The Effects of Small Group Vocabulary Instruction on Second Grade Students' Expressive Vocabularies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of small group vocabulary instruction above and beyond whole group, read aloud vocabulary instruction, on second grade students' expressive vocabularies. This experimental study reflected a between-subjects design as three treatment groups were compared using a pretest, posttest within subjects variable methodology. A small group instructional intervention was administered to a treatment group in addition to the whole group, read-aloud based vocabulary instruction that the alternative treatment group received. Data was collected over an eight week intervention period. Results indicated that small group vocabulary instruction led to greater gains in second grade students' expressive use of target words than did read aloud-based instruction or no instruction (control). Additionally, students who received small group instruction retained more target word knowledge over time than students who did not receive small group instruction. Implications for practice and future research are included.