Content-Based Vocabulary Instruction Using Cognates to Promote the

Content-Based Vocabulary Instruction: Using Cognates to Promote the Vocabulary Development and Reading Comprehension of Native Spanish Speakers Liz Howard Gail Buller Eileen Gonzalez Jennifer Green University of Connecticut Igone Arteagoitea Center for Applied Linguistics

PART 1: OVERVIEW 2

Project Team o University of Connecticut n n n n Liz Howard Betsy Mc. Coach - methodologist Eileen Gonzalez Jen Green Sharon Ware Angela Lopez Gail Buller o Center for Applied Linguistics n Igone Arteagoitia n Cheryl Dressler n Patricia Martinez 3

VIAS Overview o The Vocabulary Improvement and Assessment of Spanish-speaking Students (VIAS) project is a 5 -year program of research: n Funded through grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). n Grants support research on the literacy and language development of Spanish-speaking English-language learners. n Investigators are from the Center for Applied Linguistics, Harvard University, Boston College, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Houston.

VIAS Subprojects and Cores o VIAS program of research comprises four research subprojects, an administrative core, and a research core: n n n Subproject 1: Predicting Spanish-Speaking Children’s Growth in Reading-- Pre-K through 8 th Grade (Nonie Lesaux, Harvard) Subproject 2: Early Childhood Intervention Study--Improving the Language and Literacy Skills of Spanish-English Bilingual Kindergarteners (Mariela Paez, Boston College) Subproject 3: Developing English Vocabulary in Spanish-Speaking English-Language Learners (Diane August, CAL) Subproject 4, Linked IES Research Project: Content-Based Vocabulary Instruction -- Using Cognates to Promote the Vocabulary Development and Reading Comprehension of Native Spanish Speakers (Igone Arteagoitia, CAL and Liz Howard, UConn) Core A: Administration Core B: Research and Assessment

The Key Issue The reading performance of English language learners (ELLs) and Hispanics is extremely low. Results from the 2005 NAEP* show that: o 71% of 8 th grade ELLs scored below the basic level in reading o 45% of 8 th grade Hispanics scored below the basic level in reading * Data come from Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center. 6

Why Focus on Vocabulary/Cognates? o Research on the acquisition of reading skills has shown that there is a strong relationship between knowledge of vocabulary and ability to comprehend a text. o Explicit vocabulary instruction has been associated with improved comprehension. o One of the instructional strategies that has been found to be especially valuable for Spanish-speaking students is their knowledge of cognate words, which account for from a third to as much as half of the active vocabulary of an average educated English speaker. 7

Research Questions 1. Relative to each other and to no treatment, what are the effects of a cross-linguistic vocabulary intervention and a monolingual English vocabulary intervention on the development of English vocabulary and reading comprehension skills in native Spanish speakers in the middle school grades? 8

Research Questions 2. Do the effects of the interventions vary as a function of the length of time that the students have been in the United States, the amount of instruction that they have received in their native language, their home language and literacy exposure, and/or their current levels of English and Spanish oral proficiency and literacy ability as measured by pretests? 9

Research Questions 3. To what extent are students able to transfer knowledge from their native language (Spanish) to their second language (English)? Does transfer occur equally in all domains? Is transfer facilitated by instruction that makes explicit cross-linguistic connections? 10

Study Timeline § Phase 1: Development (2008 -2009) Purpose: o To begin to develop high quality curricular materials, teacher support materials, and teacher training procedures. o To develop high quality English and Spanish vocabulary assessments. Sites: o Worked with four veteran teachers (ESL teachers and literacy specialists) in a mid-size district with a high density of ELLs to develop the curriculum. o Worked with an urban district with a large percentage of native Spanish speakers to pilot the two vocabulary assessments. 11

Study Timeline § Phase 2: Piloting (2009 -2010) Purpose: To implement the intervention on a small scale in order to get a preliminary sense of its effectiveness and to identify and resolve any remaining issues with the curricular materials, teacher support materials, teacher training procedures, researcher-developed assessments, or assessment procedures. Site: Worked with the same urban district where the two vocabulary measures were piloted in Spring 2009. 12

Study Timeline § Phase 3: Taking the intervention to scale (20102011) Purpose: To fully implement the intervention on a large enough scale so as to be able to respond to all 3 research questions. Site: Seeking several middle schools with a high density of Latino students who would benefit from a vocabulary intervention. 13

Sample § Focus on English Language Learners (ELLs) in 6 th 8 th grade at the intermediate or advanced ESL levels, as well as those who have been transitioned to mainstream classes. Native Spanish speakers are the primary focus of the study, although other ELLs may receive the intervention as well. § Including native English speakers as well, particularly those who are struggling to develop academic language and literacy. 14

