Post on 18-Oct-2020
PLAIN TALK ABOUT READINGApril 22 - 24, 2013 | New Orleans
Vocabulary Instruction in Elementary and Middle Classrooms and the Common Core
— Pam Austin —
One Galleria Blvd., Suite 903 | Metairie, LA 70001Phone: (504) 840-9786 | Fax: (504) 840-9968 | Email: learn@cdl.org | Web: www.cdl.org
About CDL
About the Presenter
Founded in 1992, the Center for Development and Learning (CDL) is a results-driven 501(c)(3) organization. CDL’s mission is to improve the life chances of all children, especially those at high risk, by increasing school success.
CDL’s work is focused on increasing teacher effectiveness. Standards set the course, and assessments provide the benchmarks, but it is highly effective teaching that yields substantial, sustained gains in student learning. All children, regardless of how they look, where they come from, or how they learn, can and will achieve school success when provided with highly effective teachers and positive, supportive learning environments.
CDL holds special expertise in the areas of literacy, learning differences, evidence-based teaching strategies, and building the capacity of teachers. We tackle real-time issues such as ways to remediate struggling readers, differentiate instruction, and build and sustain collective capacity. CDL professionals customize professional learning services to meet the specific needs of the schools and districts with whom we work.
Our current initiatives include (1) Language and Learning – Right from Birth, which provides child care providers and parents of children ages birth to three with the information, skills and support they need to help their children grow and be ready to learn when they enter school; (2) Step It Up for Literacy, which builds educators’ capacity to provide systematic, explicit and effective instruction to all students and targeted intervention for students experiencing difficulties; (3) Learning Profiles: Differentiating Instruction for Diverse Learners, which gives teachers the tools to identify and remediate learning problems with instructional and behavioral interventions; and (4) the Greater New Orleans Literacy Institute, a collaborative with Tulane University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and the Greater New Orleans Education Foundation. The Institute’s goal is to found a support initiative to ensure that all children from birth through 12th grade receive effective, evidence-based literacy instruction and graduate from high school – college and career ready.
Pamela AustinPamela Austin is a literacy specialist at the Center for Development and Learning (CDL). She has 24 years of experience as an educator. Previously, Pam was a product consultant for a major educational company, supporting schools and school districts in the implementation of intervention curricula for literacy and mathematics. Prior to that, she was an educator in a large urban school system, serving in a variety of capacities, including elementary teacher, reading interventionist, school site reading coach, and district-level literacy facilitator. She is a certified regional LETRS trainer. In her spare time, Pam authors novels under a pen name.
The Center for Development and Learning
www.cdl.org
Vocabulary Instruction in Elementary and Middle Classrooms and the
Common Core
Pam Austin Literacy Specialist
Strategies for enhancing vocabulary instruction
in elementary and middle school classrooms
April 23, 2013
©CDL 2013
To increase the literacy skills and competencies of all students.
Our Goal
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Objectives
1. To aim our focus on increasing vocabulary and comprehension.
2. To review and practice evidence-based vocabulary strategies and identify details reference in the Common Core.
3. To discuss the impact of research-based vocabulary instruction on comprehension.
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Common Core ELA Standards
www.corestandards.org ©CDL 2013
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CCSS Reading Levels: Fluency, Vocabulary & Comprehension
CCSS - ELA, Appendix A, p. 8 5
Components of Reading by Grade
Written Expression
Comprehension Skills/Strategies
Passage Fluency
Vocabulary
Advanced Phonics/Decoding
Basic Phonics
Phonemic Awareness
Grade K 1 2 3 4 5 6-12 Louisa Moats
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Essential Components of Reading
Component Elementary Secondary Phonemic Awareness
P * Explicit instruction for SOME
Phonics/Decoding P * Advanced decoding for SOME
Fluency P * Fluency instruction for SOME to promote comprehension
Vocabulary P P Comprehension P P Motivation and Engagement
P P Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers, 2008 7
Data-Driven Decisions
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§ 900+ meta-analyses
§ 50,000 research articles
§ 150,000 effect sizes
§ 240 million students
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§ An effect size of 0.2 or less is low § An effect size of 0.4 is medium § An effect size of 0.6 or more is high
When analyzing effects, we can say that an effect size of over 0.4 is likely to be have a visible, positive effect.
A one standard deviation increase is typically associated with advancing children’s achievement by two - three years or improving the rate of learning by 50%.
Analyzing Effects
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Zone of Desired Effects
Teacher Effects
Reverse Effects
Developmental Effects
Vocabulary Programs: d = 0.67 Hattie, J. (2012)
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The Situation
About 50% of students learn to read relatively easily once exposed to formal instruction, in any classroom, with any instructional emphasis.
The other 50% find learning to read a formidable challenge. It is one of the most difficult tasks that they will have to master throughout their lives.
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G. Reid Lyon, 2001 11
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Causes of Dysfluent Reading
Failure to automatize subskills: 1. Phonetic knowledge in sounding out novel
or new words
2. Use of context to facilitate or confirm accurate word recognition
3. Knowledge of vocabulary and access to word meanings in memory
4. “Sight” recognition of words as wholes, after one or two exposures
5. Processing speed for known words
Moats, 2004 12
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Vocabulary
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Vocabulary Focus: The Steps
The importance of students acquiring a rich and varied vocabulary cannot be overstated. Vocabulary has been empirically connected to reading comprehension since at least 1925 (Whipple, 1925) and had its importance to comprehension confirmed in recent years (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).
It is widely accepted among researchers that the difference in students’ vocabulary levels is a key factor in disparities in academic achievement (Baumann & Kameenui, 1991; Becker, 1977; Stanovich, 1986) but that vocabulary instruction has been neither frequent nor systematic in most schools (Biemiller, 2001; Durkin, 1978; Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, & Kelley, 2010;Scott & Nagy, 1997).
14 CCSS – ELA, Appendix A, p. 33
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Vocabulary Focus: The Steps
1. Make it a priority: Create a schoolwide focus.
2. Make it intentional: Have a framework for selecting and teaching.
3. Make it transparent: The teacher models.
4. Make it useable: Incorporate peer talk.
5. Make it personal: Students actively use it.
6. Make it your own: Keep learning.
Fisher & Frey (2008) 15
The Vocabulary Gap
National Literacy Panel, 2005
Vocabulary is an area in which students from high poverty/under resourced homes commonly lag behind their peers.
Vocabulary is also an area in which ELLs commonly lag behind their peers.
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Impact of Early Environments on Developmental Competence
Begin kindergarten 2 years behind
Ramey and Ramey 2004 ©CDL 2013
Effects of Speaking in Home to Vocabulary Development
Ramey and Ramey 2004 ©CDL 2013
By age 2 years, 2 months
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The Vocabulary Gap
Cumulative Vocabulary by Age 4:
§ Children from professional families 1100 words
§ Children from working class families 700 words
§ Children from welfare families 500 words
These differences persisted into kindergarten and beyond into third grade, the last year in which the children were tested in this study.
Hart & Risley, 1995, 2003 ©CDL 2013 19
The Vocabulary Gap
• Meaningful Differences in Cumulative Experiences
Words heard per hour
Words heard in a 100-hour week
Words heard in a 5,200 hour year
Words heard over three years
Welfare 620 62,000 3 million 10 million
Working Class 1,250 125,000 6 million 20 million
Professional 2,150 215,000 11 million 30 million
Hart & Risley, 1995
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Vocabulary: True or False
§ Initially, children readily learn words from oral conversation because such conversations are context rich in ways that aid in vocabulary acquisition.
§ All children learn words at the same rate and
by age five vocabulary acquisition is consistently even.
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Vocabulary: True or False
§ Day-to-day conversations have little impact
on vocabulary acquisition. Direct vocabulary instruction of individual words is the best way to increase vocabulary of young children.
§ In discussions, a small set of words (accompanied by gesture and intonation) is used with great frequency to talk about a narrow range of situations children are exposed to on a day-to-day basis.
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Vocabulary: True or False
As children reach school age, new words are
introduced less frequently in conversation, and consequently vocabulary acquisition eventually stagnates by grade 4 or 5 unless students acquire additional words from written context.
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Vocabulary Learning Task is Huge
First: Can the reader decode the word?
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Vocabulary Learning Task is Huge
Second: Can the reader use the word within context and the realm of possible meanings?
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grasp
hold by clasping
with fingers or arms
to hold mentally; to understand
hold; possession or mastery
a hold or a grip
Vocabulary Learning Task is Huge
What does it mean to know a word?
