enriching vocabulary in secondary schools a practical resource for

It describes the vulnerability of vocabulary skills in children and adolescents with speech, language, and communication needs SLCN, and suggests practical ways to support them as they l

Access your online resources

Enriching Vocabulary in Secondary Schools is accompanied by a number of printable online materials, designed to ensure this resource best supports your professional needs

Activate your online resources:

Go to www routledge com /cw /speechmark and click on the cover of this book

Click the “Sign in or Request Access” button and follow the instructions in order to access the resources

“An evidence-based approach to language instruction or language intervention, this book offers a wealth of unique and innovative ideas and activities for building vocabulary and word-learning skills in students… [and] will be a welcomed addition to the library of any school-based speech-language pathologist, classroom teacher, or other professional who works with adolescents I heartily recommend this new resource for those who wish to carry out state-of-the-art practice.”

Marilyn A Nippold, PhD, Professor, Communication Disorders & Sciences,

University of Oregon

“I have been eagerly awaiting this book As a specialist language teacher, with an interest in enriching vocabulary for all, the combination of clinical knowledge and evidence-based strategies for whole class teaching is second to none This readable book is a must for all secondary school staff!”

Trish Hicken, Specialist Language Teacher Lincolnshire County Council, NAPLIC

Enriching Vocabulary in Secondary Schools

Enriching Vocabulary in Secondary Schools explores the importance of vocabulary for academic, social, emotional, and employment outcomes It describes the vulnerability of vocabulary skills in children and adolescents with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN), and suggests practical ways to support them as they learn.

The book contains a theoretical overview of vocabulary development in children and adolescents, highlighting its impact on both learning and psychosocial functioning, and profiles the vocabulary learning of children with SLCN It includes a range of programmes, strategies, and resources for vocabulary learning, together with the evidence base and key research underpinning them Chapters offer a plethora of word-learning activities, ideas, and downloadable resources for implementation in the classroom, small groups, and individually to meet the needs of pupils with differing levels of language and cognitive ability.

An essential resource for speech and language therapists, secondary school teachers, and support staff, this book will give readers a deeper understanding of the significance of language, along with an extensive practical toolkit to help teach and enhance the vocabulary learning of older children and young people.

Victoria L Joffe is a specialist speech and language therapist and Professor of Speech and Language Therapy

and Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex, UK Victoria is co-editor of the journal Child Language Teaching and Therapy Victoria’s expertise is in the assessment and intervention of individuals with developmental speech, language, and communication needs across the life span.

Hilary Lowe is a speech and language therapist with a doctorate in vocabulary intervention for adolescents She

has wide-ranging clinical, research, and lecturing experience Hilary is a contributor to Supporting Adolescents with Language Disorders and the author of Sunny’s Sound Play.

Enriching Vocabulary in Secondary

A Practical Resource for Teachers and Speech and Language Therapists

Victoria L Joffe Hilary Lowe

Cover image: Sarah HoyleFirst published 2023by Routledge

4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RNand by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business© 2023 Victoria L Joffe and Hilary Lowe

The rights of Victoria L Joffe and Hilary Lowe to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.All rights reserved The purchase of this copyright material confers the right on the purchasing institution to photocopy or download pages which bear the companion website icon and a copyright line at the bottom of the page No other parts of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Joffe, Victoria, author | Lowe, Hilary, author

Title: Enriching vocabulary in secondary schools / Victoria L Joffe, Hilary Lowe.Description: First Edition | New York : Routledge, 2023 |

Includes bibliographical references and index |

Identifiers: LCCN 2022015867 (print) | LCCN 2022015868 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138360402 (Paperback) | ISBN 9780429433177 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Vocabulary–Study and teaching (Secondary) | Students with disabilities–Education (Secondary) | Communicative disorders in children | Language awareness in children

Classification: LCC LB1631 J59 2023 (print) | LCC LB1631 (ebook) | DDC 371.91/4–dc23/eng/20220623 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015867

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015868ISBN: 978-1-138-36040-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-43317-7 (ebk)DOI: 10.4324/9780429433177Typeset in VAG Rounded

by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

Access the companion website: www routledge com /cw /speechmark

Authors ixFigures xTables xiiPreface xiiiAcknowledgements xv

How vocabulary fits into a model of language, and how words are represented in our vocabulary store.

The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and long-term academic and psychosocial outcomes, and an introduction to speech, language, and communication needs.

How word learning typically develops across the life span, and the processes that make word learning a challenge for adolescents with speech, language, and communication needs.

4 Evidenced vocabulary intervention at all levels of input 21

The evidence for vocabulary intervention in whole-class, small-group, and individual models of delivery.

Contents

5 Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme 27

Activities from a small-group vocabulary enrichment intervention programme for adolescents in mainstream secondary schools.

Activities from a whole-class vocabulary intervention

programme for mainstream secondary school classrooms.

Additional activities and signposts to further resources for enhancing vocabulary.

Afterword 115

References 117Index 121

Victoria L Joffe is a specialist speech and language therapist and Professor of Speech and Language Therapy

and Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex, UK Victoria earned her honours degree with distinction in Speech and Language Therapy and Audiology in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa She earned her DPhil degree in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK, exploring the relationship between oral language ability, metalinguistic awareness, and literacy in children with language disorder Victoria is co-editor of the journal Child Language Teaching and Therapy, and acts as a speech and language therapy assessor for the HCPC Council She is chair of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ national Clinical Excellence Network for older children, young people and adults with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN).

Victoria’s expertise is in the assessment and intervention of children and young people with developmental speech, language, and communication needs across the life span She is an experienced teacher and trainer and works with a range of educational and clinical professionals on best practice in enhancing the language, communication, and learning of vulnerable students and young people Victoria runs various workshops for health trusts, education authorities, and schools on child speech disorder, evidence-based practice in speech and language therapy, narrative and vocabulary interventions in children and young people with speech, lan-guage, and communication needs, and collaborative practice in education She is currently involved in NIHR-funded studies exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of novel interventions with children who stammer, children with Down’s syndrome, and children with social communication difficulties.

