Vocabulary and�English Learner strategies

Dr. Peter Olson

EDU 5100

Vocabulary

Basic vocabulary (Tier 1)

Frequently used words in general oral conversation,

schools, and work.

General academic vocabulary (Tier 2)

More advanced words.

Relatively common in schools and college-degree professions.

Relatively infrequent in general oral conversation.

Technical academic vocabulary (Tier 3)

Words that occur related to specific topics.

Teachers should teach these words while covering those topics.

Basic, conversational words

• In the sentence on the left, which of the words are basic words that students probably hear in everyday conversation.

The coati startled the girl.

Basic, conversational words

The coati startled the girl.

Students usually would learn these basic words

on the playground or outside of school.

General academic vocabulary

• In the sentence on the left, which of the advanced words is a word that students will encounter in many textbooks or literature books.

The coati startled the girl.

General academic vocabulary

The coati startled the girl.

General academic vocabulary are advanced words that

students need to know for their future or current education.

Technical academic vocabulary

• Coati is an example of a technical academic vocabulary word.

Technical academic vocabulary are words that

students may need to know in specific subject areas.

Teachers should teach technical academic vocabulary

when these words occur in textbooks, units or literature.

General academic vocabulary

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Satellite Empire

General academic vocabulary words

can occur across multiple topics.

Academic Language

Academic language includes:

General academic vocabulary

Technical academic vocabulary

Advanced syntax

Academic vocabulary and differentiated instruction.

Some students, particularly English Learners, may be unfamiliar with a larger number of academic vocabulary words than other students.

• Read this passage. List some academic words that might be unfamiliar to most 4th grade students.
• Also, list some additional words that might be unfamiliar to many English Learners.

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Science passage:

• Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust roughly the size of a small town. When a comet's orbit brings it close to the sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the sun for millions of kilometers.

Strategies for teaching English Learners

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• Pictures and Realia (real objects)
• Teacher or students use pictures and objects which relate to content vocabulary.
• Teacher modeling
• Acting out words or content
• Graphic organizers
• Visual diagrams used to represent and organize information

Graphic organizers: �Sequence chain

Graphic organizers:�Double bubble map

Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA)

• TPA Academic Language rubric:
• How does the candidate support student development of academic language in relation to the content-specific learning goal(s)?

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• Activity: What strategies could you use to support your students’ development of the academic language in this passage?
• Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust roughly the size of a small town. When a comet's orbit brings it close to the sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the sun for millions of kilometers.

Break

Syntax and Semantics

Syntax

Rules that govern the sequencing of words

within phrases, sentences and paragraphs

Semantics

Word meanings and the meaning of

groups of words (phrases, clauses, etc.)

Vocabulary map

Definition (in your own words)

Examples

Non-examples

Draw a picture

Word

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Structural analysis--Morphemes

• Structural analysis
• Analyzing the meaningful parts of a word.
• Morpheme:
• The smallest unit of meaning in a word.
• Types of morphemes
• Base: The major meaning-bearing part of the larger word and can stand alone (free morpheme).
• Example: booking, bookish, rebook
• Root: The major meaning-bearing part of the larger word but cannot stand alone (bound morpheme).
• Example: bellicose, belligerent
• (belli cannot stand alone as a word)
• Affixes: Morphemes attached to a base or root.
• Prefix: Affix at the beginning.
• Suffix: Affix at the end.

Structural analysis practice

End