VOCABULARY BUILDING

Vocabulary refers to the collection of words that a person knows and uses.
Vocabulary development is the process of acquiring new words. The size of
a child’s vocabulary between preschool and first grade is often a strong
indicator of their reading comprehension in later grades. That’s why it’s so
important to focus on building vocabulary skills throughout reading
instruction.

Learning New Words

Building vocabulary is a complex process. In order to successfully build

vocabulary skills, there are multiple components of gaining mastery over
new words.

 The first component of learning new words is exposure: seeing the

new word enough times to grow familiar with it.
 The second component is understanding the definition of the word, as
well as how it is commonly used in context.
 Another component of vocabulary building is recognizing synonyms
of the word.
 Examples of how the word is used in context can be a helpful
component of learning vocabulary as well.
 Finally, students should have plenty of opportunity to practice using
the new word, both orally and in print.

Without a doubt, the best way to help your child learn new words is to read
to them as often as possible. Reading aloud is even more effective when
you take the time to stop and explain the meaning of any unfamiliar words
as you go. Other fun vocabulary activities you can do with your child
include:

 Playing guessing games (e.g. “I’m thinking of a word that starts with
‘tr.’ Can you guess it?”)
 Posting a “word of the day” somewhere prominent in your house and
seeing how many times each person can use the word that day
 Taking a “letter walk” to see how many things you can spot that start
with a specific letter
 Playing vocabulary bingo, using both familiar and unfamiliar words for
the squares
 Taking turns telling each other riddles
 Playing charades with words and phrases that are on your child’s
learning level

VOCABULARY STRATEGY: USE OF CONTEXT

 Contextual Usage

An important strategy to help students build their vocabulary is use of

context – i.e., using the clues or hints provided in the text that surround an
unfamiliar word to help guess the meaning without depending on a
dictionary. This can include words, phrases, or sentences that appear
before, after, or close to the word. It can also include visuals or headings
embedded in the text – basically anything that helps a reader understand
the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Expository, non-fiction text tends to
offer more context clues than narrative text.
The main goal for developing students’ ability to use context is to aid
comprehension, not to teach words in-depth. When students encounter and
“stumble” over unfamiliar words that are essential to making meaning of a
passage, their comprehension suffers. If the context provides clues to the
meanings of these words, comprehension is aided.

Use of context does not come naturally to many students. It takes time to
become proficient with this strategy — students benefit from explicit
instruction and guided practice. Studies have shown that when students
are taught to use context clues they become better at figuring out the
definitions of words compared to students who are not directly taught this
skill (Kuhn & Stahl, 1998). The first step is helping students recognize when
they don’t know the meaning of a word and the need to make reasonable
judgements about how to address that lack of knowledge.

Types of Context Clues

There are categories of types of clues that are useful for teachers to know,
described below with examples from classroom texts. Knowledge of these
types of clues benefits the teacher in terms of finding examples in text to
use for explicit instruction and practice. However, it is not helpful to expect
students to identify the type of clue provided in text. Shanahan (2022)
points out that the research synthesis noted above by Kuhn and Stahl
determined persuasively that students benefit from instruction for use of
context, but it was not category training that helped, only the actual practice
in figuring out word meanings from context.
 Definition Clue: The word is defined directly in the text.
 Example: The nation was undergoing urbanization – the
movement of people into cities.
  Example: One result of this motion is diffusion, the net
movement of the particles of a substance from where they are
more concentrated to where they are less concentrated.
 Description Clue: The word is described by information in the
context so that the reader can figure out the meaning.
 Example: Pollination occurs when a pollen grain from a male
plant lands on the stigma of a female plant.
 Example: Cities were filling with immigrants and newcomers
from American farms and small towns. Too poor to rent their
own apartments, they shared rooms and crammed together
in tenements.
 Synonym Clue: A word that is similar to he word is provided.
 Example: Water soaks into the ground pores, or spaces,
among the fragments of soil.
 Example: It was a triptych, or three-paneled, painting.
 Comparison Clue: The word is compared with other examples that
are similar.
 Example: Light enters your eye through a pupil, which is like a
small hole.
 Example: Cumulus clouds look like a pile of cotton balls.
 Contrast Clue: The word is contrasted with another word, usually an
antonym.
 Example: Unlike a compound, an element cannot be broken
down into simpler materials.
 Example: Volunteering to join the army offers the choice that
a draftee does not have.
 Example Clue: A word or words that are examples are provided.
  Example: An example of mutualism is the pea crab and the
mussel. Tiny pea crabs live inside mussel shells. The crabs eat
the young of organisms that would harm the mussels if they
grew to adults inside the shell. In return, the mussels provide
protection for the little crabs.
 Example: The children could tell, from Phil’s statement about
everything and everybody having a good side, that he was
an optimist.

