Facilitating Vocabulary Acquisition by English Language Learners

Vocabulary Acquisition by English as a Second Language Learners

This chapter provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning vocabulary acquisition and English language learners and a discussion concerning Web-based vocabulary platforms including several representative examples as well as their potential for contributing to English language learner (ELL) student success. Finally, an analysis of pedagogy and technology integration in language acquisition is followed by a summary of research and major themes that emerged from the literature review.

Literature Review/Themes

Vocabulary Acquisition and English Language Learners

Vocabulary acquisition is a vital and continuous process requiring practice and time on task (Wei, 2014). Vocabulary acquisition entails constant repetition for young learners to develop an effective grasp of the material (Baleghizadeh & Ashoori, 2011). Indeed, vocabulary acquisition represents a fundamental building block on which second language fluency depends. In this regard, Alharbi (2015) emphasizes that vocabulary acquisition and retention represents the first and foremost area requiring attention by ELL students who will be required to learn a minimum of 3,000-word families and under the vast majority (at least 95%) of the English language that is used on a daily basis by native speakers.

This point is also made by Wei (2014) who also cites the centrality of vocabulary acquisition as the foundation for ELL students to gain mastery of the English language. For instance, according to Wei (2014), the acquisition of vocabulary by ELL students is an integral part of the mastery of the language. Indeed, without a comprehensive knowledge of relevant vocabulary words, ELL students will be unable to communicate at all, making the need for effective teaching strategies of paramount importance (Min, 2013). In addition, vocabulary acquisition and retention are key to successfully completing the battery of standardized tests that are used throughout the United States today (Dong, 2013). These are especially important issues given the enormity of the affected population, with the most recent estimates placing the number of students enrolled in ELL programs in the U.S. at around 4.5 million, and all demographic indicators suggest these levels will swell to even greater numbers in the near future (Thompson, 2016).

At first blush, though, developing effective teaching strategies that promote vocabulary acquisition by ELL students appears to be an especially daunting enterprise. In fact, researchers have determined that the English language has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world today, and educated English native speakers are generally required to understand around 70,000 words and 20,000-word families (Min, 2013). Conversely, educated ELL students typically know fewer than 25% of the vocabulary of native speakers (Min, 2013).

Consequently, it is vitally important for ELL students to expand their knowledge of English words to successfully compete in academic and professional settings (Min, 2013). In this regard, Min stresses that developing an expanding repertoire of English vocabulary words is not only essential for beginning ELL students, it represents an ongoing requirement that is essential for their continuing mastery of the English language. This need remains salient irrespective of ELL students' level of grammar or pronunciation competency since it forms the basis for communicating all aspects of a second language (Min, 2013).

Clearly, providing ELL students with this level of vocabulary knowledge requires classroom teachers to draw on those methods that have proven efficacy and tailoring these methods to meet the unique and changing needs of their students. The research to date indicates that ELLs learn better when the curricular offerings are relevant and in context. Learning in context is just one of the methods learners may use to increase their vocabularies, but ELL must use meta-cognitive thinking and learn terms within whichever context they appear (Alharbi, 2015; Jeff, 2010).

Not surprisingly, the research to date also confirms that ELL students acquire vocabulary at different rates compared to native speakers. For instance, researchers have demonstrated that native speakers typically acquire around 1,000 new words each year prior to their entry into college at which point the rate accelerates to around 2,000 new words each year (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013). In other words, the more words students already know, the faster they are able to acquire new ones.

By sharp contrast, ELL students require approximately twice as long to acquire the same number of new words, particularly after entering college when the vocabulary becomes more complex (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013). One of the more disturbing effects of these disparate learning rates between native speakers and ELL students is the fact that in academic settings, ELL students will already be at a disadvantage (Overturf, 2016). Furthermore, this disadvantage becomes more accentuated as they progress in their college studies because research has shown that students who already possess a larger vocabulary tend to acquire new words faster than those with a more limited vocabulary (Overturf, 2016). Therefore, language acquisition strategies have increasingly drawn on a wide range of oral and written resources to facilitate vocabulary acquisition by ELL students in recent years (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013).

