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Brett, A., Hurley, M., & Rothlein, L. (1996). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories
and explanations of target words. The Elementary School Journal, 96, 415-422.

Introduction:

Purpose: To compare the effects of three conditions on fourth graders' vocabulary acquisition:
listening to stories with brief explanation of the meaning of unfamiliar target words as they were
encountered in the stories, listening to stories with no explanation of the words, and having no
systematic exposure to the stories or vocabulary.

Question: Will students listening to stories with brief explanation of unfamiliar target words increase
their vocabulary knowledge more than those exposed to the same stories without explanation for
vocabulary and those not exposed to the stories or vocabulary?

Methodology:

Participants: One hundred and seventy fourth grade students from six classrooms in two elementary
schools in Miami Florida, participated in the study. Two of the classes were randomly assigned to
the story-with –word-explanation group, two classes to the story-only group, and the remaining two
classes to the control group. Ethnic background in one school were 18% white non-Hispanic, 45%
black, 35% Hispanic and 2% Asian. In the second school the students were 23% white non-
Hispanic, 7% black, 68% Hispanic and 2% Asian. Students' reading levels ranged from primer to
fourth grade and listening comprehension scores, determined by Stanford Achievement Test, ranged
from grade levels of 2.4 to 5.2. the years of teaching experience of the six teachers of these classes
ranged from 7 to 27.

Procedure: The two books selected for the study were Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe and
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. Twenty-five words most likely to be unfamiliar to
fourth graders were used to develop a multiple-choice pilot vocabulary test for each book.
This pilot test was administered to 35 fourth graders from a classroom not included in order to
determine which words were unfamiliar to fourth graders.
Words that were not known by at least 80% of the students were used for the 10-item multiple-
choice pretest and posttest that was assembled for each book.
The tests were administered by classroom teachers; the teachers read each item aloud and
students were required to circle the correct meaning for each word. The day prior to reading of the
first book, a pretest of the 10 target vocabulary words from the book administered to all three groups.
The two teachers of the story-with-word-explanation group read Bunnicula over a period of 5
school days. The number of new words encountered each day varied according to how many new
words were contained on the pages that were read. As they read the story, the teachers gave a brief
explanation of each target word in the book they were to stop and read the definition that was
provided by the researchers.
The two teachers of the story-only group also read the book Bunnicula over 5 days but
provided no explanation of the target words.
The control group did not have any exposure to the books or to the target words.
The posttest of the 10 vocabulary words was administered to all three groups the day after the
story had been read. The same procedure was followed for each group for the second group for the
second book, The Reluctant Dragon.
Six weeks after the reading of the second book, a 20 item posttest of the same 10 target
vocabulary words from each book was given to all three groups to see if they remembered the
meanings of the words.

Results:

The SAS general linear models (GLM) procedure for an unbalanced analysis of variance

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(ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. Students' scores on the pretest, posttest and delayed posttest
for each of the two stories were entered into 3( group: story with word explanation, story only and
control) x 2 (book: Bunnicula and The Reluctant Dragon) x 3 ( time: pretest, posttest and delayed
posttest) ANOVA with time as the repeated measurement.
Post hoc analyses indicated that pretest scores for the story-with-word-explanation group
were lower than scores for the other two groups and the posttest and delayed posttest scores of the
story-with-word-explanation group were significantly higher than the scores of the other two groups.
Follow –up analysis of the significant book x group effect revealed that students in the story-
with-word-explanation group scored significantly higher than the two groups on vocabulary words
from Bunnicula and The Reluctant Dragon. To determine if there was a difference in the number of
words learned between the two books, gain scores were computed for each book by subtracting the
pretest scores from the posttest scores. A comparison of these gain scores revealed no significant
difference in the number of new words learned between books.
The pattern of significant differences indicated that students in the story-with-word-
explanation group made significantly more progress from the pretests to the posttests than the other
two groups. The story with-explanation group also scored significantly higher on the posttests and
on the delayed posttests for both books than students in the story-only or control groups. Students in
the story-with-word-explanation group not only learned more new words, but also remembered them
six weeks later.

Discussion:

Results of this study indicate that fourth graders can acquire new vocabulary from listening to
stories if there is a brief explanation of new words as students encounter them in stories. Students in
this study who heard the stories along with explanations of words learned the meaning of an average
of three new words for each of the two books and remembered the meanings of an average of six
new words six weeks later.
More than two presentations were needed to significantly affect the learning of new
vocabulary and that increased presentations resulted in greater word learning. Repeated readings of
the same story are not necessary for vocabulary acquisition if new words are explained as they are
encountered in the story.
Reading aloud, accompanied by explanations of unfamiliar words as they occur in the story,
appears to be an effective method of teaching children the meaning of new words. The implication
for teachers and parents is that reading stories aloud, along with brief explanation of unfamiliar
vocabulary words can produce significant gains in vocabulary.

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