VITA

William E. Nagy

September 2005

 

Seattle Pacific University
School
of Education
3307 Third Avenue West
Seattle
, WA 98119-1950

Office Phone: 206 281-2253

Fax: 206 281-2756

Email:  wnagy@spu.edu

 

Employment

9/96 - present:  Professor of Education, Seattle Pacific University

11/78 - 8/96:  Senior Scientist, Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1/78 - 5/78:  Assistant Professor, German Department, Calvin College

9/76 - 8/77: Research Assistant, Translations Department, American Bible Society

7/75 - 6/76: Assistant Professor, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Salzburg

9/74 - 5/75:  Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Rochester

 

Education

PhD in Linguistics, University of California, San Diego, 1974

            Dissertation title:   Figurative patterns and redundancy in the lexicon.

BA in German, Michigan State University, 1970

Scholastic Honors:  Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi

 

Interests

My research and teaching have focused on language and literacy, from the perspectives of educational and cognitive psychology and applied linguistics.  I have been especially interested in vocabulary acquisition and instruction, the role of vocabulary knowledge in first- and second-language reading, and the contributions of metalinguistic awareness to learning to read.

 

Publications

Nagy, W. (1978). Some non-idiom larger-than-word units in the lexicon. In D. Farkas, W. Jacobson, & K. Todrys (Eds.), Papers from the parasession on the lexicon . Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Hall, W. S. & Nagy, W. (1981). Cultural differences in communication. NYU Education Quarterly , 13 (1), 16-22.

Nagy, W. & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly , 19 , 304-330.

Hall, W. S., Nagy, W., & Linn, R. L. (1984). Spoken words: Effects of situation and social group on oral word usage and frequency . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Nagy, W., Herman, P. A., & Anderson, R. C. (1985). Learning words from context. Reading Research Quarterly , 20 , 233-253.

Nagy, W., & Herman, P. A. (1985). Incidental vs. instructional approaches to increasing reading vocabulary. Educational Perspectives , 23 , 16-21.

Hall, W. S., & Nagy, W. (1986). Theoretical issues in the investigation of words of internal report. In I. Gopnik & M. Gopnik (Eds.), Studies in cognitive sciences (pp. 26-65). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Hall, W. S., & Nagy, W. (1987). The semantic-pragmatic distinction in the investigation of mental state words: The role of the situation. Discourse Processes , 10 , 169-180.

Nagy, W., & Herman, P. A. (1987). Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge: Implications for acquisition and instruction. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 19-59). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Herman, P. A., Anderson, R. C., Pearson, P. D., & Nagy, W. (1987). Incidental acquisition of word meanings from expositions with varied text features. Reading Research Quarterly , 22 , 263-284.

Nagy, W., Anderson, R. C., & Herman, P. A. (1987). Learning word meanings from context during normal reading. American Educational Research Journal , 24 , 237-270.

Hall, W. S., & Nagy, W. (1987). Continuities/discontinuities in the function and use of language as related to situation and social class. In P. Homel, M. Palij & D. Aaronson (Eds.), Childhood Bilingualism: Aspects of cognitive, social and emotional development . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 243- 280.

Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1987). Syntactic, semantic and distributional properties of suffixes: Differing orders of acquisition. Proceedings of the 1986 Eastern States Conference on Linguistics .

Nagy, W. (1988). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension . Urbana, IL: ERIC/RCS, NCTE & IRA.

Nagy, W., Anderson, R. C., Schommer, M., Scott, J., & Stallman, A. (1989). Morphological families in the internal lexicon. Reading Research Quarterly , 24 , 262-282.

Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of Memory and Language , 28 , 649-667.

Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (1990). Word schemas: Expectations about the form and meaning of new words. Cognition and Instruction , 7 , 105-127.

Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1990). Use of derivational morphology during reading. Cognition , 36 , 17-34.

Nagy, W., & Gentner, D. (1990). Semantic constraints on lexical categories. Language and Cognitive Processes, 5 , 169-201.

Anderson, R. C., & Nagy, W. (1991). Word meanings. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), The Handbook of Reading Research , Volume II, 690-724.

Armbruster, B. A., & Nagy, W. (1992). Vocabulary in content area lessons. The Reading Teacher, 45, 550-551.

Anderson, R. C., & Nagy, W. (1992). The vocabulary conundrum. American Educator, 16 (4), 14-18, 44-47.