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decode
understand the meaning
multiple meanings
use the word figuratively
Vocabulary Learning Task is Huge
§ The average 3rd grader knows about 15,000 words.
§ The average 6th grader knows about 25,000 words.
§ The average high school graduate knows about 50,000 words.
§ This means that average students learn 3,000 to 4,000 words a year.
§ This translates to 10 words a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year – with no time off for weekends, summers, or good behavior.
Graves, 2006 ©CDL 2013
Exposure!
Students need 8 to 12 exposures to a new vocabulary word in order to “own” it.
Exposure may be casual (as in conversations) and/or formal (as in classroom texts and academic exercises).
Exposure should be rich, purposeful and often.
Graves, 2005
§ Oral – I own it and use it. § Aural – When I hear it, I understand it.
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Frayer Model
Definition Characteristics
Non-Examplesword
Examplesvary
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Build Vocabulary Through Morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a word. § May be as short as the letter “s” as in “cats”
§ Are often roots, prefixes and suffixes § May or may not be a syllable
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Why Teach Morphemes?
§ Third-graders who were given training on the 9 most common prefixes and a strategy for decomposing words into roots and suffixes outperformed a control group on several measures of word meanings.
§ They concluded that teaching the 20 most common prefixes to middle school students would pay dividends in increased vocabulary learning.
White, Sowell and Yanagihara, 1989
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.4b Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.4c Identify frequently occurring root words (e.g., look) and their inflectional forms (e.g., looks, looked, looking). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.4b Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word (e.g., agreeable/disagreeable, comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.4c Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., company, companion). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9.4b Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate, advocacy).
Why Teach Morphemes?
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The Powerful Prefix!
Interior
Exterior
Posterior
Anterior
Ulterior
Deteriorate
Susan Ebbers
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What do these numbers mean?
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79
39
33
83
25 98
401
132
126 43
313
80 71
782
76 47 77
216 105
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Common Number Prefixes from Greek and Latin
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Greek Latin 1 mono- uni- 2 di- bi-, du-, duo- 3 tri-, tris- tri- 4 tetra- quadri- 10 deca-, deka- deci- half hemi- semi- many poly- multi-
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Derivational Suffixes Academic, Abstract and Challenging
Derivational suffixes change the part of speech.
§ Words with –ive are often adjectives. (creative, aggressive, sensitive)
§ Words with –ly are often adverbs. (happily, slowly, cautiously)
§ Words with –ion (-sion, -tion) are often nouns. (station, distraction, consideration)
§ Words ending in –ity are often nouns. (simplicity, purity, inferiority)
§ Words ending with –ment are often nouns. (inducement, enrollment, impediment)
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Noun-Making Derivational Suffixes
-ist -or -ian -er -eer
scientist governor pediatrician teacher engineer
dentist mayor musician welder auctioneer
pharmacist senator politician player pioneer
“one who” noun makers
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Inside-Outside/ Outside-Inside Tactic
1. When you encounter a word that you do not know, first look outside (context) to see what hints you might find about what the word might mean.
2. Next, look inside the word for morphemes or word parts that you may know.
3. You may also divide the word into syllables to help with pronunciation.
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Multi Flow
Exit Ticket
Circle
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Brace
Frequent, Varied and Extensive Language Experiences
1. Immerse students in a word-rich environment § Word walls
2. Provide rich and varied experiences in listening, discussion, and reading
§ Use academic/$1000/College words § Read aloud to students, emphasizing new
vocabulary words
Graves, 2010
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About Word Walls…
§ Word walls are appropriate and useful PreK through grade 12!
§ Word walls are best when they are a group effort – allow students to make suggestions for content.
§ Word walls should be organic – they should be updated/changed often.
§ Word walls should be referred to so students come to understand and see their relevance.
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Read and Review
1. Skim the article, “Teach the Academic Word List.”
2. Highlight words in the list that seem relevant to your subject and that may appear in your text.
3. Decide which words you will highlight and informally define and teach to your students.
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Teach Words on the Academic Word List
§ List of words that appear with high frequency in English-language academic texts
§ Compiled by Averil Coxhead at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
§ Contains 570 word families; divided into 10 sublists, each containing 60 word families, except sublist 10, which contains 30
§ To find these words, an analysis was done of academic journals, textbooks, course workbooks, lab manuals, and course notes. The list was compiled following an analysis of over 3,500,000 words of text.
Averil Coxhead, 2000 ©CDL 2013
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60 Most Common Academic Words
Analysis, approach, area, assessment, assume, authority, available, benefit, concept, consistent, constitutional, context, contract, create, data, definition, derived, distribution, economic, environment, established, estimate, evidence, export, factor, financial, formula, function, identified, income, indicate, individual, interpretation, involved, issue, labor, legal, legislation, major, method, occur, percent, period, policy, principle, procedure, process, required, research, response, role, section, sector, significant, similar, source, specific, structure, theory, variable Averil Coxhead, 2000
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Word Tiers
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
calibrate formulate itemize
1: Everyday speech
2: General Academic
3: Domain-specific Non-fiction/Expository Text
complete describe challenge
aorta carburetor
relative
specificity
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Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002, 2008) CCSS – ELA, Appendix A, p. 33
accumulate
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Word Tiers*
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
clock baby happy
reluctant drowsy morsel insist
1: Most Familiar
2: High Frequency
3: Low Frequency
Bringing Words To Life Beck, McKeown, Kucan (2002)
A Pocket for Corduroy
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*Word tiers are referenced in Appendix A, p. 33 of the ELA CCSS
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Which Words? Word Tiers*
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
zoom budge silky
sedentary gullible idiosyncrasy
1: Most Familiar
2: High Frequency
3: Low Frequency Charlotte’s Web** provender
*Word tiers are referenced in Appendix A of the ELA CCSS
**Listed as CCSS Grades 2 – 3 read aloud exemplar, Appendix B) 51
Expand Vocabulary with Synonyms
Expand students’ vocabulary by modeling how to build from smaller to larger words, such as replacing great (“I had a great time”) with fantastic, magnificent, incredible, extraordinary or with distinguished, eminent, illustrious (“He was a great leader”).
Ask students to upgrade their word choices.
What is an upgraded word that you could use for hot? see? mad? very? walk? think?
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Use College/$1,000 Words
Commonly Known Word
$1,000 Words
big large, gigantic, immense, enormous, vast, extensive, spacious
very extremely, incredibly, vastly, exceedingly, especially
small slight, minor, petite, trivial, insignificant, trifling
talkative chatty, loquacious, verbose, garrulous
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1. Tell your student the meaning of words when first used. “We don’t want to procrastinate today on reading our story. Procrastinate means to put off doing something.”
OR…
2. Pair the meaning of the word by using parallel language.
“What is your bias… your prejudice?”
Use Academic ($1,000/College) Words
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The Center for Development and Learning 10
Juxtapose: place close together for contrasting effect
The Benefit of Visuals! Reading Aloud
Reading aloud with young children is the single most important activity for building the knowledge and vocabulary they will eventually require for learning to read and reading to learn.
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Listening and Reading Comprehension, by Age
CCSS – ELA, Appendix A, p. 26
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Read Aloud PreK - 12!
Reading aloud to students is an important activity for building the knowledge and vocabulary.
This holds true for all grades – PreK-12.
Hmmm… How often in kindergarten? How often in 11th grade?
Dickinson and Neuman, 2006 ©CDL 2013
Give Quick, Brief Definitions When Reading Aloud
To avoid disrupting the flow of text and taxing working memory, give the briefest of definitions when an unknown word is encountered. The idea is not to break the pattern of thought.
If you are the reader, briefly turn your head away from the text when giving the synonym-type definition. This body language sends a message to your listeners that what you are saying is not part of the text but an explanation.
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I Do
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He accidentally tipped over the open-lidded box, and suddenly he was covered with soft, slippery soap flakes. Gradually Corduroy began to slip and slide… Oh, what fun!” he said with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to ski down a steep mountainside.
Excerpt from A Pocket for Corduroy
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We Do
Extracted 4-12-13 http://school.familyeducation.com/reading/fiction34343.html ©CDL 2013
Avery came into the room. Avery was ten. He was heavily armed -- an air rifle in one hand, a wooden dagger in the other. "What's that?" he demanded. "What's Fern got?" "She's got a guest for breakfast," said Mrs. Arable. "Wash your hands and face, Avery." "Let's see it!" said Avery, setting his gun down. "You call that miserable thing a pig? That's a fine specimen of a pig -- it's no bigger than a white rat." "Wash up and eat your breakfast, Avery!" said his mother. "The school bus will be along in half an hour." "Can I have a pig, too, Pop?" asked Avery. "No, I only distribute pigs to early risers," said Mr. Arable. "Fern was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig.
