LLED 360

I really liked how this article provided many examples of teaching strategies that can be used when learning new words. My own experience of learning vocabulary that I remember were either finding definitions for words that my teacher or myself had picked out from a novel we were studying. It was quite a challenge especially when faced with a word with multiple meanings and not knowing which one to choose. I would often just choose the first definition provided in the dictionary and write in the “correct” definition if my choice happened to be incorrect when the terms were reviewed the next morning in class. Lehr et al. mention that it is important for teachers to focus on “tier two” (11) vocabulary with multiple meanings rather than “tier three” (11) vocabulary that are very rarely used or “tier one” (11) vocabulary that are very common that most students will already be familiar with. Thinking back, I wish my teachers reviewed some of the other common uses of a word we were studying instead of only focusing on the particular definition they were looking for. Going over the relationship between context and how meanings of the word changes accordingly may have been helpful. While the dictionary is a helpful source when it comes to learning new words, other learning strategies should be used as well (Lehr et al.). I remember having to look up many words while learning English, but hardly understanding any of the words even after having written down definitions.

Another part of this article that I found to be really interesting was the discussion of how beneficial a teacher reading aloud can be for the development of students’ vocabularies (Lehr et al.). I wonder how this compares to silent reading when it comes to the development of vocabulary. I know I have found myself unknowingly skipping words that I did not know while reading silently and then being very surprised the next day when there was a pop quiz on definitions of words that were in the assigned chapter that I had skipped while reading. Would a student be more likely to notice a new word when listening to a story that was being read aloud word for word rather than silent reading where many words can be read at the same time? Another benefit of listening to a story being read aloud may also be learning how words are pronounced. Perhaps a student’s reading ability is important too when looking into how much a student will benefit from various types of reading. Lehr et al. reported that when students can read by themselves, the amount of time they spend reading will predict the number of words they know.