The Use of Educational Software as a Pneumonic Learning Agent
Every year, millions of students around the globe take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Many universities use this test one of the admissions criteria to see if a student will succeed in their school, and more specifically the program of their choice. Universities use various measures to determine a student’s performance. The SAT examination has an area of the exam that emphasizes reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Terrill, Scruggs, and Mastropiere (2004) reported that “A strong psychometric relationship has consistently been reported between measures of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. This finding could imply that one way to improve children’s reading performance is to increase their vocabulary. Eight studies are reviewed that attempted to do this. Although all eight studies reported increases in students’ word knowledge, many failed to facilitate reading comprehension.” (p. 288). Many teachers aim to teach their students in a multimodal approach how to improve their students’ vocabulary and comprehension.
Price and Finkelstein (1994) conducted a study that examined whether “mnemonic strategies would be useful for high school students with learning disabilities. Over a 6-week period, this teacher taught the students SAT vocabulary words using either a traditional instructional approach or pictorial mnemonic keyword strategies she had developed.” (p. 134). Price and Finkelstein’s study produced results that using mnemonic instruction, 92% of students improved their vocabulary whereas on 49% did so under traditional methods. Several other studies have been indicative of similar results. The common theme has been that students can improve their memory for the Scholastic Aptitude Test vocabulary words by associating the words with corresponding pictures taken from media sources such as educational technology software, vocabulary building exercises, flashcards, and even magazines. By doing so, the student demonstrated that long-term recall of words associated with pictures was higher than recall of words not associated with pictures.
Educational software that helps students build their vocabulary for standardized test such as the SAT, TOEFL, and GMAT will have a similar impact. While the use of technology in education is a great reinforcement instrument, it is important given the tremendous increase in the use of computers and educational software in classrooms, that students still have a strong understand of the fundamentals of doing things using traditional manners. Wood (2001) said “Since there is much at stake, it is urgent that the literacy community accept responsibility for the critical evaluation of the tools that teachers will use to help teach the next generation of children to read.” (p. 168). Tools such as Executive Vocabulary and Ultimate Vocabulary provide the balance between the necessary comprehension skills students require, a visual and tactile way of learning how to read, and help build a student’s vocabulary so that regardless of the standardized test, the student s performance will be stronger.
Price, M. & Finkelstein, A. (1994). Pictures improve memory of SAT vocabulary words. Journal of Reading, 38(2), 134-135.
Terrill, M.C., Scruggs, T.E. & Mastropieri, M.A. (2004). SAT vocabulary instruction for high school students with learning disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(5), 288-294.
Wood, J. (2001). Can software support children’s vocabulary development. Language Learning & Technology, 3(1), 166-201.
