Academic Vocabulary Teaching Guidelines: Incorporating Icelandic Academic Words and related Quality Texts into Icelandic Literacy Education

The aim is to systematically develop guidelines to support Icelandic compulsory school teachers in effectively using Icelandic academic words and related quality texts in literacy education. The project is based on a) an Icelandic academic word list; b) related quality texts; c) effective academic vocabulary application in literacy education. Professionals from four Icelandic institutions: The School of Education and the School of Humanities at the University of Iceland, the Directorate of Education, and Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies.

Participating teachers and their students (grades 4, 7 and 9) will be selected, as intervention schools and comparison schools. The project includes the following steps: 1) Interviews with teachers in the experimental schools on what support they need to incorporate an Icelandic academic word list with texts in their schools settings. 2) Pretests: reading comprehension and writing with learners in research and comparison schools. 3) The intervention: a) one day course about effective application of academic vocabulary in teaching; b) first trial task; c) reflection meeting; d) second trial task; e) summary of the teachers’ experiences. 3) Post-tests: same as Pretests 4) Validation of the guidelines.

The focus is on how learners use the Icelandic language: Learners who learn the Icelandic language, who learn about the Icelandic language, and learners who throughout their schools years learn in the Icelandic language.