long-term vocabulary instruction on lexical accessand reading comprehension. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 74, 506–520.

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Blachowicz, C., & Lee, J. (1991). Vocabulary developmentin the literacy classroom. The Reading Teacher, 45,188–195.

Cassidy, J., & Wenrich, J.K. (1998/1999). Literacy re-search and practice: What’s hot, what’s not, and why.The Reading Teacher, 52, pp. 378–382.

Daneman, M. (1991). Individual differences in readingskills. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. Pearson(Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp.512–538). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Davis, S., & Hennessy, B.G. (1990). The dinosaur wholived in my backyard. London: Puffin.

Heilman, A.W., Blair, T.R., & Rupley, W.H. (1998).Principles and practices of teaching reading (9th ed.).Columbus, OH: Merrill.

McKeown, M.G. (1993). Creating effective definitions foryoung word learners. Reading Research Quarterly, 28,16–33.

Padak, N., & Rasinski, T. (1998, May). The ReadingTeacher business meeting report. Paper presented atthe annual meeting of the International ReadingAssociation, Orlando, FL.

Schwartz, R.M., & Raphael, T.E. (1985). Concept of defi-nition: A key to improving students’ vocabulary. TheReading Teacher, 39, 198–205.

Tennyson, R., & Cocchiarella, M. (1986). An empiricallybased instructional design theory for teaching con-cepts. Review of Educational Research, 56, 40–71.

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Vocabulary Instruction in a Balanced Reading Program

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