It is now well established that a child’s oral vocabulary is an important component of literacy. The development of children’s vocabulary does not come from the texts that they read as the words used in these texts are very much constrained by children’s decoding skills. This means that enriching children’s oral vocabulary needs to be developed outside of the words children can read independently.
Beck et al. (2025) suggest that the books we read to children provide a rich resource for developing students’ oral vocabularies. However, they also argue that even the books children are reading can provide opportunities to develop oral vocabularies. They give the example of a story in which the characters are baking a cake. After reading the story, the teacher could discuss that the characters found the cake scrumptious or delicious and brainstorm other foods that the children find delicious or foods that different creatures find scrumptious.
Sequence of activities for teaching new vocabulary
- The target word is contextualised in relation to the story (e.g., reluctant – the child was reluctant to leave).
- Children are asked to repeat the word.
- The meaning of the word is explained in a child friendly manner (e.g., reluctant means that you’re not sure you want to do something).
- Provide examples of the word being used in a context different to that in the story (e.g., you might be reluctant to eat chocolate coated grasshoppers).
- Children provide their own examples of the word in context (e.g., I was reluctant to ….. ).
- Children repeat the word again.
- Use the word in context (e.g., If a person was reluctant to go swimming would that mean that they really wanted to go swimming or they didn’t want to go swimming?).
- Have children create examples (e.g., If a friend was reluctant to learn how to …., what might you do to encourage him/her to have a go?).
- Continually use the word to ensure the word becomes a permanent part of children’s vocabulary, perhaps by placing the word on a board and keeping a tally of how many times it is used.
- Apply the word to other texts (e.g., Did you notice that Kim didn’t really want to go to the park with her friend. What was the word we learned that describes how she was feeling?).
- Encourage children to use the target word in their writing.
Reference
Beck, I., McKewon, M., & Kucan, L. (2025). Taking delight in words: Using oral language to build young children’s vocabularies. The Bulletin, 61, 16-21