Frequently Asked Questions About Vocabulary
How can we best teach vocabulary?
Vocabulary is best taught contextually. Students do not learn in a void, so we need to ensure that we connect vocabulary instruction with broader texts, students’ existing understandings, and activities where they construct new knowledge using the new vocabulary. Students should have the chance to repeatedly encounter a new word. Flanigan and Hayes (2022) recommend teaching a word in multiple ways at least ten to twelve times throughout a week, which they call “distributed practice.” In my classroom, I can see explicitly defining a word (in student-friendly language) for students (1) before they encounter it in a short story (2), then asking them to make sense of it within their own experiences in a journal entry (3). We could do a think-pair-share with the word (4), come back to it again in another text that we read together (5), and then discuss how the author used the word, and how it differed from the other usage we have read (6). Later that week, I would ask them to define it for me in class or small-group discussion as a refresher (7), listen to a podcast or audio clip where the word was used (8), then assign them homework to find an example of the word in their home life (9). I might try to assign this homework earlier in the week so they had more time. Finally, I would ask the students to share how they encountered the word or applied it in their daily life (10). I think this would be a reinforcing, culturally rich opportunity for students to teach one another and thereby cement their understandings of the word. To reinforce learning, I would likely also spend time at some point teaching the etymology of the word, and encourage students to make connections to other similar words (11). Instead of one or several of the suggestions here, I also might use vocabulary games like Applause, Applause, where students clap to emphasise how much they’d like a word to be used to describe them (Flanigan & Hayes, 2022). This entire teaching strategy seems like a lot, but it would be a mindset shift, and once you begin practicing using words multiple times, I think that it would become reflexive, and could be fit into your regular practice seamlessly.
What strategies are effective in teaching vocabulary?
It can help students immensely to use student-friendly definitions, or use familiar words to define the unfamiliar word (Flanigan & Hayes, 2022). Flanigan and Hayes (2022) recommend utilizing Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English to explain new words clearly, using common, easily understood words. I recommend using the student-friendly definition AND explicitly directing students to use Longman’s Dictionary when they encounter new words, so that they build up their ability to interpret and understand new language.
Active engagement, where students create visuals/graphic organizers, discuss words, apply words to their own lives, and present new understandings to the class help cement students’ understanding of the new words (Flanigan & Hayes, 2022). I would encourage students to work to build conceptual maps of new words, where they isolate sections of the word like prefixes and suffixes, and make connections to other words that are similar, in whatever ways occur to them. With continual practice, students can learn to discuss words in spirited class discussions: they can talk about the various meanings of words, how they have encountered them in the past, how they experience the words in their own lives, and what the word’s morphology is and why. For example, you might give them cheat sheets of common Greek and Latin roots and common prefixes and suffixes, and then encourage students to use these to ‘approach’ new words. They can use this as a guide for interpreting new words, on their own and in discussion.
A playful approach that utilizes games in vocabulary instruction is helpful, as students retain more information and are more open when learning through play. Vocabulary games for practice include Applause, Applause, where students clap to emphasise how much they’d like a word to be used to describe them; word associations, where students are asked which new vocabulary goes best with a story, a word, or a phrase; and clue review, where students blindly choose a word card and place it on their forehead, then have to guess from clues from their partner (Flanigan & Hayes, 2022). All of these allow students to practice and reinforce their understandings of new words in play.
Is it worth devoting instructional time to vocabulary, when the student has so many other literacy needs?
Yes. Vocabulary is closely connected to comprehension. Increasing vocabulary improves comprehension overall (Coyne & Loftus-Rattan, 2022). Teaching vocabulary strategically and contextually can support students in developing their overall literacy.
What are good interventions for extensive vocabulary needs?
A powerful way to make new vocabulary “stick” is to assign students to find examples of new words on their own, as homework, as part of small-group or partner discussion, or as a written assignment (Flanigan & Hayes, 2022). Integrating new words into daily journal time (ex: ‘Tell me about a time you experienced ecstasy’) after defining the word explicitly and contextually will help the students better conceptualize the word and connect it into their own schemas.
Students who struggle with vocabulary need more repetition and review, so interventions can look like additional time interrogating word makeup and practicing using words in context. They might have more explicit instruction in using concept maps and in morphology to help them to become better word detectives.
How can I support my students in continuing to develop their vocabulary on their own?
