Teaching vocabulary - effective strategies...
Graves (2000, as cited in Lane & Allen (2010), identifies four key components required for comprehensive and balanced vocabulary instruction:
- Wide reading - increases a student’s ability for “incidental” word learning during the course of reading (Stahl & Shiel, 1992; Lesaux et al, 2010). However given the Matthew effect discussed by Stanovich (1986), this strategy is much less effective for readers with an already impoverished vocabulary.
- Teaching key vocabulary explicitly - students are able to learn new words via effective direct instruction from teachers (McKeown et al, 1983; Lawrence et al, 2010).
- Teaching word learning strategies - direct teaching of context strategies and teaching of word parts including word roots, affixes and suffixes is effective in increasing vocabulary. (Stahl & Shiel, 1992; Leasaux et al, 2010)
- Creating “word consciousness” - being aware and interested in words and word meanings and noticing when and how new words are used (Bromley, 2007; Beck et al, 2013) motivates students to “learn new words and use them skilfully.” (Bromley, pg 365).
At Vocab Central we acknowledge the importance of all four strategies, however the prime focus of our process is based on strategy 2 above, "Explicit Instruction". We have looked at key research findings on explicit vocabulary instruction, and present an instructional process based on best practice methods.
We recommend further reading on the other strategies as follows...
Word learning strategies:
Stahl & Shield (1992) recommend these strategies as particularly effective for readers with low vocabularies who need remedial assistance, and their research provides a useful starting point to build your instructional skills in this domain. The NSW Centre for Effective Reading (http://www.cer.education.nsw.gov.au/professional-learning/middle-years/vocabulary) provides research-based practical instructional guidelines on teaching word-parts and how to use context clues.
Word consciousness:
Scott and Nagy (2004) discuss the importance of developing "word consciouness" in classrooms and outline specific activities to promote "word consciusness in upper elementary classrooms.
Word learning strategies:
Stahl & Shield (1992) recommend these strategies as particularly effective for readers with low vocabularies who need remedial assistance, and their research provides a useful starting point to build your instructional skills in this domain. The NSW Centre for Effective Reading (http://www.cer.education.nsw.gov.au/professional-learning/middle-years/vocabulary) provides research-based practical instructional guidelines on teaching word-parts and how to use context clues.
Word consciousness:
Scott and Nagy (2004) discuss the importance of developing "word consciouness" in classrooms and outline specific activities to promote "word consciusness in upper elementary classrooms.