The first stage of effective vocabulary teaching and ‘sucking on raw eggs’!

The story so far… students’ vocabulary is poor and being word poor impacts ‘everything’ from mental health to socio-economic status. The vocabulary gap is compounding and creates further difficulties for students. As educators, we need to make them word rich and create a level playing field so all can access the academic code.

So, we know the statistics on the importance of vocabulary teaching and the impact of the Matthew effect but, like trying to go for a wee in a 5-lesson day, it is easier said than done. Non-teaching friends think I am lying when I say this!

I believe that knowing where to start is key. What does the research say about effective and explicit vocabulary teaching? What are the ‘must dos’ and the ‘must avoids’? How can we feel the relief, like that of a toilet break, knowing that another element of our teaching is taken care of?

The research on what makes good practice in this area can help but, it’s wordy (no shit!). It needs breaking down into easy steps that can be implemented in every classroom and every subject. Exploring how we acquire vocabulary is a good starting point.

In short, vocabulary is acquired through a combination of form, content and use. For new vocabulary to stick and make its way into a student’s lexicon there needs to be an exploration of these areas. Pronunciation, spelling, morphology, definitions and semantics, alongside pragmatics, which refers to the relationship between words and their users and the use of words in different social contexts. It’s a lot!

Form

Let’s start with form. In linguistics form refers to what the word looks like. The sounds in the word (phonological representation) and how the word is pronounced. Form includes the spelling of a word and how it can morph into different forms e.g. clean—cleanest. Form also includes word class, is the word a verb, adjective, etc.

Phonics

Many of us who have never taught KS1 have little understanding of phonics. Until I started Scode my phonic knowledge came from the parental guidance on the back of Biff and Chip books! However, phonics has a massive part to play in vocabulary acquisition in KS3 and beyond. Apologies if at this point if I am teaching my ‘grandma how to suck eggs’! Let’s pause here because this is an idiom and a half!

Sucking eggs

The phrase ‘teaching your grandma how to suck eggs’ is used when someone tries to teach or advise an older, more experienced person. The idiom dates from the 1700s when unbelievably, piercing a hole in each side of an egg and sucking out the contents was a convenient, albeit risky, way to eat them. Due to Grandmas' ‘lack of teeth’, they were deemed experts in sucking eggs therefore required little guidance!

Anyway…

The English alphabet is made up of 26 letters, these combine to make the 44 sounds or phonemes we speak.  However, when it comes to the writing/spelling of these sounds there are over 150 combinations or graphemes. 

Take as an example the sound /ul/ like in the word kettle:

This relationship between the sounds we speak and the letters (codes) that are used to represent these sounds is known as the phonic code.  The basic code being the most common and simplest letter to sound combination. For example, a sounding /a/ like in the word apple or ir sounding /er/ like in the word bird.  The basic code is taught to children from early years through to KS1.

The advanced code is simply more letter combinations (codes) for the sounds we speak. These codes whilst less common and at times more complex are just other ways of writing the sounds.

Why phonics is important for vocabulary acquisition?

Before students even begin to explore the meaning of new vocabulary, they must be able to confidently read and pronounce the word, this is where phonics comes in.

Phonics is used across the board in UK primary schools to teach children how to read and write. From the start children are taught to break (smash) words down into phonemes. Students further up the system need to do the same when faced with new vocabulary.

A hand under the chin

An easy way to smash words down is to place a flat hand under the chin and say the word loud and slow. Every time the chin hits the hand it’s a smash i.e. a sound. For example, the word remember can be broken down into the following phonemes – re/mem/ber. 

There is no hard or fast rule for smashing words down, don’t stress the stresses! What aids students is the simple act of being encouraged to hear the individual sounds in words. This helps them get the pronunciation correct and is the biggest thing any teacher can do to support spelling. If students can hear sounds in a word, then they can say and write them.

If students are not given several opportunities to practise pronouncing and spelling new vocabulary, then regardless of their depth of understanding the word is unlikely to make its way into their lexicon. Students would avoid using the word in speech for fear of looking stupid and would choose another, likely weaker word, when writing if spelling proved a barrier.

Now we know the theory here is how it can be put into practice?

Tip #1 - Repeat new vocabulary out loud

When introducing new vocabulary ask students to repeat the word out loud several times. Listen to the sounds and pronunciation of the word.

Tip #2 - Smash words down

Smash the word down into phonemes. This can also be done visually by adding lines to the word and separating it into sounds.

"A child cannot understand what he cannot decode, but what he decodes is meaningless unless he understands it." Louisa Moats

Tip #3 - Spelling matters

Draw students’ attention to the spelling of the phonemes in the word, especially if they are unusual. Use a sounds sheet to help. Give students several opportunities to focus on spelling and writing out the word. Let them feel the flow of the letters. How many times do we as adults get asked how to spell a word and say, “I need to write it down.”

Download our free sounds and codes poster to help support students with the spelling of new vocabulary.

Sounds & Code Poster Scode Vocabulary.pdf

Download PDF • 146KB

Tip #4 - Debate and discuss

Create debate and discussion opportunities around the new vocabulary to give students the opportunity to improve oracy, practise pronouncing the word and using it in context. If they can say it correctly, they are likely to write it correctly.

So, that's a start. Step 1 on the ladder - when teaching new vocabulary spend a few moments on exploring, pronunciation and spelling. Step 2 and next up morphemic analysis.

By the way, we have created a teaching resource that embraces all the steps of explicit and effective vocabulary teaching. Download our free trial resources.

Free resources