Given the prodigious nature of the English language vocabulary, the question then emerges concerning what vocabulary words should be taught by ELL teachers to facilitate additional vocabulary acquisition. One strategy that has been used for this purpose is targeting the words that are used most frequently in the English language (Spiro, 2013). The rationale in support of using this strategy relates to the fact that the most frequently used words in the English language comprise a majority of the words used in oral and written communications (Spiro, 2013). In fact, studies have shown that the one thousand most common words in English account for nearly three-quarters (71%) of the words used in written texts, meaning that specific words represent an essential starting point for vocabulary acquisition by ELL students (Spiro, 2013).

One of the major constraints to vocabulary acquisition, however, remains the amount of intensive study required on the part of ELL students. In this regard, Alharbi (2015) emphasizes that generally speaking, ELL students will require a minimum of between five and 16 times as much exposure to new words to acquire and retain them compared to their native speaking counterparts. Moreover, Alhabri (2015) also stresses that ELL students must invest far greater time and effort to acquire new vocabulary words in English compared to native speakers despite efforts by the former to fully immerse themselves in the English language.

An important point made by Alhabri (2015), however, concerns the venues in which native speakers acquire vocabulary compared to ELL students. Similar to the manner in which vocabulary acquisition occurs in native languages, vocabulary acquisition in a second language occurs gradually over time as heavily influenced by the learning environment in which ELL students live and study; there are some differences between vocabulary acquisition among native speakers and ELL students that must be taken into account when formulating relevant teaching strategies. For instance, Alhabri (2015) points out that ELL students tend to naturally acquire vocabulary as part of their incidental interactions with native and non-native speakers in both classroom settings as well as social settings outside the classroom. Therefore, an integral part of the vocabulary acquisition process involves ELL students determining which learning strategy is best suited to achieve their goals depending on their academic circumstances at the time. Consequently, identifying ELL student needs and preferences represents an essential component in developing appropriate curricular offerings and teaching strategies (Alharbi, 2015).

There are a number of different vocabulary teaching strategies available for ELL students, including read-alouds, total physical response (TPR), word/flash cards and word walls (Alharbi, 2015). These teaching strategies are described further in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Vocabulary learning strategies

Strategy

Description/Applications

Read-Alouds

This strategy uses regularly scheduled oral readings of books and stories in which teachers draw on textual resources to provide ELL students with the background knowledge they need for effective vocabulary acquisition. This strategy also uses a progressively challenging approach that presents increasingly difficult material to challenge ELL students' vocabulary retention abilities (Fien & Santoro, 2011). While this strategy is effective in promoting vocabulary acquisition, it should only be considered as an adjunct to other vocabulary teaching strategies rather than being used as a stand-alone approach (Fien & Santoro, 2011).

Total Physical Response (TPR)

This language acquisition strategy simulates the manner in which children acquire their mother tongue. The rationale in support of this strategy relates to the natural processes by which native speakers acquire vocabulary. For instance, Harrasi and Talib (2014) report that young people tend to respond to oral instructions in their native language by physical responses such as shaking their heads affirmatively or negatively, pointing or nodding in acknowledgement) prior to the point where they are able to articulate words. This strategy is designed to simulate this process by having ELL students respond in physical ways to verbal instructions from the teacher (e.g., "open your books to chapter two") drawing on trace theory from psychology that posits the combination of oral instructions and physical actions promotes more rapid vocabulary acquisition. Some especially noteworthy advantages of using this strategy is its ability to make the vocabulary acquisition process more relevant to students as well as its ability to make the learning process more enjoyable for students and teachers alike. As Harrisi and Talib (2014) point out, this teaching strategy serves to motivate ELL students by providing them opportunities to participate physically, a process that has been shown to promote vocabulary retention. Given the rigors and demands of second-language vocabulary acquisition, any teaching strategy that has proven efficacy which also introduces an element of enjoyment must be seriously considered as a potential addition to ELL teachers' repertoire of teaching strategies. As Harrasi and Talib (2014) conclude, this teaching strategy makes vocabulary acquisition more enjoyable and provides a more relaxed environment that is conducive to learning.