Hilary Lowe earned a Dip Speech Pathology and Therapy at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University),

UK, an MSc in Joint Professional Practice: Language and Communication at City, University of London, UK, and a PhD in Language and Communication Science also at City, University of London, UK Following over 30 years’ NHS and independent practice experience, moving from generalist practice to a specialism in developmental speech and language disorder in adolescents, Hilary has held teaching and research posts at the University of Sheffield, City, University of London, and the University of Essex, UK Research interests include vocabulary difficulties in adolescents with language disorder, particularly the interface between clinical and educational support for these students, and the collaboration between teachers and speech and language therapists.

1 Model of language adapted from Bloom and Lahey (1978) 22 A partial taxonomy for apple (adapted from Murphy, 2010) 33 A depiction of the multiple meanings of hands of a clock and a

person (adapted from Joffe, 2011b, DVD) 34 Picturing the word fish in your mind’s eye (illustrated by

Stephanie Valerio) 45 Relationships between language disorder, DLD, and SLCN

(from Bishop et al., 2017, p 1076) 116 Students’ preference for the model of intervention delivery

7 Basic word map A (pictograph format) with cat as a worked

example (from Joffe, 2011b, p 104) 498 Basic word map B (text format) with sock as worked example

(from Joffe, 2011b, pages 100–101) 529 Extended word map A (pictograph format) with carrot as worked

example (from Joffe, 2011b, p 188) 5510 Extended word map B (text format) with drill as worked example

(from Joffe, 2011b, pages 182–183) 5811 Literal depiction of the idiom, “to have a heart of gold”

28 A hexagonal grid for Blockbusters 10729 An example of Vocabulary Splat! 10730 An example of a picture to encourage description

31 An example of a word search 10932 An example of a compound word building activity 110

The following templates included in Chapter 5 are all taken from Joffe (2011b): My Learning Profiles (pp 33–44), Word Maps (pp 48, 50–51, 54, 56–57), Word Detective (pp 60–61), Jigsaw Word Structure (pp 64, 65), and Spiderweb! (p 67)

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.

Hart Crane

Thank you for picking up this book, and if you have, it is safe to assume that like us, you have an interest, maybe even a passion, for language, and particularly words, for their power, diversity, and impact, as well as a desire to share this with the young people with whom you work and to facilitate word-learning skills Words are everywhere: they are the cornerstone in understanding and contributing to conversations and everyday life.

Vocabulary is at the core of many of our everyday activities and is one of the key components of language that supports and drives learning in the classroom, socialisation, and effective communication across all social settings Typically, we learn many new words per day, per week, per month, per year, ad infinitum We think it may even be likely that you, the reader, will learn a new word or two while reading this book! Many of us take for granted the process of learning new words, and we refer, in this book, to the ease of word learning for most students However, when language and word learning breaks down, and proves challenging, which it does for children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN), the impact is diffuse and pervasive, affecting school performance, employability, and health and wellbeing.

This book focuses on this group of individuals whose vocabulary learning is effortful rather than automatic, and who need additional, and more specialist, support to assist them in their vocabulary development We hope you will find this resource useful, primarily for older children and young people with language and com-munication difficulties experiencing barriers to vocabulary learning, but in addition to this, we also believe the information and plethora of activities and strategies for word learning included here will help in your work enhancing the vocabulary of all students.

You might think because of the ubiquity and importance of words in school and social settings that there is much focus and time spent on vocabulary learning in the classroom, but this is not always the case It has been shown that relatively little focused time is given directly to word learning in the classroom (Biemiller, 2001; Nagy & Herman, 1987) This is reflected in our own work as speech and language therapists, where we have found a need to support other professionals, including speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, and specialist teachers, showcasing the best evidenced strategies and procedures for facilitating and enriching word learning in students with SLCN We have also found it useful to use the information in this book to support parents and families of young people with SLCN, providing them with a greater understanding of how words are learned, and the many strategies available to help facilitate word learning.

The nature of this book is unique, in that it contains a theoretical overview of vocabulary development in children and adolescents, its importance to learning and psychosocial functioning, and the vocabulary learn-ing of children with language and communication difficulties We include research and the evidence for the programmes, strategies, and resources we describe, as well as hundreds of ideas for vocabulary learning, resources you can photocopy and use immediately in the classroom and therapy setting The strategies, activi-ties, and ideas included can be used with all languages and across all cultures Words are a wonderful means to celebrate diversity, encourage inclusion, and showcase the wonders of different languages and cultures.

Preface

We have collated all our knowledge from our own experiences as speech and language therapists working in secondary schools and our research into vocabulary learning, and have brought this expertise and experi-ence together in this publication, supported by other research undertaken by colleagues in the field.

We have written this resource for you, for anyone involved in teaching and enhancing the vocabulary ing of older children and young people with SLCN Some may choose to read the entire book in one sitting, from start to finish, and others may dip in and out, but whatever you do, we hope you come away with plenty of ideas to support your work We hope you have everything here at your fingertips (wasn’t long before we threw in an idiom!) to update you on the current evidence base for vocabulary teaching, and arm (can’t seem to avoid pointing out this is a homophone serving as a verb rather than a noun and a part of the body!) you with tons (loads, heaps, masses, stacks, piles, lots, many – synonyms!) of ideas and resources which you can use immediately with the students with whom you work; but you can also adapt and add to them to suit your specific purposes and meet the needs of individual students.

learn-If by chance, there was a word you didn’t know in this book (homophone, for instance), you would, we are sure, be motivated enough to search for its meaning, and you would have a range of strategies to help you do this Our aim for this book is that it helps you support your students to find this motivation, the passion for word learning, and provide them with an array of options they can draw on to independently discover new word meanings This is the ultimate goal.

Many people have been involved in and have shaped our thinking and research on vocabulary development and enrichment in older children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs We are indebted to our colleagues, working in research and practice, with whom we have worked and who have provided us with insight, knowledge, and expertise We are grateful to Professor Lucy Henry, who co-super-vised, together with Victoria Joffe, the PhD thesis of Hilary Lowe, on which Chapter 6 is based We would like to thank all the participants involved in our research: teachers, teaching assistants, special educational needs coordinators, speech and language therapists, parents, and all the young people who participated in our studies – we learned such a lot from you all Thank you! Writing a book through the pandemic was an interest-ing endeavour, and our thanks go to Clare Ashworth, senior editor, and all at Routledge for their support and patience! We also thank Judith Belam for proofreading our manuscript with such care and attention Finally, our thanks go to each and every one of you for picking up this book and joining us on the journey to enhance the vocabulary of our secondary school students.