Core Elements of the Interventions Graves (2006) four-part model: 1. 2. 3. 4. Providing rich and varied language experiences Teaching individual words Teaching word-learning strategies Fostering Word Consciousness 15

Existing Research-Based Practices o Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) – approach to effective instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse learners developed by Deborah Short, Jana Echevarria and Mary Ellen Vogt (http: //www. cal. org/siop/) n Building background n Including language objectives as well as content objectives n Incorporating multimedia and enhancing use of visual images and realia n Increasing the use of cooperative structures n Teaching strategies for word learning n For the cross-linguistic group, making explicit connections to the native language 16

Existing Research-Based Practices Word Generation – vocabulary curriculum developed for 6 th-8 th graders by Catherine Snow and colleagues at Harvard University through the SERP Initiative www. wordgeneration. org • • • 5 words per week words introduced through passages inspired by current events coordinated effort by teams of teachers across content areas -10 min/week per teacher 17

Existing Research-Based Practices o Our core modifications to Word Generation include: n providing an explicit framework of sheltered instruction; n increasing the length of time per unit and the number of words per unit; n incorporating more word study activities that focus on structural analysis of roots and affixes, and in the cross-linguistic curriculum, activities that focus on the relationships of these across English and Spanish; n modifying the content to a more Latino-centric curriculum n requiring delivery from a single teacher (typically Language Arts) n creating two versions – a monolingual English version and a cross-linguistic version;

The Two Approaches o Monolingual English n n High quality, research-based approach building on existing practices that have been shown to be effective Focusing on general academic vocabulary in English – the fact that all words are cognates is not made explicit to students; however, if students discover cognate connections on their own, they are told that they are correct. o Cross-linguistic n n High quality, research-based approach building on existing practices that have been shown to be effective Focusing on general academic vocabulary in English – the fact that all words are cognates is made very explicit, and connections are continuously made across English and Spanish with regard to target words and their constituent parts (i. e. roots and affixes)

PART 2: WORD SELECTION 20

General Academic Vocabulary o The intervention, like Word Generation, focuses on general academic vocabulary, frequently referred to as Tier 2 words (Beck, Mc. Keown & Kucer, 2002) n Tier 1: e. g. man, happy n Tier 2: e. g. persistence, divergent n Tier 3: e. g. mitochondria, photosynthesis o General academic words are important because they are used across academic disciplines but are not discipline-specific, and are therefore not as commonly taught (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008), e. g. perspective, obtain, mandated 21

Cognates o Cognates are words in two or more languages that share a common root and are therefore similar in meaning, spelling, and/or pronunciation. (Lubliner & Hiebert, 2009) o Many academic words in English are derived from Latin or Greek and therefore have parallel forms in Romance languages such as Spanish and Portuguese. 22

Word Selection o We began with the 5 target words for our chosen Word Generation passages and retained all of those that were cognates. o We searched the Word Generation passages for other cognates and cross-checked these words on a number of frequency lists, including the Academic Word List (http: //www. victoria. ac. nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/default. aspx), the Corpus of Contemporary American English (http: //www. americancorpus. org/), the Educator’s Word Frequency Guide (Zeno, 1995), the BYU corpus (http: //corpus. byu. edu/) and the Corpus del Español (http: //www. corpusdelespanol. org/). o Our goal was to retain words that were likely to be known in Spanish but not in English. 23

Word Selection Occurrence in this Unit Reading Passage Occurrence in other Units 1 Frequency (SFI) Dispersion Spanish Corpus del español 5331 50. 2 0. 7840 analizar 723 analyzed 5488 47. 9 0. 8489 analyzing 3342 47. 4 0. 7319 analyzes 966 38. 8 0. 4412 TOTAL 15, 127 Year. Unit English AWL Sublist Y 1 -U 01 analyze 1 BYU Corpus 0

Word Selection: Phase 2 o If a given passage did not contain at least 10 appropriate cognates, we modified it to incorporate the needed number of target words. o Emphasis on target roots and affixes as well: n Is the root or affix frequently used in English and Spanish? Are the English and Spanish forms of the exemplar words orthographically and phonologically similar? n Is the root or affix clearly identifiable within the English and Spanish exemplar words? (e. g. PORT in import/importar; IM in impossible/imposible) n Is the meaning of the root or affix clear in the meaning of English and Spanish exemplar words? 25

