Once it was established that for effective vocabulary acquisition it is important to focus on interactive storybook reading (as opposed to implicit learning) the next question researchers tried to answer was how to best incorporate explicit vocabulary instruction within the interactive storybook reading context (Sökmen, 1997).
Biemiller and Boote (2006:45) contend that it is difficult for young learners to give attention to new words when listening to stories and even more difficult to ask for an explanation of a word in a group reading situation. Direct explanation of words, during the reading session however, draws attention to words and helps learners to construct word knowledge. In a study by Valdez-Menchaca and Whitehurst (1992, cited in Roberts, 2008) family care-givers (parents, family members or any one responsible for the daily care of the child) were supplied with high-quality storybooks and shown how to read to and interact with children. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of interactive storybook reading on the development of language. Research done by Brett, Rothlein and Hurley (1996) with groups of Grade 4 learners found that listening to stories with no explanation of the words did not result in increased vocabulary knowledge. However, their study provides further confirmation that reading aloud to learners, supplemented by explaining unfamiliar words, is an effective way to teach vocabulary. Roberts and Neal (2004) supply additional evidence that young children acquire L2 vocabulary from storybook reading combined with interactive vocabulary instruction.
In 2010 Lesaux et al. investigated how to most effectively teach an academic
vocabulary development programme focused on encouraging reading
comprehension and increase vocabulary. The research was done in mainstream middle school classrooms with a high percentage of language minority learners. The secondary aim of the research was to investigate how to implement the programmes in schools. Results point out that the intervention led to significant improvements in various aspects of the learners’ English vocabulary, including the meaning of taught words and words in unknown texts, and morphological awareness. These improvements were found in both language minority learners and L1 English speakers. Lesaux et al. (2010) argue that the results demonstrated that text-based vocabulary teaching is an effective way to improve early adolescence vocabulary
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and reading comprehension. However, they point out that the appropriate choice of texts is essential for the success of this type of programme, learners need to have an interest in the story and a degree of involvement.
In 2001, Beck and McKeown developed a reading technique called Text Talk, to help learners increase their vocabulary. In this technique teachers draw attention to certain vocabulary words and supply short definitions to learners while reading storybooks to them. Teachers ask open-ended questions and after reading, vocabulary are discussed in context. This led Beck and McKeown (2007) to state that the most effective strategies to increase vocabulary acquisition are rich instruction within a diverse context beyond storybook reading. They define this type of vocabulary teaching as instruction that ‘offers rich information about words and their uses and provides frequent and varied opportunities for students to think about and use words’ (Beck et al., 2002:2). Rich instruction includes explaining words in learner friendly language, providing multiple examples and contexts for learning a new word and allowing learners to identify the correct and incorrect ways and situations to use a word.
The effect of rich, interactive instruction on the vocabulary learning of groups of kindergarten and Grade 1 leaners was investigated by Beck and McKeown in 2007. Learners were read to by their regular classroom teacher. The learners in the experimental groups were taught vocabulary directly and learners in the control groups were given no additional instructions. Leaners in the experimental groups acquired significantly more words. In a second study (Beck & McKeown, 2007) the vocabulary gains of kindergarten and Grade 1 leaners were again investigated. This time the control groups received three days of vocabulary instruction and the experimental groups received six days. Results showed that learners in the experimental groups learned twice as many words as learners in the control groups, demonstrating that vocabulary instruction brings about better results. These results also affirm that there is a positive relationship between increased exposure to words and increased word learning.
Penno et al. (2002) examined the efficacy of frequent exposure in addition to teacher explanations on the vocabulary growth of 47 learners from diverse backgrounds. The results confirmed that greater vocabulary gains were made when learners
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listened to a storybook combined with an explanation of targeted words. A combination of repeated exposure and explanations were found to be more beneficial than either strategy in isolation. Roberts (2008) refers to the research by Elley (1989), which provides evidence about the extent to which learners’ vocabulary expands when they are read to. From a single reading 4% of the target words were learned. On the other hand, from multiple readings, 10 – 15% more words were learned. The implication of these results is that, in order to optimize learning, it is important to expose leaners to the vocabulary multiple times.
Another dimension of storybook reading was investigated by Ard and Beverly (2004). In their research they concluded that it is not only the reading intervention that is beneficial for the improvement of the learners’ vocabulary, but also the questions, comments and interaction with the adults that accompany the reading. Reading storybooks aloud to learners was found to be especially powerful when the reader engaged the learner in a conversation about the book. Such conversations help learners learn new words and concepts. Storybooks that are intended for young learners often include themes and allusions to things outside the learner’s frame of reference and everyday experience. While reading to learners, adults explain and interpret these things to their listeners, elaborating and enriching not only the children’s vocabulary but also their knowledge base. These interactions will have the added benefit of acquainting learners not only with the L2 language and vocabulary, but also with the L2 culture, customs and history. The type of interactive practices that were found to be effective were, amongst others, asking questions, expanding on the responses the children gave, explaining vocabulary and responding verbally and also with non-verbal signals (Ard & Beverly, 2004). Beck and McKeown (2007) agree that reading aloud from children’s literature combined with rich, focused instruction on unknown words enhances children’s vocabulary. Research findings of Dickinson and Smith (1994) make it evident that interactive and analytical talk to children during storybook reading sessions enhances their language and vocabulary development.
In short, the current viewpoint in the field of early childhood development is that storybook reading is an effective way to support vocabulary growth, especially if it is combined with adult mediation in the form of interactive and explicit vocabulary instruction (Hoffman et al., 2014). The explicit vocabulary teaching strategies used
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during storybook reading that facilitate word acquisition are the quality of the learning activities, the interaction with the reader, the degree of involvement in the story and the frequency of exposure to a word (Elley, 1989; Hulstijn, 2001).