What is meant by basic vocabulary
Group/individual focus
Basic vocabulary: assumptions are usually made that children start school with a basic vocabulary knowledge such as familiar people, animal names, body parts, household objects, some colours, some maths concepts such as 'big, 'more'.
These assumptions are not always accurate, but any uncertainties may go unnoticed for some time. There are no simple answers to this:
- there is no fixed set of early basic vocabulary
- how should teachers find out about any gaps?
- how can time be spent on this work, when the curriculum will not wait and every day brings challenges of new vocabulary and concepts that must be learnt?
Strategies to support word retrieval: in order to strengthen the meaningful links between words, and to give structure to vocabulary learning, children can be explicitly taught about:
- functions: you eat with it (fork)
- categories: it's furniture
- opposites: this one's short, that one's long
- features: it's thin; it's made of wood; you write with it
- attributes and appearance: it's black and white
- associations: it's a bit like a horse...
- similarities and differences: it's like a horse, but you don't ride it
- homonyms: words that have the same form, but different meaning, such as 'bear'
- synonyms: words that have very similar meanings, such as 'little' and 'small'
- hierarchies and parts of whole, such as cup and handle, or flower and petal.
Some children may respond well to phonological cueing as a means to retrieve words: 'It begins with s ...'; 'It has two beats (syllables)'.
Other useful strategies for vocabulary learning:
- Individual vocabulary book, in which words are written/drawn with their meanings, dictionary definitions or related ideas; this book can be like a Filofax or address book in size and format; although this can be linked to spelling, it is important that vocabulary is recorded within the relevant topic or curriculum area.
- Icons: symbols or cartoon drawings can be used as visual shorthand to label, learn, reinforce key words or concepts; they should be particular to the child or class for note-taking, revision or written tasks.
- Annotated diagrams: these may be recorded in individual vocabulary books, in a book on each table or on wall posters.
Group/individual focus
Some children may need:
- to be taught very basic vocabulary; if necessary, through experience and using objects and pictures (but they will also need to learn some curricular vocabulary)
- key ideas and vocabulary prioritised for all topics
- a multi-sensory approach to vocabulary learning.
Children with word-finding difficulties will need strategies that help them learn and retrieve vocabulary at will. This will usually requires explicit teaching about:
- functions
- categories
- associations
- features
- similarities/differences
- the phonological characteristics of words