Chapter 1

WHAT IS VOCABULARY?

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433177-1

encompasses phonological representation (sound structure) and orthographic representation (spelling); form also includes how the word combines with other words in sentences (syntax), and how word beginnings and endings are added (morphology) Use refers to pragmatics: how language is used or what communicative

function it has Examples of communicative function include requesting, giving information, and disagreeing.

Lexical representations

Word knowledge is multi-faceted (Beck et al., 2002) In one’s store of words (one’s lexicon), words can be represented in different ways Three fundamental lexical representations are semantic, phonological, and orthographic.

PhonologyMorphology

Many words are polysemous – i.e., they have multiple meanings, and semantic networks take this into account For example, the word jazz will also belong to another taxonomy related to its musical meaning, and hand will have two different sets of taxonomy, as depicted in Figure 3.

Figure 3  A depiction of the multiple meanings of hands of a clock and a person (adapted from Joffe, 2011b, DVD)

What is vocabulary?

Semantic representations also contain information about the syntactic category (commonly known as parts of speech) of the word; for example, whether it is a noun, verb, or adjective This is related to the function of the word in a sentence Some words belong to more than one syntactic category; for example, the word hand is a noun in the multiple meanings depiction in Figure 3, but can also function as a verb, as in the sentence: “Hand that book to me, please.”

Semantic representations include information personalised to the individual; for example, whether one likes bananas or not will influence whether they are associated with delicious or disgusting Furthermore, there is a dimension of appropriacy – the knowledge that it is acceptable to use some words in certain social situations but not in others.

A semantic representation may also include a mental visual image of the item, action, or concept, sometimes known as “picturing something in your mind’s eye.” This is particularly the case for concrete nouns such as banana and hand.

Phonological representation

Semantics is not the only way in which a word is represented Words also have phonological form – i.e., how they are pronounced Phonological representations consist of information about the sound structure of the spoken word This information can be stored according to the word’s onset phoneme, its syllable structure, and rhyming words The word banana, for example, begins with /b/ (the “b” sound), has three syllables, and rhymes with piranha, gymkhana Fish begins with /f/ (the “f” sound), has one syllable, and rhymes with dish In one’s mental filing system for words (a person’s lexicon), fish will be filed with other words beginning with /f/, e.g., fox, field, fork; with other words of similar syllable structure, in this case, other consonant-vowel-consonant words, e.g., dog, back, gate; and with other words ending in /iʃ/ (“ish”), e.g., dish, wish.

Orthographic representation

Another type of representation is orthographic representation This is a visual representation of a word through how it is spelt Here, words are stored with other words with similar spelling patterns Some people can picture spellings in their mind’s eye, as well as the visual image of the object (see Figure 4).

What is vocabulary?

Depth of word knowledge

Learning a word is not an all or nothing process: word knowledge can be considered as multi-faceted On one dimension is receptive ability – how well one understands (or comprehends) a word At a basic level, this can

be assessed by a straightforward task matching a spoken word to a choice of pictures This type of ment gives an indication of breadth of knowledge, i.e., how many words a person understands At a more

assess-complex level, depth of knowledge refers to different meanings, different uses, and the semantic boundaries

between words This can be assessed by definitional tasks.

A further dimension is expressive ability: the ability to produce and use the word appropriately This can be

assessed by picture-naming tasks, or by producing a sentence containing the word People can understand words that they do not use, and our receptive knowledge of words in our lexicon typically exceeds our expres-sive use of words.

The deeper the knowledge, the greater the understanding of the word, the stronger the lexical tions, and the more likely the word is to be used expressively Intact phonological, semantic, and orthographic skills enable words to be stored efficiently and retrieved when required.

representa-Many, if not most, words mean different things in different contexts For the word compound, for example – what meaning springs to mind?

● If you own a kennel, you may think of a fenced-in area in which to exercise dogs;

● If you are a science teacher, you may think of a substance which is a combination of two elements;

● If you are an English teacher, you may think of a sentence or word made of two parts;

● If you hear the word in a sentence, e.g., “His language difficulties are compounded by a lack of dence,” you know that it is being used as a verb, meaning “to make worse.”

confi-The word pitch has even more meanings:

● A field where people play football;

● How high or low a musical note is;

● A thick black substance like tar;

● A speech to sell your wares;

● To put up (e.g., a tent);

● To throw.

Did you come up with all these meanings, and maybe even one we missed?

Knowledge of a word is cumulative over time Typically, a word is learned in an everyday context first, then knowledge of it expands as it is heard in different contexts In many cases, the different meanings of a word have a common denominator – in most meanings of compound, for example, one or more things are added together Exploring the origins of the word (its etymology) often makes this clear: compound comes from the Latin con (with) and ponere (to put), making the Latin word componere (to put together).

Some words have an everyday or concrete meaning, which is learned first, but they also have an abstract meaning, which is acquired later It can be useful to know the concrete meaning first to help with understand-ing the abstract For example, a tree is a plant with a trunk and branches: a family tree is a list of one’s ances-tors, which when displayed on paper looks something like a tree with branches What concrete and abstract meanings can you think of for the words bridge, dark, or green? This becomes increasingly relevant to older

If a person’s understanding of a word is shaky or incomplete, it is unlikely that they will use that word sively It is possible to say, read, and write a word without understanding what it means – indeed, it is common to experiment with word usage as part of the process of developing deeper word knowledge We are sure you all agree that we sometimes use a word in conversation that we don’t fully understand! However, in order to use a word accurately in speech or writing (an inherent element of school examinations), it is important to have a fully rounded understanding of meaning.

Words are stored in the lexicon according to semantic, phonological, and orthographic representations How many words one knows is referred to as breadth of knowledge How well one knows a particular word is known as depth of word knowledge Both breadth and depth of word knowledge have receptive and expres-sive dimensions In this chapter, we have begun to see why learning new words in school is so important Chapter 2 delves further into the importance of vocabulary.

Chapter 2

WHY IS VOCABULARY SUPPORT IMPORTANT?

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433177-2

Why is vocabulary support important?

