Vocabulary Development

Word Knowledge
Think about the word predetermination. What prior word knowledge must a student have in order to successfully understand the meaning of this word?

Structural Analysis
Many words in the English language are made up of words parts called prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
These word parts have specific meanings that, when added together, can help you determine the meaning of the entire word.
Example: The students thought the book was incomprehensible.
in = not Comprehen = to understand ible = able to do something; also changes this word from verb to adjective incomprehensible = not able to understand

The spelling of words in English is based on meaning, not just on sound, and the connections between meaning and sound is an important part of the basis for spelling. But that is generally not the way spelling and meaning are taught in school (Estes, Mintz, & Gunter, 2011).

What word knowledge is missing here?

potenshul (potential) det (debt) hasen (hasten) infermashun (information) obsirvashen (observation)

Words as Tools
To access background knowledge To express ideas To learn about new concepts Word knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension and academic success.

Three Types of Vocabulary

Listening Established by the time student begins kindergarten Speaking Words used in everyday speech Reading Body of words students must know if they are to read increasingly demanding text with fluency and comprehension
On average, students add 2,000-3,000 words a year to their reading vocabularies
Six to eight words per day

Two Vocabulary Dimensions

Breadth
The number of words that a student knows, at least at a superficial level

Depth
How well the student knows a word, including pronunciation, spelling, meaning, frequency, and morphological syntactic properties
Morphology The formation, internal structure, and derivations of words; the meanings of chunks in words Syntax The arrangement of words within phrases, clauses, and sentences

Breaking Down Types of Words

Tier One In spoken vocabulary: mother, clock, jump Tier Two Words with wide usage that most readers do not have in their spoken vocabularies: dismayed, paradoxical, absurd, wary. Estimated 7,000 words

Tier Three Highly specialized and are almost never used outside of the disciplines where they are encountered: monozygotic, tetrahedron, bicameral

When teaching new vocabulary, most instructional time should be focused on Tier 2 words

Example

Strategies to Increase Vocabulary Development

Implicit
Wide reading
Readers learn new words by repeatedly encountering them in text

Explicit
Instruction
Structural Analysis: The use of word parts
Prefixes- word part added to beginning of a root or word: preheat Suffixes- word part added to the end of a word or root and usually changes the words part of speech: cloud (n) Cloudy (adj) Roots-Word parts that carry the basic or core meaning of a word: scrib/script = write scribble Compounds-A new word formed by two words: paperwork

Use of context clues Efficient use of the dictionary