Vocabulary Teaching – 5 Powerful Steps to Improve Student Results

Spoiler alert! All teachers must teach vocabulary. Vocabulary knowledge is the foundational building block of language knowledge and enables students to build their understanding of the content knowledge in your subject. In this post I will explain the importance of teaching vocabulary and then share some powerful and actionable vocabulary teaching strategies and activities you can quickly implement in your classroom. Ready? Let’s dig in!

Importance of teaching vocabulary

Late one night, trying to finish my overdue Masters assignment, I read something that blew my mind. Basically linguists still don’t fully understand how we acquire language. However, two theories are currently being lauded as most likely (if you are aware of better and more current research, please contact me as I am keen to learn and revise my articles based on better research!)

The first theory is that we acquire language within “genres”. To simplify a complex idea, basically our brain makes sense of what we read or hear by connecting it to prior knowledge we have on the topic. So we understand a fairy tale because we are familiar with the last five fairy tales we read. We will expect there to be a innocent and kind protagonist; often a princess, there will be a witch or evil character of some kind (often a woman, have we noticed?), some kind of danger will befall the princess and then the prince will rescue them.

The second, complementary theory is that native speakers learn language (not to read written code though – there’s a bit more to that!) through hearing words and learning those single words. They then learn “chunks” of words together by hearing them over and over. Then they finally put the chunks together. So I know the phrase “I love eating… X” because I have heard it said to me so many times and now I use it myself.

Wowzers. If we put this together, Understanding Language = Vocabulary + Content Knowledge. So teachers should just teach words and things. Boom. Simples.

Vocabulary Teaching Strategies

Vocabulary Step 1: Choose the right vocabulary to teach

Do not focus on the vocabulary that the students need to know to understand your content, focus on the vocabulary students will need to discuss and write about the content you are teaching.

Vocabulary experts talk about the three tiers of vocabulary. Tier 1 are basic words you would expect your students to know, for example; apple, dog, bed. Tier 2 are more complex words that an educated person may know and that enables them to understand shades of meaning, for example; satiated, sublime, disaffected. Tier 3 are subject specific words that may have limited use outside of that subject, for example; molten, plasma, calculus.

You should be choosing vocabulary predominately from Tier 2, with Tier 3 thrown in.

Vocabulary Step 2: Explain the vocabulary in context, with images

When introducing vocabulary to students, try to explain the term with a story from your life, or at least in context. When studying ‘A Christmas Carol’, I introduced students to the concept of ‘surplus’. I described how at family events, my mum likes to cook A LOT and so there is always surplus food. I then showed the class a few images of surplus.

At this early stage, try to include examples and images that are relatable for students.

Vocabulary Step 3: Provide students with low stakes opportunities to apply the vocabulary

An important part of building student mastery is lots of opportunities to practice. Students need to have an opportunity to apply the vocabulary taught and feel successful. Low stakes testing supports student learning in two ways. Firstly, by building student confidence, especially for students who may feel like they are just “no good” at school. And secondly, by providing you with feedback on any misunderstandings that may need to be rectified early on.

I always used lots of images at this stage. Images support all students, but especially those with English as a Second Language or with learning difficulties.

Below are just a few examples of low stakes testing:

Vocabulary Step 4: Have students apply the vocabulary to your content

Oftentimes, vocabulary programs ask students to “write a sentence using the word”. This is not a helpful exercise and does not support students learning the vocabulary. We usually get a sentence like “Billy was disaffected”.

A better exercise would be to discuss a paragraph of the text or an example that exemplifies the vocabulary concept or tell a story that demonstrates the term. Then share a different paragraph or example with students and ask them to answer, “What in this paragraph tells us that Billy is disaffected?” Students then need to identify the behaviour in the text that defines the term. An alternative way to phrase this question could be to ask students to finish this sentence, “The military was disaffected with the government. This is exemplified when…”

For this strategy to be successful, you should write some model sentences yourself before class as the model. This ensures that the exercise will work. You should also show these sentences to the students before they begin.

Vocabulary Step 5: Ensure students have lots of independent practice and display their work

This is the step where it all comes together and you will see the power of this approach.

If you have read my other blog pieces, you will know that I am a proponent of regular learning routines (repetitive learning activities) in order to create a supported learning environment for students and to reduce your mental load. One learning activity that I always recommend is a weekly topic test. The weekly test should include vocabulary. This is a simple, but incredibly powerful way to give students immediate feedback on their learning. Even more powerful however, is the feedback this kind of testing gives you as the teacher.

The preparation time here is minimal. Simply take the types of questions students practiced in step 4 and have them try to answer them in a test format. You are not trying to trick them, you can even use the exact same questions they practiced with during the week. Share the answers with the class. If you haven’t done this before, it is important to build a culture where this is acceptable practice and students feel safe. Undertaking the test on an online platform like Socrative means you are able to display answers with the names removed.

I will illustrate to you the power of this approach. My Year 7 English class studied ‘Boy Overboard’. The novel details the escape of a refugee family from Afghanistan. One of our vocabulary words was obstinate. Have a look below at the insightful feedback our weekly topic test gave me. The data I gathered from these tests informed my lesson planning going forward.

Student 1 not only did not understand the meaning of the ‘obstinate’ but also needed to work on many other aspects of writing. However, I could also see that he had understood the plot at only a general level. Eventually this student required intervention and his responses from our regular written testing provided me with evidence to ensure I could make a case for him to receive the extra support he required. Student 2 demonstrated she understood the term, had a detailed understanding of the text and was able to identify evidence in the text. Her next step would be to practice synthesising the evidence into a topic sentence such as “Bibi shows she is obstinate when she refuses to stop playing soccer with the boys”. By including vocabulary instruction into my classroom practice, I was able to work less but support my students more.

Conclusion

Teaching vocabulary is crucial for your students’ learning success. However, teaching vocabulary will also reduce your workload and stress by providing you with repeatable, high impact activities that can run on auto-pilot in your classroom. Implementing a rigorous vocabulary program in my classes gave me more time and energy to focus on other important things in my life. I hope it does the same for you.