Running head: CONVERSATION, VOCABULARY, AND COMPREHENSION 1

The Role of Conversation, Vocabulary, and Comprehension in Literacy Acquisition

Module 7

Laurinda Hedrick-Litteral

CIRG 653

Marshall University
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Conversation, vocabulary development, and comprehension play a critical role on a daily

basis in my job as a Title I reading teacher. The importance of these three components in the

process of literacy acquisition cannot be understated.

Our text author Marie Clay explains the vital role conversation plays in the development

of language and literacy in every child’s life. She explains that a complex network of language

acquisition underwrites so much of a child’s future education (2014). When I think of my young

students who are struggling the most, their language development is far behind their peers. Clay

makes the analogy that learning language is not about adding more items; it is about building

more access roads, therefore expanding language networks, giving students more alternatives

from which to choose when having a conversation (2014). This expanded language network and

understanding gained through rich conversations serves as the foundation of literacy acquisition.

She points out that although the demands of talking, writing, and reading are slightly different,

each feed into one pool of structural possibilities in the language (2014). Along with a child’s

evolving command of language structures also comes observable changed in writing (Clay,

2014). Clay also suggests that teachers should read aloud to students to expose them to new

language. She encourages getting new phrases and sentences to the ear (listening), to the mouth

(saying), to the eye (reading), and to the written product (creating text) (2014). My fellow Title I

reading teachers and I recently conducted a training during family night in which we discussed

with parents the vital role conversation plays in helping their child progress as readers. We gave

suggestions for conversation starters to use with their child and explained that rich conversations

promote vocabulary development which also affects comprehension. Flexibility in oral language

is learned from family talk, teacher talk, peer talk, stories told and read, messages written, and

stories composed (Clay, 2014). Clay explains is important that teachers give ongoing attention to
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expanding children’s language and enhancing their control over more complex language

structures. She goes on to say that reading aloud to children of any age will give them knowledge

and information so that their own language usage may expand (2014). Opportunities for

conversation and read aloud are core components of every guided reading group I work with,

kindergarten through 5th grade.

Gunning explains that vocabulary development is a key element in the growth of readers

and writers and that the most powerful word learning activity is wide reading (2013). He outlines

six tasks that lead to word knowledge: (1) learning to read known words, (2) learning new

meanings for known words, (3) learning new words that represent known concepts, (4) learning

new words that represent new concepts, (5) clarifying and enriching the meanings of known

words, and (6) moving words from receptive to expressive vocabulary. My co-workers and I

have recently been exploring what constitutes mastery of a concept. We reached the collective

conclusion that true mastery of a concept is achieved when one can read it, write it, and use it

correctly.

We must teach students how to learn words on their own as well. Vocabulary instruction

should be a balanced blend of the planned and the incidental (Gunning, 2013). Gunning explains

that the three major skills for learning the meanings of unknown words are morphemic analysis

(examining prefixes, root, and/or suffixes—chunks of meaning), contextual clues (analyzing how

a word is used in context), and dictionary usage. Gunning believes the first and most effective

step that a teacher can take to build vocabulary is to provide students with a variety of rich

experiences (2013). Within my guided reading groups, I provide opportunities to discuss

experiences in a meaningful way to build relationships and vocabulary. We often preview key
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vocabulary before reading a text and conduct a morphemic analysis as a group. I consistently

work with students to examine contextual clues during and after reading a text.

Comprehension is a constructive, interactive process involving three factors- the reader,

the text, and the context in which the text is read (Gunning, 2013). Gunning explains the two

main approaches to teaching comprehension: strategy and content analysis (2013). Strategy

instruction encourages students to execute specific strategies to help them interact with and

understand the text. Content instruction, on the other hand, engages students in the process of

attending to text ideas and building a mental representation of the ideas without regard for

specific mental processes. In other words, content instruction is analyzing what you’ve read

without using specific strategies. Explicit strategy instruction and context analysis have value

and worth and should be consistently and purposefully utilized to help each reader meet his or

her full potential and evaluate text effectively.

Gunning outlines the ways comprehension strategies can be categorized- preparational,

organizational, elaboration, rehearsal, and monitoring (2013). Preparational strategies are

processes the reader uses to prepare themselves to construct meaning, such as surveying and

predicting. Organizational strategies are processes the reader uses to construct relationships

among ideas in a text, specifically main idea and supporting details, and include paraphrasing,

summarizing, clusters, related words, noting and using the structure of a text, and creating

semantic maps. Elaboration strategies involve building associations between information being

read and prior knowledge or integrating information by manipulating or transforming it, and

includes drawing inferences, creating analogies, visualizing, and evaluating (reading critically).

Rehearsal strategies involve taking basic steps to remember material, such as outlining, taking

notes, underlining, testing oneself, and rereading (Gunning, 2013).

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In Jan Richardson’s book, The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, she presents 12

comprehension strategies, which she says when understood how to apply them, can be used to

teach comprehension with any text. She states they’re essential for students to learn, are

important for teachers to teach, and produce powerful results (Richardson, 2014). Her top 12

comprehension strategies include: comprehension monitoring, retelling, developing vocabulary,

asking and answering questions, identifying main idea and details, analyzing characters,

analyzing relationships, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, using text features, and

understanding text structures. I have begun to explore and utilize these comprehension strategies

within my guided reading groups in 1st through 5th grade.

Conversation, the development of vocabulary, and comprehension are literacy

components which are interdependent. Students who have a background rich with experiences

and conversation have a higher vocabulary as well as better comprehension and retention of

knowledge. Our classrooms must be environments in which meaningful conversations take place

to build vocabulary and promote comprehension.

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References

Clay, M. M. (2014). By Different Paths to Common Outcomes: Literacy Learning and Teaching.

Auckland, New Zealand: Global Educations Systems (GES).

Gunning, T.G. (2013). Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Richardson, J. (2016). The Next Step in Guided Reading. New York, NY: Scholastic.