Leerkrachtvaardigheden En Woordenschatonderwijs

The research in this article deals with the effect of a teacher training course on vocabulary teaching and learning. Two months before, and three months after an intensive vocabulary teaching training course, four teachers of different grades in primary education were observed and interviewed, and their pupils' retention of the wTords taught was tested before and after the vocabulary lessons in question. The observations and interviews focused on six categories of vocabulary teaching: irord selection, preparation, sewantisation, consolidation, evaluation and registration (e.g., Nation, 2001). On a reference scale formulated in Van den Nulft & Verhallen (2005), the teachers scored 28% on 'basic level' before the training, and they turned out to score 68% on this 'basic level' scale three months after the training. The pupils appeared to profit from the progress their teachers made in vocabulary teaching. Their retention of the words they had to learn in these lessons rose from 8% learning improvement before the training, to 38% after the training. A learning improvement of 8% is considered very low in intentional learning situations (being comparable to incidental learning); a learning improvement of 30-50% is normal in intentional word learning situations. Given the average learning improvement of the pupils, and the quite low level of the teachers on the reference scale of vocabulary teaching, these teachers still need intensive and professional coaching to improve their vocabulary teaching.