Vocabulary essentials

This chapter explores how vocabulary learning and instruction is a vital foundation for accessing the academic curriculum. It charts early vocabulary acquisition to getting to grips with the bigger academic words and phrases that populate every classroom later in school and college. Additionally, it unpacks how to foster word consciousness, as well as how vocabulary instruction can be integrated into students’ writing with success. The second half of the chapter outlines practical strategies for explicit vocabulary instruction. First, it explores how to select the right words to teach in the curriculum before posing explicit and systematic strategies, such as the SEEC model, as well as approaches that foster curiosity and independent word learning strategies. Finally, it offers practical approaches to embed academic vocabulary into writing instruction and a range of subject-specific approaches to aid learning.