Nagy, W., Diakidoy, I., & Anderson, R. C. (1993). The acquisition of morphology: Learning the contribution of suffixes to the meanings of derivatives. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25 155-170.

Nagy, W., Winsor, P., Osborn, J., & O'Flahavan, J. (1993). Structural analysis: Guidelines for instruction. In Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (Eds.), Reading, language, and literacy: Instruction for the twenty-first century . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 45-58.

Nagy, W., García, G. E., Durgunoglu, A., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1993). Spanish-English bilingual students' use of cognates in English reading. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25 , 241-259.

Durgunoglu, A., Nagy, W., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1993). Cross language transfer of phonological awareness. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 453-465.

García, G. E., & Nagy, W. (1993). Latino students' concept of cognates. In D. Leu & C. Kinzer Eds.), Examining central issues in literacy research, theory, and practice (Forty-second Yearbook of The National Reading Conference) . Chicago: National Reading Conference, 367-373.

Hancin-Bhatt, B., & Nagy, W. (1994). Lexical transfer and second-language morphological development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 15 , 289-310.

Scott, J. A., & Nagy, W. E. (1994). Vocabulary development. In Purves, A. C., Papa, L., & Jordan, S. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of English studies and language arts , Vol. 2 (pp. 1242-1244). New York: Scholastic.

Nagy, W., & Herman, P. (1996). Incidental vs. instructional approaches to increasing reading vocabulary. In R. Robinson, M. McKenna, & J. Wedman (Eds .), Issues and trends in literacy education (pp. 257-266). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. (Reprint of Nagy & Herman, 1985).

Scott, J., & Nagy, W. (1997). Understanding the definitions of unfamiliar verbs. Reading Research Quarterly , 32 , 184-200.

Nagy, W., McClure, E., & Mir, M. (1997) Linguistic transfer and the use of context by Spanish-English bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 18, 431-452.

Nagy, W. (1997). On the role of context in first- and second-language vocabulary learning. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 64-83.

Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Metalinguistic awareness and literacy acquisition in different languages. In D. Wagner, B. Street, & R. Venezky (Eds.), Literacy: an international handbook (pp. 155-160). New York: Garland Publishing.

Mori, Y., & Nagy, W. (1999). Integration of information from context and word elements in interpreting novel kanji compounds. Reading Research Quarterly , 34 (1), 80-101.

Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research , Volume III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Nagy, W. (2001). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension. In Honig, B., & Diamond, L. (Eds.), CORE Reading Research Anthology (pp. 129-135). Novato, CA: Arena Press. (Reprint of excerpts from Nagy, 1988)

Durgunoglu, A., Nagy, W., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (2001). Cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. In Honig, B., & Diamond, L. (Eds.), CORE Reading Research Anthology (pp. 46-50). Novato, CA: Arena Press. (Reprint of Durgunoglu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993)

Berninger, V., Abbott, R., Billingsley, F., & Nagy, W. (2001). Processes underlying timing and fluency of reading: Efficiency, automaticity, coordination, and morphological awareness (pp. 383-414). In M. Wolf (Ed.), Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain. Timonium, MD: York Press.

Nagy, W., Kuo-Kealoha, A., Wu, X., Li, W., Anderson, R. C., & Chen, X. (2001). The role of morphological awareness in learning to read Chinese. In W. Li, J. Gaffney, & J. Packard (Eds.), Chinese Children’s Reading Acquisition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Issues (pp. 59-86). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Li, W., Anderson, R. C., Nagy, W., & Zhang, H. (2001). Facets of metalinguistic awareness that contribute to Chinese literacy. In W. Li, J. Gaffney, & J. Packard (Eds.), Chinese Children’s Reading Acquisition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Issues (pp. 87-106). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Anderson, R. C., Gaffney, J. S., Wu, X., Wang, C. C., Li, Wenling, Shu, H., Nagy, W., & Ming, X. (2001). Shared-book reading in China. In W. Li, J. Gaffney, & J. Packard (Eds.), Chinese Children’s Reading Acquisition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Issues (pp. 131-155). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Snow, C., Chair / RAND Reading Study Group (2002). Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

Richards, T. L., Berninger, V. W., Aylward, E. H., Richards, A. L., Thomson, J. B., Nagy, W. E., Carlisle, J. F., Dager, S. R., & Abbott, R. D. (2002). Reproducibility of proton MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI): comparison of dyslexic and normal-reading children and effects of treatment on brain lactate levels during language tasks. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 23 (10), 1678-1685.

