This investigation focused on the role of meaning in the learning of sight vocabulary for beginning readers. Phase I reported the collection of associative data and reconstruction of a search of meaningfulness for 48 selected nouns. Phase II presented data regarding two sight vocabulary teaching-testing cycles with an intermediate interval inferred for “association verbal encoding” (a/v/e) training. Subjects were 46 first grade children. Results indicate that meaningfulness facilitated rate of acquisition and retention of sight vocabulary and that “process plus content” a/v/e training facilitated sight vocabulary retention when compared to no training in a/v/e.
References
1.
CooperJ.C.GaethJ.H.Interactions of Modality with Age and with Meaningfulness in Verbal Learning. Journal of Educational Psychology1967, 58(1), 41–44.
2.
DowlingR.M.BraunH.W.Retention and Meaningfulness of Material. Journal of Experimental Psychology1957, 54, 213–217.
3.
MickelsonN.I.Meaningfulness (& mmacr;) in Children's Verbal Learning Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Victoria, 1968.
4.
MickelsonN.I.Associative Verbal Encoding (a/v/e): A Measure of Language Performance and its Relationship to Reading Achievement, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Washington, 1972.
5.
SamuelsS.J.Effect of Experimentally Learned Word Associations on the Acquisition of Reading Responses. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1966, 57, 159–163.
6.
SamuelsS.J.Modes of Word Recognition in SingerH.RuddellR.B. (Eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, Inc., 1970.
7.
SamuelsS.J.Success and Failure in Learning to Read: A Critique of the Research, Reading Research Quarterly, 1972. 8, 200–239.
8.
SamuelsS.J.WittrockM.C.Word Association Strength and Learning to Read. Journal of Educational Psychology1969, 60, 248–252.