In this chapter, we describe the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and long-term academic and psychosocial outcomes, referring to research and the perspectives of teachers, speech and language thera-pists (SLTs), and adolescents We then give examples of populations of children and adolescents who are at risk of vocabulary weaknesses, including those with language disorder, dyslexia, intellectual disability, speech sound disorder, and second language learners.

The importance of vocabulary skills

Vocabulary knowledge and academic success

Vocabulary knowledge is an aspect of language that is particularly crucial for accessing the curriculum, with links between vocabulary and reading outcomes being widely evidenced in the literature Early vocabulary knowledge has been linked to exam success at 16 years of age (Croll, 1995): an effect which continues into adolescence, with concurrent vocabulary knowledge predicting academic attainment (Spencer et al., 2017).

Not only does vocabulary knowledge influence reading outcomes, but further, reading ability – and even the amount that a child reads – influences vocabulary development (Muter & Snowling, 2009) This is because older children and adolescents typically absorb new vocabulary through derivation of meaning from context during reading, as well as through direct instruction (Nippold, 2007) Stanovich (1986, p 360) uses the term “the Matthew effect” (“the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”) to describe this reciprocal relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading ability More recent research confirms this pattern (e.g., Quinn et al., 2015; Verhoeven et al., 2011).

This inter-relationship between vocabulary, reading, and academic success perhaps partly explains the ceived discrepancy in academic success between those of social disadvantage and those of social affluence: a seminal study by Hart and Risley (1995) found that children in families of lower socio-economic status heard less than a third of the number of words per hour than children in families of higher socio-economic status, resulting in the children learning fewer words These findings, corroborated by continued research (e.g., Locke et al., 2002), have led to the concept of The Word Gap, whereby the vocabulary knowledge of children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds entering school is on average 16 months behind their peers from more affluent backgrounds (Waldfogel & Washbrook, 2010) Vocabulary knowledge has also been shown to be a predictor of continued social disadvantage, with Blanden (2006) reporting it at age five to be the best predic-tor of whether children who experienced social deprivation in childhood were able to escape this poverty in adulthood.

per-Vocabulary and long-term social, emotional, health, and employment outcomes

As well as the impact on academic outcomes, there is also evidence for the relationship between language skills and social/emotional wellbeing For example, Joffe and Black (2012) found that adolescents aged 11–12 years with low language and academic attainment showed greater social/emotional difficulties than the pub-lished normative mean according to the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ: Goodman et al., 1998) There was even a strong correlation between receptive vocabulary levels and social/emotional difficulties Difficulties with peer relationships are 12 times higher in 16-year-olds with language disorder (see page 11) than those without (Conti-Ramsden et al., 2013); and higher levels of depressive symptoms are typically found

Why is vocabulary support important?

in children with language disorder at ages 8–16 years, compared with their peers (van den Bedem et al., 2018) There is also a relationship between language skills and criminal behaviour Bryan et al (2007) found that 90% of young offenders in one institution (mean age 17 years) demonstrated below average receptive vocabulary (an age equivalence of 11; 5 years).

The impact of these difficulties can last into adulthood Clegg et al (2005) followed up 20 men aged 34 to 39 years who had been recruited at seven years of age with severe receptive language disorder, and found that 53% had a limited range of friendships, 41% were unemployed, 17% had never been employed, and 24% had developed serious mental illness More recent longitudinal studies, exploring the long-term impact of language skills on later functioning, are consistent with these early findings For example, in a 20-year prospective longitudinal study, Johnson et al (2010), reported that 112 participants, at 25 years of age, with a history of speech and/or language impairments at five years, showed poorer outcomes than a control group on a range of areas, including communication, educational attainment, and occupational status In another prospective longitudinal study, participants originally recruited at seven years of age with language impair-ments showed greater anxiety and depression at 24 years, compared with an age-matched control group (Botting et al., 2016).

The practitioners’ viewpoint

Teachers and SLTs appreciate the importance of vocabulary A survey of 104 SLTs and 39 mainstream ary school teachers (Lowe, 2018) showed that both professions understand the importance of vocabulary, with the vast majority (92%) rating it as very important Some examples of their reasons are given below:

second-“Vocabulary is key to understanding, especially in science.” (Science teacher)

“It is vital that students can express themselves clearly, confidently, and accurately – vocabulary gives them this ability If a student is word poor – I feel it severely limits their options for the future.” (English teacher)

“To be able to function in society, participating fully in a variety of situations and to have confidence in themselves.” (SLT)

However, 85% of SLTs and 55% of teachers reported a lack of confidence in teaching vocabulary effectively Common reasons for this included barriers such as lack of knowledge, the challenge of differentiation, and time constraints:

“It is difficult to know how to alter vocabulary learning techniques from primary to secondary students to be the most effective and there are few resources out there to use.” (SLT)

“So many different and specific needs of students in very mixed classes.” (Religious studies/citizenship teacher)

“Don’t feel I am in school often enough to target vocabulary that will be really relevant.” (SLT)

These findings from teachers and SLTs are supported by a survey of 53 teaching assistants (TAs) in mainstream secondary schools in London, exploring their understanding of language, and its importance for students’ learning (Revelas, 2008) TAs showed the greatest awareness and understanding of vocabulary, compared with other areas explored, including speech, language, communication, and non-verbal language, with 55% explaining vocabulary correctly, compared with 17%, 6%, 34%, and 28% on the other terms, respectively Eighty-three per cent of TAs identified vocabulary as a key skill for secondary school students, impacting on expressive language, receptive language, literacy, and accessing the curriculum.

Why is vocabulary support important?

