Value Added by SLPs to Vocabulary
Instruction with Older Students
Barbara J. Ehren
Cheran A. Zadroga
Janet L. Proly
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
Advance Organizer - Outcomes
•  Describe a language-sensitive vocabulary
instruction protocol called the Vocabulary
Scenario Technique [VST] (Ehren, 2008).
•  Explain results of a study in which an SLP
served as the instructor during a 6 week period
of vocabulary instruction in a 4th grade class.
•  Reflect on the roles of SLPs in vocabulary
instruction/intervention.
Advance Organizer - Organization
•  Background Information
•  The Research Study
•  Implications
–  Practice
–  Research
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Least Effective Way to Teach
Vocabulary
Here are your vocabulary words for the
week. Look them up in the dictionary
and write the definitions.
•  63% of students’ sentences were judged
to be “odd” (Miller & Gildea, 1985).
•  60% of students’ responses were
unacceptable (McKeown, 1993).
•  Students frequently interpreted one or
two words from a definition as the entire
meaning (Scott & Nagy, 1989).
The Technique
The Vocabulary Scenario Technique (VST) is a
direct teaching approach that has been
evaluated informally as one part of a larger
program entitled “STRUCTURE Your Reading
[SYR]” (Ehren, 2008), an approach to teach
strategic reading to school-aged children and
adolescents.
Why Address Vocabulary?
•  The importance of vocabulary knowledge to reading
comprehension is well-established in the literature
(National Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, 2002; Tannenbaum,
Torgesen, & Wagner, 2006).
•  Vocabulary knowledge accounts for significant
variance in reading outcomes, even after controlling
for differences in phonological awareness and other
phonological skills (Catts, Fey, Zhang, &Tomblin, 1999;
Scarborough, 1990; Share & Leikin, 2004; Storch & Whitehurst,
2002; Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Burgess, & Hecht, 1997;
Wood & Hill, 2002).
•  Average high school seniors have a vocabulary of
approximately 50,000 words and add approximately 3,000
words per year to their reading vocabularies (Nagy &
Herman, 1987).
•  Struggling readers experience a significant “vocabulary
gap” that widens over time (Stanovich, 1986).
•  By 4th grade, the struggling reader is faced with increasing
reading comprehension demands that includes exposure
to thousands of unfamiliar words (Nagy & Anderson, 1984).
•  Reading becomes the primary mechanism by which
students learn new social studies, math, and science
vocabulary and concepts (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006).
•  The challenge is to find effective ways to teach
older students vocabulary in a way that is
compatible with classroom instruction and that
provides opportunity for scaffolding for
struggling students.
An important question is: What is the
SLP’s role in all of this?
RESEARCH STUDY
Research Question
•  Does a SLP using the Vocabulary Scenario
Technique (VTS) with language-focused features
result in greater vocabulary growth among 4th
graders than a teacher providing vocabulary
instruction using standard practice for teaching
vocabulary?
Participants
•  elementary school
–  large urban school district
–  920 students
–  located in a suburb of a city
–  34% of the students were eligible for free or reduced
lunch
–  56% were students from minority groups.
Participants
4th grade Class
Control
4th grade Class
Treatment
Limited English
Proficient
5
Students with
Disabilities
1
Limited English
Proficient
1
Students with
Disabilities
4
Gender
Males= 11
Females= 11
Gender
Males= 11
Females= 12
Measures
Synonym
Test
A group administered pre/post
multiple choice, paper/pencil test
to identify synonyms of the 36
targeted words
-Measured understanding of basic
meaning of the words taught
Example: migrate
a. stay
b.travel
c. arrive
d. fly
Sentence
Test
Measures
A group administered pre/post, paper/
pencil test that involved writing each
of the 23 targeted words in complete
sentences
-Measured understanding of correct
usage at the sentence level
Example: migrate
The birds from New York like
to migrate to Miami for the
winter.
To create the measures the following procedures
were used:
(1)  An expert panel of the volunteer 4th grade teachers at
the participating school identified 80 Tier 2 words that
4th grade students were not likely to know;
(2) Researchers designed a synonym vocabulary test
using the 80 words;
(3) A 4th grade class not serving as the study treatment or
control group took the test;
(4) Researchers selected the final 48 words for the pre
and post tests. Both the synonym and sentence
level pre and post tests contained identical words;
however, the word order was different in the pre and
post test conditions.
(5) Researchers then analyzed the synonym test
selecting the final 36 words that most students did
not know to teach as the corpus of vocabulary
words over the duration of the 6 week intervention.
Instructional Procedure
•  The VST is a method of teaching vocabulary
words using a 2 to 5 sentence story or
“scenario” that explicates the meaning of the
word.
•  Scenarios are constructed to resonate with the
experiences of students and serve as a basis for
a variety of activities.
Criteria for Constructing Scenarios
  The scenario should be no longer than 5
sentences.
