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Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process and is critical to reading comprehension. Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. Other words are learned through carefully designed instruction.
Rich and robust vocabulary instruction goes beyond definitional knowledge; it gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words. Research shows that there are more words to be learned than can be directly taught in even the most ambitious program of vocabulary instruction.
In school terms, it can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary. Find out more about effective vocabulary instruction, the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, and practical ways that parents can introduce new, exciting words to their kids.
However, research shows that explicitly teaching vocabulary can measurably improve reading comprehension — if we teach the right words well enough. Here are five key principles to effective vocabulary instruction.
Reading vocabulary: the words we can read and understand. Writing vocabulary: the words we use in writing. In assessment of vocabulary in beginning or struggling readers, use of an oral measure (listening and/or speaking vocabulary) is very important.
This presents a logical opportunity for explicit vocabulary instruction. A full, rich understanding of these words supports reading comprehension across content areas and across grades. Words found on the list from Coxhead include 570 word families.
Browse our library of evidence-based teaching strategies, learn more about using classroom texts, find out what whole-child literacy instruction looks like, and dive deeper into comprehension, content area literacy, writing, and social-emotional learning.