The students’ viewpoint

Interestingly, secondary school students also seem to be aware of the importance of having a good lary Spencer et al (2010) presented case studies of two 15-year-old adolescents (Josh and Ellie) with previously unidentified language difficulties from a mainstream secondary school in a socially deprived area Interviews were conducted with them, exploring their understanding of language and their own language abilities Both students showed some understanding of the importance of vocabulary, and an awareness that their vocabu-lary knowledge is more limited, compared with their peers and/or adults One of the students, Josh, talks about “big words” associating this with language comprehension and expression, and acknowledging that he does not use this type of vocabulary:

vocabu-“I don’t know I don’t come out with big words like other people and I can’t understand other people…some people come out with like right long words and I don’t know what they mean…because they’re grown ups.” (Josh, 15 years: Spencer et al., 2010, p 152)

Similarly, Ellie refers to “big words” when talking about her mother, in the following extract:

“She’s grown up she’ll talk in her own way, big words so kids don’t understand and they don’t earwig.” (Ellie, 15 years; p 156)

Ellie also shows insight into the difficulty she experiences learning new words that her teacher is using in the classroom:

“They blabber on and on and on just to think that we’re gonna learn all these words when we don’t know what they mean.” (p 153)

She also acknowledges the need for and importance of learning new words when probed further about this:“I’m coming on sixteen now and I’m gonna be looking for a job…and I’m gonna be talking normal and I wanna be talking like an adult.” (p 155)

Students participating in the Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme (Joffe, 2011b; Joffe et al., 2019) were asked for feedback on the programme, and their responses showed insight into the wider impact of vocabulary learning Examples of what they feel has improved or will improve since completing the vocabulary intervention include:

● Making stories more exciting;

● Understanding better in English and science lessons;

● Talking to people;

● Confidence;

● In the future with work, socialising and understanding people better.

One participating TA reported the following feedback from a student involved in the programme, showing her reaction to being able to display and generalise her new knowledge to the classroom:

“Miss, do you know what? I was the only one in my class that knew what ‘Antonym’ and ‘Synonym’ meant in my English class today It was because you taught me I was given a raffle ticket because of it too.” (TA: personal communication to the author)

Why is vocabulary support important?

Who has vocabulary difficulties?

Children and young people with any speech, language, or communication need may be vulnerable to ulary weaknesses The term Speech, Language, and Communication Needs (SLCN) is frequently used, par-

vocab-ticularly in the UK, as an umbrella term encompassing a wide range of developmental profiles Here, we explore in brief some of the developmental profiles of children and adolescents who may have difficulties learning and remembering new words.

Language Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder

Terminology for children and young people with language difficulties has been used inconsistently and with limited agreement among SLTs, specialist teachers, educational psychologists, and researchers This lack of agreement has impacted on people’s understanding of language difficulties, hindered service provision, and impeded research Bishop et al (2017) undertook a study whereby a panel of 57 international experts in lan-guage disorder, across a range of professions (the CATALISE panel), reached a consensus on the terminology to be used to describe children and young people experiencing language difficulties Language disorder is now commonly used to refer to a significant difficulty in acquiring and developing a first language, which impacts adversely on learning and social interactions, and which is unlikely to resolve spontaneously (Bishop et al., 2017).

When language disorder occurs in the presence of intellectual disability and/or existing medical sis, including, for example, brain injury, genetic conditions like Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, or cerebral palsy, the agreed term is language disorder associated with X, where X refers to one of these other conditions Language disorder that occurs with an unknown origin is termed Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and affects around 7% of five-year-olds in the UK Around 10% of children in the UK are found to have language disorder overall (Norbury et al., 2016), and similar prevalence figures have been found across the world Speech, Language and Communication Needs is the umbrella term incorporating both language disorder and DLD (see Figure 5).

Verbal dyspraxia (CAS) Articulation disorder Orofacial stuctural deficitsFluencydisordersLack of

familiaritywith ambient

Phonology Syntax

MorphologySemanticsWord finding Pragmatics

Discourse Verbal learning/

memory

LanguageDisorderassociated withbiomedical condition X

Speech, Language and Communication Needs

Figure 5 Relationships between language disorder, DLD, and SLCN (from Bishop et al., 2017, p 1076)

Why is vocabulary support important?

Children with language disorder may present with difficulties in the understanding and expression of nology, syntax, grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and pragmatics (Bishop, 1997) Literacy difficulties are also frequently implicated (e.g., McArthur et al., 2000; Stanovich, 1986) Language disorder can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental conditions such as dyspraxia or attention deficit disorder (Bishop et al., 2017) Children with language disorder often have underlying phonological processing weaknesses, under-developed semantic networks, and verbal working memory deficits (verbal working memory is discussed in Chapter 3) There is extensive evidence (e.g., Johnson et al., 2010) that language disorder is a lifelong condition, continuing throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood.

Definitional issues surrounding dyslexia have, like language disorder, been the subject of much debate over the years It is agreed, though, that dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty causing problems with reading, writing, and spelling, and it is now widely accepted in the literature that phonological (sound) deficits are the most common underlying causes of dyslexia (Vellutino et al., 2004) Dyslexia is known as reading disability in some countries.

Research repeatedly shows a large overlap between children with language disorder and those with lexia (e.g., McArthur et al., 2000), and although in a classically dyslexic profile, spoken language abilities tend to exceed written language abilities, many children with dyslexia are still prone to vocabulary weaknesses (Muter & Snowling, 2009) Like language disorder, dyslexia is a lifelong condition (Maughan et al., 2009).

dys-Intellectual disability

Intellectual disability (DSM-5: American Psychiatric Association, 2013), or intellectual developmental disorder (ICD-11: World Health Organization, 2018), affects both intellectual and adaptive functioning, resulting in deficits in conceptual, social, and practical domains As such there are commensurate deficits in communication: lan-guage and vocabulary are often more concrete or immature than expected for chronological age The precise pattern of language development can vary according to the aetiology of the intellectual disability.

One example of a genetic syndrome giving rise to intellectual disability is Down’s syndrome (www downs -syndrome org uk) Vocabulary can be a strength for some individuals with Down’s syndrome, but semantic-conceptual developmental deficits are common (Laws et al 2015), and receptive vocabulary growth slows down during the middle childhood years relative to typically developing peers (Cuskelly et al., 2016).

Speech sound disorder

Children with speech sound disorder may have phonological processing difficulties, making it hard for them to remember the phonological form or sounds of a word and to store it accurately They may also have difficulty constructing a motor programme to produce the sounds and sequences of sounds required to say a word Another group of children with speech output difficulties are those with a physical, muscular weakness, such as those with cerebral palsy, or those with hearing impairment Although in itself, a speech output difficulty does not cause difficulties with the semantics of comprehension or expression, these children and adoles-cents can still benefit from targeted intervention to support their phonological processing and production of words.

