The poor get richer: heterogeneity in the efficacy of a school-level intervention for academic language

Abstract

The goal of this study was to test the impacts of a brief discussion-based, vocabulary-focused intervention on students’ knowledge of taught vocabulary, general vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The program being evaluated, Word Generation, involves students in a variety of reading, writing, and discussion activities, all designed to offer contexts for using target vocabulary in an academic register (Schleppegrell, 2001; Author, 2009b). We know that vocabulary is strongly related to reading comprehension (Freebody & Anderson, 1983a, 1983b; Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Paris, 2005; RAND Reading Study Group, 2002) and that vocabulary interventions find effects on comprehension in texts that include the taught words (e.g., McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Perfetti, 1983; McKeown, Beck, Omanson & Pople, 1985). Thus, the Word Generation program focuses on high frequency academic words that are required when reading secondary school texts across disciplines (Townsend, Filippini, Collins, Biancarosa, 2012). We also consider the possibility that the contexts that support students’ exposure to and use of academic words in discussion and writing are likely to support general vocabulary and reading development.