VOCABULARY - Expanding your base

Vocabulary Development as an Integral Component of Reading and Writing

Language is first developed by hearing others speak, by observing what the people are speaking about; by making associations between sounds and concrete objects.

Reading is first developed by decoding written or printed marks on paper and making meaning of those marks and by assigning experiential sounds to those marks.  Chimpanzees can be taught to recognize and associate simple words with concrete objects.  Dolphins communicate through sonar.

Humankind learns language best in a group, through shared experiences, and by using as many of the five senses as possible.  Hearing a word is critical to knowing and understanding the word.  Therefore, the optimal approach to developing vocabulary is to have the learning experience occur in a climate where voices are heard, and opinions exchanged and respected.

Project Based Learning is one approach to providing a climate for students to hear as well as see new words, new concepts to educate, inform and entertain themselves.  Whether or not a teacher chooses to use a project based teaching approach is up to the individual teacher.  Any group learning environment where students have the opportunity to hear a word, to research together the meanings of a word, to create sentences, and stories and poems, and song lyrics using the word will have the outcome of individual student Ownership of a word.

Paulo Freire emphasized the importance of OWNING a word. It is a foundation principle in Freirean literacy programs in Brazil, Africa, Latin America, and in the U.S.  Memorizing a word simply ‘rents out’ the word to the student for one objective test; without use, the word is forgotten a week later. Students must “use it or lose it”. Authentic vocabulary development only occurs when learners OWN a word. The ownership is evidenced by correct usage of the word in conversation, written work, and critical reading of material.

Learning and/or memorizing vocabulary out of context for a short range goal – passing a quiz or test – is not the way to vocabulary ownership.

Students need to READ words in context; students need to WRITE words they want to own: first in sentences, then, in paragraphs, then in both expository and creative writing.  But, first, students need to HEAR, to tune in, to actively listen to the word and words they need to own to achieve academic success.

Consider an ideal vocabulary learning environment that utilizes all five senses:

Hearing:  Teacher modeling, student conversation, excepts from recorded books, poetry readings, popular song lyrics,  iTunes, You Tube, recorded ‘white noise’ while doing an assignment.

Seeing:    Hard copy written material, books, handouts, brochures, pamphlets, e-books, browser pages, texting, advertising.

Touching:  Opportunities to create words through games, eg. Scrabble, Hangman, word manipulatives, puzzles.

Tasting:            Teaching students the necessity of hydration for brain activity.  Drinking water before any intellectual task.  In addition, supplying fruit or hard candy during group work.

Smelling:     A little hard to insert into a learning environment, but at least try not to have negative disconcerting odors present

What are some words that you like to hear?

What are some words that you like to see on the printed page?

What is a word that is your endearment for your favorite person?

What is the emotional connotation of the word, WHATEVER.?

What is the correct grammatical usage of the word, WHATEVER?

What is the influence of TEXTING on your spelling, your vocabulary, your written communication???