Second language learners

While children and adolescents who are educated in a language other than their native language may not have the phonological, semantic, and working memory weaknesses of those with SLCN, and do not have a language disorder unless identified separately, they nonetheless have the challenge of acquiring a large

Why is vocabulary support important?

out-Chapter 3

WORD LEARNING AND ITS CHALLENGES

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433177-3

Word learning and its challenges

An understanding of how word-learning skills change over time can assist practitioners in providing priate vocabulary teaching for all children and adolescents throughout school This chapter describes how word learning typically develops across the life span It goes on to consider aspects of word learning which present a challenge for children and adolescents with SLCN, describing the interaction between lexical repre-sentations, verbal working memory, and metalinguistic awareness – essential skills underpinning vocabulary development.

Initially, children need to hear a word between 50 and 200 times before they will first, learn to understand what it means, and second, be able to use it expressively Then, from about 18 months of age, children typically undergo a vocabulary spurt where new words come thick and fast, and the avid parent who is making notes can no longer keep up with the explosion in their child’s language development Around this age, children can produce between approximately 50 to 600 words (Clark, 1995) The apparent unstoppability of young children learning new words appears nothing short of miraculous This ability to hear a word only a few times and be able to understand and use it almost straight away is called fast-mapping (Clark, 1993) It is at this point that language acquisition difficulties often present themselves, as the vocabulary spurt is slow to materialise or does not appear at all.

Developmental progression

Words are quickly added to a child’s lexicon, resulting in an approximate vocabulary of 14,000 words by six years of age (Clark, 1995) But fast-mapping is not enough as children get older It works well for concrete referents – spoon, car, ball – but the words which children need to learn and use as they get older become less concrete and more abstract, with the emergence of actions, attributes, and technical concepts During the school years, children are exposed to, and are expected to learn, around 3,000 words a year, equat-ing to about ten words a day (Clark, 1995) Newly encountered words must be compared and contrasted with words in their existing lexicon in order to establish and adjust the semantic boundaries of the words (Nippold, 2007).

A word needs to be encountered in a context about which the child has some knowledge; for example, some knowledge of space is required before a child can learn what satellite means (Dockrell et al., 2007) In addition, a word needs to be encountered several times within meaningful contexts in order to develop a well-rounded understanding (Anderson & Nagy, 1996).

As literacy develops during the school years, language and literacy “enjoy a symbiotic relationship” (Nippold, 1988, p 29) With proficient literacy skills, children and adolescents absorb new vocabulary through reading, with spoken and written language developing hand in hand It is commonly said that children at the beginning of primary school are learning to read and by the end of primary school they are reading to learn.

Independent word learning

Independent word-learning skills are of critical importance, given the sheer volume of words we need to learn There are two key ways in which word meaning can be worked out independently: from the morphology of the word, and from the context surrounding the word.

Word learning and its challenges

The morphology of a word refers to the small segments within it which contribute to its meaning, such as fix, root, and suffix Morphological awareness begins to develop as early as two years of age (Clark, 1993) and continues to increase in a developmental sequence throughout childhood and adolescence (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2007) The morphemes and their meanings in the word unstoppability are as follows:

pre-un- prefix the absence of something-stop- root to come to an end-ability suffix the state of being able to

You can see some more examples on page 62 As children become literate, the use of morphological edge to derive information from the written word is increasingly used For example, a child may understand that timid means “a bit scared,” and that the suffix “-ly” describes the way in which an action is carried out On meeting the word timorously, the child may well be able to deduce that it means “as if scared.” It can be helpful to think of words in families, with all words in the family having the same root; e.g., stop, stopped, stopping, unstop, doorstop For more on word families, see Chapter 5.

The second key independent word-learning strategy is to use clues from the context in which the word appears For example, when encountering the word zodiographer in the following sentence, one can use the information in the sentence to work out something about what the word might mean: “The farm had an abundance of wildlife including deer, badgers, and rabbits, so this was an ideal place for the zodiographer to start his observations.”

Literacy ability helps enormously with deriving word meaning in this way, because the written word, being accessed through the visual modality, is stable and permanent, allowing the reader to scan back and forth, to integrate information and work out meaning Deriving meaning from morphology and context is also pos-sible from the spoken word, but as the spoken word is accessed through the auditory modality, it is temporary, and an accurate trace of what was said is easily lost This is illustrated when people recount a story they have previously heard to someone else The chances are the meaning is recounted accurately, but the exact same words are not used This is fine in everyday situations, but where words with specific or technical meaning are explained, inaccurate memories of what was said can easily blur the exact meaning of the word.

Vocabulary learning is ongoing

A person’s lexicon continues to expand beyond adolescence into adulthood Each time one begins to learn about a new topic, or takes up a new hobby, a whole collection of new vocabulary comes along with it These soon become everyday words A bell-ringer learns new words and phrases such as sally, backstroke, singles, a peal, ringing up, ringing down, treble bob method, and plain hunt These words are probably within the person’s existing vocabulary, but they take on a new specialised meaning when encountered in a new topic.

When word learning breaks down

The next part of this chapter considers how essential skills underpinning vocabulary development present a challenge for children and adolescents with SLCN, describing the interaction between lexical representations, verbal working memory, and metalinguistic awareness We also discuss factors involved in engagement with learning.

Word learning and its challenges

Lexical representations

We saw in Chapter 1 how, as we learn words, lexical representations are built up within our store of words For some individuals, the basis of their word learning difficulties may lie in inadequate semantic skills resulting in weak semantic representations (McGregor et al., 2002) For others, limited phonological processing skills result in inaccurate phonological representations (Stackhouse et al., 2006) For some, it can be a combination of both – a dual deficit in which both phonological and semantic difficulties interact to produce word-learning difficulties (Nash & Donaldson, 2005) Word-learning difficulties may affect both receptive ability, where com-prehension levels are low, and expressive ability, sometimes manifesting as a word-retrieval difficulty.

Children and adolescents who are less literate are further disadvantaged, being less able to link orthography with phonology, and less able to benefit from opportunities to derive meaning from morphology and context It has been shown that children with low vocabulary levels benefit from direct instruction in how to derive mean-ing from context, over and above being told what words mean (Nash & Snowling, 2006).

Verbal working memory

The phonological processing of a word, in order to store it in the lexicon, is dependent upon efficient verbal working memory Verbal working memory allows temporary storage of the phonological form of the word while it is processed for comprehension and while a semantic representation is established.

