Resource for Educators: Strategies for Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Strategies for Effective Vocabulary Instruction
By :Donna C. Kester Phillips
Chandra J. Foote
Laurie J. Harper

Phillips, D., Foote, C., & Harper, L. (2008). Strategies for effective vocabulary instruction. Reading Improvement, 45(2), 62-8. Retrieved 17 June 2009, from Education Full Text database.

Throughout the article Strategies for Effective Vocabulary Instruction, the authors describe research based strategies for learning vocabulary in a valuable way. The researchers begin by supporting their ideas by stating that students need to be taught in a variety of ways that work to build relationships between their prior knowledge and the words, while also focusing on the relationship each word has to each other in terms of structure and origin (Phillips et. al, 2008). The article continues by discussing the two worst possible ways to teach vocabulary to a student: definition copying and using context clues. Both of these techniques fail to be engaging or meaning making for students. They can potentially only learn one of the ways their targeted word is used in context, limiting them from gaining full knowledge of the word at hand.

Some strategies that are suggested throughout the tantalizing article are to teach students to categorize the words they are studying in three ways: “Words I’ve heard and know the meaning of,” “Words I’ve heard but may not know the meaning of,” and “Words I’ve not heard and do not know the meaning of.” This categorization helps the students make better connections about words that they know and understand while enabling teachers the ability to see which words need to be taught within their classroom.

Furthermore, the authors of the article suggest using graphic organizers and prediction of words to promote successful vocabulary development within the classroom. The graphic organizers enable students to see connections amongst concepts while activating higher order thinking. When students are requested to use prediction, the word at hand is dissected. First the reader hears the words definition in isolation, and then the word is read in context. The student then needs to examine the word closely in order to determine the true meaning in terms of the context. Any teacher could easily promote a classroom filled with these engaging strategies by heeding the suggestions of Philips, Foote, and Harper.