What is vocabulary expansion

Choose different synonyms and antonyms to discuss, find, draw, act out, or write in sentences. Teacher may write all of the words on card stock, attach small magnet to the back of each card then let students move the words to the correct boxes on the chart. In another session take all the words and put them in order from the most extreme synonym to the most extreme antonym. Start with words found in grade level reading books that have many synonyms and antonyms.

In exploring one word in this depth, students connect to many more words that have similar meanings and can expand their comprehension through this connection. Uploaded Files:. Professional Development. There are countless examples of people who have done so. Remember, you started out in life knowing no words, and now you know thousands.

You can learn many more. Why not start today? The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation offers a vocabulary development program of 1, words selected based on the results of studies of over 15, public and private school students. To learn more about this fantastic and fun way to learn new words, visit the Wordbook page.

Why do large vocabularies characterize executives and possibly outstanding men and women in other fields? The final answer seems to be that words are the instruments by means of which men and women grasp the thoughts of others and with which they do much of their own thinking.

Skip to main content. Search form Search. Request new password. Powered by Drupal. Interests vs. Building vocabulary is a powerful way to enhance your life and career Learning how to build a better vocabulary can be a pleasurable and profitable investment of both your time and effort. Four basic steps to a better vocabulary While there are not any magic shortcuts to learning words, the larger your vocabulary becomes, the easier it will be to connect a new word with words you already know, and thus remember its meaning.

There are four basic steps to building your vocabulary: 1. Be Aware of Words Many people are surprised when they are told they have small vocabularies. Read When you have become more aware of words, reading is the next important step to increasing your knowledge of words, because that is how you will find most of the words you should be learning.

Use a Dictionary Most people know how to use a dictionary to look up a word's meaning. Here are some pointers on how to do this as a part of a vocabulary-building program: Have your own dictionary: Keep it where you usually do your reading at home. You are more likely to use it if you do not have to get it from another room. At work, there may be a good dictionary available for your use. At home, most people do not have a big, unabridged dictionary; however, one of the smaller collegiate dictionaries would be fine to start with.

Circle the words you look up: After you have done this for a while, your eye will naturally move to the words you have circled whenever you flip through the dictionary.

This will give you a quick form of review. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and writing. A study by Meredith Rowe, an Associate Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, discusses the ideas of quantity versus quality of speech used with infants and toddlers.

At early ages between 12 and 24 months , the amount of language used is important. Parents and other caregivers should speak to the child all the time and provide consistent word models.

Children need to hear words modeled many times before they will begin to use the words, so the more frequently they are exposed to words, the better the likelihood that they will gain that word in their vocabulary. Between months, it is recommended that caregivers begin to use different words, with greater variety to expand vocabulary skills. Vocabulary is understanding the meaning of the word. Vocabulary is generally related to understanding individual words where comprehension generally refers to understanding larger parts of the text.

Vocabulary and overall comprehension are closely related. Vocabulary knowledge is distinct from the skill of decoding print. A student can fully understand words that he is not able to read. For example a five year old has a much larger speaking and understanding vocabulary than a printed reading vocabulary.

In contrast a student may be able to correctly decode a word perfectly and still now know what it means.