The role of extensive reading in building vocabulary continues to receive considerable attention in first and second language research and pedagogy. This study analyses the lexical differences between narrative and expository reading materials used in upper-elementary education (10- and 11-year-old children), and explores how these differences could affect children's potential vocabulary acquisition through reading. Results of a computerized analysis of nearly 1.5 million word tokens reveals marked differences between 28 narrative and 28 expository children's books in terms of overall token distribution and individual type repetitions at all levels of vocabulary analysed in the study (i.e. general high frequency words, academic high frequency words, and specialized words). Further exploration of the lexical data indicates high numbers of register-specific words at all levels of vocabulary, particularly at the more specialized levels where the potential for protracted vocabulary growth is the greatest. A subsequent discussion addresses qualitative differences in the characteristics of these exclusive narrative and expository types. These lexical findings are used to assess claims of Wide Reading and Free Reading relative to children's acquisition of vocabulary through extensive reading, especially the default claims of 'incidental' word acquisition through repetitive encounters with unknown words while reading large volumes of material for pleasure.

Vocabulary input through extensive reading: A comparison of words found in children's narrative and expository reading materials

Le savoir-lire s'ameliore-t'il quand les eleves lisent des livres de bibliotheque, et s'ameliore-t'il quand les eleves lisent des livres correspondant a peu pres a leur niveau de lecture ? L'A. decrit une experience menee avec des eleves au cours d'un programme d'ecole d'ete et presente les resultats de cette etude

The effect of reading library books at different levels of difficulty upon gain in reading ability

In this article we embed a case study of 1 teacher and her first graders' interactions around information book read alouds within a discussion of the research on reading comprehension instruction and language acquisition. The case study revealed that the comprehension strategies the teacher modeled within the context of the read alouds reflected the same categories as those suggested by more systematic but decontextualized research. We suggest that there may be a developmentally appropriate time to begin formal comprehension instruction and that prior to that an interactive use of informational texts may support a stage to be thought of as comprehension acquisition, which would foster conceptual development, comprehension strategy formation, and text structure familiarity.

The Contexts of Comprehension: The Information Book Read Aloud, Comprehension Acquisition, and Comprehension Instruction in a First-Grade Classroom

Background: Students who have limited skills in decoding and comprehension and who lack motivation to read present difficulties for practitioners. Difficulties may be compounded when these students lack access to age-appropriate and interesting text and have lost the notion of reading as a process of obtaining meaning from print.



Aims: This research examined the effects of a modified reciprocal teaching intervention for readers with poor decoding skills and poor comprehension. Tapeassisted reciprocal teaching was used to help students with poor decoding skills develop cognitive and metacognitive strategies and improve their comprehension of high interest expository texts.



Methods: Two single-subject research design studies involving four groups of students were conducted. Study I involved one experimental group and Study II was a multiple baseline design involving three experimental groups.



Sample: Each experimental group comprised a heterogeneous mix of six students, three with poor decoding skills and three with adequate decoding skills, all of whom showed poor comprehension.



Results: As a result of the tape-assisted reciprocal teaching, the poor decoders demonstrated improved application of cognitive and metacognitive strategies and improved comprehension. These improvements were shown on both researcherdeveloped and standardised tests as well as on maintenance and transfer measures. The students with adequate decoding skills also showed improvements in comprehension.



Conclusions: The success of the intervention for poor decoders suggests that tape assisted reciprocal teaching may be seen as a form of ‘cognitive bootstrapping’ to enable poor readers to escape the cycle of reading failure and engage more meaningfully in the process of reading.

Tape-assisted reciprocal teaching: cognitive bootstrapping for poor decoders.

In an age of educational accountability and school competition, the gap between current poor-urban school performance and standards of excellence remains glaringly obvious. As poor-urban schools scramble to “close the gap,” many abandon sound pedagogy, becoming entrenched in a curriculum where basic-skills worksheets are the primary method of educational delivery resulting in a disconnect between pedagogically sound educational practices and those very students that need it most. Two literacy pilot programs are discussed as applied examples showing that good teaching and accountability result in increases in early reading skills as measured by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (R.W. Woodcock, 1998). Results are discussed in light of raised teacher expectations, assessment-driven small class grouping, and active student learning. In a supportive, challenging environment, the basis for a pedagogy of risk taking emerges. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 855–863, 2005.

/pdf/the-disconnect-of-poor-urban-education-equal-access-and-a-2wmbnbo97z.pdf

The Disconnect of Poor‐Urban Education: Equal Access and a Pedagogy of Risk Taking

Making Difficult Books Accessible and Easy Books Acceptable.

The International Reading Association Responds to a Highly Charged Policy Environment.

Theory Becomes Practice at the Point of Interaction.

accessible and easy books acceptable

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Making Difficult Books Accessible and Easy Books Acceptable.

The International Reading Association Responds to a Highly Charged Policy Environment.

Theory Becomes Practice at the Point of Interaction.

accessible and easy books acceptable