I can’t write about teaching vocabulary without mentioning Bringing Words to Life (Beck, McKeown and Kucan, 2013) . This was one of the first books that I read on teaching vocabulary, and the knowledge of etymology and morphology revealed the interconnectedness of words that immediately struck a chord with me, and I knew that I had to share this understanding with my students.

Which Words?

Like the book acknowledges, you cannot teach every word that every student might not know, so it is important to choose words with high leverage. That is what I have been endeavouring to do in my teaching: I have chosen words that encourage students to consider wider concepts; vocabulary that we don’t use in our everyday speech; and words that will be transferrable to multiple different texts and units that we are studying.


For example, the word ​‘transgressive’. It is difficult to use this word and not think about the context, social or moral boundaries that are being transgressed. This is useful to consider when writing about the female poets of the late 1800s, when discussing Romeo and Juliet’s love, when evaluating the character of Eva Smith or when considering Dickens’s social message. I try not to focus on teaching synonyms for words that students are already using, but, instead, academic words that will help the students to see the text as a construct and will support their analysis.

Making the Words Stick

In order to make the power and intentionality of language clear to my students, I have to ensure that I teach the meaning explicitly; that its meaning is anchored in the text – so that the word becomes meaningful by linking it to something that the students already know; that the transferability is made explicit and modelled; and that I check for understanding along the way. This is inline with the recommendations from the EEF’s Vocabulary in Action guidance here. ​‘Bespoke Definitions’ allow students to assimilate their understanding of the new word with their existing schema, which is likely to make the word more meaningful and memorable. Dictionary definitions can be confusing for learners.

This is an iterative process: I teach that the meaning of a word in English is rarely static; I use choral repetition to ensure that my students feel confident saying the word; the students then turn to each other and say the word and its definition to ensure a high ratio of participation and a high thinking ratio about the word. We count the syllables to support pronunciation and spelling, and I ensure that my students are regularly exposed to the new vocabulary. These strategies are all excellent practice that I have taken from here and here.

I cold-call students with questions about the meaning and application of the new vocabulary and follow-up by questioning other students to check for listening and for understanding. Again, this is good practice taken from here that I use in other areas of my teaching, and I have applied to the teaching of spelling.

Memory and Recall

Once I feel that my students have a secure understanding of the word and are beginning to integrate it into their verbal and written responses, we move on to memory and recall: gapped handouts, quizzing and call and response. This is low-stakes and there is a lot of praise for the use of academic and intentional vocabulary in written and verbal responses.

The students seem to enjoy the success they experience in these quizzes and questions, and take pride in their use of academic and sophisticated vocabulary.

Time

This is time consuming and has to be balanced with the rest of the content, but I feel that this is an edifying endeavour that elevates the way that my students think about, discuss and write about the work that we are studying. There are mistakes and malapropisms, so there is a continual feedback loop to keep refining and thinking about what we want to say and the most effective way of saying it. This process naturally leads on to spelling… I have just started reading That Spelling Thing (Miller, 2023).

I enjoy finding out the etymology of a word and how it can be applied, and I hope that I pass this enthusiasm on to my students.