Simply put, vocabulary refers to knowing the meaning of words. The role of vocabulary in reading is multi-faceted, however, as vocabulary is critical to successful reading comprehension. Teaching vocabulary involves helping learners learn the meanings of more words as well as word parts. It also consists of teaching a learner how to figure out the meaning of words while reading.

A person’s reading vocabulary--words a reader can use and can recognize in print—is critical to reading comprehension. Knowing words related to a particular topic means a learner can recognize individual words and understand their meaning. However, a learner's vocabulary also represents background knowledge of the topic that she can draw upon in order to make meaning of words. This is an important factor in reading comprehension.

 

Oral vocabulary is a set of words a person might not recognize in print, but can recognize in speaking or listening. It plays an important role in reading, especially for beginning readers. If a reader sounds out a word in a text but doesn’t know the meaning of that word, it doesn’t help her understand the text. If, on the other hand, a reader sounds out a word in a text and has a match for it in her oral vocabulary, it’s more likely she’ll be able to understand the text. The greater oral and reading vocabulary a reader has, the more likely it is she will be able to make meaning of what she reads.

Adult learners are older and more experienced than children, but we can’t assume that they have well-developed vocabularies simply because they’re adults. If a person hasn’t been reading lots of types of texts for multiple years, she hasn’t come across new words and her vocabulary will reflect that fact. Vocabulary growth is linked with reading ability. In other words, vocabulary is critical to reading comprehension, but in a cycle of sorts. Reading well is key to developing a strong vocabulary and having a strong vocabulary helps a reader read well. For this reason, it’s important to explicitly and regularly focus on vocabulary development with your learner.

 

Teaching Vocabulary Development can be more effective when targeted words arise repeatedly from a particular setting in a learner’s life, such as a workplace or family context. For example, if your learner gets a job as a mechanic, words like invoice, customer, carburetor, disposal fee, etc., are terms that would be valuable to know, and your learner will come across them on a regular basis. Exposing a learner again and again to new vocabulary words in a variety of reading materials and contexts also supports vocabulary development.

 

When you're are working with your learner on vocabulary development, keep these important tips in mind:

• Identify and discuss the meaning of unfamiliar words in the texts you're reading before reading them.


• Provide your learner with many, many opportunities to practice learning the meaning of unfamiliar words. Once is not enough!


• Teach useful, “real-life” words and words your learner will encounter in any subject-matter texts she's studying.


• Give your learner opportunities to use and work with new vocabulary words in several different ways.


• Teach word-learning strategies like structural analysis (e.g. root words, prefixes and suffixes), using context clues, and using a dictionary.


• Encourage your learner to read level-appropriate materials in varied subject-matter areas as often as possible. The more your learner reads, the more opportunities there are for vocabulary building!

 

Teaching your learner the meaning of unfamiliar words in a text before asking her to read it not only builds your learner’s vocabulary, it also boosts her comprehension of the reading material.

In previewing a text, select words your learner might not know that are important to understanding the text. You might also pick out words whose meanings would be hard to figure out using context clues. Select unfamiliar or especially difficult words, and finally, look for words that reinforce what your learner has studied before. Ask yourself how useful the words are or how often your learner might see them in print in the future.

 

Here are some types of useful words to select:

• Signal words and phrases, like therefore, in contrast, however, consequently and despite, mark relationships between ideas and information. Click on the first two Resources below to see examples of signal words.


• Idiomatic expressions, such as straight from the horse’s mouth, a stiff upper lip, by the skin of your teeth, etc.


• Words in the news


• Subject-matter terminology that will help prepare your learner for specific goals, like the science or social studies sections of the GED test, higher education, job training, etc.


• Roots, prefixes and suffixes, or word parts that give learners tools to discover word meanings as they read. Click on the Resource below to see examples of prefixes and suffixes.

Here are some types of difficult words to select:

• Homophones (words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings), e.g. aloud and allowed, board and bored, cell and sell, brake and break


• Homographs (words that look the same but have different meanings) e.g.bear (animal), bear (support or carry), and bear (tolerate) or content (what’s inside) and content (satisfied)

DEMONSTRATION VIDEOS

Watch a tutor introduce the strategy of selecting useful words to teach a student in order to increase the student’s vocabulary and to boost the student’s reading comprehension (Part 1 of 5 parts).



A tutor uses a Think Aloud strategy when preparing a tutoring session as a way of sharing her thoughts about what words would be most useful to pull from a text to teach to an adult literacy student (Part 2 of 5 parts).