You Try It
The Great Gatsby In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”
He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. Effective Instruction for
Adolescent Struggling Readers, 2008 ©CDL 2013
Say the word aloud if…
If the food I say is a very small piece of food, say “Morsel”. If it isn’t a morsel, don’t say anything.
§ One Cheerio § A whole pie § A raisin § A turkey dinner § A cake crumb
Bringing Words to Life, p. 61
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Tell About Something…
§ Tell about something you would be reluctant to do.
§ Tell me about a time when you might feel drowsy.
§ Tell me about a time when you might insist on something.
(A Pocket for Corduroy, appropriate for ages 3 – 8.)
Bringing Words to Life, p. 51
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Have you ever…?
Tell me about a time when you might cuddle with someone, congratulate someone, urge someone.
Tell me about a time when you may feel joy, feel fantastic, feel helpful.
Bringing Words to Life, p. 45
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Student-friendly Definitions
Student-friendly vs. dictionary definitions
Collins COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary www.collinslanguage.com
www.learnersdictionary.com
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Useful Vocabulary Websites www.vocabulary.com Vocabulary lists with definitions for novels, math,
science, geography, history, social studies, language arts, art
www.academicvocabularyexercises.com Practice exercises for each set of academic words www.wordmagicsoft.com Free bilingual and bidirectional English-Spanish
dictionary
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8. Multiple Strategy Use*
Multiple Strategy Use includes: 1. Active listening 2. Mental imagery
3. Mnemonics
4. Building (and connecting to) prior knowledge 5. Vocabulary-comprehension connection
6. Integrating strategies into/across the curriculum
National Reading Panel Report, 2000
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May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far. (Irish blessing)
Susan Ebbers ©CDL 2013
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References ACT (2008). The forgotten middle: Ensuring that all students are on
target for college and career readiness before high school. Iowa City, IA: Author.
Berninger, V. W., and Richards, T. L. (2002). Brain literacy for educators and psychologists. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Birch, J. R. (ed) (2011). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (Third Edition). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers (2010). Common core state standards. Washington, DC: Authors.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238.
Ebbers, S. (2009). Linking the language: A cross-disciplinary vocabulary approach. Published online at www.cdl.org/resource-library/pdf/Ebbers_LanguageLinks_Oct.2009.
Fisher, D. and Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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References Graves, M. (2005). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction.
New Your, NY: Teacher’s College Press. Graves, M. (Editor) (2009). Essential readings on vocabulary
instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Hart, B. and Risley, T. (1995). Meaning differences in the everyday
experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers. New York: Routledge. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-
analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge. Louisiana Department of Education (2010). Louisiana
comprehensive literacy plan. Author. National Institute for Literacy and National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (2007). What content-area teachers should know about adolescent literacy. Jessup, MD: EdPubs.
Moats, L. (2010). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers (2nd edition). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
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References Marzola, Eileen S. (2006). Strategies to improve reading
comprehension in the multisensory classroom. In Birsh, J.R. (Editor), Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (pp. 377-412). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.
Thomas, A. (2012). Building vocabulary through morphemes: Using word parts to unlock meaning. www.cdl.org.
Thomas, A. (2010). Teach students the all-purpose academic word list. www.cdl.org.
Thomas, A. and Thorne, G. (2010). Differentiating instruction: 150+ targeted strategies for diverse learners. Metairie, LA: Center for Development and Learning.
Torgesen, J. K., Rashotte, C., Alexander, A., Alexander, J., & MacPhee, K. (2003). Progress toward understanding the instructional conditions necessary for remediating reading difficulties in older children. In B.R. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and remediating reading difficulties: Bringing science to scale (pp. 275–298). Baltimore: York Press.
Tyler, A. and Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 649-667.
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Contact Information
Pam Austin, Literacy Specialist Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 paustin@cdl.org
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Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtSa
pp
en
dix
a | 26
speaking and Listeningthe special role of speaking and Listening in K–5 LiteracyIf literacy levels are to improve, the aims of the English language arts classroom, especially in the earliest grades, must include oral language in a purposeful, systematic way, in part because it helps students master the printed word. Be-sides having intrinsic value as modes of communication, listening and speaking are necessary prerequisites of reading and writing (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2006; Hulit, Howard, & Fahey, 2010; Pence & Justice, 2007; Stuart, Wright, Grigor, & Howey, 2002). The interrelationship between oral and written language is illustrated in the table below, using the distinction linguists make between receptive language (language that is heard, processed, and understood by an individual) and expressive language (language that is generated and produced by an individual).
Figure 14: Receptive and Expressive Oral and Written Language
Receptive Language Expressive Language
Oral Language Listening Speaking
Written Language
Reading (decoding + comprehension)
Writing (handwriting, spelling, written composition)
Oral language development precedes and is the foundation for written language development; in other words, oral language is primary and written language builds on it. Children’s oral language competence is strongly predictive of their facility in learning to read and write: listening and speaking vocabulary and even mastery of syntax set boundar-ies as to what children can read and understand no matter how well they can decode (Catts, Adolf, & Weismer, 2006; Hart & Risley, 1995; Hoover & Gough, 1990: Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
For children in preschool and the early grades, receptive and expressive abilities do not develop simultaneously or at the same pace: receptive language generally precedes expressive language. Children need to be able to understand words before they can produce and use them.
Oral language is particularly important for the youngest students. Hart and Risley (1995), who studied young children in the context of their early family life and then at school, found that the total number of words children had heard as preschoolers predicted how many words they understood and how fast they could learn new words in kindergar-ten. Preschoolers who had heard more words had larger vocabularies once in kindergarten. Furthermore, when the students were in grade 3, their early language competence from the preschool years still accurately predicted their language and reading comprehension. The preschoolers who had heard more words, and subsequently had learned more words orally, were better readers. In short, early language advantage persists and manifests itself in higher lev-els of literacy. A meta-analysis by Sticht and James (1984) indicates that the importance of oral language extends well beyond the earliest grades. As illustrated in the graphic below, Sticht and James found evidence strongly suggesting that children’s listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension until the middle school years (grades 6–8).
Figure 15: Listening and Reading Comprehension, by Age
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Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtSa
pp
en
dix
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The research strongly suggests that the English language arts classroom should explicitly address the link between oral and written language, exploiting the influence of oral language on a child’s later ability to read by allocating in-structional time to building children’s listening skills, as called for in the Standards. The early grades should not focus on decoding alone, nor should the later grades pay attention only to building reading comprehension. Time should be devoted to reading fiction and content-rich selections aloud to young children, just as it is to providing those same children with the skills they will need to decode and encode.
This focus on oral language is of greatest importance for the children most at risk—children for whom English is a second language and children who have not been exposed at home to the kind of language found in written texts (Dickinson & Smith, 1994). Ensuring that all children in the United States have access to an excellent education re-quires that issues of oral language come to the fore in elementary classrooms.
read-alouds and the reading-speaking-Listening Link
Generally, teachers will encourage children in the upper elementary grades to read texts independently and reflect on them in writing. However, children in the early grades—particularly kindergarten through grade 3—benefit from participating in rich, structured conversations with an adult in response to written texts that are read aloud, orally comparing and contrasting as well as analyzing and synthesizing (Bus, Van Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Feitelstein, Goldstein, Iraqui, & Share, 1993; Feitelstein, Kita, & Goldstein, 1986; Whitehurst et al., 1988). The Standards acknowl-edge the importance of this aural dimension of early learning by including a robust set of K–3 Speaking and Listening standards and by offering in Appendix B an extensive number of read-aloud text exemplars appropriate for K–1 and for grades 2–3.
Because, as indicated above, children’s listening comprehension likely outpaces reading comprehension until the middle school years, it is particularly important that students in the earliest grades build knowledge through being read to as well as through reading, with the balance gradually shifting to reading independently. By reading a story or nonfiction selection aloud, teachers allow children to experience written language without the burden of decod-ing, granting them access to content that they may not be able to read and understand by themselves. Children are then free to focus their mental energy on the words and ideas presented in the text, and they will eventually be better prepared to tackle rich written content on their own. Whereas most titles selected for kindergarten and grade 1 will need to be read aloud exclusively, some titles selected for grades 2–5 may be appropriate for read-alouds as well as for reading independently. Reading aloud to students in the upper grades should not, however, be used as a substitute for independent reading by students; read-alouds at this level should supplement and enrich what students are able to read by themselves.
