The Vocabulary SIG pays tribute to scholars and recognizes graduate students in the area of vocabulary research.
This annual award recognizes an important scholar in the area of vocabulary research. The award is presented to an individual who has been nominated by a Vocabulary SIG member and is determined by the Award Committee to be deserving of the tribute.
This award honors the efforts of scholars who have given their professional efforts to the field of vocabulary research. It bridges emergent researchers with those who have paved the way before them, and provides an opportunity to engage in a group presentation and discussion about the researcher’s work.
The following criteria are used to identify and evaluate possible vocabulary scholars:
The timeline for making the Notable Vocabulary Researcher Award is:
This annual award recognizes an exemplary research paper focusing on vocabulary research or instruction by a student author. The award has been granted informally over the past six years through the Vocabulary SIG and we now wish to officially sanction the process. The award is presented to the individual or individuals who meet the following criteria as approved by the SIG and Council: An original research paper presented in the previous year’s annual AERA meeting on the topic of vocabulary research or instruction; applicants must have student status at the time of paper submission to AERA; and must be a SIG member by the award application date.
This award encourages upcoming researchers to focus on vocabulary topics, and rewards an outstanding effort in this area. It helps move our collective knowledge forward, and provides an opportunity to engage in a group presentation and discussion about the research topic.
The following criteria are used to identify and evaluate possible award papers:
The timeline for making the Student Vocabulary Research Paper Award is:
Vocabulary SIG Award Winners
Notable Vocabulary Researcher: Dianna Townsend
Dr. Dianna Townsend's research centers on the academic language development of adolescent students, with specific attention to vocabulary, comprehension and disciplinary literacy. She examines both the unique academic language demands of the disciplines and effective instructional strategies to help students understand and use academic language in and across academic disciplines. Recent research, funded by the Spencer Foundation, was an intervention comparing how different types of background knowledge and academic language scaffolding impact the reading comprehension of multilingual adolescents. Dr. Townsend's work has been published in Reading Research Quarterly, The Elementary School Journal, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and Topics in Language Disorders, as well as in other journals and multiple books. Dr. Townsend is a Tibbetts Distinguished Teacher Award Winner. She created the innovative Virtual Reading Clinic in the online M.Ed. Program in Reading Curriculum & Instruction to support remote and rural teachers in a graduate-level practicum experience. Nationally, Dr. Townsend serves as a Principal Member of the Education Research Scientific Review Panel with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education. She is also a member of the Reading Standing Committee for the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). In Nevada, Dr. Townsend is the co-founder and President of the Nevada Adolescent Literacy Network (NALN). Within the College of Education and Human Development, Dr. Townsend is the Graduate Program Director of the M.Ed., Ph.D., in Reading Curriculum & Instruction and the Reading Specialist Endorsement Certificate programs.
Student Vocabulary Research Paper: Xinyan Fu, North Carolina State University ("From Knowledge to Practice: Teachers' Understanding and Implementation of Vocabulary Instruction for Elementary-Grade Multilingual Students")
Notable Vocabulary Researcher
Student Vocabulary Research Paper