This paper systematically reviews studies on early childhood vocabulary instruction, specifically examining word selection methods and the characteristics of words selected for instruction. We examine various aspects of word selection, including selection methods, the characteristics of the words, words’ difficulty and usefulness as indexed by rating systems, the context from which words were drawn, and the relationship between child and word characteristics. Analyses of 76 studies that met criteria revealed great variability in words and inconsistent adherence to research-based principles of word selection. Researchers prioritized unknown words and words described as Tier 2 when selecting words. The most frequently selected word type was concrete nouns; more than half of all words selected were concrete in nature. A small percentage of target words appeared on published lists of words recommended for instruction. Word selection varied by context, with different types of words selected for science content vs. narrative/fiction. Finally, there were few relationships between child characteristics and word characteristics.

本文系统地回顾了幼儿词汇教学的研究，重点研究了选词方法和选词的特点。我们研究了单词选择的各个方面，包括选择方法，单词的特征，单词的难度和有用性（由评分系统索引），绘制单词的上下文以及子代与单词特征之间的关系。对符合条件的76项研究进行的分析显示，单词的变异性很大，并且对基于研究的单词选择原则的坚持不一致。研究人员在选择单词时优先考虑未知单词和描述为方法2的单词。最常选择的单词类型是具体名词。在所选的所有单词中，有一半以上是具体的。一小部分目标词出现在建议用于指导的已发布词表中。单词选择因上下文而异，科学内容和叙事/小说都选择了不同类型的单词。最后，儿童特征和单词特征之间的关系很少。