Best Practices for Teaching Vocab to ELL students

This resource includes …

• Best practices for teaching vocab to ELL students (in an ELL resource, or content setting)

When and Why should I use this?

• When you plan for the year, a unit or a lesson if you have English Language Learners in your
classroom.
• When you are struggling with vocabulary strategies specific to ELLs
• If you need some extra context about why learning new words is so challenging for ELLs
How should I use this?
• Start by doing the self reflection, which will guide you to different parts of the resource. Then
skim the table of contents to see what else you may be interested in learning more about!
Additional Notes (if needed)
•All strategies and ideas were taken from the following sources, which you can access if you
would like to learn more:
• http://www.colorincolorado.org/
• Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners: Essential Strategies for Middle and High School by
Nancy Cloud, Judah Lakin, Erin Leininger & Laura Maxwell. This book is primarily geared toward 9-
12 ELL. Publisher site: http://caslonpublishing.com/publication/teaching-adolescent-english-
language-learners/.
• Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners: A Teacher’s Guide to Research Based Practices
by Nancy Cloud, Fred Denesee and Else Hamayan. This book is primarily geared toward K-8 ELL.
Publisher website: http://www.heinemann.com/products/E02264.aspx .
• http://www.u-46.org/roadmap/files/vocabulary/acadvoc-over.pdf
Self-Reflection: Where should I start within this document?

How to use: Skim though this self reflection to see where you should start within this
document. All the hyperlinks are linked to places within this document so you can easily come
back to the quiz if you need to.

1. Do you need to learn more in general about ESL instruction?

If YESstart at Part 1
If NO Move to question 2

2. Do you know what academic vocabulary is?

If YESMove to question 3
If NO Read “What is academic vocabulary”

3. Do you know the difference between high and low frequency words?
If YESMove to question 4
If NO Read “Why is academic vocabulary so hard”

4. Are you having trouble knowing which words to teach?

If NOMove to question 5
If YESRead “Simple Rules”, “Identifying high frequency words”, “Analyze words by
tiers” and “Teaching with Tiers”

5. Are you having a hard time deciding how many words to teach in a lesson?
If NOMove to question 6
If YES Read “How many words to teach”

6. Are you a push in ESL teacher and need a hard and fast rule for knowing which words to
teach when you’re given an unfamiliar passage seconds before your students see it?
If NO-Move to question 7
If YESRead “Hard and Fast Rule”

7. Are you looking for general strategies and ideas to teach vocabulary to ELL students?
If YESRead “Best ways to increase retention and comprehension”

8. Do you need some concrete lessons, strategies and ideas for teaching vocabulary to ELLs?
If YESSkim the appendix for a listing of different resources, who they are appropriate
for and how you should use them.
Table of Contents
Part 1: How are words learned?
• The ways that students learn words
• The difference between direct and indirect vocabulary instruction
• Research based best practices for learning vocabulary
Part 2: Academic Vocabulary
• Definition and facts about academic vocabulary
• Reasons why academic vocabulary is so challenging
• The difference between high and low frequency words
• How to find high frequency words
• How to teach high frequency words
• The definition of what it truly means to know a word
Part 3: Strategies and best practices for increasing comprehension and retention of vocabulary
words
• How many words to teach in a lesson
• The hard and fast rule for which words to pre-teach
• Strategies:
o Preview words with multiple meanings
o Teach idioms
o Use native language
o Word Wheels and flash cards
o Collocations and word connections
o Vocabulary Journals
o Student friendly dictionaries
o Shades of meaning and intensity
o Labels and categories
Appendix: Resources already on the Resource Exchange specific to vocabulary (see appendix for
description)
• Vocabulary Development of ELLs
• Elementary Strategies for ELLs
• Secondary Strategies for ELLs
• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (elementary)
• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (middle)
• ESL Vocabulary Lesson Plan (high)
Part 1: How are words learned?

How many ways can a student learn words?

• Read it in a book, figured it out from context or looked it up
• Read it or heard it and figured out it’s meaning from it’s parts
• Learned it in a conversation
• Heard it on the television
• Learned it in a class
• Heard it from a family member

What is the difference between direct and indirect vocab teaching?

• Indirect: Students learn vocabulary indirectly when they hear and see words used in
many different contexts; for example, through conversations with adults, through being
read to, and through reading extensively on their own.
• Direct: Students learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both individual
words and word-learning strategies. Direct vocabulary instruction aids reading
comprehension.

