Adding a Vocabulary Component to Incremental Rehearsal to Enhance Retention and Generalization

The current study investigates the effect of adding a semantic component, in the form of vocabulary, to the incremental rehearsal (IR) procedure. Sixty-one second-and third-grade students in a suburban elementary school were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: IR or IR with vocabulary. Each participant was taught seven previously unknown words; participants were also taught the word's definition within the vocabulary condition. Retention and generalization were assessed one week later. Participants in the vocabulary condition retained and generalized significantly more words than participants in the IR only condition. Future studies should investigate effect of vocabulary integration in other reading interventions as well as the effect of vocabulary integration on reading fluency and passage comprehension.