When and Where I Found It: As I have been reviewing the Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III for research to support projects I am working on in my two classes, I came across the journal article Vocabulary Processes by William E. Nagy and Judith A. Scott (2000). This article discusses “the complexity of word knowledge” and one of the five aspects of this is “incrementality” (p. 270).
Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. A. (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.). Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Meaning: Nagy & Scott (2000) assert that incrementality is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow. The authors state that incrementality means that “knowing a word is a matter of degrees, not all-or-nothing” (p. 270). Nagy & Scott further explain “word learning is incremental-it takes place in many steps” (p. 270). Their review of the word incrementality reminds me of the next heading on this vocabulary blog – Level of Familiarity. It makes sense that words are not learned in an all-or-nothing fashion. We even have a space on this blog to indicate how well, or to what degree, we ‘know’ a word.
Level of Familiarity: I was very familiar with the root of this word, increment. I have used it both musically (notes go up in increments) and when discussing measurement with students. I had never heard the word incrementality used when discussing vocabulary learning, however it fits right in with my understanding of the acquisition of words for students.
Do I Want to Know This Word Well? Why? I want to know this word and its implications well because vocabulary instruction is a vital part of literacy development. To be able to understand the stages of vocabulary development for students will allow me to take students from one level to the next. Nagy & Scott (2000) quote Dale (1965) on his proposed increments/stages of word learning: “(1) never saw it before; (2) heard it but don’t know what it means; (3) recognizes it in context as having something to do with …; and (4) knows it well” (p. 270). Giving students this or a similar scale to rate their word knowledge for vocabulary terms will allow me to determine individual student needs and form my instruction around this. The tools that we develop from the belief of incrementality, such as the above scale, would be very useful for student self-assessment strategies as well as guides for teacher-based instruction.
Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well? Who and Why? All teachers should know this word well. Whether you teach general education or purely content area, there always will be vocabulary that students need to know. Understanding that words are not learned in an all-or-nothing manner, that we all have various increments of knowledge of words, equips teachers to monitor and adjust their instruction based on student need.
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