What does Dr. Neuman research and what is the background behind it?
- Dr. Neuman does research in vocabulary development using categories for preschoolers.
- In her early research, she found that almost all reading programs with successful intervention for at-risk children focused on vocabulary. Dr. Neuman wanted to dive deeper into that discovery and understand why.
What are Dr. Neuman’s biggest findings?
- Backed by her research, Dr. Neuman worked on a program called World of Words (WOW), working towards making it fun to learn about words.
- Introducing fun into learning enables children to be more word conscious, aware of words and understanding what words can do for them.
- It is important for children to learn the words that they need to be successful in content areas, such as science or social studies.
- Children can learn much more difficult words than most teachers and parents assume.
- Oral language and comprehension/vocabulary is the foundation of early literacy development.
How do children build vocabulary through categories, and what are the benefits?
- The process of learning new vocabulary should be a self-taught mechanism. Children need to know how to learn on their own.
- If teachers taught words in categories, they can help their students understand the word itself and the conceptual framework for understanding it. Typically, children performed significantly better when learning vocabulary this way.
- Teaching vocabulary through multimedia is effective for children who are low in vocabulary or language. Talking with words can be inexplicable. Therefore, embedding multimedia provides an exemplar to teach words and their meanings.
Why is this research important?
- Children with greater vocabulary in content areas are more successful in those areas.
- Children with a solid foundation will continue to improve.
What are the implications for teachers?
- Teachers should focus more explicitly on vocabulary development early on.
- Typically, teachers will embed vocabulary in other instruction, hoping that their children will “get it.” However, children do not learn this way. Instead, they need repeated, explicit practice.
- Having their children play category games, such as Bingo or Jeopardy, helps them learn a strategy for organizing words.
What are the implications for parents?
- Parents need to talk to their children a lot and engage in responsive talking. They should work off their child’s agenda rather than their own, answer their questions, and use interesting words in conversation. Children typically perk up when they hear a new, unusual word, which then gets them thinking in new ways.
What are the implications for policy makers?
- They should advocate for more intentional activities in vocabulary.
- Put planned instruction in vocabulary development in their recommendations at the research level and in the proposals they write for funding.
