Item Pool and Parameters for Definitions Project

Description

The current project titled, “The Effect of Definitions, Contextual Support, and Cognate Status on 4th Grade Spanish-speaking English Learners' (ELs) Understanding of Unfamiliar Words in Text”, was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Our research team conducted two experiments to help Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) understand academic words in English. ELs often come across unfamiliar words when they read, which can make it challenging to comprehend what they're studying. Knowing these words is crucial for better reading and understanding. In our experiments, we tried different methods to assist ELs in learning new academic words and comprehending them when they read. We looked at how providing various types of definitions, using similar words from their native language (cognates), and offering context-related support could improve their ability to learn these words and read texts that contained them. Our findings suggest that fourth-grade Spanish-speaking ELs benefit equally from Spanish and English definitions for learning English words, but this might depend on their Spanish vocabulary skills. Students with higher Spanish vocabulary benefit more from Spanish definitions than students who are low in their overall Spanish vocabulary knowledge. The findings from these studies will guide the development of future programs designed to support Spanish-speaking ELs in building their academic vocabulary. Additionally, our research results will also influence the types of accommodations provided to ELs during assessments. Contents of the dataset include: Table 1. Item Stems and Response Options for 141 Items from the Word Definition Learning Assessment (WDLA) Item Pool Table 2. Linguistic Parameters for 141 Items from the Word Definition Learning Assessment (WDLA) Item Pool Table 3. Item Stems and Response Options for 108 Items from the Word-Meaning-in-Context (WMC) Assessment Item Pool Table 4. Linguistic Parameters for 108 Items from the Word-Meaning-in-Context (WMC) Assessment Item Pool

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