How to teach vocabulary to adults

Аннотация

Vocabulary knowledge is critical to reading comprehension, it is important that those working with young readers help foster their development of a large word bank‖ and effective vocabulary learning strategies. There are several effective explicit (intentional, planned instruction) and implicit (spontaneous instruction as a child comes to new words in a text) strategies that adults can employ with readers of any age. One of the most effective methods of helping children learn new vocabulary words is to teach unfamiliar words used in a text prior to the reading experience. Keywords: Vocabulary, reading comprehension, unfamiliar words, reading experience Vocabulary knowledge is critical to reading comprehension, it is important that those working with young readers help foster their development of a large word bank‖ and effective vocabulary learning strategies. There are several effective explicit (intentional, planned instruction) and implicit (spontaneous instruction as a child comes to new words in a text) strategies that adults can employ with readers of any age. One of the most effective methods of helping children learn new vocabulary words is to teach unfamiliar words used in a text prior to the reading experience. Adults (either alone or with the child 184 should preview reading materials to determine which words are unfamiliar. Then these words should be defined and discussed. It is important for the adult to not only tell the child what the word means, but also to discuss its meaning. This allows the child to develop an understanding of the word‗s connotations as well as its denotation. Also, discussion provides the adult with feedback about how well the child understands the word. After pre-teaching vocabulary words, the child should read the text. It may seem common sense that the more times we are exposed to a word, the stronger our understanding becomes. However, repeated exposure to new vocabulary words is often ignored. Adults often forget a person (especially a child) needs to hear and use a word several times before it truly becomes a part of her vocabulary. Providing multiple opportunities to use a new word in its written and spoken form helps children solidify their understanding of it. Like pre-teaching, the keyword method occurs before a child reads a particular text. In this method, unfamiliar words are introduced prior to reading. The idea behind the keyword method is to create an easy cognitive link to the word‗s meaning that the reader can access efficiently during a reading experience. The word map is an excellent method for scaffolding a child‘s vocabulary learning. Like the other explicit instructional methods, the adult (either alone or with the child should preview reading materials to determine which words are unfamiliar. For each of these new vocabulary words the child (with the support of the adult) creates a graphic organizer for the word. At the top or center of the organizer is the vocabulary word. Branching off of the word are three categories: classification (what class or group does the word belong to), qualities (what is the word like) and examples. Using prior knowledge the child fills in each of these three categories. Word maps help readers develop complete understandings of words. This strategy is best used with children in grades. While root analysis is taught explicitly, the ultimate goal is for readers to use this strategy independently. Many of the words in the English language are derived from Latin or Greek roots. They either contain a ―core‖ root (the primary component of the word) or use prefixes or suffixes that hold meaning. Adults should focus on teaching children the most commonly occurring roots, prefixes and suffixes. As each is taught examples of its use in common word should be shared and examined. The reader should see how the root helps her understand the word‗s definition. Children should then be given practice analyzing words to determine their roots and definitions. When a reader is able to break down unfamiliar words into their prefixes, suffixes and roots they can begin to determine their meanings. This strategy is particularly effective for helping struggling readers improve their vocabularies. Sometimes grade level materials are inaccessible to readers because there are too many unfamiliar words in them. Adults can restructure the materials in several different ways to help readers comprehend them more easily. A portion of the difficult words can be replaced with ―easier‖ synonyms to help the reader understand the overall text. Texts are full of ―clues about the meanings of words. Other words in a sentence or paragraph, captions, illustrations and titles provide readers with information about the text that they can use to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. These features are often referred to as ―context clues‖ because they are contained within the context of the piece of writing rather than outside it. Young readers should be taug