Wednesday, Sep 30, 2026

Increasing the use of vocabulary

Reading and discussing books is also an excellent way to build vocabulary.

By Telangana Today

Published Date - 28 October 2020, 05:20 PM

Vocabulary is important across the curriculum from language arts and social studies to mathematics and science. It is intimately connected to both effective reading and writing skills.

These skills in turn are necessary for doing well in school. Research studies have shown that in most cases students have to see, read, and interact with words 5-7 times before they are admitted to long-term memory.

Words are more easily learned if the child is active – drawing a picture of the word, writing his/her definition of it and thinking of an example sentence to use it.

Teachers can introduce activities such as Morphology brainstorming activity like adding prefix re- to the words given, as soon as the signal is given by the teacher, the students start giving out words like rewrite, repost, in the given period. This strategy helps students grasp concepts that contain terms with which they may be unfamiliar.

Reading and discussing books is also an excellent way to build vocabulary. Teachers can do this with both younger and older children.

Frequent verbal interaction with children that emphasizes repetition and expansion of their communication helps cement words in their minds and exposes them to new ones.

Character traits, another descriptive vocabulary activity which helps students to create a character traits T chart for the current book they are reading. On the left side of the T chart, students would list the main character’s actions that are described in the story.

Then on the right side, the students would list other words that describe that same action. Thus, the students should be well on their way to discover and learn new words to expand their vocabulary and strengthen their use of the English language.