The Center for Development and Learning 16
Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtSa
pp
en
dix
a | 32
Vocabulary
Acquiring Vocabulary
Words are not just words. They are the nexus—the interface—between communication and thought. When we read, it is through words that we build, refine, and modify our knowledge. What makes vocabulary valuable and important is not the words themselves so much as the understandings they afford.
Marilyn Jager Adams (2009, p. 180)
The importance of students acquiring a rich and varied vocabulary cannot be overstated. Vocabulary has been em-pirically connected to reading comprehension since at least 1925 (Whipple, 1925) and had its importance to compre-hension confirmed in recent years (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). It is widely ac-cepted among researchers that the difference in students’ vocabulary levels is a key factor in disparities in academic achievement (Baumann & Kameenui, 1991; Becker, 1977; Stanovich, 1986) but that vocabulary instruction has been neither frequent nor systematic in most schools (Biemiller, 2001; Durkin, 1978; Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, & Kelley, 2010; Scott & Nagy, 1997).
Research suggests that if students are going to grasp and retain words and comprehend text, they need incremen-tal, repeated exposure in a variety of contexts to the words they are trying to learn. When students make multiple connections between a new word and their own experiences, they develop a nuanced and flexible understanding of the word they are learning. In this way, students learn not only what a word means but also how to use that word in a variety of contexts, and they can apply appropriate senses of the word’s meaning in order to understand the word in different contexts (Landauer & Dumais, 1997; Landauer, McNamara, Dennis, & Kintsch, 2007; Nagy, Herman, & Ander-son, 1985).
Initially, children readily learn words from oral conversation because such conversations are context rich in ways that aid in vocabulary acquisition: in discussions, a small set of words (accompanied by gesture and intonation) is used with great frequency to talk about a narrow range of situations children are exposed to on a day-to-day basis. Yet as children reach school age, new words are introduced less frequently in conversation, and consequently vocabulary acquisition eventually stagnates by grade 4 or 5 unless students acquire additional words from written context (Hayes & Ahrens, 1988).
Written language contains literally thousands of words more than are typically used in conversational language. Yet writing lacks the interactivity and nonverbal context that make acquiring vocabulary through oral conversation rela-tively easy, which means that purposeful and ongoing concentration on vocabulary is needed (Hayes & Ahrens, 1988). In fact, at most between 5 and 15 percent of new words encountered upon first reading are retained, and the weaker a student’s vocabulary is the smaller the gain (Daneman & Green, 1986; Hayes & Ahrens, 1988; Herman, Anderson, Pear-son, & Nagy, 1987; Sternberg & Powell, 1983). Yet research shows that if students are truly to understand what they read, they must grasp upward of 95 percent of the words (Betts, 1946; Carver, 1994; Hu & Nation, 2000; Laufer, 1988).
The challenge in reaching what we might call “lexical dexterity” is that, in any given instance, it is not the entire spec-trum of a word’s history, meanings, usages, and features that matters but only those aspects that are relevant at that moment. Therefore, for a reader to grasp the meaning of a word, two things must happen: first, the reader’s internal representation of the word must be sufficiently complete and well articulated to allow the intended meaning to be known to him or her; second, the reader must understand the context well enough to select the intended meaning from the realm of the word’s possible meanings (which in turn depends on understanding the surrounding words of the text).
Key to students’ vocabulary development is building rich and flexible word knowledge. Students need plentiful op-portunities to use and respond to the words they learn through playful informal talk, discussion, reading or being read to, and responding to what is read. Students benefit from instruction about the connections and patterns in language. Developing in students an analytical attitude toward the logic and sentence structure of their texts, alongside an awareness of word parts, word origins, and word relationships, provides students with a sense of how language works such that syntax, morphology, and etymology can become useful cues in building meaning as students encounter new words and concepts (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2008). Although direct study of language is essential to student progress, most word learning occurs indirectly and unconsciously through normal reading, writing, listening, and speaking (Miller, 1999; Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987).
As students are exposed to and interact with language throughout their school careers, they are able to acquire un-derstandings of word meanings, build awareness of the workings of language, and apply their knowledge to compre-hend and produce language.
The Center for Development and Learning 17
Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtSa
pp
en
dix
a | 33
Three Tiers of WordsIsabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan (2002, 2008) have outlined a useful model for conceptual-izing categories of words readers encounter in texts and for understanding the instructional and learning challenges that words in each category present. They describe three levels, or tiers, of words in terms of the words’ commonality (more to less frequently occurring) and applicability (broader to narrower).
While the term tier may connote a hierarchy, a ranking of words from least to most important, the reality is that all three tiers of words are vital to comprehension and vocabulary development, although learning tier two and three words typically requires more deliberate effort (at least for students whose first language is English) than does learn-ing tier one words.
• tier one words are the words of everyday speech usually learned in the early grades, albeit not at the same rate by all children. They are not considered a challenge to the average native speaker, though English language learners of any age will have to attend carefully to them. While Tier One words are important, they are not the focus of this discussion.
• tier two words (what the Standards refer to as general academic words) are far more likely to appear in written texts than in speech. They appear in all sorts of texts: informational texts (words such as relative, vary, formulate, specificity, and accumulate), technical texts (calibrate, itemize, periphery), and literary texts (misfortune, dignified, faltered, unabashedly). Tier Two words often represent subtle or precise ways to say relatively simple things—saunter instead of walk, for example. Because Tier Two words are found across many types of texts, they are highly generalizable.
• tier three words (what the Standards refer to as domain-specific words) are specific to a domain or field of study (lava, carburetor, legislature, circumference, aorta) and key to understanding a new concept within a text. Because of their specificity and close ties to content knowledge, Tier Three words are far more common in informational texts than in literature. Recognized as new and “hard” words for most readers (particularly student readers), they are often explicitly defined by the author of a text, repeatedly used, and otherwise heavily scaffolded (e.g., made a part of a glossary).
Tier Two Words and Access to Complex TextsBecause Tier Three words are obviously unfamiliar to most students, contain the ideas necessary to a new topic, and are recognized as both important and specific to the subject area in which they are instructing students, teachers of-ten define Tier Three words prior to students encountering them in a text and then reinforce their acquisition through-out a lesson. Unfortunately, this is not typically the case with Tier Two words, which by definition are not unique to a particular discipline and as a result are not the clear responsibility of a particular content area teacher. What is more, many Tier Two words are far less well defined by contextual clues in the texts in which they appear and are far less likely to be defined explicitly within a text than are Tier Three words. Yet Tier Two words are frequently encountered in complex written texts and are particularly powerful because of their wide applicability to many sorts of reading. Teachers thus need to be alert to the presence of Tier Two words and determine which ones need careful attention.
Tier Three Words and Content LearningThis normal process of word acquisition occurs up to four times faster for Tier Three words when students have become familiar with the domain of the discourse and encounter the word in different contexts (Landauer & Dumais, 1997). Hence, vocabulary development for these words occurs most effectively through a coherent course of study in which subject matters are integrated and coordinated across the curriculum and domains become familiar to the student over several days or weeks.
Examples of Tier Two and Tier Three Words in ContextThe following annotated samples call attention to tier two and tier three words in particular texts and, by singling them out, foreground the importance of these words to the meaning of the texts in which they appear. Both samples appear without annotations in Appendix B.
Example 1: Volcanoes (Grades 4–5 Text Complexity Band
Excerpt
In early times, no one knew how volcanoes formed or why they spouted red-hot molten rock. In modern times, scientists began to study volcanoes. They still don’t know all the answers, but they know much about how a volcano works.
The Center for Development and Learning 18
Building Vocabulary Through Morphemes: Using Word Parts to Unlock Meaning By Alice Thomas
Direct instruction of the most common morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, and roots) can greatly enhance and build the vocabulary and reading comprehension of all students, especially struggling readers. Once students become familiar with the most common morphemes, they can then use their knowledge of word parts to help determine meaning when they encounter unknown words.
Morphemes, the smallest units of a word that have meaning, are commonly divided into prefixes, suffixes, and roots. The word misspelled, for example, is comprised of three morphemes: the prefix mis–, the root or base word spell, and the suffix –ed.
