Vocabulary discourse: Developing meaning through "VoiceThread" publication
Abstract
This qualitative study investigated how third-grade students from low-income families talked about target vocabulary words when asked to create a VoiceThread publication. VoiceThread is a web-based publication tool that allows students to post pictures and attach voice-recordings to each picture. There were three student participants in my study. Data in the present study were triangulated through the use of: (a) video taped observations/ transcriptions, (b) researcher field notes, (c) review of complete VoiceThread publications, and (d) pretest and posttest results. The data revealed the complexities of the connections, identities, and relationships of the participant group and how they related to vocabulary acquisition. The data also revealed an evolution of incremental understandings of target vocabulary words. Participants also demonstrated improvement as to their understandings of interrelatedness and multidimensionality of words. The participating students relied greatly on selected images during their discourse and VoiceThread recording, but did not often reference the selected pictures during individual posttests. The findings of my study indicated that VoiceThread is a successful medium for inspiring talk about vocabulary words in order to develop incremental understandings of target vocabulary words. The findings of this study also indicated that singular image selections may serve to limit talk about target vocabulary words.
Subject Area
Elementary education
Recommended Citation
Blomberg, Grace Marie, "Vocabulary discourse: Developing meaning through "VoiceThread" publication" (2013). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3560808.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3560808
