How Remedial Teachers Teach Vocabulary

Twenty experienced teachers, all with reading education background, designed and implemented what they considered to be exemplary vocabulary lessons. Transcripts of these audiotaped lessons were analyzed for the number of statements relating to word recognition or conceptual development. Conceptual development statements were analyzed further to determine a definition, semantic feature, or contextual usage focus. Additionally, teachers wrote rationales for the vocabulary words and instructional strategies selected. Results indicate that the majority of teachers provided dual-focused lessons, although conceptual development statements predominated in over half of the lessons. Lessons aimed at conceptual development, however, were shallow, and provided few opportunities for students to acquire a deep understanding of words.