JCPSLP Vol 22 No 1 2020

Expanding possibilities: Foci on reading and interdisciplinary practices

Oral vocabulary and reading comprehension What intervention studies have taught us Danielle Colenbrander

Children with weak oral vocabulary knowledge are likely to have difficulties with reading comprehension, which in turn makes it difficult for them to learn new words from their independent reading. Such difficulties can have negative consequences for a child’s academic achievement and functioning in everyday life, and it is crucial for speech- language pathologists to know how to help these children. In this paper, the research on vocabulary intervention for school-aged children is reviewed, with a focus on the links between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. It is concluded that effective vocabulary instruction involves a long-term approach which combines direct, rich instruction in functionally useful words, with instruction in strategies for deciphering the meanings of unfamiliar words. Examples of instruction methods and further resources are provided. T he ultimate goal of reading instruction is fluent, effortless reading comprehension, so that children can learn independently from what they read and function well in a society that relies heavily on written communication. However, many children struggle to comprehend what they read, and such difficulties can have various causes (Hulme & Snowling, 2011; Nation, 2019). Reading comprehension recruits all of a person’s written and spoken language skills – it involves decoding (sounding out) and recognising the written words on the page; accessing the meanings of those words; processing morphological and syntactic information; and integrating information within the text, as well as integrating textual information with general knowledge about the world (Castles, Rastle, & Nation, 2018). Children may fail to understand what they read because they cannot read the words on the page, or because they do not have the oral language skills to access words’ meanings, form propositions or integrate information (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Consequently, children with weak oral language skills are vulnerable to reading comprehension difficulties. Indeed,

children with language impairments have a higher incidence of reading and reading comprehension difficulties than typically developing children (Catts, Fey, Tomblin, & Xhang, 2002), and even subclinical oral language weaknesses are associated with poor reading comprehension (Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Colenbrander, Kohnen, Smith-Lock, & Nickels, 2016; Nation, Clarke, Marshall, & Durand, 2004). A variety of different patterns of oral language difficulty can contribute to poor comprehension performance, but oral vocabulary knowledge has received by far the most research attention. This may be because vocabulary knowledge influences both decoding abilities and linguistic comprehension (Protopapas, Mouzaki, Sideridis, Kotsolakou, & Simos, 2013; Ricketts, Davies, Masterson, Stuart, & Duff, 2016). Children can use vocabulary knowledge to help disambiguate partial decoding attempts (Elbro, de Jong, Houter, & Nielsen, 2012; Share, 1995; Tunmer & Chapman, 2012). For example, a child who has the word “island” in their spoken vocabulary may be able to sound out the written form of the word as /ızlænd/, and recognise that it sounds similar to the spoken form /aıl ə nd/ that they already know. Knowledge of words’ semantics is also crucial to reading comprehension. If children cannot quickly and efficiently access the meanings of words, they will not be able to process higher levels of meaning (Perfetti & Hart, 2001, 2002). In this way, words act as a “gateway” to reading comprehension. Good word knowledge does not guarantee successful reading comprehension, but successful reading comprehension is impossible without it (Perfetti & Hart, 2001, 2002). Furthermore, the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is reciprocal. Children with good vocabulary knowledge tend to have better decoding and reading comprehension abilities (Tannenbaum, Torgesen, & Wagner, 2006; Verhoeven, van Leeuwe, & Vermeer, 2011). They are therefore likely to read more, and learn new words from their own reading experience. On the other hand, children with weak vocabulary knowledge may struggle to learn new words, both because they do not read as much and are thus exposed to fewer words, and because even when they do read, they may not be able to take advantage of contextual clues to meaning (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998; Mol & Bus, 2011). In summary, there are close, reciprocal ties between oral vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension abilities. Speech-language therapists (SLPs) working with school- aged children are likely to encounter many

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED VOCABULARY VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION VOCABULARY INTERVENTION KEYWORDS READING COMPREHENSION

Danielle Colenbrander

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JCPSLP Volume 22, Number 1 2020

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology