Vocabulary Instruction Throughout the Day in Twenty-Three Canadian Upper-Elementary Classrooms

In this descriptive observational study we examined when, where, how often, and how effectively vocabulary instruction occurred in 23 ethnically diverse upper-elementary classrooms in 3 districts in Canada. Findings were based on over 308 hours of observation during 68 days of instruction (3 consecutive days in each class) in 11 sixth-grade classrooms, 4 grade 5/6 split classrooms, and 8 grade 6/7 split classrooms. The data revealed that only 6% of school time was devoted to the development of vocabulary knowledge, with only 1.4% devoted to vocabulary development in academic subjects (math, science, art, social studies) other than language arts. Although more time was spent developing semantic networks of knowledge about words than has been found in past studies, most instruction still involved mentioning and assigning rather than teaching. This lack of time and fulsome instruction is cause for concern, particularly for students who depend on schools in order to become proficient in academic English.