There are two types of vocabulary: oral (listening and speaking) and print (reading and writing). Vocabulary knowledge includes recognizing words and their meanings, but also pronouncing, understanding, and using words effectively and appropriately to foster communication and comprehension. Vocabulary instruction is considered critical, especially in content-area classrooms because vocabulary knowledge has shown a strong relationship to comprehension and students’ academic success. Unfortunately, not all students are equipped with the vocabulary necessary to do well in their content area classes or perform at acceptable levels on tests. For nearly 70 years, researchers have reported a disparity among students’ lexicons. The reason: higher achieving students read more than their classmates with relatively limited vocabularies. Stanovich refers to this as the Matthew Effect—the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In other words, the more one reads, the better the vocabulary and the ability to read increasingly complex text.
Think about our students: this is a vicious circle, isn’t it?
Over time, the knowledge gap between these two types of readers widens.
Students may struggle with vocabulary for many reasons such as lack of exposure to words (through reading, speaking, and listening), lack of background knowledge related to words, and lack of explicit vocabulary instruction.
The goal of vocabulary instruction is to provide students with the understanding of the meaning and use of words so they can comprehend what they read and communicate effectively. Vocabulary instruction that benefits all students at every level includes the following four elements:
- rich and varied oral and print language experiences,
- instruction in individual words with multiple exposures to the words in a variety of forms,
- instruction in word learning strategies, and
- fostering word consciousness (i.e., promoting an interest in learning words and their meanings).
Adolescents will encounter 10,000 or more new words each year, most of which are multisyllabic and unique to content-area texts. As previously mentioned, there is a strong relationship between vocabulary and the comprehension of complex text. Given the breadth of vocabulary needed for academic success in grades 4-12, incidental exposure through wide reading and discussion is critical. However, not all vocabulary essential to academic success can be learned through incidental exposure. Some words and their meanings should be directly taught. Because each content area has its own specialized vocabulary, domain- specific words should be carefully selected and taught explicitly and systematically. Instruction must be well-planned and purposeful because most students need to encounter a word about 12 times before they know it well enough to improve their comprehension. Students with learning disabilities or those who are still learning a language may require even more exposures to a word. Also, students should not only hear the words and copy their definitions; they should practice using the words in different forms and contexts.
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