Berninger, V., Nagy, W., Carlisle, J., Thomson, J., Hoffer, D., Abbott, S.,, Abbott, R., Richards, T., & Aylward, E. (2003). Effective treatment for dyslexics in grades 4-6: Behavioral and brain evidence. In B. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and Treating Reading Disabilities: Bringing Science to Scale (pp. 381-417). Timonium, MD: York Press.

Aylward, E., Richards, T., Berninger, V., Nagy, W., Field, K., Grimme, A., Richards, A., Thomson, J., & Cramer, S. (2003). Instructional treatment associated with changes in brain activation in children with dyslexia. Neurology, 61 , 212-219.

Nagy, W., Berninger, V., Abbott, R., Vaughan, K., & Vermeulen, K. (2003). Relationship of morphology and other language skills to literacy skills in at-risk second grade readers and at-risk fourth grade writers . Journal of Educational Psychology , 95 , 730-742.

Nagy, W., & Scott, J.  (2004).  Vocabulary Processes.  In R. Ruddell. & N. Unrau, (Eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (5th ed.) (pp. 574-593).  Newark, DE:  International Reading Association.  (Reprint of Nagy & Scott, 2000)

Scott, J. A., & Nagy, W. (2004). Developing word consciousness. In J. Baumann & E. Kame’enui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice (pp. 201-217). New York: Guilford.

Nagy, W.  (2005).  Why vocabulary instruction needs to be long-term and comprehensive.  In E. Hiebert & M. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and Learning Vocabulary:  Bringing Research to Practice (pp. 27-44).  Mahwah, NJ:  Erlbaum.

Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (in press).  The state of vocabulary research in the mid-1980’s. In K. A. Dougherty Stahl and M. C. McKenna (Eds.) Seeking understanding in how to teach reading: Selected works by Steven Stahl and a memorial Festschrift.  New York:  Guilford Publishing.

Nagy, W. (in press).  Metalinguistic awareness and the vocabulary-comprehension connection.  In R. K. Wagner, A. Muse, & K. Tannenbaum. (Eds.).  Vocabulary acquisition and its implications for reading comprehension.  New York:  Guilford.

Stahl, S. A., & Nagy, W. (in press).  Teaching word meanings.  Mahwah, NJ:  Erlbaum.

Richards, T., Berninger, V., Nagy, W., Parsons, A., Field, K., & Richards, A. (in press).  Brain activation during language task contrasts in children with and without dyslexia.  Inferring mapping processes and assessing response to spelling instruction.  Neuropsychology in Educational and Child Psychology, 22(2).

Richards, T., Aylward, E., Berninger, V. Field, K., Grimme, A., Richards, A., & Nagy, W. (in press).  Individual fMRI activation in orthographic mapping and morpheme mapping after orthographic or morphological spelling treatment in child dyslexics.  Journal of Neurolinguistics.

Nagy, W., Berninger, V., & Abbott, R. (in press).  Contributions of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle school students.  Journal of Educational Psychology.

 

Center for the Study of Reading Technical Reports

 

Hall, W. S., & Nagy, W. (1979). Theoretical issues in the investigation of words of internal report (No. 146).

Hall, W. S., Linn, R. L., & Nagy, W. (1980). Spoken words (No. 177).

Hall, W. S., Nagy, W. & Nottenburg, G. (1981). Situational variation in the use of internal state words (No. 212).

Nagy, W. & Anderson, R. C. (1982) The number of words in printed school English (No. 253).

Nagy, W., Herman, P. A., Anderson, R. C., & Pearson, P. D. (1984). Learning words from context (No. 319).

Nagy, W., & Herman, P. A. (1984). Limitations of vocabulary instruction (No. 326).

Nagy, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R. C. (1985). Learning word meanings from context: How broadly generalizable? (No. 347).

Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1985). The role of derivational morphology in sentence comprehension (No. 357).

Herman, P., Anderson, R. C., Pearson, P. D., & Nagy, W. (1985). Incidental acquisition of word meanings from expositions that systematically vary text features (No. 364).

Nagy, W., Anderson, R. C., & Herman, P. (1986). The influence of word and text properties on learning from context (No. 369).

Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1987). The acquisition of English derivational morphology (No. 407)

.

Nagy, W., & Gentner, D. (1987). Semantic constraints on lexical categories (No. 413).

Nagy, W. (1988). Vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension (No. 431).

Nagy, W., Anderson, R. C., Schommer, M., Scott, J., & Stallman, A. (1989). Morphological families in the internal lexicon (No. 450).

Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (1989). Word schemas: What do people know about words they don't know? (No. 456).

Anderson, R. C., & Nagy, W. (1989). Word meanings (No. 485).

Scott, J. A., & Nagy, W. (1991). Understanding definitions (No. 528).

Nagy, W., Diakidoy, I., & Anderson, R. C. (1991). The development of knowledge of derivational suffixes (No. 536).

Durgunoglu, A., Nagy, W., & Hancin, B. (1991). Cross-language transfer of phonemic awareness (No. 541).

Nagy, W., Osborn, J., Winsor, P., & O'Flahavan, J. (1992). Guidelines for instruction in structural analysis (No. 554).

Nagy, W., García, G. E., Durgunoglu, A., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1992). Cross-language transfer of lexical knowledge: Bilingual students' use of cognates (No. 558).

Nagy, W., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1993). Bilingual students' developing understanding of morphologically complex cognates (No. 567).

Anderson, R. C., & Nagy, W. (1993). The vocabulary conundrum (No. 570).

Winsor, P., Nagy, W., Osborn, J., & O'Flahavan, J. (1993). Structural analysis: toward an evaluation of instruction (No. 581).

Stallman, A., Pearson, P. D., Nagy, W., Anderson, R. C., & García, G. E. (1995). Alternative approaches to vocabulary assessment (No. 607).

Nagy, W., McClure, E. F., & Mir., M. (1995). Linguistic transfer and the use of context by Spanish-English bilinguals (No. 616).

Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1995). Metalinguistic awareness and literacy acquisition in different languages (No. 618).

Kilian, A. S., Nagy, W., Pearson, P. D., Anderson, R. C., & García, G. E. (1995). Learning vocabulary from context: effects of focusing attention on individual words during reading (No. 619).

Nagy, W. (1995). On the role of context in first- and second-language vocabulary learning (No. 627).

 

Presentations

 

Nagy, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R. (1983). Learning words from context. National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., Herman, P., & Anderson, R. (1984). Grade and reading ability effects on learning words from context. National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., & Herman, P. (1984). The futility of most types of vocabulary instruction. American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (1985). Vocabulary instruction: Implications of the new research. National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention. Invited presentation sponsored by ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills.

Nagy, W., & Gentner, D. (1985). Meta-semantic knowledge and learning words from context. National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., Herman, P. & Anderson, R. (1985). The influence of word and text properties on learning words from context. American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W., & Tyler, A. (1986). How to deal with long words: Ability-related differences in the acquisition of word-formation rules. National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., & Gentner, D. (1986). Semantic partitioning: What people put into nouns and verbs. Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego: The first twenty years.

Nagy, W. (1986). How well do readers have to know words before it does them any good? Center for the Study of Reading Seventh Annual Conference on Reading Research.

Nagy, W., Schommer, M., Scott, J., Stallman, A., & Anderson, R. C. (1987). Morphological relatedness and the frequency effect. National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., Scott, J., Schommer, M., & Anderson, R. C. (1987). Word schemas: What do people know about words they don't know? National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (1988). The role of syntax in a model of word learning ability. American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W., Diakidoy, I., & Anderson, R. C. (1991). The development of students' knowledge of suffixes . American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W., García, G. E., Durgunoglu, A., & Hancin, B. (1991). Spanish-speaking bilingual children's use of cognates in English reading . American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (1992). Vocabulary growth and reading comprehension . First Annual Illinois Reading Recovery Conference.

Nagy, W. (1992). Helping students cope with new words . Illinois Reading Council Annual Conference.

Nagy, W., & García, G. E. (1992). The development of Latino students' concept of cognates . National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W., & McClure, E. (1994). Inferring word meanings from context in a second language. National Reading Conference.

Stahl, S., Graves, M., Beck, I., McKeown, M., Anderson, R. C., Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (1995). What do we know about vocabulary? Toward a state of the art. (Joint presentation.) American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (1997). Discussant for symposium Depth of Knowledge of Instructional and Content-Area Vocabulary . National Reading Conference.

