Instructional Approaches for

Teaching Vocabulary
Word Knowledge is Power!

©2019 by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Instructional Approaches for Teaching Reading ,Writing, and Vocabulary PPT,
sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. government, and administered by FHI 360. This work is licensed under
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 What Is Vocabulary?
• Words (publish)
• Word families (inflections and
derivatives)
publishes, published, publishing –
inflections
publisher (n.), published (adj.) - derivatives
• Phrasal verbs
turn off, put on, figure out, look up, run off
• Collocations
ice cream, digital photograph, hot summer “Untitled” by stevepb is licensed under a Pixabay License. It is free to use
• Idioms and share.

couch potato, hot under the collar, cold

shoulder, hit the road, on track

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State

administered by FHI 360 and delivered by University of
Maryland Baltimore County
 How Should We Teach Vocabulary?
Create intentional learning
opportunities
• Direct instruction of target
vocabulary
Help learners develop
Create incidental learning
opportunities
vocabulary learning
• Unplanned learning that results strategies
from different activities (listening,
reading)

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State

administered by FHI 360 and delivered by University of
Maryland Baltimore County
 What Vocabulary Should We Teach?

Vocabulary Items That Are:

• Frequent (West General Service List)
• Important (Academic Word List)
• Needed for Classroom Tasks & Activities
• Regular (common patterns or features)
• Easy to learn

We always must consider the level & needs/interests of our learners.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State

administered by FHI 360 and delivered by University of
Maryland Baltimore County
 Some Activities for Teaching & Learning
Vocabulary
• Word Sorts • Change words from 1 part of
• Word splash speech to another
• Word walls • Vocabulary learning log
• Personal Dictionaries & Vocabulary • Word games (especially with
Notebooks technology)
• Word Analysis (Roots, Suffixes, • Bingo/Concentration/Word
Prefixes) search/Hangman
• Find words with the same root • Crossword puzzles

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State

administered by FHI 360 and delivered by University of
Maryland Baltimore County
 References
• Anderson, N. (2003). Reading. In Nunan, D. (Ed.) Prac5cal English Language Teaching. 2nd ed. (pp. 67-
86), New York: McGraw Hill
• Daniels, H. (1994) Literature Circles-Voice and choice in the student centered classroom.
• Farrell, T. (2006). Succeeding with English language learners. Corwin Press.
• Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (2001). Reading for academic purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL teacher. In
Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Heinle.
• Raimes, A. (2002). Ten steps in planning a writing course and training teachers of writing. In Richards,
J.C & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.) Methodology in language teaching. Cambridge
• Seow, A. (2002). The writing process and process writing. In Richards, J.C & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.)
Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge.
• Ur. P. (1991). A course in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Zimmerman, C. (2013). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary for Second Language Learners. In Celce-
Murcia, M. 2nd. (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Heinle.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State
administered by FHI 360 and delivered by University of
Maryland Baltimore County