In order to create self-propelled vocabulary learners, we need to teach students to actively engage with vocabulary. By creating curious learners who think about words in their own contexts, and in connection to their own lives, we will encourage students to continue to develop their vocabulary.
A very powerful way to teach students to figure out new words is to teach them some basic morphology, in conjunction with vocabulary instruction. This can look like teaching students prefixes, suffixes, and some Greek and Latin roots of words. I would teach students a word like transgender, and look at how trans is a prefix that means across—probably incorporating many other examples and connections—therefore transgender means across genders. I would teach this respectfully and carefully, but I think that it would be an important and timely example of how important breaking down vocabulary can be. I would also pair this with a historical lesson in Social Studies 9 about transgender people in societies throughout history, and explain how there has been gender fluidity throughout history, and that it is not something new, despite what our society generally believes.
We want to encourage students to develop a love of reading. In my opinion, ensuring that they are successful readers is the best way to do so. This means that students should be able to choose their own books and read about what they are interested in. It also means that they should have the opportunity to enjoy books in alternative formats, such as read-alouds and audiobooks, where they associate books with enjoyment. This is especially true for students who struggle with comprehension. Build success into reading in multiple formats, so that students build associations with reading beyond the frustration and discouragement that they are accustomed to, to help them lay a foundation for wanting to read, which will continue to improve their vocabulary contextually.
How do you teach vocabulary in your classroom?
I really appreciated how Tanya Wright noted that “you can’t comprehension strategy your way through” not understanding a lot of words in the text. So often, we are encouraged to teach strategies like rereading, but students need a base of knowledge to use these strategies.
I personally resonate with teaching vocabulary contextually. I think that learning new words just for the sake of vocabulary is not usually something that seems to stick with students. I always think about how we as humans learn best through stories. Giving a new vocabulary word context and meaning within a broader text allows it to make sense within or as story for our brains. Occasionally, I will ask students to write their daily journal entry using a new vocabulary word. When the sky was especially vivid one day, I explained what luminous meant and asked them to write an entry using luminous in any way. More often, I will define words as we read texts.
I was interested in the idea of conceptually connected texts, but I think that I need to spend more time thinking about how this is different from what we have already been doing in terms of themes and subjects.
I love the idea of teaching kids strategies. This is definitely how I think we need to approach teaching, as reading interventionists and as classroom teachers. I want my students to have a diverse set of strategies that they understand and can choose to apply to tricky text sections. I want students to be self-aware, reflective readers, who can engage in choosing different ways to access and understand texts. I think that this is the end goal, and I think that teaching strategies is definitely one way to get there. We want students to have a range of strategies that they understand and can apply. They need to be able to choose from these strategies depending on the text and their needs.
I liked what Jennifer Serravallo said in the podcast about the high school teacher who used big vocabulary words all the time in her teaching, and how this accelerated her vocabulary growth and encouraged her to use it in her own writing. I think that I use lots of big words in my teaching. I try to repeat them occasionally in more accessible ways, when asked and when I notice, but I teach students using lots of higher-level vocabulary because that is just the way I speak. They respond well to it. I usually circle around things a few ways when I am speaking, so I am hopeful that the bigger words aren’t too confusing, but honestly, my students are smart, and they may not be able to write big words but they are usually fine with hearing them.
Once, I wrote in a report card comment that a student’s journal entries were “irreverent,” and she confronted me a few weeks later, saying, “I’m glad that I know now that what I write in my journal doesn’t matter.” I was confused, and asked her to explain, and she said, “you said that my journal entries are irrelevant!” I have since stepped back from using that word in report card entries, but I did explain it to her and I assume she will now always have that funny association with the word. Even if I do occasionally confuse students, I think that it is really important to not dumb down language for them. We can make it more accessible, in many, many ways, but we should not speak to them as though they cannot understand.
References
Coyne, M. D., & Loftus-Rattan, S. M. (2022). Structured literacy interventions for vocabulary. In Structured literacy interventions: Teaching students with reading difficulties, grades K-6. Edited by L. Spear-Swerling. The Guilford Press.
Flanigan, K., & Hayes, L. (2023). Literacy intervention in the middle grades: Word learning, comprehension, and strategy instruction, grades 4-8. The Guilford Press.
Wright, T. (Guest) & Serravallo, J. (Host). Vocabulary development. To the classroom: Conversations with researchers & educators podcast. Episode 10. https://www.jenniferserravallo.com/blog/tanya-wright