Flash/Word Cards

This intentional teaching strategy (versus incidental learning) includes vocabulary notebooks, word lists, as well as word cards which have been shown to be effective and efficient for vocabulary acquisition in second languages (Hung, 2015). Research has shown that intentional teaching strategies such as word cards for vocabulary acquisition are more efficient compared to incidental learning experiences due in large part to the time-consuming and rigorous requirements of the latter versus the former (Elbort, 2011). Moreover, Hung (2015) emphasizes that these types of intentional vocabulary teaching strategies greatly facilitate the vocabulary acquisition process through rote memory achieved through repetitive presentations of vocabulary words. This teaching strategy is among the most commonly used by ELL teachers due in large part to its ease of use, cost effectiveness, and proven ability to help ELL students acquire and retain English vocabulary words (Chien, 2015). In addition, there is a growing body of evidence that indicates that retention rates for vocabulary words acquired using intentional teaching strategies such as word cards are higher versus incidental learning, findings that suggest this strategy represents an essential part of any ELL vocabulary curriculum (Hung, 2013).

Word Walls

This teaching strategy involves ELL students being provided with sample vocabulary words, definitions, and, where available, graphic representations of words that are related to a specific theme (Porter & Neil, 2012).

The use of these and other intentional teaching strategies for helping ELL students acquire vocabulary have been shown to be more effective than the incidental learning that takes place through reading stories and books in English (Min, 2013). In this regard, Min (2013) advises that from a psychological perspective, providing ELL students with greater story and text reading opportunities is also an effective teaching strategy compared to vocabulary exercises only. Even here, though, it is important to note that even extensive reading regimens will not replace a multifaceted approach to helping ELL students improve their English vocabulary (Min, 2013). In addition, it is also essential for ELL teachers to not discount the learning opportunities that incidental learning experiences such as reading for pleasure or simply talking with others provide ELL students (Mixan, 2013).

While it is possible for ELL students to improve their ability to recognize greater numbers of English words and thereby increase their vocabulary knowledge through reading alone, this strategy does not provide them with the ability to use these newly acquired words in a productive fashion that is required in academic and professional settings (Min, 2013). The research to date indicates that incidental learning using reading strategies for ELL students are most effective when they have gained sufficient mastery of the language to understand the use of contextual clues, affixes and word families for understanding word meaning (Min, 2013). Therefore, ELL teachers should periodically reevaluate their students' readiness for additional teaching strategies to ensure that they are providing them with the optimal mix of strategies that are aligned with their learning preferences and needs (Min, 2013).

Despite the growing body of evidence concerning the usefulness of these and other teaching strategies in promoting vocabulary acquisition, many ELL students are not provided with these tools at a sufficiently early point in their second language acquisition efforts to maximize their effectiveness (Alhabri, 2015). Moreover, all ELL students will have a preference for different vocabulary acquisition strategies, making the need to fine-tune these strategies to their unique needs which will change over time (Alhabri, 2015). Drawing on the axiom that if ELL students are not acquiring vocabulary in the manner in which they are being taught, they must be taught in the manner in which they will learn, Alhabri also reports that the majority of ELL students have expressed a preference for learning strategies that provide them with the opportunity to learn new English words by developing an understanding of new words and grouping them into appropriate categories to reinforce retention (Alhabri, 2015).

