Words, Words Everywhere, But Which Ones Do We Teach?

• Published in: The Reading teacher 2014-02, Vol.67 (5), p.333-346
• Main Authors: Graves, Michael F., Baumann, James F., Blachowicz, Camille L. Z., Manyak, Patrick, Bates, Ann, Cieply, Char, Davis, Jeni R., Von Gunten, Heather
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent/young adult literature; Adult literacy; Affixes; and materials; Childhood; Children's literature; Cognates; Cognitive; Constructivism; Context clues; Early adolescence; Earthworms; Educational research; Educational Strategies; English as a second language; English for speakers of other languages; English language; English language learners; English language learners, English learners, English as a second language, English for speakers of other languages; English learners; Informational text; Instructional Innovation; Instructional intervention; Instructional Materials; Intervention; Language learners; Language teachers; Learning Modules; Lexicology; Literacy; Literature; methods; Morphology; Morphology (Languages); Reading instruction; Reading teachers; Research Projects; Selecting; Specialized vocabulary; Strategies; Strategies, methods, and materials; Struggling learners; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Teenagers; Theoretical perspectives; To learners in which of the following categories does your work apply?; Vocabulary; Vocabulary development; Vocabulary instruction; Word Lists; Word structure; Words
• ISSN: 0034-0561; 1936-2714
• DOI: 10.1002/trtr.1228

This article highlights the challenging task teachers face in selecting vocabulary to teach. First, we briefly discuss three features of the English lexicon that are crucial to keep in mind when selecting vocabulary for instruction and three approaches that have been suggested. Then, we present a theoretically based approach called Selecting Words for Instruction from Texts (SWIT) that we developed and implemented in a vocabulary instruction research project. SWIT enables teachers to identify optimal words for instruction within three different categories (Essential, Valuable, Accessible, and Imported) and determine whether to provide Powerful Vocabulary Instruction, provide Brief Word Explanations, or guide students to Infer Meanings using context and morphology. Following that, we present detailed examples illustrating how teachers can use SWIT to identify and teach key vocabulary from a narrative text and from an informational text. The article ends with an appendix describing the research project in which we developed SWIT.