Research School Network: BLOG: Vocabulary Words have the power to change your life

Words have the power to change your life: they can transport you to other worlds, help you express your feelings, articulate your ideas, thoughts and opinions with precision, enable you to influence others, even manipulate you. Without the intellectual wealth words give you, a child is less likely to achieve passes in their GCSEs, but it is not just their academic achievement that will suffer as a result of word poverty – as an adult they are more likely to have mental health problems, be unemployed1¹ and even in prison². Sadly, not knowing and understanding words can have a profound and far-reaching detrimental impact throughout a person’s life – intellectual, communication, social, emotional, economic and their very independence.


This is why every school and every teacher needs to make literacy a priority: to elevate the life chances of all students. In secondary schools, too many students arrive with a vast gulf in their vocabulary compared to their peers. While this deep chasm may have already manifested by the age of five, and the fact that a school can only have limited impact on exposure to vocabulary at home, we can still make a vital difference. Indeed, we have a compelling moral imperative to do so.


Children come to school to learn, and if they don’t have fundamental literacy skills, then they are going to perpetually struggle to learn in every subject. Secondary teachers need to appreciate that literacy is not mastered by the end of primary school, nor is it just the remit of the English department, but that actually, given the increasing demand and requirement of specialised academic language in secondary school subjects, they have a crucial responsibility to overtly teach the unique ways to read, write and talk within their subject domain. When teachers of every subject recognise that they must also be a teacher of literacy then we unlock a life-changing potential to not just improve student achievement within a subject area, but to enhance all areas of their lives now and in the future.

To support schools and teachers in turning this opportunity into a reality, the Education Endowment Foundation have conducted extensive research resulting in recommendations to tangibly help secondary schools to improve literacy across all subjects. As part of their ​‘Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Guidance Report’, the EEF advocate the key strategy for schools to ​‘Provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject’³. Here, within the concept of disciplinary literacy, literacy skills are not seen as generic; instead, high value is placed on the importance of explicitly teaching Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary, words which students may be unacquainted with but will enable students to access fundamental learning in that subject area.

Secondary school teachers should understand that explicitly teaching students subject-specific vocabulary is not just another thing they are being asked to do, but appreciate that this directly supports, and is inextricably linked to and fully aligned with, students knowing, understanding and applying key subject knowledge necessary for their subject’s curriculum. In this way then, ​“Secondary school teachers should ask not what they can do for literacy, but what literacy can do for them” (EEF, 2018).

The first step to increasing students’ vocabulary is for literacy to be endorsed as a whole school priority by the senior leadership team with a clearly communicated agenda and vision which underpins decision-making. Developing students’ literacy skills and closing the vocabulary gap is a long-term goal and will take significant time to implement and embed. Within this there will need to be short-term objectives, quality assurance and support for teachers, through time and training, to ensure that teachers are confident and knowledgeable in delivering vocabulary instruction. Specific vocabulary teaching needs to be at the forefront of curriculum design, planning and delivery. The rationale for literacy as a priority should be shared by school leaders to achieve genuine buy-in through winning the hearts and minds of teachers so they understand why their role in teaching crucial vocabulary is so important: not only is it a pre-requisite for success in their subject, it really will change the lives of their students in a multitude of meaningful ways.

Then, within subject teams, teachers need to identify which Tier 3 subject-specific vocabulary is needed and at what stage of a student’s learning journey. As part of this, coverage of core, basic subject-specific vocabulary is essential, not taking for granted that students fully understand, are confident and accurate in applying basic terms. Moreover, there should be ambition in the level of challenge in the words students are exposed to. Alongside this, teachers will need to model this Tier 3 vocabulary, giving students repeated opportunities to encounter academic language in context, through application, in spoken and written form.

References:

1. Law, J., Charlton, J., Asmussen, K. (2017). Language as a Child Wellbeing Indicator. Early Intervention Foundation/​Newcastle University

2. Dugdale, G. and Clark C. (2008). Literacy changes lives. London: National Literacy Trust

.3. Quigley, A. and Coleman, R. (2018). Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Guidance Report. London: Education Endowment Foundation.Figure 1 – Beck, I., McKeown, M.G., Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life. 2^nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.