Providing Targeted Vocabulary Instruction in the English Classroom

About this module

In this module, we consider the importance of targeted vocabulary instruction in the English classroom.

The sessions will consider the research behind explicit vocabulary teaching alongside a range of practical approaches to developing the way the theory can be transcribed to the Secondary English classroom.

You will be invited to reflect on and refine your own practice in your own context both between and beyond the sessions.

Session One: Pedagogy will explore:

• The EEF guidance report for Improving Secondary Literacy.
• Isabel Beck’s Tiers of Vocabulary – with a focus on how this provides a challenge for several facets of the English curriculum.
• Alex Quigley’s ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ – the three pillars of vocabulary teaching.
• Katherine Mortimore’s 2020 Publication on ‘Disciplinary Literacy and Explicit Vocabulary Teaching’.

Session Two: Aligning vocabulary instruction with the research will explore:

• How we can build healthy habits with regards to vocabulary in the secondary English classroom.
• The vocabulary demands impressed upon students by the secondary English curriculum.
• A range of word-learning strategies to ensure vocabulary is ‘explicitly instructed’ within the classroom.
• The role metacognitive approaches can play when explicitly instructing new vocabulary.

• Current research-informed pedagogical recommendations relating to disciplinary literacy in relation to the English classroom.
• The tiers of vocabulary and the impact of vocabulary on reading comprehension, oracy and written communication in English.
• How to apply pedagogical techniques to the secondary English classroom, exploring a range of takeaway practical methods to introduce students to new language and embed vocabulary within the long term memory.
• The importance of teacher modelling and the power that metacognitive approaches can have on improving vocabulary in the English classroom.