Words Words Words!
Helping ELL Students Develop
Vocabulary
Two important elements of
vocabulary learning
Quality:
How well do students know each word?
Quality
Goal:
To improve how much students know
about each word
Quality
• Spoken Form:
What does the word sound like?
How is it pronounced?
Quality
• Written Form:
What does the word look like?
How is it written?
Quality
• Meaning:
What meaning does this form of the
word have?
For example:
Drink (noun) vs. drink (verb)
Quality
• Concepts:
What things can the concept refer to?
For Example:
Drinking fountain
Quality
• Associations:
What other words does this word
make you think of?
For example:
drink - water - thirsty
Quality
• Grammatical Patterns:
In what patterns does the word occur?
transitive vs. intransitive verbs
Two-word verbs: talk about
Prepositions: drink of N
Quality
• Collocations:
What words or type of words occur with this word?
Example:
Get a drink
Have a drink
Take a drink
Quality
• Restrictions on Use (Register differences):
Where, when, and how often would you expect to
meet this word?
Is the word:
Informal (casual)
Formal
Quantity
Goal:
To increase the number of words
that students know
Quantity
Educated adult native speakers of
English know approximately 20,000
word families
Quantity
High School graduate ELL students
know approximately 2,000 - 3,000
word families
Quantity
Unknown
Known
If students know the
most frequent 1,000
words of English, they
should be able to
understand 72% of the
words on the page of a
book, newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknow n
Know n
If students know the
most frequent 2,000
words of English, they
should be able to
understand 80% of the
words on the page of a
book, newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknow n
Know n
If students know the
most frequent 3,000
words of English, they
should be able to
understand 84% of the
words on the page of a
book, newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
Unknown
Known
If students know the
most frequent 4,000
words of English, they
should be able to
understand 86% of the
words on the page of a
book, newspaper, or
magazine
Quantity
In order to
understand 95% of
the words on a page
of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine, students
need to know
approximately
12,500 words
In order to
understand 99% of
the words on a page
of a book,
newspaper, or
magazine, students
need to know
approximately
44,000 words
Academic Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary
If the goal is to read academic writing
(textbooks, etc) and write academic papers
(essays, etc), students can save time and
effort by focusing on academic vocabulary
What is Academic Vocabulary?
Academic Vocabulary is a specialized
vocabulary of 570 word families that
commonly appear in all academic
textbooks, regardless of content area
Academic Vocabulary Learning
In general vocabulary
learning, to go from
80% understanding to
86% understanding
would require students
to learn 2,000 more
word families
In academic
vocabulary learning,
to go from 80%
understanding to 86%
understanding would
require students to
learn 570 more word
families
Do you think studying academic
vocabulary will be helpful for
ELL students?
Keeping 4 principles in mind will
help students develop their
vocabulary as much as possible.
Principle #1
Help students be active in
developing understanding of
words and ways to learn them
Active Learning Strategy 1
• Semantic Mapping:
Making a graphic representation of the
relationship between words
Active Learning Strategy 2
• Definition Mapping:
Working with grammar, meaning,
and sample sentences
Active Learning Strategy 3
• Grouping:
Recognizing the relatedness of a word
to other words
Grouping
massive
extensive
Words that
Describe Large
Scale
huge
immense
enormous
vast
Principle #2
Help students personalize their
word learning
Personalized Learning Strategy 1
• Choosing words:
Identify key concepts and the words
required to understand these concepts
Personalized Learning Strategy 2
• Choosing words:
Identify important terms students
need to learn
Personalized Learning Strategy 3
• Choosing words:
Identify meaningful similarities and
differences among the concepts / words
being studied
Personalizing Words (Summary)
• Students identify key concepts or important terms
they need to learn within a text.
• Students construct a semantic network around
each of the selected key concepts.
• Students think of examples or potential
applications of the key concepts and record these
examples on the definition worksheet.
• Students identify meaningful similarities and
differences among the different concepts being
studied.
Principle #3
Students should be immersed in
words
Immersion in Words
• Opportunity 1:
Put students in a wordand language-rich environment
Immersion in Words
• Opportunity 2:
Help students become aware of words
and how they are used in the input they
receive
Immersion in Words
• Opportunity 3:
Help students try to use new / interesting
words in their speaking and writing
Principle #4
Students should get multiple sources of
information to learn words through
repeated exposures
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunity 1:
Watch videos or TV programs that are
related to the content
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunity 2:
Read books, stories, and other material
related to the content
Repeated Exposure
• Opportunity 3:
Discuss content ideas with friends,
family, and classmates
Summary
4 Principles of Vocabulary Learning
• Students should be active in developing
their understanding of words and ways to
learn them
• Students should personalize their word
learning
• Students should be immersed in words
• Students should use multiple sources of
information to learn words through repeated
exposures
Keeping these 4 principles in
mind will help students develop
their vocabulary as much as
possible.