Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies for ELL Students

Introduction to Vocabulary Acquisition and ELL

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

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

This point is also made by Wei (2014), who cites the centrality of vocabulary acquisition as the foundation for ELL students to gain mastery of the English language. 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 used throughout the United States today (Dong, 2013). These are especially important issues given the enormity of the affected population: the most recent estimates place 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 grow to even greater numbers in the near future (Thompson, 2016).

Developing effective teaching strategies that promote vocabulary acquisition by ELL students is an especially daunting enterprise. Researchers have determined that the English language has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world today, and educated native English speakers are generally required to understand around 70,000 words and 20,000-word families (Min, 2013). By contrast, 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). Developing an expanding repertoire of English vocabulary words is not only essential for beginning ELL students — it represents an ongoing requirement essential for their continuing mastery of the language. This need remains salient irrespective of ELL students' level of grammar or pronunciation competency, since vocabulary forms the basis for communicating all aspects of a second language (Min, 2013).

The research to date indicates that ELLs learn better when curricular offerings are relevant and presented in context. Learning in context is just one method learners may use to increase their vocabularies, but ELL students must also use meta-cognitive thinking and learn terms within whichever context they appear (Alharbi, 2015; Jeff, 2010).

The research also confirms that ELL students acquire vocabulary at different rates compared to native speakers. Native speakers typically acquire around 1,000 new words each year prior to entering college, at which point the rate accelerates to around 2,000 new words per 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). In academic settings, ELL students are already at a disadvantage, and this disadvantage becomes more accentuated as they progress in their studies because 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 (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013).

Given the prodigious scope of the English language vocabulary, the question emerges concerning which vocabulary words ELL teachers should prioritize. One strategy is targeting the words used most frequently in English (Spiro, 2013). 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 these specific words represent an essential starting point for vocabulary acquisition by ELL students (Spiro, 2013).

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

An important point concerns the venues in which native speakers acquire vocabulary compared to ELL students. Similar to vocabulary acquisition in native languages, vocabulary acquisition in a second language occurs gradually over time and is heavily influenced by the learning environment in which ELL students live and study. Notably, ELL students tend to naturally acquire vocabulary as part of their incidental interactions with native and non-native speakers in both classroom and social settings outside the classroom (Alharbi, 2015). An integral part of the vocabulary acquisition process, therefore, involves ELL students determining which learning strategy is best suited to their goals given their academic circumstances. Identifying ELL student needs and preferences represents an essential component in developing appropriate curricular offerings and teaching strategies (Alharbi, 2015).

A study by Wei (2014) found that, based on pre- and post-vocabulary test results, there were no substantive gender-related differences in the total number of vocabulary words acquired by Chinese ELL college students (males = 258, females = 345), although male subjects tended to use more learning strategies compared to their female counterparts to achieve the same outcomes. The average age of subjects was 19.5 years, with an average of approximately 10 years of English instruction. There were some commonalities between male and female subjects with respect to preferred strategies: using a Chinese-English dictionary, guessing word meaning from context, and consulting the vocabulary list in the appendix ranked at the top of the mutually preferred strategies (Wei, 2014). The study also indicated that compared to 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 on vocabulary acquisition. The students were divided into experimental and control groups and all were administered pre- and post-vocabulary tests to establish baseline proficiency and determine the efficacy of the intervention. The intervention consisted of providing 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, suggesting that negotiation of meaning is an integral component of the process (Yi & Sun, 2013).

Teaching Strategies for ELL Vocabulary Development

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 strategies are described below.

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. It also employs 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 be considered an adjunct to other vocabulary teaching strategies rather than a stand-alone approach (Fien & Santoro, 2011).

This language acquisition strategy simulates the manner in which children acquire their mother tongue. The rationale draws on the natural processes by which native speakers acquire vocabulary. Young people tend to respond to oral instructions in their native language through 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 (Harrasi & Talib, 2014). TPR simulates this process by having ELL students respond physically to verbal instructions from the teacher (e.g., "open your books to chapter two"), drawing on trace theory from psychology, which posits that the combination of oral instructions and physical actions promotes more rapid vocabulary acquisition.

A noteworthy advantage of this strategy is its ability to make the vocabulary acquisition process more relevant and enjoyable for students and teachers alike. As Harrasi and Talib (2014) point out, this teaching strategy motivates ELL students by providing 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 with proven efficacy that also introduces an element of enjoyment must be seriously considered as a potential addition to ELL teachers' repertoire. As Harrasi and Talib (2014) conclude, TPR makes vocabulary acquisition more enjoyable and provides a more relaxed environment conducive to learning.

This intentional teaching strategy — as distinct from incidental learning — includes vocabulary notebooks, word lists, and word cards, all of which have been shown to be effective and efficient for vocabulary acquisition in second languages (Hung, 2015). Intentional teaching strategies such as word cards 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 intentional vocabulary teaching strategies greatly facilitate the acquisition process through rote memory achieved via repetitive presentations of vocabulary words. This strategy is among the most commonly used by ELL teachers due to its ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and proven ability to help ELL students acquire and retain English vocabulary words (Chien, 2015). There is also a growing body of evidence indicating that retention rates for vocabulary words acquired through intentional strategies such as word cards are higher than those from incidental learning (Hung, 2013).

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

The use of these and other intentional teaching strategies for helping ELL students acquire vocabulary has been shown to be more effective than the incidental learning that takes place through reading stories and books in English (Min, 2013). Even so, 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 alone. 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). ELL teachers should therefore not discount the learning opportunities that incidental experiences — such as reading for pleasure or simply talking with others — provide ELL students (Mixan, 2013).

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

Despite the growing body of evidence concerning the usefulness of these teaching strategies, many ELL students are not provided with these tools at a sufficiently early point in their second-language acquisition efforts to maximize their effectiveness (Alharbi, 2015). Moreover, all ELL students will have a preference for different vocabulary acquisition strategies, making it necessary to fine-tune these strategies to their unique and evolving needs (Alharbi, 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, Alharbi (2015) also reports that the majority of ELL students have expressed a preference for learning strategies that provide them with the opportunity to understand new words and group them into appropriate categories to reinforce retention.

Although vocabulary acquisition strategies received little attention prior to the 1980s (Alharbi, 2015; Wei, 2014), researchers have increasingly focused on this aspect of ELL given its demonstrated centrality to the process. It has only been since the 1990s that researchers have systematically investigated effective vocabulary acquisition strategies for ELL students, but a growing body of research has emerged since then (Wei, 2014). Despite this progress, gaps remain in the body of knowledge concerning optimal teaching strategies for vocabulary acquisition, especially regarding any potential gender-related differences in acquisition rates (Wei, 2014).

Conclusion

The research was consistent in showing that although vocabulary acquisition by English language learners is a challenging enterprise, there are a number of web-based vocabulary platforms available to ELL teachers that can help them facilitate the process irrespective of their ELL students' level of proficiency and vocabulary knowledge. The analysis of pedagogy and technology integration in language acquisition also illustrated a number of different ways that these solutions can be integrated into the ELL curriculum to promote vocabulary and language acquisition by ELL students.

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