Vocabulary Instruction and English Language
Learning Students
Students for whom English is not a first language – particularly
native Spanish speakers – make up an increasing proportion
of our school-age population (U.S. Census, 2001).
Many of these students have difficulty comprehending what
they read. A major cause of this difficulty is their lack of
understanding of abstract English words, especially those
words (e.g., freedom, motive, change) that they see in content
area textbooks (García, 1991; Verhoeven, 1990).
The purpose of this booklet is to examine what research tells us
about how students acquire vocabulary and about what instruction
must do to help students develop the kind of vocabulary
knowledge that will contribute to their reading success. We begin
by clarifying exactly what we mean by vocabulary.
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