Valle co-authors article advocating oral vocabulary training

Araceli Valle, Research Professional with the Alaska Justice Information Center at UAA's Justice Center, recently co-authored an article published in PLOS ONE, "Oral vocabulary training program for Spanish third-graders with low socio-economic status: A randomized controlled trial."

Araceli Valle

Valle and her co-authors recommend explicit and rich vocabulary instruction as a means to fostering vocabulary knowledge in low socio-economic status (SES) Spanish elementary third graders.  The researchers developed and applied two rich oral vocabulary training programs (definition and context), based on literature about vocabulary instruction for English-speaking children, to a sample of 100 Spanish elementary school third-graders recruited from areas of predominantly low SES. Compared to an alternative read-aloud method which served as the control, both explicit methods were more effective in teaching word meanings when assessed immediately after the intervention. Five months later, though, only the definition group continued to demonstrate significant vocabulary knowledge gains.

Gomes-Koban C, Simpson IC, Valle A, Defior S. (2017). Oral vocabulary training program for Spanish third-graders with low socio-economic status: A randomized controlled trial. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188157.