There are several models of working memory, a well-known one being that of Baddeley (2000) In this model, a phonological store holds auditory input passively for one to two seconds, and a sub-vocal rehearsal mecha-nism holds the input in the temporary store while it is processed for understanding These components of Baddeley’s working memory model are together called the phonological loop, and the process is known as phonological short-term memory A non-word repetition task, in which a person hears a made-up word (such as simprificant) and has to repeat it, can provide some measure of a person’s phonological short-term memory ability Another component of the model, called the episodic buffer, provides extra storage capacity for information, and also enables semantic connections with long-term memory to support the integration of new words within the existing lexicon These resources can be drawn upon in a real-word repetition task The central executive is the overall attentional controller, responsible for focusing, dividing, and switching atten-tion as needed Tasks requiring concurrent phonological and semantic processing, such as repeating a short sentence and making a judgement about its veracity, are called executive-loaded tasks Together, the skills in this part of the working memory model can be termed verbal working memory For a fuller explanation of the working memory model, see Baddeley (2000) and Henry and Botting (2017).

Research has shown a strong relationship between phonological short-term memory and vocabulary (e.g., Gathercole & Baddeley, 1993), and between executive-loaded working memory and language (Vugs et al., 2016) When a new word is encountered, it essentially operates as a non-word until it acquires some meaning Making phonological features more salient has been shown to improve the accuracy of word production in both typically developing children and children with language disorder (Ellis Weismer & Hesketh, 1998).

Metalinguistic awareness

Another continuing development throughout childhood and adolescence is that of metalinguistic awareness, enabling adolescents to reflect consciously on the nature of language (van Kleeck, 1984) The following excerpt

Word learning and its challenges

from a conversation among a group of young people, witnessed by one of the authors, illustrates a conscious reflection on vocabulary:

Steph: “Why is sand called sand?”

Ash: “I think it’s because it’s between the sea and the land.”

Ash had made a link between phonological and semantic information – though erroneous in this case!

Spencer et al (2010, 2013) highlighted the relevance of metalinguistic awareness to success in school, through their interviews of 14–15-year-olds Rabia demonstrates the insight young people have into the nature of their own language, how it defines them as people, and how they are aware that a mastery of relevant vocabulary is necessary for academic success.

“But like if I’m doing any work in science, I wish I could put them words into it and get myself a higher grade.” (Rabia, aged 15: Spencer et al., 2013, p 137)

Students from Lowe (2018) corroborate this:

“We had like new words, like really really long words and that…and like you need to know all the words.” (Ewan, Year 7)

“If you like just don’t know a word they’ll either assume you’re dyslexic or they’ll just think you’re dumb.” (Freya, Year 8)

Engagement with learning

Motivation plays a big part in one’s ability to learn Some people are natural wordsmiths – they have an est in words for the sake of it Others less so – but an interest in words can be encouraged and fostered by example An attitude of curiosity and enquiry modelled to a young person can engender such an attitude Fostering an interest in words is central to the work of Beck et al (2002, 2013) in their Robust Vocabulary Instruction approach Something as simple as introducing a new word in a relevant context creates a nat-ural incentive of needing to know what the word means (Miller & Gildea, 1987) Students undertaking the Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme (VEIP: Joffe, 2011b; see Chapter 5) always seemed to get very excited about using the thesaurus – as opposed to the dictionary – as they enjoyed finding more complex and unusual alternatives for words that they typically used Using synonyms and antonyms for common words heightened their curiosity and created opportunities for them to have fun using different words, hence increas-ing their engagement in the session.

inter-It is quite likely that if the language used in the classroom is beyond the young person’s comprehension, motivation will be affected, and engagement will decrease The link between language and behaviour is well-established in the literature For example, in a study by Benner et al (2002), three-quarters of children aged 4–19 years with an identified emotional or behavioural difficulty met the criteria for language disorder, and nearly two-thirds of children with an identified language disorder experienced emotional and behavioural difficulties A comment made by a student with language disorder in a study by Lowe (2018) illustrates how a lack of comprehension can reduce the effectiveness of teaching When asked how helpful an activity was that she had done in class, Ida said:

“Not very helpful cos I sometimes I don’t understand what miss is saying.” (Ida, 12 years: Lowe, 2018, p 211)The vicious circle of non-comprehension leading to non-engagement can be transformed into a virtuous circle, enhancing motivation and confidence by adapting the language of the classroom and making the vocabulary attainable.

Word learning and its challenges

A further factor affecting engagement is the demand made on attention control Difficulty with attention control is common in children with SLCN, and this difficulty can continue into the older age range (Victorino & Schwartz, 2015) When one’s grasp of the language is insecure, the greater is the effort required to maintain concentra-tion A comment by another student in the study by Lowe (2018) illustrates this difficulty with concentration in class When asked whether he would prefer vocabulary support in class, in small groups, or one-to-one, Ben said he liked the idea of one-to-one support:

“Because you can focus on the teacher instead of people round you You’ve got so many people round me and I find it a bit hard.” (Ben, 13 years)

Targeted vocabulary support

We have seen how children and adolescents with SLCN are at risk of missing out on learning through their intrinsic phonological and semantic weaknesses, as well as the interlaced contributory factors of verbal work-ing memory, attention control, and motivation Targeted vocabulary support needs to utilise a range of tech-niques and strategies which not only directly develops phonological and semantic skills but also addresses these accompanying factors Examples of techniques and strategies include the following: modelling how to derive potential meaning when confronted with a new word; discussing word form and meaning explicitly; accompanying spoken words with the written word; modelling the use of mnemonics and providing frequent revision opportunities; tapping into areas of students’ interest; and using language at a level within a student’s comprehension Later chapters will go into these techniques in more detail, giving specific examples of how they can be used in the classroom or therapy setting.

If these types of strategies, and vocabulary intervention, are to empower the young people they are involved with, it is essential that practitioners provide targeted vocabulary support throughout childhood and adoles-cence to enable each young person to reach their potential Some young people will benefit from a time-limited period of individual or group intervention to teach word-learning strategies and vocabulary skills which they can then apply in the classroom and social settings Continued use of these strategies and skills is facilitated if students encounter similar strategies being used and demonstrated by class teachers While some adoles-cents with language disorder do continue to benefit from one-to-one or small-group intervention, the majority of students’ time is still spent in the classroom The remaining chapters of this book set out to equip practition-ers with a toolbox of evidence-based techniques and strategies for providing effective vocabulary support, which can be adapted for application to individual, small-group, and whole-class models of intervention.