Although vocabulary acquisition strategies received little attention prior to the 1980s (Alhabri, 2015; Wei, 2014), researchers have increasingly focused on this aspect of ELL given its demonstrated centrality to the process. As Wei (2014) emphasizes, it has actually only been since the 1990s that researchers have investigated the issue of identifying effective vocabulary acquisition strategies for ELL students, but there has been a growing body of research in this area since that time. Despite this growing body of research, there are still some gaps in the body of knowledge concerning optimal teaching strategies for vocabulary acquisition, especially concerning any potential gender-related differences in acquisition rates (Wei, 2014).

A study by Wei (2014) found that, based on pre- and post-vocabulary test results, although there were no substantive gender-related differences between the total number of vocabulary words acquired by Chinese ELL college students (m=258, f=345), male subjects tended to use more learning strategies compared to their female counterparts to achieve the same outcomes. The average age of the subjects was 19.5 years with an average of about 10 years of English instruction (Wei, 2014). There were some commonalities between the male and female subjects with respect to preferred strategies, with the use of a Chinese-English dictionary, guessing word meaning from the context and consulting the vocabulary list in the appendix ranking at the top of the mutually preferred strategies (Wei, 2014).

This teaching strategy is congruent with the observation by Wei (2014) that English translation dictionaries are among the most important resources available to ELL students, and ELL researchers have shown that communicating the importance of English translation dictionaries to ELL students is also an essential element of any vocabulary acquisition teaching strategy (Wei, 2014). The findings that emerged from the study by Wei (2014) also indicate that compared to the male subjects, female ELL students prefer a learning strategy that draws on peer assistance and different textual and online media resources.

The purpose of an experimental study by Yi and Sun (2013) involving 182 ELL high school students was to determine the impact of negotiation of meaning for English language learners for vocabulary acquisition. The students were divided into experimental groups and control groups and all were administered a series of pre-vocabulary to establish baseline proficiency and post-vocabulary tests to determine the efficacy of the intervention used in this study. The intervention consisted of the provision of simplified input to facilitate simultaneous negotiation of meaning with teachers and peers for the experimental groups. This intervention was shown to be highly effective in promoting vocabulary acquisition among the control groups, suggesting that the negotiation of meaning is an integral component of vocabulary acquisition by ELL students (Yi & Sun, 2013).

Web-based Vocabulary Platforms and Student Success

Web-based vocabulary platforms assume a wide range of forms and types today. For example, Rivero (2011) reports that Web-based vocabulary platforms include video presentations, product training exercises, various self-paced online courses, as well as recorded and real-time webinars. In sum, Web-based platforms are valuable applications for ELL students because they are accessible at any time and location. Moreover, these cost-effective platforms also allow students to learn at their own pace. Educators can use integrative adaptive technology, such as Vocabulary.com, to enhance student learning and encourage them to collaborate within their own environment (Abrams & Walsh, 2014).

The Vocabulary.com site and several other representative Web-based vocabulary platforms that are available for ELL students are described further in Table 2 below.

Table 2

Representative Web-based vocabulary platforms

Platform

Description

Vocabulary.com

This platform offers more than 168,000 questions related to over 13,000 English vocabulary words. The platform also provides tests so that ELL students can measure their progress as well as models that demonstrate how vocabulary words are actually used in written and spoken English A competitive element using points, badges and achievement ratings encourages ELL students through friendly competition with their peers.

Study Stack (http://www.studystack.com/)

This platform offers eight vocabulary-building games for ELL students: (a) a matching game in which students match words with their definitions; (b) a hangman game that uses individual letter selected one-at-a-time to spell a word); (c) a simplified crossword game in which ELL students first read definitions and then type the words; (d) an unscramble game that requires students to rearrange letters to make the correct word; (e) a chopped game wherein ELL students first read the definition of a word and then spell the words by plugging in word fragments; (f) a fill-in-the-blank game wherein ELL students first read a word's definition and then type the appropriate word); (g) a multiple-choice quiz feature that requires users to first read a word's definition and then select e the correct answer from the available choices, and (h) a testing feature that requires ELL students to first read a word's definition and then select the correct word and then read the definition and type the word (Chien, 2015).

