The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition

First published in 1987. The purpose of this volume has been to move beyond a collection of the most recent studies in the area of vocabulary learning. The contributors, and researchers who, although they may differ in their views on vocabulary acquisition and instruction, acknowledge that many of the same questions motivate their work. These questions and the way they have addressed have been included in order to emphasize these underlying commonalities, with the hope the relationships among contrasting perspectives will become more apparent.

Margaret G. McKeown University of Pittsburgh, Mary E. Curtis Harvard University

Introduction; Part 1 How Knowledge of Word Meanings Develops; Chapter 1 Two Vocabularies for Reading: Recognition and Meaning, Jeanne S. Chall; Chapter 2 Breadth and Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge: Implications for Acquisition and Instruction, William E. Nagy, Patricia A. Herman; Chapter 3 Vocabulary Testing and Vocabulary Instruction, Mary E. Curtis; Chapter 4 Cognitive Processes in Learning Word Meanings, Marianne Elshout-Mohr, Maartje M. van Daalen-Kapteijns; Chapter 5 Learning Word Meanings From Written Context, Priscilla A. Drum, Bonnie C. Konopak; Part 2 How Knowledge of word meanings can be Promoted; Chapter 6 Most Vocabulary is Learned From Context, Robert J. Sternberg; Chapter 7 Remembering Versus Inferring What a Word Means: Mnemonic and Contextual Approaches, Michael Pressley, Joel R. Levin, Mark A. McDaniel; Chapter 8 Issues in the Design of Vocabulary Instruction, Edward J. Kameenui, Robert C. Dixon, Douglas W. Carnine; Chapter 9 The Effects and Uses of Diverse Vocabulary Instructional Techniques, Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, Richard C. Omanson; Chapter 10 The Roles of Instruction in Fostering Vocabulary Development, Michael F. Graves;