Page 41 - 2024_Journal_90-3

but has been hired before graduation. The shortage of teachers has thus increased
the number of classrooms led by an educator who does not have a 4-year degree in
the field of education.
Another issue impacting vocabulary development is that the students who are
moving from other countries often lack content knowledge about the topic in the
text, which impedes comprehension. For example, a student who emigrated to the
United States from rural Honduras and came across the border with a caravan of
immigrants might have difficulty understanding a story about aviation and flying
on a plane to visit relatives. It is a very real possibility that such a student has never
seen an airplane; knows nothing about an airport, pilot, or flight attendants; and has
never encountered those vocabulary words in daily life. That student’s knowledge
of transportation is much more limited than a student from a middle-class family
who has either flown on an airplane or has picked up a friend or relative at the
airport. In addition, idioms related to the topic could be difficult for such a student
to comprehend. For a student who has never been off the ground, the phrase “head
in the clouds” would be difficult to visualize.
Another example of a lack of content knowledge based on cultural differences
is that a student who arrived in Mexico from the
United States might have a different idea of a
cemetery than a Mexican student. The American
student would not have read much about Reading aloud to one’s children
cemeteries in school stories because they are
generally considered to be “scary,” whereas a is beneficial to their vocabulary
student from Central or Southern Mexico may development regardless of the
have celebrated Dia De Muertos, or Day of the
Dead, in the traditional way, which includes language.
staying overnight in a cemetery in honor of
family members who have passed away. This
latter student will have thoughts of bringing
food to ancestors and having a joyous, loud, family party on that night, whereas
an American child would consider spending the night in a cemetery as frightening
or sad. Those two students would have quite different pictures in their minds when
reading a story about a cemetery. The U.S. student would not know about an altar
or a sugar skull and would struggle to fully appreciate the celebratory nature of the
story and its positive view of familial structure.
In short, the vocabulary that centers around an activity that is generally isolated
to a certain location or group must be taught. As a final example, while camping
is a very “American” activity, a student reading about a family camping trip may
not understand the words “bonfire” or “s’mores.” If students cannot understand the
words in a text, they will not understand the content. (Wessels, 2011).

The Strategy
As I worked with elementary teachers who teach reading, it became increasingly
apparent that language learners in our district needed more strategic, direct instruction
in vocabulary in order to increase their working vocabulary. Increased vocabulary
strengthens reading proficiency, and because the students lacked a solid vocabulary
foundation, they struggled to build reading skills. To find ways to combat this, I had
an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at one of our elementary schools

Promoting Professional and Personal Growth of Educators and Excellence in Education 39