Vocabulary skills, like the other literacy skills, takes time to develop. Finding out the definition of a word will add value to it if your learner is able to use it and apply it to their lives. Let’s take the word "adhesion." If you know the definition of the word, you are likely to come across this word if you work in any type of science or if you’re currently a science student. If you don’t know the definition of the word right now, that’s fine. Do you need to know this word in your life right now? Let’s define the word adhesion:

adhesion - [noun] The interaction of a molecule with something other than itself, often related to mechanical or electrostatic forces. For example, water forms a meniscus within a glass cylinder due to adhesive forces between the water and glass.

This is just one of many definitions of the word adhesion. Do you use this word often? If not, do you really need to know it? In many cases, your learners will be at points in their life where they will need to know basic vocabulary to read a novel, the newspaper, or to write an email/letter. Their vocabulary may need to be more specific if they are doing certain things such as chemistry. If they are taking a chemistry class, then the word adhesion may come up. Does this mean you should go through every word in chemistry? No, this just means that as certain situations come up in life we will need to look up words. You as the tutor will have the opportunity to give your learner the skills they’ll need to learn new words.

Here are a few exercises you can practice with your learner:

Pick up to six words that are related. These can be related to the learner’s hobbies, job, family, or health. Next, find pictures, symbols, or graphics that your learner can associate with the words. You can introduce your learner to one word at a time by saying the word, showing what it looks like in print (you can use one of our small white erase boards), and using the word in a sentence. Encourage your learner to use the word in a sentence, write the word, and finally write a sentence using the word.

A helpful tool you can use with your learner is flashcards with this exercise. Have your learner write down the word on one side. If they are having difficulty pronouncing the word use a phonics diagram of the word. The back of the card will have the definition, a picture or symbol, along with a sentence using the word.

Your learner will eventually accumulate a stack of vocabulary words over time. You can pull out a selection of words to practice such as health, job, family, or hobby related.

Take a moment to see the flashcards in action:

You can also introduce new and uncommon words to your learner by using the “word capsules” method. Perhaps your learner enjoys or would like to learn about fishing as a hobby. You can introduce a group of words with one common theme by writing down the theme (fishing) and writing the words underneath. You and the learner can then use the words together in sentences, individually, or in a paragraph.

Example:

Fishing is your topic

Words related to Fishing
angling
bail
braid
lipping
pitching
snag
swimbait
thermocline

Select up to six words that are connected by a common theme. Next, find synonyms of the word they already know. For example, the word they may be introduced to is “discussion,” where they already know the words “talk” or “speak.” Next, have your learner read the familiar word such as “talk” and then use the new word “discussion.” You can have your learner use the word in any writings or as they speak with you during a tutoring session. You want to give them opportunities to practice their new vocabulary skills.

Your learner may not understand or know that there are multiple definitions for a word they haven’t used. Bring up simple words to start, such as “cold.” Let your learner define the word and use it in a sentence. Ask them if they know of any other definitions of the word. If they don’t, explain that the word has more than one definition. The common definitions for “cold” are less warm and the illness. Eventually, you can use more uncommon uses of “cold” such as with the use of cold shoulder, cold war, cold call, and cold fusion.

One of our most popular materials our tutors use with learners is our subscription of News for You Newspaper. This weekly newspaper highlights current events at a reading level for all of our learners. The issues also come with a teacher’s guide for our tutors to help learners read the newspaper. The guide will cover comprehension skills, discussion questions and vocabulary. The vocabulary words you find in each guide can be used in any of the exercises listed above.

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