Because some students may not realize that they can use their knowledge about how to divide words into parts to gain word meanings, it is important to provide direct instruction to ensure that students develop their ability to analyze the structure of multisyllabic words. In particular, struggling readers, under expossed students, and students with learning disabilities may be lacking in word analysis skills.
We have evidence that teaching morphemes to students increases vocabulary and reading comprehension. In one study, third graders who were given training on the nine most common prefixes and a strategy for decomposing words into roots and suffixes out performed a control group on several measures of word meanings (White, Sowell and Yanagihara, 1989). Researchers concluded that teaching at least the top nine prefixes, if not all 20, to students would pay dividends in increased vocabulary learning.
It is never too early to introduce students to meaningful word parts. For example, teachers of pre-kindergarten students can readily point out the meaning of the prefix pre–, meaning “before” to their students, as in pre-kindergarten, and preview. Further, pre-kindergarten students can easily grasp the meaning of un–, meaning “not”, as in untied (“My shoe came untied”), uncover, unlock and unsafe.
Students in lower elementary school can be taught to add prefixes and suffixes to short Anglo-Saxon base words and discuss the meaning. Teachers can start the thought process of combining by having students identify and then form compound words (e.g., football, cupcake) and then move students to affixing prefixes and suffixes to base words, such as “view”: preview, review, viewed, viewing, and viewer.
The Center for Development and Learning 19
Students in upper elementary school and the secondary grades will benefit as they learn the meanings of additional affixes and common Latin and Greek roots. For example, knowing that spect comes from Latin and means “to see, to watch” will help students to understand the meaning of inspect, inspector, spectator, introspective and spectacles. Knowing the Greek root graph, meaning “to write” or “to draw” opens the reader to multiple words such as autograph, photograph, telegraph, lithograph, biography, and graphite. Knowing that “bio” means “life” will help them to unlock the meaning of biology, biography, autobiography, bionic, antibiotic, and biometrics.
A user-friendly resource for teaching word parts is Vocabulary Through Morphemes by Susan Ebbers.
The PDF link below contains a compilation of common prefixes, roots and suffixes. The compilation is by no means exhaustive; it should be used only as a place to start.
_____________________________ References
Carroll, J.B., Davies, P., & Richman, B. (1971). The American Heritage word frequency book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Ebbers, S. (2011). Vocabulary through morphemes. 2nd edition. Longmont, CO: SoprisWest.
Moats, Louisa C. (2010). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers (2nd Edition). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co, Inc.
Mountain, L. (2005, May). ROOTing Out Meaning: More Morphemic Analysis for Primary Pupils. The Reading Teacher, 58(8), 742–749.
White, T.G., Sowell, J., & Yanagihara, A. (1989). Teaching elementary students to use word part clues. The Reading Teacher, 42, 302-308.
Reprinted with permission of the author.
Alice Thomas is president and CEO of the Center for Development and Learning (CDL). She will be a presenter at CDL’s 2013 Plain Talk about Reading Institute.
The Center for Development and Learning 20
1
Com
mon
Pre
fixes
, Suf
fixes
and
Roo
tsC
ompi
led
by A
lice
Thom
as
Pref
ixM
eani
ngEx
ampl
es
1. u
n-no
t; op
posi
teun
cove
r, un
lock
, uns
afe
2. re
-ag
ain;
bac
kre
writ
e, re
read
, ret
urn
3.in
-, im
-, ir-
, ino
t; in
toin
corr
ect,
inse
rt, in
expe
nsiv
e, il
lega
l, irr
egul
ar, i
nabi
lity
4. d
is-
not,
away
, apa
rt, n
egat
ive
disa
gree
, dis
cord
, dis
com
fort,
dis
cont
ent,
dist
rust
5. e
n-, e
m-
caus
e to
enjo
y, e
ndur
e, e
nlig
hten
, ent
ail
6. n
on-
not
nons
ense
, non
verb
al, n
onst
ick,
non
spec
ific
7. in
-, im
-in
, int
o, n
otin
vade
, im
plan
t, im
perfe
ct, i
mm
oral
, ine
dibl
e, in
capa
ble
8. o
ver-
too
muc
hov
erlo
ad, o
verd
o, o
vera
ct, o
verb
oard
, ove
rdos
e
9. m
is-
wro
ngly
mis
judg
e, m
isin
terp
ret,
mis
guid
ed, m
ism
atch
, mis
plac
e
10. s
ub-
unde
rsu
bmar
ine,
sub
text
, sub
stan
dard
, sub
situ
te, s
ubve
rsiv
e
11. p
re-
befo
repr
evie
w, p
rete
st, p
reve
nt, p
repl
an
12. i
nter
-be
twee
n, a
mon
gin
ters
tate
, int
erna
tiona
l, in
term
issi
on, i
nter
min
gle,
inte
rface
13 fo
re-
befo
refo
resh
adow
, for
esig
ht, f
ores
eeab
le, f
orec
ast,
fore
grou
nd
14. d
e-, d
is-
oppo
site
of,
not
depo
se, d
etou
r, de
hydr
ated
, dec
affe
inat
ed, d
isco
rd, d
isco
mfo
rt, d
isen
gage
15. t
rans
-ac
ross
; mov
e be
twee
ntra
nsat
lant
ic, t
rans
cend
, tra
nsfe
r, tra
nsac
t, tra
nspo
rt
16. s
uper
-ab
ove
supe
rson
ic, s
uper
star
, sup
erna
tura
l, su
pers
tore
17. s
emi-
half
sem
icirc
le, s
emip
reci
ous,
sem
icol
on, s
emifi
nal
18. a
nti-
agai
nst
antif
reez
e, a
ntith
esis
, ant
itrus
t, an
tidot
e, a
ntis
ocia
l
19. m
id-
mid
dle
mid
term
, Mid
wes
t, m
idst
ream
, mid
way
, mid
nigh
t
20. u
nder
-to
o lit
tle; n
ot e
noug
hun
derfe
d, u
nder
dog,
und
eres
timat
e, u
nder
age
Ran
ked
by C
arro
ll et
al (
1971
) and
app
lied
to th
ird g
rade
rese
arch
by
Whi
te, S
owel
l and
Yan
agih
ara
(198
9)
The
20 M
ost C
omm
on P
refix
es in
Aca
dem
ic T
exts
The Center for Development and Learning 21
Cen
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or D
evel
opm
ent a
nd L
earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
62
Pref
ixM
eani
ngEx
ampl
es
ante
-be
fore
ante
bellu
m, a
ntec
eden
t, an
terio
r
be-
to, c
ompl
etel
ybe
little
, bef
riend
, bej
ewel
ed
bene
-go
od, w
ell
bene
ficia
l, be
nefit
, ben
edic
tion,
ben
evol
ent
circ
um-
arou
nd, a
bout
circ
umfe
renc
e, c
ircum
vent
co-,
com
-, co
n-,
col-
toge
ther
, with
coop
erat
e, c
opilo
t, co
mm
ittee
, com
mit,
con
cur,
conc
ert,
colli
de, c
olla
bora
te,
colle
ague
dia-
acro
ss, t
hrou
ghdi
agon
al, d
iam
eter
, dia
gnos
tic
ex-
out,
from
expe
l, ex
cava
te, e
xhal
e
hom
o-sa
me,
alik
eho
mon
ym, h
omog
eniz
e, h
omop
hone
hype
r-ov
er, a
bove
, exc
essi
vehy
pera
ctiv
e, h
yper
veni
late
, hyp
ercr
itica
l, hy
perth
erm
ia
mal
-ba
d, e
vil
mal
icio
us, m
alad
just
ed, m
alnu
itriti
on
mic
ro-
smal
lm
icro
scop
ic, m
icro
cosm
, mic
robi
olog
y, m
icro
wav
e
mul
ti-m
any,
muc
hm
ultip
ly, m
ultig
rain
, mul
tiple
para
-be
side
, alo
ngsi
depa
rpar
ofes
sion
al, p
aral
egal
poly
-m
any,
muc
hpo
lygo
n, p
olye
ster
post
-af
ter,
behi
ndpo
stw
ar, p
oste
rior,
post
date
pro-
forw
ard,
ear
lier,
prio
r to
proj
ect,
proc
