Vocabulary Enrichment Programme

Enhancing the Learning of Vocabulary in Children

Victoria Joffe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000474510
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This book helps to enhance the understanding and use of vocabulary in secondary school students and young adults. Specifically designed for older children and young adults with language and communication needs, this practical language programme was created by a specialist speech & language therapist with input from secondary school teachers and students.

The Vocabulary Enrichments Programme:

• focuses on enhancing the understanding and expression of vocabulary and word meanings in students aged from 8 to 18
• aims to create an awareness of how improved vocabulary knowledge can be used to enhance learning in school and social interactions in school and home environments
• encourages an awareness and interest in words and language, introduces the concept of words and meanings and identifies their role and use in language, communication and social interaction
• introduces the word map and explore the rich networks of information attached to each word, including the meanings and make up of words using root and base words, suffixes and prefixes, synonyms and antonyms, and the etymology (origins) of words
• focuses on themes taken from the National Curriculum, including living and non living organisms, planet Earth and the world, the human body, emotions, healthy living, and occupations
• enhances the understanding and use of figurative and idiomatic language as well as more compound and complex sentence structures
• introduces a range of cueing techniques to aid in word retrieval.

This book provide effective strategies for word learning to encourage independent word learning skills. It teaches an effective, efficient and realistic use of the dictionary as a tool for word learning and explore the role of the thesaurus in enhancing oral and written work.

Appendix 1

Expressive vocabulary task

This is a task we used to explore the students’ knowledge of vocabulary covered in the programme before and after the intervention. All you need is a picture of the following test items. The test items are: nostril, comet, oxygen, brain, joint, author, mechanic, trachea, colon, circulation, galaxy, kidney, editor, lecturer, sailor. Show them to the students, and ask them to name each picture. Record errors as well, as these will give you some valuable information about the student’s understanding of the words and how these words are categorised and stored in the mental lexicon.

NAME: __________________ DATE: _______________________

SEX: F / M ________________ SCHOOL:__________________________

TESTER: __________________ D.O.B: ________________________________

Instructions

‘I’m going to show you some pictures and I want you to look carefully at each one and tell me what it is. So give me the name for each picture.’

Trial item (give answer if child does not know)

‘What’s this?’ Lion

Response:________________________0 1 N/R (no response)

‘Yes, good, it is a lion; now let’s do some more.’

Test items

Test items

Appendix 2

Word definitions task

This is a measure we used to assess the students’ knowledge of the words covered in the programme. There is no need for pictures here. All you need to do is ask the students to define the target word, to tell you what the word is or means. As has been emphasised throughout this programme, word knowledge is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Therefore, students have the opportunity to gain a maximum score of 2 for a full definition of the word, or a score of 1 for a partial or more limited answer. You will find more details of the scoring system we used to follow.. You can adapt the scoring system to suit your own purpose as long as you use the same scoring criteria across both pre and post intervention points. This is important since you are looking for changes in the students’ performance on this measure.

Name:	Date:
School:	Tester:

Instructions

‘I’m going to say some words to you and I want you to tell me in your own words what they mean. I want you to tell me everything you can about each word. If you are not sure you know the word, just have a guess and see how you go.

So, for example, if I gave you the word ‘chair’, what would you say ‘chair’ means? Yes, good, you could have said, a chair is something that you sit on, a piece of furniture with four legs. Let’s have a go.’

‘Can you tell me what [insert the word] means?’

Word	Response	Score
		Points 0/1/2	N/R
1 Employer
2 Wage
3 Documentary
4 Larynx
5 Nutritionist
6 Reference
7 Occupation
8 Conservation
9 Calorie
10 Autobiography
11 Organic
12 Solar system
13 Digestion
Total

Word definitions task score sheet

Word	Two points (To get full marks their...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Programme background and context
• Programme overview
• Programme structure
• Session plans
• References
• Appendix 1: Expressive vocabulary task
• Appendix 2: Word definitions task
• Appendix 3: Dictionary awareness task
• Appendix 4: Idiom awareness task
• Appendix 5: An overview of the Enhancing Language and Communication in Secondary Schools (ELCISS) ELCISS research programme