Building Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an essential part of reading instruction because vocabulary allows students to easily communicate their ideas to others while understanding the writing and speaking of others. Without a strong vocabulary base, students will struggle with decoding, comprehension and overall understanding of written and spoken language while significantly hurting their own ability to communicate ideas clearly. The wider a student’s vocabulary knowledge, the stronger success that student will have in communicating with others. According to the National Reading Panel report from 2000, vocabulary is listed as one of the big 5 components of reading instruction, a fundamental element to any successful reading program.

In secondary reading instruction, vocabulary instruction is usually termed
academic vocabulary. According to Flynt and Brozo (2008), “academic vocabulary…referring to word knowledge that makes it possible for students to engage with, produce, and talk about texts that are valued in school,” (p. 500). This term is accurate in describing all vocabulary instruction, in my opinion, as it allows students a greater depth of communication. The importance of vocabulary instruction is easy to understand, but what can teachers do to improve vocabulary instruction?

First of all, teachers need to teach vocabulary in a direct and systematic way to make sure students are building on previous knowledge and being given the opportunity to learn the material. Secondly, teachers should be selective in which words they chose and should give students multiple encounters with important words. Teachers cannot possibly teach students every word, so they need to pick the words that are most important for comprehension of the text along with words they know the students will struggle with the most. These words should be taught in a variety of ways and over a period of time. The students should have multiple encounters with each word within and out of context so they can fully understand the word’s meaning and usage. Additionally, students should be given the opportunity to use the words in their own writing and communicating. (Flynt and Brozo, 2008).

In addition to direct instruction of particular words, students should be taught word origins, root words, prefixes, suffixes and syllables as part of their vocabulary instruction. If students know the history and word origins and can identify patterns within words, they will have a greater understanding of the meanings of those words. Students can also be taught root words along with prefixes and suffixes to deepen their understanding of language. The more parts of words students know and understand, the more words overall they will understand. Additionally, students will be able to create more words using this knowledge. Since the overall goal of reading is comprehension and the overall goal of writing is communication, students need to practice using these skills in reading and writing. (Joshi, 2008).

In my experience with my reading clinic student, I have spent a great deal of time teaching her root words, prefixes and suffixes along with word patterns and origins to strengthen her vocabulary. This was an area she identified as her greatest need, and I verified through testing. By using word sorts, online vocabulary games, learning words in context of reading and creating new words, my student has developed a much greater vocabulary than she initially had. She is also more confident when she approaches new words because she can break the word apart and put the parts back together to form meaning. Given more time, I would like to have worked more with multisyllabic words and Latin roots, in addition to the Greek roots we practiced.

Works Cited
Flynt, E.S. & Brozo, W.G. (2008). Developing academic language: got words? The Reading Teacher, 61(6), 500-502.

Johsi, R.M., Treiman, R., Carreker, S., & Moats, L. (2008). How words cast their spell: spelling is an integral part of learning the language, not a matter of memorization. American Educator, 6-41.