3 Tips for Vocabulary Development

1)   READ A LOT- There is no better way to develop vocabulary than to read widely and extensively. Often times, we see people advocate easy tricks for people to gain large swaths of words in their lexicon. However, vocabulary development takes time, persistence and dedication. If you want to engage in vocabulary development activities, commit to reading every day. Decide to read 30 minutes to an hour every day. Keep a record of the amount of time you read on your calendar. Also, create a book list so you can see how many books you’re reading per year. Studies have shown that humans need to be exposed to a word over 40 times in different contexts to master the usage of that word. Hence, it's important to read a lot to have exposure to low-frequency words.

2)   READ ACROSS GENRES- Every discourse community has their own word bank: discourse communities tend to use a select amount of words. If you want to develop your vocabulary on the economy, pick up articles on GDP, share prices, the Federal Reserve…etc. Generally, people are interested in developing their vocabularies across genres. If this is true for you, make sure you're reading a wide range of subjects like literature, history, science, mythology, and economics. While I am a lover of literature, I don't recommend only reading fiction. Read other genres too. Be wary of teachers who only assign fiction for homework. Be sure your student always has a nonfiction book they're reading. Learning about volcanoes, whales, tigers, plants, major historical figures, historical events, ancient civilizations and other nonfiction areas can be loads of fun.

3)   CREATE A WORD LIST- Have your students keep a diary or word list with them to jot down words they need to learn. Many teachers have vocabulary quizzes every Friday. Be cautious of giving too many words. Studies have shown that we can only learn 4 to 8 words per week. If you're working with elementary school students, 3-5 new vocabulary words per week would be a great place to start. If you're working with middle or high school students, 6-8 words would be a great place to start. Make sure you're always reviewing previous words. For example, if you have four new words that week, tell your students to practice all previous vocabulary word lists. Test them on the four new ones, but pick two old words at random (for a total of six words). Do this every week. This will give students motivation to study all the old word lists. Review is key. We don't learn words after we memorize them once. We learn words after repeated exposure over a long period of time.