What does the research say about the way students can learn vocabulary?
• Marzano:
o Effective Vocabulary Instruction: Multiple exposures, Previewing words helps,
Image association, Direct instruction works, Focus on most important words
• Janet Allen:
o Build background knowledge
o Teach words critical to comprehension
o Develop conceptual frameworks for themes, topics, and units of study
o Assess students’ understanding of words and concepts
Part 2: What is academic vocabulary?

What is academic vocabulary?

• Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary critical to understanding the concepts of the
content taught in schools. In identifying academic vocabulary for instruction teachers
must remember that not all terms are of equal importance.

Why teach Academic Vocabulary?

• According to Marzano (2005) the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that
students have the academic background knowledge to understand the content they will
encounter is providing them with direct instruction in these terms. When students
understand these terms, it is easier for them to understand the information they will
read and hear in class.
Facts about academic vocabulary
• Vocabulary assessed in first grade predicted over 30% of reading comprehension
variance in 11th grade (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1977).
• While four encounters with a word did not reliably improve reading comprehension, 12
encounters did (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, and Pople, 1985).
• One of the most critical services a teacher can provide, particularly for students who do
not come from academically advantaged backgrounds, is systematic instruction in
important academic terms (Marzano and Pickering, 2005).
• The same student placing at the 50th percentile in reading comprehension, with no
direct vocabulary instruction, placed at the 83rd percentile when provided specific
instruction in academic vocabulary (Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986).

Why is academic vocabulary so hard?

• High frequency and low frequency words
o High frequency: words that appear most often (see this list)
o Low frequency: content specific or words that are necessary to comprehend one
aspect of a text
• New usage of familiar words (multiple meaning words)
• Idioms

I know I should teach both high and low frequency words….HOW?

• Some simple rules:
o Teach the words that occur most frequently (in your content or in a text)
o Teach the words that are most important to the text that you’re studying
o DO NOT TEACH the most challenging, rarely encountered words (usually the
“glossary” words identified by the text book). Students need frequent and
authentic exposure to learn and understand new words- if you try to teach those
words plus other high frequency words, your students will be confused.
How do I know what the “high frequency” words are?
• http://www.lextutor.ca/: If you run the program, it will give you average sentence
length, total unique words and academic words lists (across the curriculum)
• http://www.wordsift.com/: If you type or copy a text into the tool, it will scan for
repeated words and automatically make the most frequent words the biggest (see
below for example). You can show your students this to preview a text and also just use
for yourself.

• http://tagcrowd.com/: Same as above, but you can also upload files to this website.
Once I find the high frequency words, what do I do?
• You can analyze the words by tiers.
• ELL students can be expected to master Tier 1 and Tier 2 words in order to aid in
comprehension and understanding content.
Tiers:
Tier 1
-ELLs may know concept in primary
language, but not the label in
English (ex: desk) which can easily
be defined with a picture
-Words that can be easily acted out
(ex: march)
Tier 2 Tier 3
-Words that appear in grade level -low frequency, subject specific
texts words
-Words that are important to
understanding the text, such as:
character, setting, plot, even
numbers, and country.
-Words that have connections to
other words and concepts, such as:
between, among, by, combine, and
estimate.
-Words for which students
understand the general concept, but
need greater precision and
specificity in describing a concept or
a person, such as: sets, tables (for
math or science, or for a table of
contents), shy, ashamed, and
stubborn.

• Then, you can use these strategies to teach the different tiered words:
Tier 1
-simple explanation or translation (if
applicable)
-explicit teaching of idioms and
everyday expressions
-explicit teaching of cognates
(family/familia) The teacher can
state the English cognate and have
students give Spanish cognate (if
applicable)
-explicit teaching of false cognates
(rope/ropa (clothing)
Tier 2 Tier 3
-easy demonstrations/picture maps -unless a word is needed for
with multiple meaning words (ex:: understanding of a text or concept,
trunk, which can be taught by using there is no need to teach these
gestures to show that it is part of an words explicitly.
elephant, part of a tree, part of our -You should have ELL Student
body, and the back of a car) dictionaries in your room (Longman
-explicit teaching of harder cognates Learner Dictionaries are excellent
(ones that are high frequency words for ELL students)
in Spanish and low frequency words
in English). Spanish-speaking ELLs
will have a head start with these
words (such as
coincidence/coincidencia) because
they will know both the concept and
an approximation of the label in
English.
-explicit pre-teaching of words that
cannot be demonstrated and that
are not cognates.

