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 “multidimensionality” (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 multidimensionality is an important aspect of word knowledge to consider when discussing how students’ vocabularies grow. As I was reading this, I predicted that the word multidimensionality has something to do with your knowledge of words varying depending on the type of word being used. According to Nagy & Scott, this word has a much more complex meaning than I was predicting. The authors state that multidimensionality means that “word knowledge consists of several qualitatively different types of knowledge” (p. 270). Nagy & Scott point out that multidimensionality indicates a much more in-depth understanding of language acquisition than just looking at incrementality. They quote Nation (1990) who, when discussing multidimensionality, offers “eight aspects of word knowledge: knowledge of the word’s spoken form, written form, grammatical behavior, collocational behavior (what other words does this word commonly occur with?), frequency, stylistic register, conceptual meaning, and associations with other words” (Nagy & Scott, 2000, p. 271).
Level of Familiarity: I was not familiar at all with this term multidimensionality in regard to vocabulary instruction. I would like to further develop my knowledge base around this concept.
Do I Want to Know This Word Well? Why? I would like to know this word well. As a literacy educator, I need to have a deep understanding of language acquisition. The eight aspects of word knowledge listed above really break down all of the ways that students can know a word, each of which is important to keep in mind when teaching vocabulary. The multidimensionality of words is vital to be aware of when we are teaching. In what aspects do we want our students to know each word?
Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well? Who and Why? All literacy education teachers should know this word well. Literacy specialists need to both be able to use this word as well as teach the implications of this word to other teachers. While it does not seem necessary for general educators to be able to use the word multidimensionality well, I do think they need to understand its implications. Being familiar with the various aspects of word acquisition will allow teachers to better frame their vocabulary instruction and expectations.
No comments:
Post a Comment