BBC Learning English (http://www.bbc.co.uk / worldservice/learningenglish / language/)

This platform offers a wide array of downloadable, open access video media and written transcripts that focus on essential and new additions to the English language. In addition, the platform offers a continuing series in vocabulary acquisition, including its most recent production, "Vocabulary: The seven uses of 'light.'"

Just the Word (http://www.just-the-word.com/)

This platform provides ELL students with the ability to search for specific English words to help narrow their choices concerning the selection of the most appropriate word. The platform also includes a breakdown of the most recent searches as well as the countries of origin of the users.

Lexipedia (http://www.lexipedia.com/)

This open source platform provides ELL students with a comprehensive analysis concerning the appropriate use of different vocabulary words in various contexts. Examples are broken down into verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, synonyms, acronyms and even something the authors describe as "fuzzynyms."

Worknik (https://www.wordnik.com / word-of-the-day)

This is the world's largest platform of English vocabulary words. This platform operates similar to the travel site Trivago by searching hundreds of sites to provide multiple definitions of vocabulary words to help ELL students understand their various contextual uses. Moreover, this platform even ranks these results according to those definitions that are deemed most useful for ELL students to gain an understanding of their meanings.

Lingro (http://lingro.com/)

This platform offers a comprehensive searchable English dictionary, vocabulary word lists, as well as a recall feature that allows ELL students to quickly review words they have already looked up. The word list feature offered by this platform also allows ELL students to take quizzes and play games (including flash cards) to promote their vocabulary retention.

Vocab Grabber (http://www.visualthesaurus.com / vocabgrabber/)

This platform offers a virtual thesaurus containing more than 145,000 English words and 115,000 meanings that helps ELL students understand how vocabulary words are used in different parts of speech. The visual thesaurus offered by this platform even provides a graphic display of the relevance of various synonyms for a given English word.

Flash Card Exchange (http://www.cram.com/)

This platform offers ELL students two different exercises: (a) a memory exercise in which ELL students first read a word's definition and then select a button to determine if they remembered the definition correctly and a follow-up button they can click if they failed this exercise; and (b) a test feature that tasks ELL students with first reading a word and then typing the appropriate definition to gauge their retention levels (Chien, 2015).

Curriculum Associates (http://www.curriculum associates.com/)

This platform offers free, self-paced online courses including vocabulary strategies for English-language learners (Rivero, 2011).

Snappy Words (http://www.snappy words.com/)

This is an interactive English dictionary and thesaurus platform that provides ELL students with the ability to quickly determine the meanings of words and establish salient relationships with other associated words. Like Vocab Grabber described above, this platform also provides a graphic representation of search results. For instance, the developer notes that the platform draws on Princeton University's lexical database which provides ELL students with a list of dictionary groups and the relationships between them. These relationships can also be depicted graphically to help illustrate these relationships.

Graph Words (http://graphwords.com/)

This platform is essentially the same as the foregoing Snappy Words site and offers identical tools and resources.

Word Spy (http://www.wordspy.com/)

This platform focuses on newly added words to the English language. Not surprisingly, many of these newly added words are related to technology and cultural trends, making the acquisition of these vocabulary words especially important for ELL students who are at the college level. The platform also offers a blog that discusses newly added words to the English language and their appropriate usage.

Word Hippo (http://www.wordhippo.com/)

This platform offers a thesaurus and dictionary of English vocabulary words and provides the opportunity for ELL students to practice their pronunciation. The platform also provides a series of example sentences using words of interest to help communicate their precise meanings.