What does it mean to know a word?

• In order for a student to truly “know” a word, they must…
o The ability to define a word
o The ability to recognize when to use that word
o Knowledge of its multiple meanings
o The ability to decode and spell that word
Part 3: What is the best way to teach words in my lessons?

How many words should I teach in a lesson?

• You can teach between 3-5 high frequency words and 3-5 low frequency words from the
material/reading
• On average, ELL students can learn 6-10 new words a day with the right exposure. You
will likely repeat your high frequency words throughout the year.
• Each lesson should have a language goal (how students will use the words they are
learning) and a content goal (the typical SWBAT)

I know I should look at Academic Vocabulary and Tiered words. But is there a hard and fast rule
to consider when I’m looking at a passage?
• You can’t pre-teach every hard word. That said, some “hard” words take priority:
o Critical to meaning
o Not defined in context
o Likely to be seen again
o High utility
o Figurative speech or idiomatic expressions

What are the best ways to increase retention and comprehension of vocabulary words for ELL
students?
• Preview words with multiple meanings
o You can do this by you specific content area, by the unit you’re teaching or the
book you’re reading. It’s better to teach multiple meanings up front so students
don’t lock into what one specific meaning means.
o Example: if you a teaching a book and the word phrase “strike it rich!” comes up,
you should teach that phrase as a idiom, but also go over the other definitions of
strike (strike a match in science, strike three in PE, labor strike in social studies).
You can do this by giving students a concept map, a list or just a quick
explanation.
• Teach Idioms
o Teach idioms in context- don’t skip over them! Students will generally run into
them over and over again and will continue to be frustrated if you don’t explicitly
teach them.
o Front-load content specific idioms for your students (ex: preview the history text
book for every time a word or phrase is used to mean “freedom”, such as “Lady
Liberty” and “Old Glory”. While these are not exact translations, the
approximate ones are good enough. Give students this list ahead of time- then
you only need to teach “freedom”.
o Assign 3-5 idioms a week for students to look up for extra credit and have an
idiom wall in addition to your word wall
• Use native language
o Allow students to translate words into their native language so they understand
the conceptual meaning of the word.
o If your students are literate in their native language, teach cognates and help
your students recognize them. Also, if there is a cognate that easily translates,
use that word instead of another word (example: If a sentence reads “Did you
encounter anyone new today?” you may be tempted to replace “meet” with
“encounter”. However, remember that the English word “encounter” has a
Spanish cognate “encontrar” so if your students know the words in Spanish, use
cognates to help them understand the English!
 It is estimated that in romance languages, 30-40% of English words have
a cognate. Don’t be afraid to use these cognates
o A note about native language: many teachers are hesitant to use native language
if they have a group of students who speak many languages. The mindset may
be if I can’t speak Arabic to my Arabic speakers, I shouldn’t speak Spanish to my
Spanish speakers. YES YOU SHOULD! You should also help your Arabic students
by obtaining student dictionaries in their language and pairing them up with
students who speak both their language and English.
• Word Wheels and Note Cards:
o Word Wheels (word in the middle and then illustration, student definition,
synonym/antonym, native language translation and example/sentence around
the wheel.
o Note cards/ Flash Cards: Be sure to always include the same information. Idea
for what to include: pronunciation, translation, definition, picture, sentence,
related words, synonyms/antonyms.
• Teach collocations (words that are frequently associated or used together) and word
connections
o Example: Let’s say one of your new vocab words is “time”. Teach students that
other uses are “hard trial” but not “rigid time or stiff time”. Another use is “high
time” but not “lofty time or soaring time”.
o Example: the word “pay” can be used to mean to purchase goods, but can also
be linked to words and phrases like “pay attention”, “pay a visit” or “pay a
compliment”. The meanings are all slightly different, but if you teach the idea
that pay is generally associated with words that mean “to give”, you can easily
make the connection that explains why all the words are similar (to give money,
to give attention, to give a visit, to give a compliment).
o Provide examples and non examples (as noted above) so students know when
and when not to use the word
o Identify places, events, people or situations where you would find the word.
 In talking to an ESL science teacher, this was apparent. He was trying to
teach his students the digestive system, but in order for students to learn
that, they needed to learn “stomach”, “esophagus”, etc. Teaching all of
these words together will build context and vocabulary for the students.
  If one of the new vocabulary words for the week is “compassion”, you
might discuss the places where students might see compassionate people
(hospital), where they might hear about compassion (church) and family
members they have that are compassionate.
o Help students make personal connection as well as academic connection to the
word
• Vocabulary Journals
o Give students a notebook at the beginning of the year that will serve as their
vocabulary journal. They can organize the words by day, by topic, by unit or
alphabetical. The entries can include definitions, sentences, usage, and if words
have positive or negative connotations.
• Invest in student friendly dictionaries.
o This is a great tip, shared by Judah Lakin (author of one of the books cited above)
o Example: Let’s say students are reading an article about a landlady in an
apartment building. They look up the word “landlady” in your Webster’s
dictionary and see “a woman who is a landlord”. Students then go to look up
“landlord” and read “the owner of property (as land, houses, or apartments) that
is leased or rented to another; the master of an inn or lodging house”. At this
point, students may not understand the definition of the word. Longman’s, a
student friendly dictionary lists “landlady” as “a woman who owns a building
and rents it to others” and “landlord” as “someone who owns a building and
rents it to others”. A lot easier for students to understand!
• Teach shades of meaning/intensity
o Scales of meaning (boilingfreezing). It’s best to give students images of how
these words relate to each other.
o Shades of meaning: intensity. Explicitly teach students the difference between
“upset” and “frustrated” and all the words in between. You can easily use a
gradation chart to explain these words.
• Organize words by labels and categories
o Focused on students’ organization of information
o Clusters words by concepts
o Exposes and creates patterns of meaning
Appendix: ELL Vocabulary Resources already on the Resource exchange
This is separated into two different columns. For those of you with ELL students in your
classrooms, and a limited knowledge of ESL terminology, sort by the ‘What grade level is this
good for.’ This will give you a quick idea of what you should be using with your students that
have a limited proficiency in English

