Subject Specific

Even in the early grades, kids can learn fairly technical words related to specific subjects. Subject-specific teaching in the early grades can also be the framework for introducing many general, all-purpose academic words that students will need later on across content areas. However, teachers need to ensure that those word meanings generalize. Teachers will need to point out new connotations for words students may have already encountered. A major challenge for many students is that such all-purpose words are presumed known when they are used in definitions of content-specific words, e.g., ‘systems of government’ and ‘racial integration.’

Experienced teachers consistently note that too many students comprehend their content area texts poorly, and that lack of vocabulary knowledge is a major challenge. Formal tests of vocabulary confirm teacher impressions, showing that students are often far behind where they need to be on vocabulary knowledge. If students knew more of the words they confront in their texts (and knew how to learn about new words), then content-area teaching would be much more successful.

Specialized words are often taught during subject areas classes such as math, science, or history (cubic, photosynthesis, molecule, and amendment). Many of these words are abstract nouns that encapsulate entire complex processes (precipitation, calculation). Other words might appear in content area texts, but have broader meanings (character, synergy, bond, constitution) that might be encountered in other contexts, perhaps sowing confusion for students who only know the narrow, disciplinary sense of the word.