Abstract
Spanish was the home language of 37.9 million students in fall of 2016, representing over 76% of all English language learner (ELL) students (NCES, 2019). While Spanish speaking ELLs clearly make up a significant portion of our public-school population their vocabulary acquisition is severely disproportionate to their English only (EO) peers. English language learners who experience slow vocabulary development are less able to comprehend grade level texts than their English-only peers (Davis, Davis, Jacobson, & Stahl, 1989). The purpose of this research study was to gather information in regards to the effects of academic vocabulary instruction on the listening comprehension of first grade English language learners. An additional purpose of this research was to describe the knowledge, use of, and interpretation of effectiveness of research-based academic vocabulary approaches and strategies by first-grade teachers. Student and teacher participants for this study were selected from the researcher’ school site. Students received academic vocabulary instruction based on the Journeys (Vogt et al., 2017) ELA curriculum. Teachers completed a survey regarding their knowledge, use, and perception of effectiveness of research based academic vocabulary instructional strategies and approaches. The study concluded that there was no consistent growth or decline in listening comprehension over the course of six weeks. Additionally, the survey data suggested that how teachers see their level of knowledge in the area of academic vocabulary instruction of ELLs was higher than how they see their knowledge of the key instructional components.