Vocabulary is extremely important in both general education classrooms as well as

English language learner classrooms. It is important for general education classrooms to expand
their understanding on vocabulary words, but it is also important for English language learners to
learn the meaning of new vocabulary words. Since I was sick and did not attend class the day
that this lesson and reflection were assigned, I am going to focus on other things.
There are five different stages of learning vocabulary for students. They are: No
Knowledge (1), General Sense of the Word (2), Context-Bound Knowledge (3), Knowledge of,
but Inability to Readily Use the Word in Communication (4), and Rich, Decontextualized
Knowledge of the Word (5). When a student is in the first stage, they have no idea at all what the
word means. When a student is in the second stage they sort of understand what the words
means, for example, they may think the word ignite has something to do with a fire. They are
correct, but it can also mean something else, such as something can ignite in your mind, but that
has nothing to do with a fire. When a student is in the third stage they can understand some of the
context. So they know that the word ignite, relates to a fire, so they can understand the word in
means of science class with the Bunsen burner, but if someone says the word ignite not in a
science setting then the student has no idea what it means. When a student is in the fourth step
they have knowledge of the word, but they are not quite ready to use the word when
communicating. For example, they may think, I think ignite means to get it going when to
ignite the imagination is encountered in text. So now they know now, that ignite can be used in
the science classroom, when it comes to the Bunsen burner, but also I can ignite an imagination
in my mind. Lastly, when a student is in the fifth and final stage they have a rich understanding
of the vocabulary word. They can use the word in any form! For example, The movie ignited
my interest in world history.