eed,
pro
gres
s
retr
o-ba
ck, b
ackw
ard
retro
activ
e, re
trogr
essi
on
tele
-di
stan
tte
leph
one,
tele
grap
h, te
levi
sion
ther
m-
heat
, war
mth
erm
osta
t, th
erm
al
tran
s-ac
ross
; mov
e be
twee
ntra
nsat
lant
ic, t
rans
cend
, tra
nsfe
r, tra
nsac
t, tra
nspo
rt
uni-
one,
sin
gle
univ
erse
, uni
cycl
e, u
nico
rn
Oth
er C
omm
on P
refix
es
The Center for Development and Learning 22
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or D
evel
opm
ent a
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earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
6
Gre
ekLa
tinM
eani
ngEx
ampl
es
mon
o-un
i-1
mon
oton
e, m
onop
oly,
mon
olog
ue, m
onog
amy,
mon
ochr
ome,
m
onog
raph
, mon
omia
l, m
onot
heis
m, u
nive
rse,
uni
form
, uni
corn
di-
bi-,
du-,
duo-
2bi
olog
y, b
icyc
le, d
icho
tom
y, b
iling
ual,
bina
ry, b
imon
thly,
bin
ocul
ars,
duo
, du
et, d
uel
tri-
tri-
3tri
cycl
e, tr
iad,
tria
thlo
n, tr
iang
le, t
ripod
, triu
mvi
rate
, trip
le
tetr
a-qu
adri-
, qua
rt-
4te
tram
eter
, qua
drila
tera
l, qu
adrip
legi
c, q
uadr
angl
e, q
uadr
uple
, qua
rter,
quar
terly
, qua
rtet,
quar
tile
pent
a-qu
in-
5pe
ntam
eter
, pen
tago
n, q
uint
et, q
uint
uple
t, qu
intu
plic
ate
hexa
-se
xt-
6he
xago
n, h
exam
eter
, sex
tupl
et, s
exte
t, se
xtag
enar
ian
hept
a-se
ptem
-, se
pti-
7he
ptag
on, h
epta
met
er, h
epta
gon,
sep
tuag
enar
ian
octo
-oc
ta-,
oct-
8oc
tago
n, o
ctog
enar
ian,
oct
opus
, oct
ahed
ron,
oct
ant
enne
a-no
vem
-9
nove
na
deca
-,de
ci-,
dece
m-
10de
cade
, dec
agon
, dec
ahed
ron,
dec
alog
ue, d
ecim
al, d
ecib
el
hem
i-se
mi-
half
hem
isph
ere,
sem
icirc
le, s
emic
olon
, sem
ifina
l, se
mia
nnua
l, se
mes
ter,
sem
isw
eet
poly
-m
ulti-
man
ypo
lygo
n, p
olyg
amy,
pol
yest
er, p
olym
er, p
olyn
omia
l, m
ultip
ly,
mul
tifac
eted
, mul
tilin
gual
, mul
titud
e, m
ultiv
itam
in, m
ultip
le
hect
o-ce
nt-,
cent
e-10
0ce
nt, c
ente
nnia
l, ce
ntur
ion,
cen
tiped
e, c
ente
nary
, cen
t
kilo
-, ch
ilia-
milli-‐, m
ille-‐
1000
kilogram
, kilometer, kilobyte, m
illigram, m
illise
cond
, millen
nium
Com
mon
Num
ber P
refix
es
3
The Center for Development and Learning 23
Cen
ter f
or D
evel
opm
ent a
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earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
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arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
64
Suffi
xM
eani
ngEx
ampl
es
-s, -
es
plur
alm
ore
than
one
hote
ls, a
men
dmen
ts,
wis
hes,
pre
fixes
-ed
past
tens
ein
the
past
wal
ked,
jum
ped,
hel
ped
-ing
pr
esen
t ten
se in
the
pres
ent
wal
king
, jum
ping
, hel
ping
-ate
verb
beco
me
com
plic
ate,
hes
itate
, era
dica
te, p
laca
te, d
emon
stra
te, p
rocr
astin
ate,
rum
inat
e
-en
ve
rbbe
com
e, to
mak
een
light
en, t
ight
en, f
right
en, b
right
en, d
ampe
n, fa
sten
, hei
ghte
n, lo
osen
, stra
ight
en
-ify
, -fy
verb
mak
e or
bec
ome
terr
ify, v
erify
, cla
rify,
dig
nify
, rec
tify,
mag
nify
, cla
ssify
-ize
, -is
e
ve
rbto
mak
e; to
bec
ome
hypn
otiz
e, fe
rtiliz
e, c
ivili
ze, r
atio
naliz
e, c
ritic
ize,
cat
egor
ize,
pol
ariz
e, m
oder
nize
, ch
astis
e, it
alic
ise,
rom
antic
ize
-ly
adve
rbho
w s
omet
hing
isqu
ickl
y, e
asily
, hap
pily,
maj
estic
ally,
non
chal
antly
, lite
rally
, bar
ely,
car
eful
ly, a
brup
tly
-acy
noun
stat
e or
qua
lity
priv
acy,
occ
upan
cy, d
emoc
racy
, buo
yanc
y, s
alie
ncy,
lite
racy
, sec
retly
, pol
itely,
rapi
dly
-anc
e, -e
nce
no
unst
ate
or q
ualit
y of
mai
nten
ance
, em
inen
ce, p
rom
inen
ce, d
omin
ance
, coi
ncid
ence
, dec
aden
ce, c
aden
ce
-dom
no
unpl
ace
or s
tate
of b
eing
freed
om, k
ingd
om, w
isdo
m, f
iefd
om, b
ored
om, m
arty
rdom
-er,
-or,
-ist,
-ian,
-eer
no
unon
e w
ho; w
hat/t
hat/w
hich
train
er, t
each
er, t
oast
er, m
ento
r, su
rviv
or, o
rato
r, go
vern
or, p
iani
st, s
peci
alis
t, de
ntis
t, lib
raria
n, m
agic
ian,
tech
nici
an, e
ngin
eer,
pion
eer
-ism
noun
doct
rine,
bel
ief
com
mun
ism
, soc
ialis
m, p
ragm
atis
m, r
ealis
m, f
euda
lism
, rac
ism
, Cat
holic
ism
, B
uddh
ism
, cap
italis
m -i
st
noun
one
who
chem
ist,
soci
alis
t, bi
olog
ist,
publ
icis
t, re
alis
t, ro
man
ticis
t, pr
agm
atis
t
-ity
, -ty
no
un
qu
ality
of
vera
city
, hon
esty
, cla
rity,
laxi
ty, s
anity
, van
ity, r
igid
ity, v
eloc
ity, c
urio
sity
, res
pons
ibili
ty
-men
t
no
unco
nditi
on o
far
gum
ent,
judg
men
t, ap
artm
ent,
cont
entm
ent,
rese
ntm
ent,
base
men
t
-nes
s
noun
stat
e of
bei
nghe
avin
ess,
hap
pine
ss, o
penn
ess,
har
shne
ss, c
lean
lines
s, c
arel
essn
ess
-ion
, -si
on, -
tion
noun
stat
e of
bei
ng; q
ualit
y; a
ctco
nces
sion
, tra
nsiti
on, a
ctio
n, e
rosi
on, v
isio
n, in
vita
tion,
con
clus
ion,
con
dem
natio
n
Com
mon
Suf
fixes
The Center for Development and Learning 24
Cen
ter f
or D
evel
opm
ent a
nd L
earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
65
o-lo
gy
noun
stud
y of
bi
olog
y, m
iner
alog
y, e
colo
gy
-age
noun
resu
lt of
an
actio
nm
arria
ge, p
ilgrim
age
-hoo
d
noun
cond
ition
of b
eing
neig
hbor
hood
, fal
seho
od, c
hild
hood
-ary
noun
plac
e fo
r, co
llect
ion
of; o
ne
who
glos
sary
, lib
rary
, sec
reta
ry, d
igni
tary
-shi
p
no
unar
t or s
kill
of, c
ondi
tion,
ra
nk, g
roup
of
lead
ersh
ip, c
itize
nshi
p, o
wne
rshi
p, c
ompa
nion
ship
, frie
ndsh
ip
-abl
e, -i
ble
ad
ject
ive
able
to b
e, w
orth
y of
, ca
pabl
e of
com
forta
ble,
lika
ble,
enj
oyab
le, h
onor
able
, pre
dict
able
, ter
rible
, sen
sibl
e, in
cred
ible
, ed
ible
, vis
ible
-ful
ad
ject
ive
nota
ble
for,
full
of
fanc
iful,
beau
tiful
, won
derfu
l, co
lorfu
l, ev
entfu
l, fe
arfu
l, ha
tefu
l, re
sent
ful
-ic,
-al,
-ial,
-ical
adje
ctiv
e, n
oun
perta
inin
g to
, rel
atin
g to
ener
getic
, his
toric
, cau
stic
, vol
cani
c, re
fusa
l, re
gion
al, p
ropo
sal,
fata
l, co
rdia
l, te
rrito
rial,
spat
ial,
soci
al, c
omic
al, h
isto
rical
, mag
ical
, log
ical
, reh
ears
al -i
ous,
-ous
adje
ctiv
ech
arac
teriz
ed b
y, fu
ll of
, ha
ving
nutri
tious
, por
tent
ous,
pre
tent
ious
, cur
ious
, fur
ious
, pro
sper
ous
-ish
adje
ctiv
eha
ving
the
qual
ity o
ffie
ndis
h, c
hild
ish,
sel
fish,
boy
ish
-ive
ad
ject
ive
havi
ng th
e na
ture
of,
som
ewha
t lik
ecr
eativ
e, fe
stiv
e, re
spon
sive
, pos
itive
, neg
ativ
e, in
vent
ive
-les
s
adje
ctiv
ew
ithou
ten
dles
s, fr
uitle
ss, w
orth
less
, pow
erle
ss, b
otto
mle
ss, r
elen
tless
, sel
fless
-y, -
ly
ad
ject
ive
char
acte
rized
by;
act
in a
w
ay th
atsl
eazy
, pud
gy, f
unny
, fog
gy, r
isky
, milk
y, s
udsy
, cur
ly, c
razy
, shi
ny, m
anly,
hea
venl
y
Com
mon
Suf
fixes
(con
tinue
d)
The Center for Development and Learning 25
Cen
ter f
or D
evel
opm
ent a
nd L
earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
66
Roo
tM
eani
ngO
rigin
Exam
ples
aqua
wat
erG
reek
aqua
rium
, aqu
educ
t, aq
uacu
lture
, aqu
amar
ine,
aqu
apla
ne, a
quat
ic
aud
hear
ing
Latin
audi
o, a
uditi
on, a
