Jj is for Jottings 131. Learning Vocabulary.

Learning vocabulary – the words a person knows and uses – is a lifelong process. Talking to and reading with your child right from the start is a good recipe for a child to develop a rich vocabulary.  I have talked about vocabulary in previous articles, mainly in the context of reading with children and children reading for themselves.  But, given that vocabulary is so important, I thought it was worth going into a little further.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY.

Vocabulary is vital in both spoken and written language – both in the ability to express oneself and to be able to understand what we hear and read. So we can’t overemphasize the importance of vocabulary.  A broad vocabulary:

• Both enhances reading skills and benefits from wide reading: a two-way street.
• Links to listening and reading comprehension.
• Leads to growth in phonological awareness as we refine word meanings.
• Provides more “pegs” upon which to hang more knowledge.
• Supports the development of important concepts in science and maths.
• Influences the development of friendships and other social relationships.
• Underpins successful classroom instruction and discussion.

In short, you can’t escape vocabulary – it permeates our whole lives, and the better you are at it, the happier and more successful you will be.

JUST HOW MANY VOCABULARIES ARE THERE?

Not just one.  We could say that there are four different vocabularies: speaking, listening, reading and writing vocabularies.  Listening and reading involve understanding words, and we generally understand more words than we can express.  Speaking and writing are the expressive modes.  There will be differences in the depth and breadth of word knowledge in each of our personal vocabularies.

LEARNING VOCABULARY: NORMAL DEVELOPMENT.

Most children acquire vocabulary incidentally through general exposure to words at home and at school.  This is via both the spoken word and the written word.   They first meet a word in one particular context.  When they meet it in other contexts, they develop a more complete knowledge of that word.

As adults, we continue this process, but at a much slower rate, and we are more likely to extend our vocabulary via the written word.  So once again, the more we read, and the more widely we read, the more likely we are to extend our vocabulary.  That is, as long as we bother to find out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.  Considering the small number of unfamiliar words we come across, we are even less likely to have the same one pop up more than once.  As a result we can’t rely on “natural exposure” via reading to teach us the ins and outs of a new word.  That is, unless we are exploring a completely new topic, in which case the same word is likely to crop up more frequently.

The Earliest Words.

Nouns will be one of the earliest types of word children will learn.  It is much easier to learn the meaning of a concrete noun than an abstract one.  For example, a spoon will figure early on in a child’s life.  There aren’t too many different types of spoon, and they don’t vary greatly anyway.  They are concrete objects which we can see and feel, so they are easy vocabulary items to acquire.

On the other hand, we can’t necessarily see and feel abstract nouns.  These will require many more exposures in different contexts to acquire their meaning. The article on learning vocabulary through reading explains this.  Although that refers to reading, exposure to the same words in different contexts also applies to learning vocabulary through listening/conversation.

KNOWING A WORD.

To really know a word, children must learn about its sounds, how to pronounce it, its meaning/s and how it is used in sentences.  When they are a bit older they will learn how to read and spell it.

We can “know” a word on different levels.  For some words we have a general hunch about its meaning, and we would have these words only in our listening and reading vocabulary.  We wouldn’t know them well enough to express them in spoken or written form.  For other words we have a deep understanding of their meaning in a wide variety of contexts, and we can use them comfortably.  These words will be found in all four of our vocabularies – the expressive pair as well as the understanding pair.

Saying a word until it is easy to pronounce is important, particularly as words become more complex.  When longer and more complex words are introduced, there can be groups of words with similar sound structure.  Examples are conversation , conservation, constellation, compensation, constipation, consternation.  They look and sound superficially similar, and if we don’t say them correctly, they will not be stored accurately in the brain.  Then we can’t retrieve and use them confidently.  This is also a problem with children who have a hearing loss.

LEARNING VOCABULARY AND MAKING CONNECTIONS.

Words are not just isolated units; they are associated with other words.  For example, the word orange may be associated with the words colour, fruit vegetables, juice, Ireland (protestants in Ireland are said to be Orangemen), the name of a town.  I’m sure you can think of many other associations.

Assisting children to make connections will help them to learn new words.  Research also suggests that these meaning interconnections play an important role in retrieving words from memory and in reading fluency.

Games to Help Make Connections.

You can play a game to assist with word connections: Show the child a simple picture and ask him to name the first two words that pop into his head (other than the name of the picture).  I was a bit inclined to discount this simple exercise as being of little use until I actually tried it.  I was horrified to find that many children – admittedly with poor language skills – could not think of a single “other” word.  So I told them the words that I immediately thought of i.e. modelled some examples.  After some modelling, they usually began to come up with some reasonable associations.

Another game is to show the child two pictures and ask how they could go together.  Even if the pictures seem unrelated, I can usually dredge up some sort of association.  As long as you can justify the association, it’s fine.  You might associate by shape, colour, use, sound of name, and so on.  For example, a table and a dog could go together because they both have four legs.  Once again, children benefit from hearing other people making connections.  This is also a wonderful exercise in lateral thinking.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, one of the best ways to help your child learn new words is to read to them as often as possible.  And to keep reading to your children, even when they are able to read for themselves.  Reading aloud is even more effective when you take the time to stop and explain the meaning of any unfamiliar words as you go.  That is, reading with your children rather than reading to them.

LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR OLDER CHILDREN.

For older children, learning about morphology is an important part of vocabulary learning.  This becomes important after Year 3.  Briefly, morphology is the study of words. Morphemes are the minimal units of words that have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further.  An example of a free morpheme is “bad”, and an example of a bound morpheme is “ly.” It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot stand alone.  More on morphology in a later post.

Example: children brainstorm and talk about words containing “like” – likes, liked, liken, dislike, likely, unlikely, unlike, lookalike, likeable, unlikeable, likewise, alike – and so on. They become more aware of word meanings and associated words.  They also learn lessons in spelling – in this case the bossy e.  This is how deep knowledge of one word can be a springboard for learning many other words.

ENTHUSIASM MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

By communicating your own enthusiasm for words, their meanings and the fun you can have playing with words, you can motivate children to become word detectives.  Share with children a new word which you have met, and show them how you looked up its meaning, maybe in several different places.  I often refer to both the Oxford and the Macquarie dictionaries to give me a more rounded picture.  When I’m online I may look up several different definitions.  You might tell them of a word you have difficulty pronouncing, or one you used to mispronounce until you bothered to analyse it properly. Mispronunciations and misuse of words can be funny – you can use this to draw children in to the rich and fascinating world of words.

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