A tutor shows a student a strategy for identifying and learning words in a text that are particularly useful for vocabulary development and for boosting reading comprehension (Part 3 of 5 parts).



They compare vocabulary words they have selected from a text to study and learn before the student reads the text (Part 4 of 5 parts).



They discuss the meanings of the vocabulary words they have selected from a text to study and learn before the student reads the text (Part 5 of 5 parts).



A tutor teaches a student to understand and identify Signal words as a strategy to increase a student’s vocabulary and to boost reading comprehension (Part 1 of 2 parts).



A tutor and student demonstrate using Signal words as a strategy to increase a student’s vocabulary and to boost reading comprehension (Part 2 of 2 parts).



A tutor and student learn, practice and use strategies for learning difficult words to build vocabulary and improve reading comprehension. They learn what homographs are and they practice strategies for learning the meaning of homographs (Part 1 of 2 parts).



They practice strategies for learning the meaning of homographs and demonstrate appropriate homework practice (Part 2 of 2 parts).



A tutor and student learn what homophones are and they practice reading and writing strategies for learning the meaning of homophones (Part 1 of 2 parts).



They write a story for homophone practice and discuss homework to reinforce learning (Part 2 of 2 parts).



A tutor and student select and practice difficult words to practice and learn in order to improve a learner’s vocabulary and reading comprehension. The tutor teachers the learner the difference between proper nouns and common nouns, as well as categories of words that are proper nouns (Part 1 of 4 parts).



A tutor teaches a student categories of words that are proper nouns. The learner practices the pre-reading strategy of identifying and practicing proper nouns to improve vocabulary and reading comprehension (Part 2 of 4 parts).



They identify and learn the meaning of proper nouns in a newspaper article before reading and while reading the text (Part 3 of 4 parts).



They demonstrate how to use a newspaper article as homework to help a learner build vocabulary and improve reading comprehension (Part 4 of 4 parts).

 

Context clues are pieces of information that appear near a word or phrase and offer direct or indirect suggestions about what the word means. Most good readers figure out how to use context clues on their own as they develop their reading skills, but adults who were not successful in school and don’t read often may not have acquired this strategy. They may need explicit instruction with lots of examples to understand how context clues work.

Even after introducing this strategy, a tutor may find it necessary to point out the clues and how they work to define the meaning of a word as students read. This is especially important when you are working with English Language Learners—students who may lack the cultural knowledge and educational background to understand context clues on their own.

 

Many context clues are straightforward and readers can identify and use them fairly easily after learning how to do so. Context clues can be challenging to use, though. Sometimes they’re found in other parts of a passage and not in the sentence in which the word needing definition is found. In that case, there are often not sufficient clues to define a word. And, if a reader has limited knowledge of the subject matter of a selection, it’s harder to make use of the clues. However, even with these limitations, this strategy is an important tool for new readers. Explicit instruction is necessary to allow adult new readers to learn, practice and use this strategy independently.

Click on the first Resource to see four types of context clues you can teach your learner to identify and use while reading in order to learn new words.

Click on the second Resource to see an example of a strategy called a Think Aloud that you can use to practice context clues.

DEMONSTRATION VIDEOS

Watch a tutor and student demonstrate the strategy of using restatement context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words while reading (Part 1 of 3 parts).



They demonstrate the strategy of using synonym context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words while reading (Part 2 of 3 parts).



They demonstrate the strategy of using definition context clues and antonym context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words while reading (Part 3 of 3 parts).

 

Good readers learn new words through reading. The meanings of prefixes, suffixes and base words provide tools for readers to use to identify and define the meaning of words they encounter while reading. In addition to using context clues to figure out the meanings of unknown words while reading, they are also familiar with the way prefixes and suffixes (e.g., un, post, -ful, -ly) affect the meaning and function of base words (or root words).

Good readers use this knowledge to identify and define words as they encounter them in text. It’s important to give learners explicit instruction on word parts with lots of examples and practice so they can draw upon their knowledge to analyze unknown words and discover their meanings as they read.

 

You can begin by teaching the meanings of different word parts and analyzing how their meanings function in a word. Exhaustive lists of prefixes, suffixes and base words can be found in publications such as The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, Fry, et al., 2000. Ask your program for materials that help learners learn and practice these concepts. You can also find some good resources on the Internet if you screen them carefully for quality. After you’ve introduced the meanings of word parts, you can show your learner how word parts can tell what an unknown word means in a passage.


Click on the first Resource to see an example of how a tutoring pair might focus on the prefix "trans-".