Developing the Glossary o The glossary consists of all of the target words in all of the units. Each entry contains the following information: n n n Part of speech Definition in student-friendly language Target word used in a sentence Picture to accompany each sentence to create a mental image The unit in which the word is introduced o The cross-linguistic version of the glossary contains all of this information in both English and Spanish. 26

Monolingual Glossary Example adapt (verb) When a person or animal adapts, they change because they are in a new situation. After his parents’ divorce, Jason had to adapt to living at his mom’s house during the week and staying at his dad’s house on the weekends. [Unit 6] ___________________________ 27

Cross-linguistic Glossary Example adapt (verb) When a person or animal adapts, they change because they are in a new situation. After his parents’ divorce, Jason had to adapt to living at his mom’s house during the week and staying at his dad’s house on the weekends. [Unit 6] adaptar (verbo) Cuando una persona se adapta, es que cambia porque está en una nueva situación. Después del divorcio de sus padres, Jason se tuvo que adaptar a vivir en la casa de su madre durante la semana y en la casa de su padre los fines de semana. [Unidad 6] ________________________________ 28

PART 3: CURRICULUM 29

Summary of Interventions o 10 target words, 2 roots and 2 affixes per unit – all words are cognates that can be classified as Tier 2 words – that is, words that are low frequency but high utility across domains. o 40 days of continuous language arts instruction (50 min. periods): 1, 5 -day unit to build background and 5, 7 -day units to teach core vocabulary and morphological awareness n n n n Day 1: word study, part 1: affixes Day 2: word study, part 2: roots Day 3: introducing the topic and the vocabulary Day 4: deepening word knowledge Day 5: using words in reading Day 6: using words in oral language and writing Day 7: review and quiz o Integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing o Curriculum aligned with CT ELL and ELA frameworks, as well as TESOL and NCTE standards

Unit Topics o Based on piloting results, we decided to create a more Latino-centric curriculum featuring our own Eileen Gonzalez, Jason Irizarry, Windham Middle School principal Madeline Negrón and VIAS colleague Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez. n n n Overcoming adversity (Mancilla-Martinez) Learning a second language (Gonzalez) Paying students to do well in school Bullying Making schools work for all students (Irizarry and Negrón)

Detours Day 1: Affixes PREFIXES Prefixes are letters added to the beginning of a word that change its meaning. Example: re- is a prefix that means “to do something again. ” It also means “back” or “against. ” Whole word prefix + base recharge re- recharge 32

Detours Day 2: Roots ROOTS • A root is a part of a word that you can attach a prefix or suffix to, but which can’t stand alone. English has many words made of roots that come from Greek and Latin. tain is a Latin root that means “hold / keep” as in the word “container. ” Draw a picture of a container here: Whole word Root Whole word means tain 33

Word Journeys Day 3: Introducing Target Vocabulary n n n n n Illustrate Attributes Maintain Aspire Profoundly Factor Emphasize Motivate Intractable Adversity

Word Journeys Day 4: Gaining practice o If necessary, complete presentations of target words from Day 3. o Continue to gain practice with target words by playing a game such as memory or give me a clue. 35

Word Journeys Day 5: Using the words in context o We start by engaging students in a conversation about their experiences with the topic, such as overcoming adversity for Unit 2. n Have you ever faced a difficult challenge? What was it, and what did you do to work through it? o We then show a brief video clip to further develop student engagement with and knowledge about the topic before introducing the target words. n I want you to turn to the person next to you and share your ideas about what you learned from the video about overcoming challenges. Why do you think that Dr. Mancilla-Martinez was able to become so successful despite her challenges? 36

Word Journeys Day 5: Using the words in context o We then present the words in context through a cloze reading activity with a passage that relates to the discussion and video. Dr. Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez earned her doctorate from Harvard University. Now she is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is clearly very successful, but her road to success was not always an easy one. Dr. Mancilla-Martinez was born in Los Angeles, California. Her parents are Mexican immigrants. They came to the United States to find a better life for themselves and their family. They _____ education as the way to get ahead, and they expected their children to study and succeed in school. Jeannette was always a _____ student who worked hard and did well. 37

Day 6: Using Words in Oral and Written Language o We provide students an opportunity to use the words in context through an integrated oral language/writing activity. o The oral language activity may come first and provide a scaffold for the writing activity (e. g. debate followed by a writing prompt), or the writing may come first and provide a scaffold for the oral language (e. g. writing a script for a PSA about bullying). 38

