Investigation B
Students’ writing and speaking at curriculum levels 1, 2, and 3
In the associated Materials for vocabulary analysis , there is a list of all the different words students used in speaking and writing in the social studies curriculum exemplars at levels 1 and 2. There is also one full written text from level 1. You can copy and paste these into the Web VP program to look at how students at curriculum levels 1 and 2 use words in their writing and speaking. You will see that those students:
- mostly use the first 1000 words
- are already using some more difficult words from the second 1000 words
- are beginning to use words from the academic list
- use many off-list words as well.
You could then put in some texts from level 3 exemplars and see whether there is a large increase in the number of academic words used. The material produced by students in the exemplars suggests the vocabulary targets for bilingual Pasifika students as well as for students who know only English. Analyse some texts that your Pasifika students have produced and see if their vocabulary use is close to the patterns shown in the relevant exemplars.
Bilingual people generally have very well-developed language skills, so with appropriate support and guidance, your students should be able to progress quickly towards typical levels of vocabulary acquisition for their age. (See the inquiry Is bilingualism an advantage? .)