Instruction Using Classroom Text Examples

Rather than using contrived examples on worksheets to practice use of
context, instruction works best when explicit instruction and guided practice
is provided on a regular basis using examples from text that is already
being used in the classroom. Teachers should review text and be on the
lookout for examples where context clues are provided prior to assigning
text for student reading.
Grave suggests teaching students the following four-step strategy for
inferring words from context:
1. Read carefully and ask yourself, “Does this make sense?”
2. Notice when you don’t know the meaning of a word and slow down.
Read that sentence at least once more, looking for clues.
3. If necessary, go back and reread the sentences before and after,
looking for clues that help you figure out what the word might mean.
4. When you figure out what the word might mean, substitute your
guess for the difficult word and see if it makes sense. If it does, keep
on reading. If it doesn’t, try again.

Context Doesn’t Always Provide Clues

It is important to emphasize with students that use of context doesn’t
always work! Research shows that sometimes when readers attempt to
derive the meanings of words in context they may get them wrong
(Pressley et al., 2007). This may be because the student does not have
enough prior knowledge to make sense of the clues in the text, or it may be
that the clues are misleading. Contexts vary in how much information they
provide a reader. Sometimes the context provides a direct explanation of
the meaning of a word as shown in the examples of types of clues above,
and in this example where the meaning of photosynthesis is directly stated
in the previous sentence:
 Up to this point we have been referring to the process in which light
energy is used to make food simply as the food-making process. But
this important process has its own special name: photosynthesis.
Sometimes the context provides some information about an unfamiliar
word, but not enough for the student to be aware of its full meaning, as
shown in the example below where the student may guess that
a vaccination has something to do with preventing disease, but there is not
enough information to discern just what a vaccination is.
 In order to gain active immunity to a disease, one of two things must
occur — either you come down with the disease, or you receive
a vaccination.
Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) identified some text as “misdirective”
(i.e., leading to a misunderstanding). Here is an example of a misdirective
from their book Bringing Words to Life where the students might wrongfully
assume that Ginny admired Sandra’s dancing:
 Sandra had won the dance contest, and the audience’s cheers
brought her to the stage for an encore. “Every step she takes is so
 perfect and graceful,” Ginny said grudgingly as she watched Sandra
dance.” (p. 4)
Shanahan (2022) suggests including examples sometimes from real text
where words can’t successfully be figured out from context, rather than
using contrived examples to avoid what he calls “over consistency”. He
points out that this is being realistic with students about how use of context
really works in most reading situations.

Using Word Parts

Another strategy for determining the meaning of an unfamiliar word is to
use knowledge of meaningful word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes), which is
the subject of a blog post I wrote in 2018 titled Using Morphology to Teach
Vocabulary. Carlisle (2007) maintains that incidental word learning through
contextual clues and morphological analysis is the primary means through
which students acquire new vocabulary. Frey and Fisher (2011) suggest
teaching students to “Look inside the word and outside the word to see
what you know.” When used in tandem, use of word parts (inside the word)
and use of context (outside the word) can be very helpful.

Synonyms in Vocabulary Building

A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word

(or nearly the same meaning). For example, beautiful and attractive are
synonyms of each other because they both refer to someone or something
that looks good. Synonyms are different words that have the same or
similar meanings. They come in every part of speech, including nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.
 As a synonym example, let’s look at synonyms for good. As one of the
most commonly used words, good has a lot of synonyms that mean the
same or almost the same
thing: fine, excellent, satisfactory, wonderful, superb, etc.

Notice how the meanings are not always identical; for example, excellent is
a high degree of good, while satisfactory is more like a minimal amount of
good. Still, the central idea is the same: All these synonyms refer to
something that is positive and not bad.

Synonym vs. antonym

When discussing synonyms, the term antonym often comes up. While
synonyms are words with the same or similar meaning, antonyms are
words with opposite meanings. For example, an antonym of good is bad,
while a synonym of good is fine.

Understanding synonyms and antonyms is helpful when using a dictionary

or thesaurus. Especially in a thesaurus, a word’s entry often lists both
synonyms and antonyms to help your writing.

What’s the purpose of synonyms?

 Synonyms can improve word choice, or choosing the single best word for
what you’re trying to communicate.

 Synonyms are necessary to avoid overusing the same word.