Sources: Web site unless otherwise indicated

The representative platforms described in Table 2 above, though, are just a small sampling of the enormous array of resources that are available online that can be used to facilitate vocabulary acquisition by ELL students today. For example, Spiro (2013) reports that Web-based vocabulary platforms also include blogs, social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, podcasts, wikis, digital-based learning games and story-telling as well as virtual environments such as Second Life. One especially innovative Web-based strategy for helping ELL students increase their English vocabulary involves the provision of a 3-minute English vocabulary lesson provided by Urban Planet Mobile (www.urbanplanetmobile.com) with each telephone ring-tone download purchased which can then be replayed at students' convenience (Spiro, 2013). This strategy has been shown to be highly effective in improving acquisition and retention rates among ELL students (Spiro, 2013).

Other strategies that have been shown to be effective in promoting vocabulary acquisition among ELL students include the use of digital storytelling (Green, 2013). According to Green (2013), collaborative efforts between school librarians and ELL teachers can result in customized stories that are attuned to the specific learning needs of their students. In fact, digital storytelling technologies allow ELL teachers to personalize stories with student names and topical information that makes these learning opportunities especially relevant for ELL students (Green, 2013). This strategy also provides ELL students with valuable contextual information concerning the usage of various English vocabulary words and motivates them to acquire and retain them in ways that are far more difficult otherwise (Green, 2013).

Other educators have also reported good results from using Web-based platforms in conjunction with classroom-based learning activities to promote vocabulary acquisition by ELL students. .For example, Cook (2015) reports that despite the sometimes vastly disparate learning levels of his ELL students, data-driven instruction strategies that draw on online resources that promote vocabulary fluency can improve acquisition and retention levels for all of these learners. This ELL educator also reports that he has achieved optimal outcomes by rotating the types of Web-based technologies that are used and then pairing ELL students who are struggling with those who have mastered the material to provide peer-mentoring opportunities that further reinforce the vocabulary learning process (Cook, 2015).

Beyond the foregoing applications of Web-based platforms to promote vocabulary acquisition among ELL students, other strategies draw on the ubiquity and accessibility of these resources to provide these learners with the relevant types of interactions that are required in order to reinforce acquisition and retention of English vocabulary words. In this regard, Campbell and Rivas (2012) note that ELL students with a weak English vocabulary can especially benefit from the repeated exposure to vocabulary words that enhance their ability to identify relationships between English words and words in their mother tongue.

Because it is vitally important to fine-tune Web-based platform offerings to the learning styles that are most effective for a given group of ELL students and to keep curricular offerings as relevant as possible, ELL teachers can use Web-based resources to develop customized teaching strategies that combine the best of what is available online with the most effective, evidence-based classroom practices. In sum, ELL teachers can employ a wide array of Web-based platforms to create vocabulary-based video presentations that are valuable additions to the language acquisition curriculum (Campell & Rivas, 2012). Taken together, it is clear that these foregoing trends in vocabulary acquisition that integrate the best of what is available online with conventional pedagogical strategies represent an important juncture in the history of ELL teaching, but there are some important considerations involved that ELL teachers must taken into account in order to achieve optimal outcomes, and these issues are discussed further below.

Pedagogy and Technology Integration in Language Acquisition

One of the major challenges faced by teachers within the classroom environment with respect to the quantity and quality of technology integration, is teacher pedagogy (Tondeur et al., 2012). Despite the need, some teachers do not use evidence-based practices when integrating technology into their classroom instructions (Klingner et al., 2010). Indeed, the use of evidence-based practices has gained widespread support among the ELL teaching community in recent years (Perkins & Cooter, 2013).

Moreover, the research to date indicates that far too many ELL teachers are failing to provide the social contexts in which vocabulary words are used to help communicate their sometimes-subtle and nuanced meanings. For instance, Green (2013) emphasizes that creating multimodel stories for vocabulary acquisition applications requires that ELL students possess sufficient knowledge to place the words in context and that ELL teachers draw on relevant pedagogical considerations, second language acquisition theories and social constructionism.