Young children learn new words through mapping a spoken word onto its concrete referent As the vocabulary that a child is exposed to moves from the concrete to the more abstract and technical, so the mechanisms of word learning become more sophisticated As children get older, and throughout life, they acquire new words through independent word-learning skills such as the derivation of meaning from morphology and context, frequently through text.

Each young person with SLCN presents with a unique constellation of strengths and weaknesses in logical skills, semantic skills, literacy, verbal working memory, attention control, motivation, and confidence Individual and small-group vocabulary support should be tailored to the individuals, to build on strengths and develop areas of need Whole-class vocabulary teaching should include evidence-based techniques and strategies which directly target the needs of students with SLCN at the same time as enhancing the vocabulary learning of typically developing students In Chapter 4, we present an overview of the evidence and state of play in vocabulary intervention at three levels of input: individual, small group, and whole class.

phono-Chapter 4

EVIDENCED VOCABULARY INTERVENTION AT ALL LEVELS OF INPUT

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433177-4

Evidenced vocabulary intervention at all levels of input

This chapter describes individual, small-group, and whole-class models of intervention delivery, and outlines the evidence for vocabulary intervention at all these levels of input.

Levels of provision and models of intervention

In the UK, and in other parts of the world, for example, Australia, health and educational services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are provided at three levels: universal, targeted, and specialist.

Universal provision is available to all children, as exemplified by whole-school approaches or whole-class teaching In relation to SLCN, targeted services are provided for children identified as being at risk, such as those of low socio-economic status, or children with speech or language difficulties that are expected to be transient At the targeted level, children are usually withdrawn from the classroom for periods of time-limited intervention, either individually or in small groups Specialist services are reserved for children with severe and complex speech and language disorder, who require ongoing or intensive intervention At the specialist level, individual intervention is often required.

These levels broadly equate to the waves model of intervention (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), 2008) Wave 1 (universal) refers to whole-class teaching for all pupils and is known as “Quality First Teaching” (DCSF, 2008, p 9); Wave 2 (targeted) refers to small-group time-limited additional intervention for pupils just below national expectations; and Wave 3 (specialist) refers to individual or small-group intervention with a trained and supported TA, specialist teacher, or, in the case of SLCN, a speech and language therapist (SLT) The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) recommends a framework of workforce management which accounts for the role of the SLT at all levels of universal, targeted, and specialist provision (Gascoigne, 2006) The relationship between levels of provision, models of intervention, and the role of the SLT is illustrated in Table 1.

In Table 1, the first two columns are based on the balanced system model of Gascoigne (2012), where a greater amount of speech and language therapy resource (specialist workforce) is deployed per child at a targeted level than at a universal level, and an even greater amount of speech and language therapy resource per child at specialist level A child who has severe and complex speech and language disorder may receive input at all three levels: they may be in receipt of individual intervention, as well as time-limited group interventions, and

Table 1 The relationship between levels of provision and models of intervention delivery.Level of

service provision

Amount of time

spent by the…Role of the speech and language therapistPredominant or typical model of intervention delivery

Specialist SpecialistworkforceWider

assistants to deliver targeted interventions

Small group

Universal Training the wider workforce Whole class

Evidenced vocabulary intervention at all levels of input

in addition, specific strategies may be in place within a class to support their communication and access to the curriculum The model of delivery employed may change at different points in a child’s course of development, depending on the child’s needs As the diagram illustrates, within the context of school, the role of the SLT may be to provide specialist intervention, as well as train and support others (for example, teachers and TAs) to deliver targeted or universal intervention Ebbels et al (2019) provide a helpful perspective on this framework, suggesting that children receiving specialist provision will be on a speech and language therapy caseload, and therefore under the SLT’s duty of care, whereas children receiving targeted or universal provision may not be on a speech and language therapy caseload, but an SLT may be involved in a public health role, supporting the education workforce to meet the child’s needs.

The evidence base

While we all learn a great deal from clinical and teaching experience, observing what works, and adapting and developing our practice accordingly, it is gratifying when our professional judgement is backed up by research It is important for us as practitioners to heed evidence from the published literature in order to ensure that we act in a professionally accountable way Research and practice thus move hand in hand – research building on ideas tried in practice, and practice using ideas empirically trialled The benefit of research is that it examines the effectiveness of practice while reducing the influence of variables such as differences between individual students, differences between groups of students, and differences in teaching style It is then incum-bent upon practitioners to interpret and apply the evidence from research thoughtfully in the light of their own particular circumstances and students.

Research into vocabulary intervention for adolescents with SLCN is an emergent field A synthesis of the ings of relevant studies by Lowe et al (2018) suggested a potential for effective vocabulary intervention with this population The following sections comprise a synopsis of the research investigating each model of interven-tion For information on the research terminology used in this chapter, we refer readers to “Research Methods in Communication Disorders” (Pring, 2009).

find-Individual vocabulary intervention

Evidence for the effectiveness of vocabulary intervention in an individual model was provided by Ebbels et al (2012) in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in a specialist language setting The 15 participants, aged 9–15 years, all had word-finding difficulties Intervention involved asking questions eliciting semantic information; e.g., “What does it look like?” (Ebbels et al., 2012, p 51) Individual intervention was delivered to seven partici-pants for 15 minutes twice a week over a period of eight weeks, and progress on standardised tests of word-finding was compared with a waiting control group of eight participants The authors reported significant progress in single word tasks for the experimental group, but not for the control group, and concluded that this indicated that the intervention showed a generalisation effect, improving independent word learning No progress was made on discourse tasks.

A similar intervention, but incorporating phonological as well as semantic strategies, was found to be cessful by Wright et al (2018) in a within-subjects study with children with language disorder aged 9–16 years On bespoke tasks involving lexical decision, definition (multiple choice), definition (production), and sentence production, participants made significantly greater progress with experimental words than with control words.

suc-Enhancing vocabulary in small groups

Joffe (2006) conducted an RCT with a cohort of 54 adolescents with SLCN aged 10–15 years Participants were randomised into two groups to receive intervention delivered by student SLTs in small groups in mainstream secondary schools for two 50-minute sessions a week over a six-week period One group received semantic