  The meaning needs to be clear and contained
within the scenario.
  The scenario does not contain other words
students do not know
  The content of the scenarios is within the
experiences of students.
Example of a Scenario
My cat knocked over the milk that was on the
kitchen counter. My mom grabbed a lot of paper
towels to absorb the milk. It was a good thing
that the towels soaked up the milk, or we would
have had a mess.
Language-Focused Features
•  Deliberate attempts to link listening, speaking, reading
and writing (ASHA, 2001; Catts & Kamhi, 1999)
•  Focus on increasing word schema by expanding
world and personal knowledge connections (Nagy &
Scott, 2000).
•  Extended work on morphological analysis of words –
roots, affixes (Carlisle, 2004)
•  Active engagement in responding i.e. more practice in
using the word (Nagy & Scott, 2000).
•  Increased attention to word consciousness,
metalinguistic aspects of playing with words (e.g.
idioms, rhyming, novel morphological variations.)
(Johnson, Johnson, &Schlicting, 2004)
Encounters
Listening
5
e.g. SLP
reads the
scenario
to the
students.
Speaking
12
e.g.
Students
generate
sentences
using the
targeted
vocabulary
word.
Reading
2
e.g.
Students
chorally
read the
scenario
and reread
with
synonym.
Writing
2
e.g.
Students
copy
sentence
with
targeted
vocabulary
word.
Example of Teaching a Vocabulary Word
Using the VST
Procedures
•  The SLP delivered the VST
instruction with a 6 words a
Treatment week to all students for 30
minutes
3
times
a
week
for
(SLP
6 weeks (Total=36 words).
only)
•  She used only 30 minutes
of planning per week to
prepare lessons.
Procedures
Control
(Teacher
only)
•  The teacher delivered the
instruction by teaching the
same 6 words a week in the
manner in which she
typically teaches vocabulary
to all students for 30 minutes
3 times a week for 6 weeks.
•  She used only 30 minutes of
planning per week to
prepare lessons.
Control Condition
Typical Vocabulary Instruction
Control Condition
Typical Vocabulary Instruction
•  What were the features of typical vocabulary
instruction?
–  Students used dictionary to define words
–  Teacher used open ended questioning to elicit novel
sentences from students orally
–  Teacher used choral instruction to fit words in
sentences that illustrated word meaning
–  Teacher used a structured approach weekly, where
instructional techniques were similar on
corresponding days over intervention period
Results- Synonym Test
•  A one-way ANCOVA was utilized to determine mean
differences in synonym post-test scores based on
intervention type (two levels) when controlling for
synonym pre-test scores.
•  Prior to conducting the ANCOVA analysis,
statistical assumptions of the test were checked
and met.
•  One potential outlier in the treatment group was
identified visually via boxplot displays and was
removed prior to further testing.
Results- Synonym Test
Descriptive Statistics for Vocabulary Score (N = 45)
Group
n
M
SD
Control
22
22.88
0.65
Treatment
22
27.72
0.65
Note. F(1, 41) = 27.68, p<.001, partial eta squared = .40
Results- Sentence test
Preliminary Conclusion
•  The high level of practical significance suggests
that the Vocabulary Scenario Technique is a
promising candidate for improvement in
vocabulary growth among 4th grade students.
IMPLICATIONS
Implications
•  For Practice:
The VST technique is an effective
method for SLPs to use in the
classroom to increase 4th graders’
vocabulary knowledge
Implications
•  For Practice:
Vocabulary instruction with encounters emphasizing
language focused features (reading, writing,
listening & speaking) plays a role in increasing 4th
graders vocabulary knowledge
Implications
For Future Research:
•  Do fewer language encounters with a word
combined with an increase in the number of
words taught in a week lead to significant
gains in vocabulary comprehension?
Implications
For Future Research:
•  Can a teacher achieve results
equivalent to results obtained
by an SLP using the VST?
Implications
For Future Research:
•  What language focused
features require the SLP’s
expertise?
Implications
For Future Research:
•  Are there particular students who should
receive instruction from the SLP vs. the
classroom teacher to achieve significant
vocabulary gains?
Implications
For Future Research:
•  What are the characteristics of students
for whom this technique is most
appropriate/most successful?
Implications
For Future Research:
•  Would the VST method, as described in this
study, be effective in positively increasing
vocabulary knowledge in other grades?
Research Activities Underway
•  Study with 4th graders to determine if we can
reduce the number of encounters and increase
the number of words per week and achieve the
same positive results in vocabulary knowledge
with the VST.
–  2 classes of 4th graders
–  Each class randomly assigned to treatment or
control condition
Upcoming Research
What is the SLP’s specific role in vocabulary
instruction?
What is the most effective way to use the
SLP’s expertise in vocabulary work?
Teaching teachers the VST?
Providing more intensive VST
with selected students?
POST ORGANIZER
 Background Information
 The Research Study
 Implications
–  Practice
–  Research
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