One evidence-based teaching strategy that has incorporated these considerations in its model which has proven efficacy in promoting vocabulary acquisition among small groups of ELL students (two or three students each) was developed by Nicolson and Murphy (2011) who combined various classroom learning activities with Web-based resources in a series of stations. The focus of this classroom exercise was on helping ELL students develop an improved understanding concerning how to use online resources together with their classroom resources in innovative ways to produce a written report on topics of interest to them. According to Nicolson and Murphy (2011), all of the tasks offered at each station is focused on vocabulary learning strategies in which ELL students are requested to complete various individual vocabulary learning activities and then discuss these strategies in small groups.

Descriptions of the seven classroom vocabulary learning stations and their associated activities are provided in Table 3 below.

Table 3

Description of classroom learning stations and activities

Learning Station

Description/Activities

Station One

At this station, ELL students write a so-called "word net" or "word map" (comparable to a mind map) in order to practice collecting topic-related vocabulary words and to provide an opportunity for them to discuss whether this online search strategy would provide them with the information they needed for writing an essay in English because the process may also provide textual structures besides collecting vocabulary words.

Station Two

This station presents ELL students with a card-matching game in which some cards contain a vocabulary word while other cards provide corresponding definitions. According to Nicolson and Murphy (2011), the tasks presented in this station have been shown to be effective in helping ELL students rephrase vocabulary words in ways to promote acquisition and retention. As part of this station's tasks, ELL students are also requested to evaluate the superiority of rephrasing vocabulary words or relying on dictionary definitions with supporting rationale with their groups.

Station Three

At this station, ELL students empirically observe their classroom surroundings and write as many labels as possible for what they see around them. The labels can include the appropriate word as well as the associated article and a sentence using the word as an example. According to Nicholson and Murphy, these tasks are designed to promote vocabulary acquisition by providing ELL students with ubiquitous visual examples based on research that indicates this approach produces superior results compared to text-only approaches.

Station Four

This station provides ELL students with an overview of the "key word method" that is used to search for words online. The students are requested to identify words that are similar in English with those in their mother tongue and to compare their respective spellings. This station can also include homonyms to make the task more challenging. In addition, for those ELL students who are visually oriented, they can also be requested to draw the item that will be used in the key word search to reinforce retention if appropriate.

Station Five

This station provides ELL students with a description of the concept of contextualizing vocabulary words in ways that promote acquisition and retention. In this regard, Nicholson and Murphy (2011) cite an example of this task in which a vocabulary word such as "detective" is used by ELL students to locate as many thematic words as possible within a 2-minute time frame. Following this task, ELL students start writing stories using the vocabulary and other thematic words. The tasks at this station are especially effective in helping ELL students better understand the different parts of speech in the English language and the syntactical conventions that control their usage. For instance, following their completion of the tasks at this station, Nicholson and Murphy (2011) report that ELL students are able to identify to difference between parts of speech and learn how to research all available resource in order to write highly personalized stories that will have significant relevance.

Station Six

This station is used to emphasize the significance of the relationship between written and spoken words. To achieve this outcome, Nicholson and Murphy (2011) report that ELL students are requested to individually read a textual selection aloud, and then discuss what vocabulary words were discerned from the selection in a group as well as what constraints there were to the vocabulary acquisition process together with salient examples. In addition, this station also tasks ELL students with determining which specific social situations and contexts are best suited to learning vocabulary.

Station Seven

Finally, this station is designed to reinforce the importance of categorization of vocabulary words for ELL students. This task is accomplished by requesting ELL students to either provide a word field which is then used as the basis for brainstorming sessions in which they identify relevant categories that match the word or to provide a category and then identify relevant vocabulary words.

The tasks described in Table 3 above have been consistently shown to be effective in motivating ELL students to use their available resources to their maximum advantage in acquiring and retaining English vocabulary (Nicolson & Murphy, 2011). Moreover, this teaching strategy is especially useful because the tasks at each station can be modified depending on the unique needs of ELL students at any given point in time. In this regard, Nicholson and Murphy (2011) emphasize that ELL students' preferred learning styles will change from time to time and over time during their entire coursework.