Click on the second Resource to see a list of activities you can use with your learner to practice prefixes, suffixes, and base (or root) words.

 

Developing vocabulary isn’t just about learning the meaning of isolated words. It’s also about the bigger concepts and bodies of knowledge to which vocabulary words relate and refer. Even if a learner had memorized a list of vocabulary words related to a text, having limited knowledge of the subject matter of the text would still make it difficult to understand.

Adults who were unsuccessful in school and don’t read for pleasure may have limited background knowledge in school-based subject matter like science, social studies, history, etc. This can affect their ability to understand historical, cultural and other references when they read newspapers, magazines or books. They may struggle to understand other real-life materials as well. A lack of background knowledge also presents challenges for learners who are studying to pass the GED. It can be important to teach both word meanings and subject content at the same time.

 

While there are no simple, speedy ways to build background knowledge, you can work with your learner to increase her exposure to subject areas she may come across frequently in her life. Teaching vocabulary words from work and from home can be particularly effective because the subject matter is probably interesting and relevant to her needs and interests. Your learner probably encounters words from these areas with high frequency, which also bolsters vocabulary development and reading comprehension.

Adult literacy tutors and teachers have recommended helping learners increase their background knowledge and their vocabulary in the following ways:

• Reading newspaper articles
• Bringing in reading materials from your learner's life-work, family, community, hobbies, and mail
• Reading health-related materials
• Listening to the radio
• Reading financial literacy materials
• Watching television and films

 

There are many different ways your learner can build her vocabulary bank. One is called the Association Method. With the Association Method, students learn to draw connections between words they already know and new words as they encounter them while reading. For example, pairing a new word with a synonym a learner already knows will strengthen her understanding of both words.

 

In learning, we build on what we know. Connecting something new with previous learning is an opportunity for a learner to identify the processes and skills she already knows. You can have a conversation with your learner about what she already has in place that supports learning new information and ideas. In this situation, linking an unknown word with a synonym your learner already knows will strengthen her understanding of both words.

Here is an example of the Association Method showing the relationship between the words bright and luminous. In your tutoring session it might look something like this:


Tutor: What does the word bright mean in this sentence? The stars were bright last night.

Learner: Bright means shining strongly.

Tutor: That’s right! Another word that means almost the same thing as bright is luminous. What does the word luminous mean in this sentence? The stars were luminous last night.

Learner: Luminous means bright or shining strongly.

Tutor: You’ve got it!

Talking about and working with new words in this manner sets the stage for more and more word associations. You can make a flashcard of the newly-learned word, luminous, for example, and add it to your learner's growing word bank. You can look for more synonyms of luminous and bright and over time, continue to attach new word meanings to vocabulary your learner has mastered and knows whenever she reads.



DEMONSTRATION VIDEO

Watch a tutor and student learn, practice and use strategies for learning difficult words to build vocabulary and improve reading comprehension. They demonstrate the strategy of using synonym context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words while reading (Part 2 of 3 parts).

 

There are several approaches to developing adult learners’ vocabularies. Semantic mapping is one that is highly recommended. Semantic mapping is a strategy that can be used with a variety of texts to demonstrate relationships between ideas. When teaching vocabulary explicitly, it can be used as a tool for learners to discover the relationships between vocabulary words. Since semantic mapping builds on prior knowledge and is an active form of learning, it can be an effective teaching tool that can be used with learners at all levels.

A Semantic Map is a structure that supports the thinking skill of brainstorming. It is also useful in organizing lots of ideas and words around a key concept into defining attributes, such as the characteristics of mammals or the requirements an individual must meet to run for president. A semantic map brings clarity and precision to free-ranging thoughts by chunking important information and themes. Something especially nice about a semantic map is it cuts down on the stress of writing because none of the lines and spaces hold too much text.

 

To see an example of a Semantic Map, click on the first Resource below.

Now, try creating a Semantic Map of your own. Use the word cow. Think of all the words you can that you associate with cow and list them on a sheet of paper.

Now put these words into categories, like:

• appearance
• products
• food source
• where it can be found

Draw a map like the example in the first Resource to demonstrate the relationships your listed words have to the word cow. Notice how your map is the same and how it is different. If you'd like to see an example of what your completed semantic map might look like, click on the second Resource.

 

• Read Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers by Susan McShane, pp. 59-68, for free in PDF format by clicking here.


• Take LINCS' free, self-paced online course called Teaching Adults to Read: Vocabulary available from your My Home page here in the LINCS Learner Web site. If you're interested in taking this course, make sure you have answered yes to the question about Teaching Adults to Read in your [Profile].


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