Word Journeys Day 7: Review ODD WORD OUT! (Padak, Rasinski, & Newton, 2008) Directions: Look at the four words. Write the one that doesn’t belong on the line. Then write how the others are the same. The “odd word out” may be different because it doesn’t mean the same as the others, because it’s not the same part of speech, or for another reason. It’s your job to figure out why it’s the odd word out! Examples: 1. lucky dog happy purple The one that doesn’t belong is dog. The others are the same because they are adjectives. Dog is a noun. 2. opinion factor perspective point of view The one that doesn’t belong is factor. The others are the same because they have the same meaning. 39

PART 4: MEASURES 40

Instruments and Data Sources Construct Language Assessment – Subtest Vocabulary (Reading) English Spanish Gates Mac. Ginitie – Vocabulary WLPB-R – Reading Vocabulary* English Vocabulary Test Spanish Cognate Test Reading Comprehension English Spanish Gates Mac. Ginitie - Comprehension WLPB-R – Passage Comprehension Reading Fluency/Decoding English TOSWRF (Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency) Global Language Proficiency English TORC – Syntactic Similarities Spelling English WTW Developmental Spelling Inventory Morphology English Suffix Test and Roots Test

Instruments and Data Sources Data Language Instrument Home & School Information English or Spanish VIAS Demographic Survey (Child and Family Information, Student Instructional Information, School Information) Teacher Qualifications English Teacher Questionnaire Quality of Instruction English or Spanish Classroom Language and Literacy Observation Protocol Fidelity of Implementation English Fidelity of Implementation Observation Protocol

Measure Development English Vocabulary Test q Purpose: Measure growth on cognates taught and words (cognates and non-cognates) not taught q Format: Whole-group administered multiple choice (four choices) q Three Subtests: Cognates taught, Cognates not taught, & Non-cognates not taught q Number of Items: 96 (field-tested), 74 (piloted) 43

Sample Items - English Vocabulary Test 1. He encountered a difficult situation. a. feared b. found c. imagined d. expected 2. The people thought he was culpable. a. guilty b. mistaken c. dishonest d. dangerous 3. Taking the test is compulsory. a. suggested b. optional c. important d. required 44

Measure Development Spanish Cognate Test q Purpose: Measure prior knowledge of Spanish equivalents of English cognate words q Format: Whole-group administered multiple choice (four choices) q Two Subtests: Cognates taught & Cognates not taught q Number of Items: 62 (field-tested), 52 (piloted) 45

Sample Items – Spanish Cognate Test 1. No te puede obligar. a. engañar (fool you) b. forzar (force you) c. regañar (scold you) d. invitar (invite you) 2. Cuatro botellas de agua es suficiente. a. razonable (reasonable) b. demasiado (too much) c. necesario (necessary) d. bastante (enough) 3. Hay que terminar ya. a. abandonar (quit) b. finalizar (finish) c. decidir (decide) d. desaparecer (disappear) 46

Field-Test June 2009 q Purpose: Validation/optimization of tests q Grades 5 -8 q Number of Participants: 327 (English monolingual & Spanish speakers) q English version was administered by classroom teachers to whole classes of students q Native Spanish speakers were pulled from class and administered the Spanish test in small groups by a CAL researcher 47

Field-Test Analyses q Reliability q English Alpha Reliability=. 94. . q Spanish Alpha Reliability=. 78. q Dimensionality (validity) – The English test was found to be unidimensional, whereas the Spanish test was not. q Rasch Analyses § § Item fit - 21 misfits, 11 of which were modified Item difficulty – 36 items were eliminated for being too easy 48

Development & Field-Test Outcomes q Item Development q Importance of Test Validation q Creating Pilot Tests 49

Next Steps o o Analyze pilot data Develop measure of morphological awareness Continue to recruit sites for this year Refine curricular materials, teacher support materials, and teacher training procedures 50

References Beck, I. , Mc. Keown, M. G. , Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Guilford Press: New York. Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center Graves, M. F. (2006). The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction. Teachers College Press: New York. Hiebert, E. & Lubliner, S. (2008). The nature, learning, and instruction of general academic vocabulary. In What Research Has to Say about Vocabulary Instruction, A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels, Eds. IRA: Newark, DE. Lubliner, S. & Hiebert, E. (2009). An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates as a Source of General Academic Language. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Padak, N. , Newton, E. , Rasinski, T. , & Newton, R. (2008). Getting to the root of word study: Teaching Latin and Greek root words in the elementary and middle grades. In What Research Has to Say about Vocabulary Instruction, A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels, Eds. IRA: Newark, DE.

Acknowledgements o This project effort was supported by Grant Number R 305 A 070438 from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U. S. Department of Education. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U. S. Department of Education. 52