What?
Word Consciousness
• simply defined as interest in and awareness of
words
(Anderson and Nagy 1992; Graves and Watts-Taffe 2002.)
“Students who are word conscious are aware of
the words around them – those they read and
hear and those they write and speak.”
(Graves & Watts-Taffe, 2002.)
What?
dictionaries
joke books
word-play
poetry
books
thesauruses
A word-rich
classroom
environment is
a place filled
with all types
of word
resources
literature
Scrabble
word walls
crossword
puzzles
What
? words
Adept diction: the skillful use of
in speech and writing.
Teachers can model adept diction:
 in their own choice of words
 point out skillful use of words in student texts
 and encourage students to expand their own
speech and writing .
(Graves 2000; Beck et al 2002; Graves and Watts-Taffe 2002;
Scott and Nagy 2004).
What?
Word Consciousness con’t
Use of a successful
vocabulary program in
which “words do not
appear as part of a
classroom exercise and
then drop from sight.”
(McKeown and Beck 2004).
What?
TV
Billboards
Connect vocabulary
to the world so
students will come to
“own” the words.
Newspapers
Knowledge of
What?
Language Categories
helps students to make finer distinctions in word
choices
Synonyms
Antonyms
happy/glad
big/large
up/down
hot/cold
Homograph
s
bark (tree)
bark (dog)
simile
metaphor
What?
(compare without
using like/as)
idiom
(compare using
like/as)
(expression cannot be
understood by individual
word meaning)
Figurative Language uses
figures of speech
that enable speakers and
writers to express ideas in fresh,
new ways
What?
Idioms
Learning about idioms is useful in the vocabulary
development of all students, but especially for the ELL
students who often focus on the literal meaning of words.
Word Play
What?
“a playful attitude toward words in particular and
language in general” (Graves 2000).
**can stimulate students’
natural interest in and
curiosity about language,
**reveal
structures of
language,
**foster
independent
learning,
**help improve
reading and
vocabulary
development,
(Blachowiz and
Fisher 2004;
Johnson, Johnson,
and Schlichting
2004; Graves 2000).
What?
Names
eponyms,
toponyms
Word
Manipulations
anagrams,
palindromes
Word Games
hink pinks,
puns, riddles
Expressions
proverbs,
slang
Word
Formations
acronyms,
portmanteaus
What?
Word History and
Origins
(change over time)
Greek
Latin
Anglo Saxon
mostly science
and technology
formal words
used in
literature
short everyday
words
astronaut,
geology
audible,
transport
house, play
Why Word Consciousness?
Children learn best when they have a strong
personal interest and are actively and
interactively involved with learning….It is
important that we incorporate word and
language play activities in the classroom to
stimulate, sustain, and recapture that natural
interest.
- Johnson, Johnson & Schlichting, 2004.
fun to work with
How?
Idioms
•ants in your pants
•pay through the nose
•eat like a horse
•turn over a new leaf
students enjoy
imagining the figurative
meaning as well as the
literal meaning
draw pictures to
represent the literal
meaning
especially helpful for
ELL students
Latin Number Words
How?
Latin and Greek
Numbers
…often called prefixes
because they appear at
the beginning of words
(Henry 2003).
athletic events – triathlon,
decathlon
groups of musicians – duet,
trio, quartet
multiples – triple, quadruple
Greek Number Words
osides of plane figures –
triangle, pentagon, hexagon
oyears between events –
biennial, triennial, centennial
How?
Antonym Scales
•among the first word
relationships children learn
•help students to see and
express the degrees of
meaning between
complementary and
gradable antonym pairs
Complementary Antonyms
boy/girl
true/false
Gradable Antonyms
 dark/light
 big/small
This helps to enhance the
students’ adept diction, or
skillful use of words.
How?
**help understand
that word meanings
change over time
Word
Webs
**use modern
homographs
How?
**new and enjoyable
way to engage with
words
5 Senses Simile
Web
**use all the
senses to describe
the new word
How?
**Diamante
Poems
Poetry as
Word Play
**Cinquain
Poems
**use
synonyms
and antonyms
**use
adept
diction in
writing
How?
Vocabulary Hotshot Notebook
 Designed to motivate student interest in words.
 Provides a place and an opportunity for students
to record target words
 Also keeps track of new words as they
encounter them in the outside world
 Motivating to students by earning points for
seeing, hearing, or using target words in places
outside the classroom.
Word consciousness is crucial to learners’
success in expanding the breadth and depth
of students’ word knowledge over the course
of their lifetimes.
- Graves & Watts-Taffe, 2002