DOCUMENT RESUME

The practicum reported in this document provided an alternative method of teaching vocabulary to students characterized as disabled readers. The method was a naturalistic approach of reading stories aloud to students, combined with guided discussions before, during, and after the reading to develop critical thinking skills. A target group of 11 first graders participated in the program. The overall objective was the acquisition of vocabulary through reading aloud to students. The target group listened to 5 books over a 10-week period. A selected group of vocabulary words unfamiliar to a first grader were used as the test words. Pretests and posttests were administered to measure the extent of new vocabulary the target group acquired from listening to the same story being read several times. The results showed that reading aloud constitutes a major source of incidental vocabulary acquisition, and that teacher explanation of a word meaning and related activities allow a significant amount of vocabulary to be internalized. (Three tables are included; 23 references and 8 appendixes--containing data, pre- and posttests, and selected vocabulary--are attached.) (Author/PRA) *************W********************************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document