Investigating the effectiveness of vocabulary strategy instruction on content-specific word acquisition

Mathematics is typically one of the subjects with which many students struggle. To improve mathematics achivement, it is helpful for students to gain proficiency in mathematics vocabulary. The importance of developing vocabulary as a means of improving comprehension has long been understood by educators and researchers. Students who are exposed to academic vocabulary are usually more successful in their content area classes; yet, the relative effectiveness of vocabulary strategies to build content area vocabulary comprehension in mathematics at the secondary level has had limited research. In this study, two vocabulary strategies were compared in a six-week long investigation to determine the relative effectiveness of each strategy on students? content area vocabulary development in an Algebra II class - a Modified Cloze/Maze procedure and a Concept of a Definition word map. The research findings conducted from this study are relevant to all content area teachers, in particular math teachers at the secondary level.