Vocabulary: Why Knowing Words Changes What Children Can Understand
Words give us access to ideas. Students use words to understand what they hear, express what they think, learn new information, participate in conversations, and make meaning from what they read.
That is why vocabulary instruction is much more than learning definitions.
We don't teach vocabulary so students can pass a vocabulary test. We teach vocabulary so students can understand, communicate, learn, and think.
What is Vocabulary?
Vocabulary refers to the words we understand and use to communicate and make meaning through listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Children begin developing vocabulary long before they learn to read. Through conversations and experiences, they gradually build an oral vocabulary—a store of words whose meanings they already understand.
Later, as children learn to read, they begin connecting printed words to this language knowledge.
From Spoken Words to Written Words
Imagine a beginning reader sounding out the word rabbit.
If rabbit is already part of the child's oral vocabulary, recognizing the printed word gives the child access to a meaning that is already known. The child can connect the word on the page with the animal he or she already knows.
But what happens when a student successfully reads the word migration but does not know what migration means?
The student may have decoded the word correctly without understanding the idea the word represents.
Being able to read a word and knowing what that word means are not the same thing.
Vocabulary is a Gateway to Comprehension
Consider this sentence:
The animal was nocturnal and remained concealed in its habitat during daylight hours.
A student might be able to pronounce every word in that sentence accurately. But suppose nocturnal, concealed, and habitat are unfamiliar. How much of the sentence will the student actually understand?
Reading comprehension requires students to do more than recognize the words on the page. They must access the meanings of those words and combine those meanings to understand the ideas the author is communicating.
As the number of unfamiliar words increases, comprehension becomes increasingly difficult.
This helps explain something teachers sometimes observe: A student can read a passage fluently and still have difficulty understanding it.
When a "Comprehension Problem" May Be A Vocabulary Problem
When a student reads a passage accurately but struggles to answer questions about it, we may be tempted to conclude that the student has a comprehension problem.
Sometimes that may be true. But before reaching that conclusion, we should also ask:
Does the student know the meanings of enough of the words to understand what the text is saying?
If too many important words are unfamiliar, the student is trying to understand ideas without having access to much of the language that carries those ideas.
This does not mean that vocabulary is the only factor involved in comprehension. Comprehension is complex. But vocabulary knowledge is an important part of the foundation that makes comprehension possible.
Vocabulary and Knowledge Grow Together
Vocabulary and knowledge develop together. Students do not learn words as isolated pieces of information. Words represent ideas, concepts, experiences, actions, qualities, and relationships.
Consider the word evaporation.
Teaching a student to repeat a definition of evaporation is different from helping the student understand the concept. A student might observe water disappearing from a shallow container, discuss what happened, see a diagram, hear the word used during a science lesson, and encounter it again while reading.
Now the student is not merely memorizing a definition. The student is building word knowledge and concept knowledge together.
As children's knowledge of the world grows, their vocabulary grows. And as their vocabulary grows, they have more language available to learn and communicate increasingly complex ideas.
Knowing a Word is More Than Knowing Its Definition
Knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing event.
A student might recognize a word but be unable to explain it. The student might understand the word when someone else uses it but rarely use it independently. A student may know one meaning of a word but not another, or understand the word in one context but become confused when it appears in a different context.
Deep word knowledge develops gradually.
Students need opportunities to encounter important words repeatedly, think about their meanings, connect them with other ideas, hear them used in different contexts, and eventually use the words themselves.
This is why knowing a dictionary definition is not the same as truly knowing a word.
Why the Traditional Vocabulary List Often Falls Short
For generations, vocabulary instruction in many classrooms has followed a familiar routine:
Students receive a list of words. They look each word up in the dictionary. They copy the definition. They use each word in a sentence. They study the list. They take a vocabulary test at the end of the week. Then the class moves on to another list.
Students may successfully complete every part of the assignment. Some may even score 100 percent on Friday's test.
But we need to ask a more important question:
Do they still know and use those words several weeks later?
The problem is not the dictionary itself. Knowing how to use reference tools is an important skill. The problem occurs when looking up definitions becomes the vocabulary instruction.
Copying a definition requires relatively little thinking about what a word actually means. And asking students to create a sentence before they understand a word well can produce sentences that reveal very little understanding.
Vocabulary instruction should help students build meaning, not simply complete an assignment.
TRY THIS TOMORROW
Choose one important word from a text or topic you are teaching. Instead of asking students to look it up, try this simple routine:
SAY IT — What is the word?
Pronounce the word clearly and have students say it.
EXPLAIN IT — What does it mean?
Give a short, student-friendly explanation.
SHOW IT — What does it look like in context?
Use a photograph, gesture, example, demonstration, diagram, or sentence when appropriate.
USE IT — How does the word work?
Give examples and nonexamples. Connect the word to the text or content students are studying.
ASK ABOUT IT — Can students think with the word?
Ask students to make a decision, explain an example, compare situations, or use the word in meaningful conversation.
And Then----Bring the Word Back
One encounter with a new word is rarely enough.
Bring important words back tomorrow. Use them again later in the week. Point them out when they appear in another text or subject. Encourage students to use them in speaking and writing.
Each meaningful encounter gives students another opportunity to strengthen and deepen their understanding of the word.
The goal is not for students to remember the word until Friday. The goal is for the word to become part of the language they understand and use.
Where Should Vocabulary Words Come From?
Rather than beginning with an unrelated weekly list, teachers can look at the lesson, chapter, story, or topic students are about to study and ask:
Which words do my students need to understand in order to understand this lesson?
For example, before teaching a science lesson about hurricanes, a teacher might notice that students will encounter words such as evacuate, storm surge, eyewall, and devastating. If students do not understand these words, they may struggle to understand important ideas in the lesson.
The teacher does not need to explicitly teach every unfamiliar word. Instead, select the words that are essential for understanding the content and give those words the instructional attention they need.
Vocabulary instruction then becomes part of learning the lesson—not an isolated activity added alongside it.
Vocabulary Belongs Across the Curriculum.
Vocabulary instruction is not only the responsibility of the reading or English language arts teacher. Every subject introduces students to words that carry important ideas.
In science, students encounter words such as evaporation, habitat, and organism. In mathematics, words such as equivalent, estimate, and factor carry specific meanings. In social studies, students may need to understand words such as migration, colony, and government before they can fully understand the concepts being taught.
When teachers identify and explain the important words within their own lessons, they are not taking time away from teaching content.
They are giving students access to the content.
Research Behind This Resource
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2nd ed). Guilford
Press.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read—Kindergarten Through Grade 3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Open the free Put Reading First teacher's guide
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Center for Reading and Dyslexia
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