udio
visu
al, a
udito
rium
, ina
udib
le
auto
self
Gre
ekau
togr
aph,
aut
obio
grap
hy, a
utom
obile
, aut
ocra
t, au
tono
my
astr
ost
arG
reek
astro
nom
y, a
stro
phys
ics,
ast
rolo
gy, a
stro
naut
, ast
rono
mer
, ast
eris
k
bibl
iobo
okG
reek
Bib
le, b
iblio
grap
hy, b
iblio
phob
ia, b
iblio
phile
, bib
liokl
ept
bio
life
Gre
ekbi
ogra
phy,
bio
logy
, aut
obio
grap
hy, b
ioni
c, b
iotic
, ant
ibio
tic, b
iom
etric
s
chro
ntim
eG
reek
sync
hron
ize,
chr
onol
ogy,
chr
onic
, chr
onic
le, a
nach
roni
sm
cide
to k
ill, a
kill
erLa
tinho
moc
ide,
sui
cide
, gen
ocid
e
corp
body
Latin
corp
se, c
orpo
ratio
n, c
orps
, inc
orpo
rate
, cor
pore
al, c
orpu
lenc
e
cred
to b
elie
veLa
tincr
edit,
cre
dent
ials
, cre
dulo
us, i
ncre
dibl
e
dem
oth
e ph
one
Gre
ekde
moc
racy
, dem
ogra
phy,
epi
dem
ic, d
emot
ic, e
ndem
ic, p
ande
mic
dic,
dic
tsp
eak,
tell
Latin
dict
ate,
dic
tatio
n, d
ictio
n, d
icta
tor,
verd
ict,
pred
ict,
cont
radi
ct, b
ened
ictio
n,
edic
t
dorm
slee
pLa
tindo
rman
t, do
rmito
ry, d
orm
er, d
orm
ouse
geo
earth
Gre
ekge
olog
y, g
eolo
gist
, geo
met
ry, g
eogr
aphy
, geo
grap
her,
geop
oliti
cal
grap
hto
writ
e, to
dra
wG
reek
auto
grap
h, b
iogr
aphy
, pho
togr
aph,
tele
grap
h, li
thog
raph
hom
osa
me,
alik
eG
reek
hom
onym
, hom
ogen
ize,
hom
opho
ne
hydr
ow
ater
Gre
ekhy
drop
lane
, deh
ydra
te, h
ydro
elec
tric,
hyd
roge
n
ject
thro
wLa
tinre
ject
, dej
ect,
proj
ect,
inje
ct, i
njec
tion,
pro
ject
ion
Com
mon
Lat
in a
nd G
reek
Roo
ts
The Center for Development and Learning 26
Cen
ter f
or D
evel
opm
ent a
nd L
earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
67
junc
tto
join
Latin
junc
tion,
con
junc
tion,
adj
unct
, jun
ctur
e
logo
s, lo
gyst
udy
Gre
ekge
olog
y, a
stro
logy
, bio
logy
, num
erol
ogy,
zoo
logy
, tec
hnol
ogy,
psy
chol
ogy,
an
thro
polo
gy, m
ytho
logy
luna
moo
nLa
tinlu
nar,
luna
cy, l
unat
ic, i
nter
luna
r
met
erm
easu
reG
reek
met
er, t
herm
omet
er, d
iam
eter
, geo
met
ry, o
ptom
etry
, bar
omet
er, c
entim
eter
, sy
mm
etry
, vol
tam
met
er
mic
rosm
all
Gre
ekm
icro
scop
ic, m
icro
scop
e, m
icro
cosm
meg
a, m
acro
grea
t, la
rge
Gre
ekm
egap
hone
, meg
alith
, meg
aton
s, m
egal
opol
is, m
acro
clim
ate,
m
acro
evol
utio
n
min
smal
l, lit
tleLa
tinm
inim
al, m
inim
ize,
min
imum
, min
i, m
inia
ture
, min
uscu
le, m
inut
e, m
inor
ity
mit,
mis
send
Latin
mis
sion
, tra
nsm
it, tr
ansm
issi
on, r
emit,
mis
sile
, sub
mis
sion
, per
mit,
em
it,
emis
sary
path
feel
ing,
suf
ferin
gG
reek
path
etic
, pat
holo
gy, a
path
y, a
ntip
athy
, sym
path
y, te
lepa
thy,
em
path
y,
soci
opat
h
ped
foot
Latin
pede
stria
n, p
edal
, ped
dle,
ped
dler
, ped
icur
e, p
edom
eter
phili
alo
ve, f
riend
ship
Gre
ekph
iloso
pher
, Phi
lade
lphi
a, p
hila
nthr
opis
t, ph
ilhar
mon
ic, P
hilip
phob
iafe
ar, i
nten
se d
islik
eG
reek
clau
stro
phob
ia, x
enop
hobi
c, a
rach
noph
obia
phon
oso
und
Gre
ekph
onog
raph
, mic
roph
one,
sym
phon
y, te
leph
one,
pho
nogr
am, m
egap
hone
, ph
ony,
eup
hony
, xyl
opho
ne
phot
olig
htG
reek
phon
ogra
ph, p
hoto
synt
hesi
s, te
leph
oto,
pho
tom
eter
, pho
tose
nsiti
ve
port
carr
yLa
tinpo
rt, tr
ansp
ort,
trans
porta
tion,
por
tabl
e, p
orta
ge, r
epor
t
psyc
hom
ind,
men
tal
Gre
ekps
ycho
logy
, psy
chic
, psy
chot
ropi
c, p
sych
olog
ist
rupt
to b
reak
Latin
disr
upt,
inte
rrup
t, ru
ptur
e, c
orru
pt
spec
tse
eLa
tinre
spec
t, in
spec
tion,
insp
ecto
r, sp
ecta
tor,
spec
tacl
es, p
rosp
ect
scop
elo
ok a
tG
reek
mic
rosc
ope,
tele
scop
e, p
eris
cope
, kal
eido
scop
e
Com
mon
Lat
in a
nd G
reek
Roo
ts (c
ontin
ued)
The Center for Development and Learning 27
Cen
ter f
or D
evel
opm
ent a
nd L
earn
ing
● w
ww
.cdl
.org
● le
arn@
cdl.o
rg ●
(504
) 840
-978
68
scrip
tto
writ
eLa
tinsc
ribbl
e, m
anus
crip
t, sc
riptu
re, p
resc
riptio
n
sol
sun
Latin
sola
r, so
lar s
yste
m, s
olst
ice,
sol
ariu
m, p
aras
ol
stru
ctbu
ild, f
orm
Latin
inst
ruct
, ins
truct
ion,
con
stru
ctio
n, re
cons
truct
ion,
des
truct
, des
truct
ion,
in
frast
ruct
ure,
con
stru
e, in
stru
men
t, in
stru
men
tal
ther
mhe
at, w
arm
Gre
ekth
erm
osta
t, th
erm
al
tele
dist
ant
Gre
ekte
leph
one,
tele
visi
on, t
eleg
raph
, tel
epho
to, t
eles
cope
, tel
epat
hy, t
elet
hon
terr
ala
ndLa
tinte
rrar
ium
, ext
rate
rres
trial
, Med
iterr
anea
n S
ea, s
ubte
rran
ean,
terr
ain,
terr
a fir
ma
vert
, ver
sto
turn
Latin
reve
rse,
ver
satil
e, in
vert,
con
vert,
div
ert
zoo
anim
alG
reek
zool
ogy,
zoo
geog
raph
y, z
ooto
xin
Com
mon
Lat
in a
nd G
reek
Roo
ts (c
ontin
ued)
The Center for Development and Learning 28
Teach Students the All-Purpose Academic Word List By Alice Thomas
The Academic Word List (AWL) consists of 570 word families that occur reasonably frequently over a wide range of academic texts. The list was developed and evaluated by Averil Coxhead for her MA thesis (Coxhead, 2000). The AWL word families were selected according to range and frequency. For range, the word families had to occur across disciplines (e.g., the arts, commerce, law and science). For frequency, AWL word families had to occur over 100 times in the 3,500,000-word Academic Corpus. Additional information about the AWL word selection can be found at www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/principles.aspx. Almost all of the words in the Academic Word List are headwords of word families (e.g., the headword analyze represents several other forms of that word such as analysis, analyzes, analyzed, analyzing, analyst, analytic, analytical and analytically). Therefore, students who master the AWL will increase his vocabulary exponentially beyond the 570 headwords. The 570 words are grouped into 10 sublists that reflect word frequency. Thus, the first sublist contains words with the highest frequency and the last sublist contains the words with the lowest. Each sublist contains 60 words except sublist 10, which contains 30 words. Because of the words were selected by their range and frequency in the English language Academic Corpus, the AWL is useful for learners across the disciplines. The AWL does not contain technical words likely to appear only in a specific discipline such as trapezoid, photosynthesis or preposition. Adolescent students should benefit from teachers who (1) explicitly teach the word families on the AWL, (2) regularly use words on the AWL, (3) elaborate on the AWL word families, and (4) require student usage (verbal and written) of AWL words. Free practice exercises for each sublist of words may be found at www.academicvocabularyexercises.com. AWL Sublists (http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/information.aspx) Sublist 1 analyze • approach • area • assess • assume • authority • available • benefit • concept • consist • constitute • context • contract • create • data • define • derive • distribute • economy • environment • establish • estimate • evident • export • factor • finance • formula • function • identify • income • indicate • individual • interpret • involve • issue •