For those of you that teach ESL, or that are familiar with ESL terminology, use the “What level
of ESL student is this good for’ section.
 Resource Summary of the Resource What grade level What level of ESL
is this good for? student is this good
for?
Vocabulary A couple of strategies for This is good for All. This is good for
Development for ELLs teaching vocabulary to jumpstarting jumpstarting
ELLs. Pretty simple and vocabulary ideas vocabulary ideas for
short. Nothing is fleshed for all content all levels of
out. areas and grade proficiency.
levels.
Elementary Strategies Various language K-5. Beginner-
acquisition cards, called These strategies Intermediate. This
RISE cards, for varied types are good for all is best for lower
of vocabulary instruction. content areas and level students.
The Frayer Model and Mad for all levels of
Three Minutes are two proficiency in
popular standouts. elementary
Browse the rest for ideas. school settings.
Secondary Strategies Various language 6-12 Intermediate –
acquisition cards, called These strategies Advanced/High.
RISE cards, for varied types are good for all These are great for
of vocabulary instruction. content areas and all levels of students
Each card is a different for all levels of above Beginning
strategy aimed at proficiency. proficiency.
secondary students.
Highlights include the
Mental Connections
Strategy, and the content
vocabulary quadrant.
ESL Vocabulary Lesson Rhyming words and some K-3. This is very Beginners – Low
Plan (Early sound parts. low level stuff, Intermediate.
Elementary) and should only These are only good
be used for lower for newcomers or
elementary or lower elementary
students who are students.
in their first days
in an English
classroom.
ESL Vocabulary Lesson Vocabulary quilts and 4-8. This is Beginner-
Plan (Middle School) word maps. (Graphic applicable for any Intermediate.
organizers for gathering content area.
thoughts and lesson plan These are good for
for looking things up in the newcomers, to
dictionary) those with a little bit
higher proficiency.
ESL Vocabulary Lesson Vocabulary quilts and 8-12. Intermediate –
Plan (High School) word maps. (Graphic Intermediate to Advanced/High.
organizers for gathering Advanced
thoughts and lesson plan students and is This is great for
for looking things up in the applicable for any students who have a
dictionary) content area. solid foundation in
English.