A Focus on Vocabulary
The article “ A Focus on Vocabulary” highlighted the importance that vocabulary plays on a students academic success. If students lack sufficient vocabulary they could possibly suffer the “Matthew Effect” which is that the “rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. This means that the students that have good reading skills, read more and improve their vocabulary, while the students who lack good skills, read less and don’t improve. Another important part of this reading was the part pertaining to tier 1 (common words), tier 2 (words students are less likely to know but will encounter), and tier 3 (rare words). It was stated that teachers should focus mainly on teaching only tier two words as they are encountered many times in students reading. Having had previous experience in teaching a second language abroad, I could relate to many of the themes touched upon in the chapter. For example the section dealing with cognates was for me an important part of the chapter. In my future teaching, instructional methods such as these will be necessary for my second language classes in high school. As teachers, this chapter is of great importance as it makes us aware of the value of vocabulary and also provides us with some techniques to teach our students. With the ever-increasing number of ELL’s that we will have in our classroom, the value of seeing the importance of vocabulary instruction cannot be dismissed.