The Center for Development and Learning 29
labor • legal • legislate • major • method • occur • percent • period • policy • principle • proceed • process • require • research • respond • role • section • sector • significant • similar • source • specific • structure • theory • vary Sublist 2 achieve • acquire • administrate • affect • appropriate • aspect • assist • category • chapter • commission • community • complex • compute • conclude • conduct • consequent • construct • consume • credit • culture • design • distinct • element • equate • evaluate • feature • final • focus • impact • injure • institute • invest • item • journal • maintain • normal • obtain • participate • perceive • positive • potential • previous • primary • purchase • range • region • regulate • relevant • reside • resource • restrict • secure • seek • select • site • strategy • survey • text • tradition • transfer Sublist 3 alternative • circumstance • comment • compensate • component • consent • considerable • constant • constrain • contribute • convene • coordinate • core • corporate • correspond • criteria • deduce • demonstrate • document • dominate • emphasis • ensure • exclude • framework • fund • illustrate • immigrate • imply • initial • instance • interact • justify • layer • link • locate • maximize • minor • negate • outcome • partner • philosophy • physical • proportion • publish • react • register • rely • remove • scheme • sequence • sex • shift • specify • sufficient • task • technique • technology • valid • volume Sublist 4 access • adequate • annual • apparent • approximate • attitude • attribute • civil • code • commit • communicate • concentrate • confer • contrast • cycle • debate • despite • dimension • domestic • emerge • error • ethnic • goal • grant • hence • hypothesis • implement • implicate • impose • integrate • internal • investigate • job • label • mechanism • obvious • occupy • option • output • overall • parallel • parameter • phase • predict • principal • prior • professional • project • promote • regime • resolve • retain • series • statistic • status • stress • subsequent • sum • summary • undertake Sublist 5 academy • adjust • alter • amend • aware • capacity • challenge • clause • compound • conflict • consult • contact • decline • discrete • draft • enable • energy • enforce • entity • equivalent • evolve • expand • expose • external • facilitate • fundamental • generate • generation • image • liberal • license • logic • margin • medical • mental • modify • monitor • network • notion • objective • orient • perspective • precise • prime • psychology • pursue • ratio • reject • revenue • stable • style • substitute • sustain • symbol • target • transit • trend • version • welfare • whereas Sublist 6 abstract • accurate • acknowledge • aggregate • allocate • assign • attach • author • bond • brief • capable • cite • cooperate • discriminate • display • diverse • domain • edit • enhance • estate • exceed • expert • explicit • federal • fee • flexible • furthermore • gender • ignorant • incentive • incidence • incorporate • index • inhibit • initiate • input •
The Center for Development and Learning 30
instruct • intelligence • interval • lecture • migrate • minimum • ministry • motive • neutral • nevertheless • overseas • precede • presume • rational • recover • reveal • scope • subsidy • tape • trace • transform • transport • underlie • utilize Sublist 7 adapt • adult • advocate • aid • channel • chemical • classic • comprehensive • comprise • confirm • contrary • convert • couple • decade • definite • deny • differentiate • dispose • dynamic • eliminate • empirical • equip • extract • file • finite • foundation • globe • grade • guarantee • hierarchy • identical • ideology • infer • innovate • insert • intervene • isolate • media • mode • paradigm • phenomenon • priority • prohibit • publication • quote • release • reverse • simulate • sole • somewhat • submit • successor • survive • thesis • topic • transmit • ultimate • unique • visible • voluntary Sublist 8 abandon • accompany • accumulate • ambiguous • append • appreciate • arbitrary • automate • bias • chart • clarify • commodity • complement • conform • contemporary • contradict • crucial • currency • denote • detect • deviate • displace • drama • eventual • exhibit • exploit • fluctuate • guideline • highlight • implicit • induce • inevitable • infrastructure • inspect • intense • manipulate • minimize • nuclear • offset • paragraph • plus • practitioner • predominant • prospect • radical • random • reinforce • restore • revise • schedule • tense • terminate • theme • thereby • uniform • vehicle • via • virtual • visual • widespread Sublist 9 accommodate • analogy • anticipate • assure • attain • behalf • bulk • cease • coherent • coincide • commence • compatible • concurrent • confine • controversy • converse • device • devote • diminish • distort • duration • erode • ethic • format • founded • inherent • insight • integral • intermediate • manual • mature • mediate • medium • military • minimal • mutual • norm • overlap • passive • portion • preliminary • protocol • qualitative • refine • relax • restrain • revolution • rigid • route • scenario • sphere • subordinate • supplement • suspend • team • temporary • trigger • unify • violate • vision Sublist 10 adjacent • albeit • assemble • collapse • colleague • compile • conceive • convince • depress • encounter • enormous • forthcoming • incline • integrity • intrinsic • invoke • levy • likewise • nonetheless • notwithstanding • odd • ongoing • panel • persist • pose • reluctance • so-called • straightforward • undergo • whereby _____________________________ References
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213–238. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/information.aspx. Kinsella (2003). The academic word list: A list of 570 high-incidence and high-utility academic word families for secondary school, higher education, career. Retrieved on July 15, 2010 from http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/read180/community/pdfs/Vocabulary/Academic_Word_List_by_Frequency.pdf
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Reprinted with permission of the author.
Alice Thomas is president and CEO of the Center for Development and Learning (CDL). She will be a presenter at CDL’s 2013 Plain Talk about Reading Institute. About Averil Coxhead Averil Coxhead, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Wellington in New Zealand. She teaches courses on second language learning. She has taught in New Zealand, England, Estonia, Hungary, and Romania.
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