TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH MOVEMENT :

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN

(Stacey N. Skoning,Theresa Wegner , and Loretta Williams)

Group 1
Rofiqah Putri Haunan
161052501106
ABSTRACT

This study provided systematic approach to

evaluating the relationship between the use of dance
Although past literature regarding the use of dance and creative
and tocreative
movement movement
teach content to teach itcharacter
has been supportive, trait-
has been primarily
vocabulary
anecdotal and
in nature. students
This understanding
study provided of those
a systematic traits.to
approach
evaluating
Fourthe relationship
teachers and 79 between the in
students useGrades
of dance and creative
2 through 4
movement to teach character-trait vocabulary and students
participated
understanding of thoseintraits.
thisFour
study overandan79 students
teachers 8-week inperiod.
Grades 2
throughStatistically
4 participatedsignificant
in this studyresults supportperiod.
over an 8-week the Statistically
use of
significant
danceresults support the
and movement use of dance level
in intermediate and classrooms.
movement in
intermediate level classrooms
 MOVEMENT THEORY

To facilitate increased student and teacher understanding of

the ways their bodies could move and to help them think
more deeply about the ways movement can be used to
explain vocabulary and other concepts, Labans theory
(Laban & Lawrence, 1974) of movement and effort actions
was introduced in the classrooms.
 METHOD
The study incorporated a pre test and post test, quasi experimental, using three
classroom s of student

The teachers completed a series of activities they could use to introduce students to
the many ways that their bodies could move.

Ex: help the teachers see how movement could be incorporated into teaching.

Demonstrations by the researcher came from the social studies curriculum, rather
than the character traits used in the research study, and included topics the students
had previously studied.
 Participants / Setting

42 (53,2%) were boys and 37 (46,8%) were girls

The group of white 91,1%

Special Education 15%
 PROCEDURES
Teachers completed a series of activities they could use to
introduce students to the many ways that their bodies could move.
Examples helped the teachers see how movement could be
incorporated into teaching.
Demonstrations by the researcher came from the social studies
curriculum, rather than the character traits used in the research
study, and included topics the students had previously studied.
One example involved students moving the way fur traders would
have movedhiking, canoeing, and so onin the Northern
Territories. Later in the training session, the teachers were taught
how to use these movement elements to teach vocabulary at the
intermediate level in their literacy classes.
 PROCEDURES
Earlier in the school year, the teachers had made increasing
character-trait vocabulary one of their school improvement goals,
after reading an article in The Reading Teacher (Manyak, 2007)
the teacher would introduce the trait assertive and connect it to
the conversations and descriptive terms that were developed as a
class, thus giving a child-friendly definition of that trait..
teachers gradually introduced specific character-trait vocabulary
words appropriate to their grade level and provided child-friendly
definitions and examples, following Manyaks(2007)
recommendations. In the movement phases of this study, while
brainstorming, teachers also asked their students questions, such
as How do you think this character would move? Why? What in
the story tells you this?
 RESULT

results indicated strong, positive correlations between tests

that increased in magnitude with each additional test
observation. This may suggest that involvement in movement
activities over time increased student knowledge of
character-trait vocabulary.
DISCUSSION
Based on the analyses, using movement to teach students
character-trait vocabulary appeared to increase student
learning. Movement activities supported learning when
vocabulary was linked to the activity. Students made
statistically significant gains from Test 1 (pretest) to Test 4
(Week 8).
 Conclusion
This study evaluated the relationship between the use of the movement patterns
to teach charactertrait vocabulary words and students understanding of those
words in three classrooms.

Overall, the inclusion of movement to teach character-trait vocabulary

appeared effective, supporting other studies that investigated similar approaches
(Shoval & Shulruf, 2011; Skoning, 2008; Smith, 2002; Werner, 2001). This
supports the need for continued investigation and research.