Teaching Vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary is an often overlooked and undervalued part of reading instruction. Reading vocabulary is a crucial aspect of comprehension that can greatly improve reading proficiency.

Use these vocabulary teaching strategies and tips in your reading instruction.

What is Vocabulary?

Vocabulary definition:

• Vocabulary is interacting with a word and knowing what it means and implies.
• There are two aspects to vocabulary: receptive (hearing and reading words) and expressive (saying and writing words).
  • Both are very important.
  • Typically receptive vocabulary is acquired first and then expressive vocabulary, as it is easier to recognize words than produce them.

Teaching vocabulary is the 5th area in the Big 5 Reading Skills that you should include in your reading instruction. To see the other 4 areas, check out this blog post on The Big 5 Reading Skills.

Teaching vocabulary can give your students a huge boost in reading skills.

Why Vocabulary is Important

Vocabulary and reading comprehension tie so closely together. The National Reading Panel has reported that increasing vocabulary is one of the best ways to increase reading comprehension. The more words that you know the meaning of, the better you are able to make meaning of texts.

Building vocabulary also empowers students with more tools to express themselves. Whether it’s through speaking or writing, increasing vocabulary gives students a better chance at conveying the messages they are trying to send.

Explicitly teaching vocabulary is also crucial for ell students. They do not have the same experience and exposure to vocabulary words as students who have heard and spoken English their whole life, so they need extra emphasis on building vocabulary.

For some great vocabulary building strategies you can use now, check out this post of 7 Awesome Vocabulary Strategies.

Use vocabulary building reading instruction to boost these skills in your students.

Vocabulary Skills

When teaching vocabulary, here is a list of general skills that students progress through to increase vocabulary. Use activities that focus on these vocabulary skills when planning your vocabulary instruction. For a great visual version of these skills, download my FREE Reading Skills Step Ladder, that includes a break down of skills in all of the Big 5 Reading Areas.

• Naming

  • Students can say the name of words when shown a picture, object, or given a detailed description.

• Describing

  • With or without the support of a picture, students can use adjectives and sentences to describe objects or words.

• Classifying

  • Students can group words into categories by like characteristics.

• Synonyms/Antonyms

  • Students can identify words with similar meanings and opposite meanings.

• Roots

  • Students can identify and break words apart into their root words.

• Context Clues

  • Students can use context to figure out the meaning of unknown words.

• Using new words

  • Students can use new words they learn in their speaking and writing.

With so many different skills that make up each aspect of reading, it can be confusing and difficult to know where your students need help. I have a FREE Reading Intervention Cheat Sheet you can download that helps you identify struggling students, and gives ideas for each area they might be struggling in.

Intervention in reading doesn’t have to be overwhelming with this free cheat sheet.

I also have this comprehensive reading assessment that has an entire section of vocabulary so you can find out exactly which vocabulary skills your students need help in.

This reading assessment can help you identify exactly where your struggling readers need help.

It’s important to understand vocabulary acquisition in your students to best help them.

Vocabulary Acquisition

How Vocabulary is Learned

• Model (hearing it used)

  • One of the first strategies you can use in teaching vocabulary is to simply model using rich vocabulary words in authentic situations. Use the new words you are learning frequently in ways that make sense. Let your students hear the words used over and over again.

• Encouragement to use in everyday language

  • Actually using the vocabulary words in their own language will cement their understanding even more. Encourage students to use specific vocabulary words not only in your lessons, but also throughout the day if possible. Point out when students use them, celebrate when you hear them, have them posted somewhere students can refer to and remember them.

• Pre-Reading and Reading

  • Reading is another way vocabulary is gained, as it gives a visual context to learn new words. Pre-Reading is one of the most effective ways for teaching vocabulary words.
  • Before students start reading any text (independently or as a group), go through and point out the specific vocabulary words you want them to note. Highlight them, talk about what they mean, use them in sentences, and keep a posted list of vocab words in the passage students can refer to. This gives them background knowledge to draw on when they come across the word in the text.

Quality activities are crucial in making sure students are successfully learning new vocabulary. I have several activities that work great for vocabulary building in my Ultimate List of Reading Intervention Activities, as well as 6 tips that can help you make sure your interventions actually work.

Academic Vocabulary vs Social Vocabulary

There are 2 types of vocabulary: social vocabulary and academic vocabulary.

• Social vocabulary is the use and understanding of words that you use when you interact with others and socialize with peers. It’s when students talk to each other or play at recess, or when they are having a casual conversation with you or following basic directions (getting in line, passing a pencil, etc.).
• Academic vocabulary is the use and understanding of words that you use in learning academic concepts. They science and social studies vocabulary, math concepts, even terms as simple as “phonics pattern” or “rough draft”. Academic vocabulary also includes directions for assignments (solve each problem, or circle the proper nouns).

It’s important to note the difference, because a lot more students struggle with vocabulary than we realize. Social vocabulary is built MUCH faster than academic vocabulary. We can interact with a student and think their vocabulary is just fine, but we forget that talking with them socially doesn’t show how much academic vocabulary they have developed.

With this overview of what vocabulary means and what teaching vocabulary looks like in the classroom, I hope you are better prepared to give your students the tools they need to have a rich understanding of words and to increase vocabulary.

Happy teaching and reading!