Upper primary teachers’ explicit instructional practices for vocabulary enhancement during literacy blocks.

A robust approach to vocabulary instruction is necessary for literacy learning. Research suggests a need for further investigation and analysis of evidence-based vocabulary teaching practices. This qualitative study examines the explicit instructional practices for vocabulary enhancement used by upper primary teachers during literacy blocks. It explores how teachers, within a community of shared planning and practice, understand vocabulary instruction and implement these practices in the classroom. It uses a case study methodology to examine the conceptual and procedural knowledge of vocabulary instruction of three teachers. A teacher from each of the upper primary year levels was represented in the study: years four, five and six. Data were collected through interviews and classroom observations during literacy blocks. Findings showed that the teachers implemented a range of robust instructional practices. However, a lot of their practice was incidental in nature, as opposed to explicit and intentional. Many opportunities for using evidence-based vocabulary instruction strategies were not recognised by the participants. Participant teachers from the study experienced personal barriers to implementing a robust approach to vocabulary instruction, such as a lack of knowledge in relation to evidence-based vocabulary practices and time constraints in the classroom. Additional research is needed to identify how best to support teachers with this mismatch between current teacher practice and research-validated practice.