Research School Network: Developing expressive vocabulary stores – an Early Stage Development Project Developing expressive vocabulary stores – an Early Stage Development Project

An introduction from Marc Rowland, Assistant Director of Unity Research School

Research evidence is a vital resource in our efforts to help all learners to thrive… to help us find solutions to difficult challenges in the classroom. But there are caveats.

Research evidence should not be used to tell teachers and leaders exactly what to do; each pupil and each classroom is far too complex and unique. But research can inform our decision-making when planning our strategies for tackling educational disadvantage. It can suggest ​‘best bets’ and also where to be cautious.

• Evidence should inform our decision-making.
• Evidence should be used to challenge our views, not just confirm them.
• Beware of confirmation bias and publication bias.

Research evidence should be used to challenge assumptions and beliefs. Research evidence with the right school culture, values, professional judgement, consideration of the needs of pupils and families, and teacher agency is most likely to be helpful. We also need to ensure that research evidence is communicated clearly and effectively with busy practitioners, in an accessible way.

Lauren does this here with one of the biggest challenges that many schools are looking to address.

Lauren Meadows, Curriculum Developer Adviser and literacy specialist at Unity Schools Partnership

The impact of early language deficits is widely acknowledged across the sector, with many schools seeking to tackle this through exposing pupils to high-demand language across the curriculum. However, for many pupils, while this improves short term receptive stores of vocabulary – or the language they can understand in the moment – this instruction does not result in shifts in their long-term expressive stores – or the language that they can use and retain over time. EEF guidance reports reference the vital importance of high-quality explicit vocabulary instruction:

Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 report: Recommendation 1

Extend pupils’ vocabulary by explicitly teaching new words, providing repeated exposure to new words, and providing opportunities for pupils to use new words.

Improving Primary Science: Recommendation 1

Explicitly teach new vocabulary and its meaning, creating opportunities for repeated engagement and use over time.

Improving literacy in secondary schools: Recommendation 2

Provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject

At Unity Research School, we could see that we needed to systemise how vocabulary was instructed in an attempt to ensure that every pupil had the opportunity to acquire a deep understanding of key vocabulary and to commit this to their long-term expressive stores. We used this mental model as the basis of our Early Stage Development Project, which explored how we could codify explicit vocabulary instruction within our pedagogical framework:

Within this project, we scripted the instruction of key vocabulary appearing in a planned sequence of Science lessons. This approach moved pupils through the five key phases outlined above:

1. Read, hear, see, say the word
2. Define the word – give it a broad sense of meaning
3. Connect the word – to other known and familiar vocabulary, build schemas around new language
4. Use the word – apply it in multiple contexts to understand how meaning is influenced by context
5. Analyse the word – explore parts of the word that can act as keys to unlock the meaning of other word

Once semantic memory had been built through this deep level of instruction, we created opportunities for pupils to Think Hard about the language that had been instructed. These opportunities were designed using Fiorella and Mayer’s principles of generative learning, where pupils were encourage to think deeply about their knowledge by selecting, organising and integrating new language. By actively doing something with this new learning in the guided and deliberate practice aspects of our lessons, we aimed to activate or build episodic memory, in doing so, helping pupils to commit new language to their long-term memory stores.

Teachers told us that they found the structured approach to vocabulary instruction useful as pupils – and adults – knew the routines of instruction and this allowed them to focus on high-quality explanations and modelling.

​‘The programme has made us focus so much more on vocabulary and actually getting the children to apply new vocabulary in their science work.’ Science Lead

By systemising retrieval practice across the units of study, teachers were able to see where pupils would repeatedly encounter key vocabulary again and pupils recognised how they could use what they had already learned to activate their prior knowledge.

​‘The Connect task is to refresh your minds and test your mind to see if you remember. If you don’t know what it is about then she (the teacher) can help you with it.’ Year 2 pupil

The findings of the Early Stage Development Project will be published in March this year but the initial response to this approach has been very exciting. We have thought carefully about how this can support teachers in embedding strong routines and how this focus on a multi-faceted approach to vocabulary instruction can lead to deeper learning for all pupils.

Coming soon:

• March 26^th4.00 – 5.00: Free webinar to share initial findings of the Early Stage Development Project. Register here
• Summer term: Video exemplification – Clips from the Classroom