Learning Focus

Vocabulary

Today, when reading a text practising the /oo/ sound, my group of students came across the word  ‘loot’. We talked about its meaning in the context of the text we were reading – robbers stealing money from a bank - and how ‘loot’ was the thing that is stolen. The group came up with their own examples of loot – and stolen Doritos that were hidden under a bed was given as an example! While simultaneously vowing to check under all my own kids’ beds tonight, I also reflected on the fun it is to learn (and teach) new words.

In a previous article I did a deep dive into phonemic awareness and phonics – two of the 5 pillars of reading, the essential components to being a good reader. Today I will delve into another pillar, the topic of vocabulary.

Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge of words – how to read and pronounce them, how to spell them and, of course, understanding them. Understanding a word has two parts – 1) understanding a word when you come across it in conversation or when reading and 2) being confident enough in your understanding of the meaning of the word to use it expressively in conversation or when writing. A strong vocabulary is beneficial to both reading and writing – the more words you can understand in a text, the easier the text will be to comprehend, and using a wide variety of vocabulary in writing lifts a piece and makes it more interesting.

We all learn vocabulary in many ways through the different experiences in which we are exposed to words – through conversation, through reading, through explicit teaching etc. As teachers we try and teach exciting and less common words to our students, by talking about the word, giving its definition, talking about its make-up (spelling, prefixes, suffixes, syllables etc.) and then giving the students multiple exposure to the word through different activities and reminders. We don’t tend to learn new words after just one exposure, so revisiting the word often is key.

Reading is another way that students become exposed to vocabulary – words in texts tend to be more complex than the words we speak in everyday conversation, so there is a rich mine of vocabulary to be found in the books our children read. Next time you read with your child, you might want to make noticing vocabulary a focus - point out an interesting word to your child, explain the word, put it in a sentence, and then refer back to the word over the next few days. You could challenge your child to use it in conversation etc.  Picture story books are wonderful resources for vocabulary; although they don’t tend to have many words, the words in them are very carefully considered.

Though this sounds odd, there is something very satisfying  as a literacy teacher to see a child pronounce a word wrong in conversation – this most likely means that it is a word they have encountered a few times when reading, have managed to get a gist of it’s meaning from the context in the text and are confident enough to use it expressively. What a fabulous effort! I remember being a teenager when the Harry Potter texts came out and until I saw the movies I used to pronounce Hermione as Her-mee-own!

Sometimes we complain about English being such a difficult language and in comparison to some other languages the spelling of English is that bit more complex. But one of the most amazing things about the English language is the size of the vocabulary – English has more words than most other languages. English has changed and evolved over many hundreds of years for many reasons. England was invaded by other countries on numerous occasions and along the way the English language took on (you might even say ‘looted’) many of the words from the invaders’ languages. Then as it became easier to travel the world even more words from further-flung countries made their way into English. That has left us with a huge, interesting and rich vocabulary, which gives us choices for how we want to say/describe things and actions, and beautiful shades of nuance as words have similar but slightly different meanings. 

We want to encourage our students to celebrate this aspect of English and to be brave and experiment with new and exciting words. So another thing you can do with your child, is to offer them a more sophisticated alternative as you converse with them. If they say they are happy, you can reply saying ‘Yes, I’m pretty jubilant as well’, or next time they complain that emptying the dishwasher is ‘boring’ you can reply ‘Yes, it’s a pretty monotonous job, but someone’s got to do it”.

Understanding and being able to use a wide vocabulary is an essential part of becoming a good reader and writer, and it’s a skill that can be built into our everyday conversations. It’s important to celebrate the expansive array of words we have available to us in this crazy language of ours. 

Carol Martins

Inclusive Education Specialist