Word choice

First, synonyms are crucial for choosing the perfect word. While some
languages have only one word for one meaning, English uses a variety of
words to convey a single meaning, each with its own unique and subtle
distinction. This variety of words is partly thanks to English’s usage of loan
words, or words from other languages.

Example: If you want to call something good, you can also call it fine or
excellent. However, while good, fine, and excellent are all similar, there are
some subtle differences: Fine tends to have a lesser degree of good, while
excellent tends to have a greater degree of good.

Choosing the precise word is essential to writing well. The differences

between good, fine, and excellent can affect communication, so if you say
a meal was “fine,” it has a slightly different meaning than if you say the
meal was “excellent,” even though they’re synonyms.

In short, the more synonyms you know, the better you’ll be at choosing the
best word for what you want to communicate. That nuance is a significant
part of all writing—especially persuasive writing, where you’re choosing
words that connect with a specific type of reader.

2 Avoid overusing words

The second main use of synonyms is to avoid using the same word over
and over again. Repeating a specific word can be a problem when your
writing focuses on a single topic—as writing often does—and most of your
sentences involve words related to that topic. Alternating synonyms for the
sake of variety is known as elegant variation.

For example, let’s say you’re writing a research paper about dogs. If every
sentence used the word dog, your writing would become repetitive, and
your reader might lose interest.
In this case, you’d want to alternate your sentences with synonyms of dog:
You could use general synonyms like hound or canine, or if you’re talking
about a particular type of dog, you could use words like puppy or mutt. You
could even use slang like doggo, pupper, pooch, or furball if your writing is
casual.

By alternating synonyms for each new sentence or clause, your writing

becomes more interesting and dynamic. This holds the reader’s attention
and makes reading your work more enjoyable.

What are the types of synonyms?

As mentioned above, some synonyms have the exact same meaning, while
others have meanings that are nearly exact. With that in mind, there are
three different types of synonyms, based on how similar the words’
meanings are.

Absolute synonyms

Absolute synonyms are words that mean exactly the same thing; there is
no difference in meaning. You can use absolute synonyms
interchangeably; one synonym can replace another without changing the
message.

Examples:

 identical — indistinguishable
 drink — beverage
 insect — bug

Partial synonyms: Partial synonyms are words that mean almost the
same thing, and the differences are only slight. What separates them can
be a degree or amount, such as the difference between good and
excellent, or one word can be a specific type of a more general word—the
way a puppy is still a dog.

If you replace a word with its partial synonym, the meaning changes a little,
but the main message remains the same.

 car — vehicle
 run — sprint
 big — gigantic

Near synonyms

Near synonyms are words that have different meanings, but their meanings
are still related. These words cannot be used interchangeably; if you
replace a word with a near synonym, the message becomes different.
However, because they’re related, a near synonym could be a better and
more accurate word choice than the original.

 smart — witty
 river — creek
 hairy — furry

Synonyms of synonymy (polysemy, homonymy, and contronymy)

Synonyms get their name from synonymy, which is when different words
have the same or similar meanings. But synonymy is often confused with
other types of word relationships: polysemy, homonymy, and contronymy.
To clear things up, let’s take a closer look at what those terms mean.
Polysemy is when one word has different meanings. For example, the
word sound can sometimes mean “noise,” but other times it can mean
“healthy.” The only way to tell the correct meaning is by context; if someone
says they “heard a sound,” you know the meaning is noise because you
can’t hear healthy.

Homonymy is when words have different meanings but either the same
spelling or the same pronunciation (or both). There are two types of
homonyms: homophones and homographs.

Homophones are words with different meanings and different spellings,

but they are pronounced the same, such as their, there, and they’re.
Homographs are words with different meanings but the same spelling, such
as lead (the metal) and lead (the verb that means “to guide”). Homographs
may or may not be pronounced the same—it doesn’t matter.

Contronymy is even rarer than the others. A contronym is a type of

homonym where the words are spelled and pronounced the same, but their
meanings are opposite. For example, the verb buckle can mean “to
connect something”: The man buckled his belt. But it can also mean “to
break a connection”: The chair buckled under the man.

When should synonyms be used?

Synonyms have two main uses. First, synonyms help in word choice to find
a more accurate match to the meaning you’re trying to communicate.
Second, they help you add more variety in your writing and avoid using the
same word too much.

What are the types of synonyms?

Synonyms have three main types based on how close the words’ meanings
are. Absolute synonyms have the exact same meaning, partial synonyms
have similar meanings with only subtle differences, and near synonyms
have different meanings that are closely related to each other.