Infant Insights: Building Vocabulary through Reading and Conversations
By Barbara Begg, Infant English as a First Language (EAL) teacher, UWCSEA Dover
7 December 2022
Parents all over the world often wonder about how their child’s friendships are developing, how their reading is progressing and wondering if they are progressing with their letter sounds. Vocabulary development is something that isn’t often thought about past the toddler years. We presume our child will pick up words as they go along, which they will, but what we know is that children with larger vocabularies will find many areas of literacy easier as a result.
I am the infant EAL (English as an additional Language) teacher, but first and foremost I’m a Primary School teacher with a passion for literacy development. I am writing to tell you a bit more about the importance of vocabulary development. The size of a student’s vocabulary can have big impacts on many areas of their success in school life both in the early years and way beyond right up to the end of their schooling years..
Biemiller (2012) tells us that a well established vocabulary is the strongest predictor of reading comprehension from Grades 2 and 3, and that a child’s vocabulary in Grade 1 is a strong predictor of reading comprehension in Grade 11! As children’s vocabulary grows, they are able to make further connections to other words and concepts.
English speaking children between the ages of 5 and 6 usually have about 4,000-5,000 words and by the time they are in high school will have about 14,000 words. This means they need to learn on average about 1,000 words a year. A child needs to hear a word 10–15 times before it is in his/her vocabulary.
How can you increase your child’s Vocabulary?
The easiest and most effective way to build any child’s vocabulary (in any language) is through reading together and talking about books. Choose books which are rich in vocabulary and enjoyable for your child. Children are exposed to a wide array of words in picture and chapter books, rich, beautiful words that we often don’t use in everyday spoken English.
Here’s an example to demonstrate, from Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd. This is a great picture book from a series about a cat. There are many other picture books that I could also have chosen that have fantastic vocabulary.
This picture is the first page of the book. Already we can see so many great verbs- stalking, lurking, warbling. These are words that we don’t hear in everyday conversation. The way the author writes is almost poetic, there’s adjectives and a great storyline perfect for young children. Just by reading the book, explaining the words and talking about the pictures you are actively developing your child’s vocabulary. Read and reread if your child asks. Most picture books will provide excellent vocabulary. Try to take a mental note of some of the words in the books and use them elsewhere in other meaningful contexts. Remember a child needs to hear a word 10-15 times before it becomes part of their vocabulary.
Your child will bring home levelled readers from school that include simple words and sentences so that your child can read independently. These can be useful for decoding and learning about how books work, but they are not the best for vocabulary building if you stick only to the words. It is important for you to combine reading the levelled books with reading together rich picture books and chapter books.
Here is a sample photo of a simple reading book with words similar to the ones your child may be reading. The pictures are your opportunity to build vocabulary. As well as reading the words for their homework, ask your child to talk about the pictures.You can then provide some more vocabulary for extension. This is because children learn new words not only by reading them, but also by talking with you and using more complex language.
 |
What is Mum doing? Where is the shopping list? What are all the things on the table? |
How do you think Jojo is feeling? (try to go further than just happy- perhaps grateful that her Mum is helping or excited that she’s going to get cake!) Always encourage a strong bank of “feelings” vocabulary.
I hope that this helps you to begin to understand how you can play an active role in extending your child’s vocabulary. Communication and Reading comprehension will improve as vocabulary increases. You’ll have wonderful memories of sharing books with your son or daughter and the bonus will be hearing them articulate themselves using a wide range of words!
Finally I’d like to finish with these two quotes:
Words. A child needs a forest of words to wander through, a sea of words to splash in. A child needs to be read to.
– Frank Bruni
You can’t build a vocabulary without reading. You can’t meet friends if you … stay at home by yourself all the time.
In the same way, you can’t build up a vocabulary if you never meet any new words. And to meet them you must read. The more you read the better.
– Rudolf Flesch