: The MEMCO approach to explicit vocabulary instruction Teachers in every subject should provide explicit vocabulary instruction to help students access and use academic language.

Cornwall Research School are pleased to share a new resource for thinking about the explicit instruction of vocabulary.

Recommendation 2 of the EEF Guidance Report ​“Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools” states: Provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject.

Teachers in every subject should provide explicit vocabulary instruction to help students access and use academic language. Effective approaches including those related to etymology and morphology will help students remember new words and make connections between words.

Teachers should prioritise teaching Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary which students are unlikely to encounter in everyday speech. Teachers and subject leaders should consider which words and phrases to teach as part of curriculum planning.

While there is relatively limited evidence about how best to teach vocabulary explicitly, promising ways to promote targeted instruction of academic language are listed below. This is not an exhaustive list but aims to show examples of practice for explicit vocabulary instruction.