Vocabulary Pre-K-12

Academic Discourse Pre-K-12

-YOU Are YOUR Child’s FIRST Teacher-

Some unfortunate facts from research: The less affluent the family, the less that is said to the child.

The less affluent the family, the less complex is the language directed at the child.

The less affluent the family, the more discouraging are the messages the child receives.

Stop and think about your verbal interactions with your child (children).

What are you exposing, him, her or them to by way of verbal interactions? Everyone regardless of income level can afford encouraging words.

Mothe, Father and Child Reading Together

Mother, Father and Child Reading Together

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the set of words in a language. Vocabulary grows and matures with age, and serves as useful and fundamental tools of communication and knowledge acquisition. According to the National Reading Panel (2000), the following characteristics were true of vocabulary instruction:

a.   Vocabulary should be taught explicitly to enhance student understanding of abstract scientific concepts.
b.   Vocabulary instruction is directly proportional to text comprehension.
c.   Teaching dictionary definitions of terms may have limited value in alternative contexts.
d.   Preteaching vocabulary enhances students’ retention of concepts and their ability to transfer that understanding to other contexts.
e.   Using easier words during direct instruction of new concepts is conducive to students’ understanding of the concept. (The current study argues that such a scaffolding method is only to be used as a means to an end, and is not an end in itself. Once the student comprehends the concept via simplified vocabulary, the teacher must then finish the job and teach the associated vocabulary as well.)
f.   Using both dictionary definitions and contextually-derived definitions to find meanings of words is most effective for comprehension.
g.   Repeated use of the word within this and across other contexts solidifies the student’s ownership of the new words.
h.   Students from vocabulary-poor backgrounds, students from average and vocabulary-rich backgrounds all benefited from explicit instruction in vocabulary prior to reading expository texts.

Guidelines set by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) require that teachers and specialists use evidence-based teaching practices to ensure their students receive high-quality instruction and intervention. Research-based strategies, systematic, intensive instructional approaches to foster vocabulary and language growth.

Listening vocabulary

Listening vocabulary is all the words one can recognize when listening to speech.

This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice.

Speaking vocabulary

Speaking vocabulary is all the words one can use in speech.

Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused.

This misuse is slight and unintentional and may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures.

Reading vocabulary

Reading vocabulary is all the words one can recognize when reading.

This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the Listening, Speaking, and Writing Vocabularies.

Writing vocabulary

Writing vocabulary is all the words one can employ in writing.

Contrary to the Listening and Speaking vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its use.

Sight Words

The Dolch words are “sight words” because very often they cannot be either illustrated via pictures or sounded out according to phonetic decoding rules. They need to be learned and recognized ‘on sight’. Given the frequency of the Dolch words in children’s literature, they are deemed crucial for beginner readers, and most experts advocate the these words be learned by native English speakers prior to 1st grade.