Nagy, W. (1998 ). Vocabulary is acquired incrementally: Ramifications for explicit and incidental learning approaches . American Association of Applied Linguistics.

Nagy, W. (1998). Discussant for symposium Multifaceted Vocabulary Knowledge in Second Language Learning: Assessment, Teaching, and Educational Importance . American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (1998) In search of word consciousness . Invited address, Washington Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (1998). Increasing students’ reading vocabularies . Invited address, 2 nd Annual Commissioner’s Reading Day Conference, Austin, TX.

Nagy, W. (1998) . Understanding the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension: The roles of volume of reading and metalinguistic awarene ss. Invited talk, Beijing Normal University.

Nagy, W. (1998). Expanding Children’s Oral, Sight, and Meaning Vocabularies. Invited presentations, 1998 Summer Reading Institute, Fife, Yakima, Spokane, Marysville, & Vancouver, WA.

Nagy, W. (1998). Vocabulary development: What do we know? Inservice presentation, Fern Hill Elementary School, Tacoma, WA.

Nagy, W. (1999). The role of morphological awareness in learning to read Chinese. Conference on Learning to Read Chinese, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Nagy, W. (1999). Promoting vocabulary growth for all students. Inservice presentation, Auburn, WA.

Nagy, W. (2000). Promoting students’ vocabulary development. Inservice presentation to the Reading Leadership Team, Puget Sound Educational Service District.

Nagy, W. (2000). The role of morphological awareness in learning to read Chinese. American Educational Research Association.

Nagy, W. (2000). Promoting vocabulary growth for all students. Inservice presentation, Mount View Elementary School, Seattle, WA.

Nagy, W., Berninger, V, & Abbott, R. (2000). The relationship of different aspects of morphological awareness and literacy-related abilities. National Reading Conference.

Nagy. W. (2001). Discussion that fosters strategic reading of expository text . Washington Organization for Reading Development conference, Shoreline, WA.

Nagy, W. (May, 2002). Putting vocabulary research into practice. Invited address, Putting Reading Research Into Practice: A Research Symposium. U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC.

Nagy, W. (August, 2003). A comprehensive approach for promoting vocabulary growth . South Caroline Reading Initiative. Columbia, South Carolina.

Nagy, W. (October, 2003). Complexities of the vocabulary/comprehension relationship: A rationale for a multi-component approach to vocabulary instruction. Invited address, Focus on Vocabulary Forum, Dallas, Texas.

Nagy, W. (February, 2004).  Metalinguistic awareness and the vocabulary-comprehension connection.  Invited presentation, Conference on Vocabulary and Reading hosted by the Florida Center for Reading Research and Florida State University’s School of Arts and Sciences, Captiva, Florida.

Nagy, W., Berninger, V., & Abbott, R.  (April, 2004).  Morphological awareness and literacy in grades 4-9.    Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego.

Nagy, W. (September, 2004).  Indirect links between vocabulary and reading comprehension.  British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Leeds, England.

Nagy, W. (September, 2004).  The nature and sources of individual differences in word learning ability.  Invited presentation at a symposium on Developing Children’s Vocabulary in the Classroom, Oxford Brookes University, England.

Nagy, W. (July, 2005).  Morphological contributions to literacy. International Dyslexia Association special conference on Research to Practice:  Advances in Reading and Literacy.  Washington, DC. 

 

Editing and reviewing

 

Editor, Center for the Study of Reading Technical Report Series, 1982-1988

 

Membership on Editorial Advisory Boards:

   Journal of Reading Behavior , 1990 - 1995

   Reading Research Quarterly , 1991-1995

   Journal of Educational Psychology, 1998 – 2005

   Scientific Studies of Reading , 1995- 2004

  

Since 1990, I have served as a guest reviewer for:

 

  American Educational Research Journal

  Applied Linguistics

  Applied Psycholinguistics

  Cognition and Instruction

  Contemporary Educational Psychology

  Developmental Psychology

  Dictionaries

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly

  Elementary School Journal

  Journal of Educational Psychology

  Journal of Memory and Language

  Language Learning

  Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

  The National Science Foundation

  The Reading Teacher

  Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal

  Reading Research Quarterly

  Research in the Teaching of English

  Review of Educational Research

  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

   Spanish Applied Linguistics