Direct Instruction: Vocabulary
Overview
Seeing and using new words repeatedly and across contexts is critical for vocabulary acquisition. In discussions, reading, and writing, instructors can provide explicit vocabulary instruction and give learners multiple opportunities to see, understand, and apply new words, as well as chances to use strategies for identifying unfamiliar words.
Use It In Your Learning Environment
Instructors and tools should explicitly teach the meaning of new words, especially academic vocabulary, and then provide repeated opportunities to hear and practice using these words in writing and speaking. This is also extremely important in content area courses where learners need to improve their understanding and use of subject matter vocabulary with complex morphologies. Instructors should introduce strategies for identifying word components (e.g., prefixes, roots, suffixes) and using reference materials which can promote Disciplinary Literacy skills. Direct instruction in using work-specific vocabulary is also critical for developing learners' Oral Communication Skills in real-world contexts.
Developers can expose learners to new vocabulary through direct instruction by teaching them the meanings of words, showing the words in multiple contexts, and lastly providing repeated practice and opportunities to use those words in different relevant contexts.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Instructional Approaches Strategies
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Learning and studying information across multiple sessions that are spaced, or distributed in time, can promote learning and long-term retention of both basic and conceptually complex facts and concepts.
