Vocabulary is crucial for reading comprehension and communication. Poor vocabulary affects grades and can lead to misunderstandings in school and the workplace. Teachers and parents can help build vocabulary through reading, pre-teaching keywords, and multimedia tools. Verbal interaction with children also helps cement words in their minds.
Vocabulary is the body of words that make up a language and the importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension cannot be overstated. Without a good working knowledge of words and their meanings, both written and verbal communication will be confused or poorly understood. Teachers and parents can emphasize reading and verbal interaction with children to help them build a strong working vocabulary.
Students with poor reading comprehension skills lack the vocabulary or word recognition skills to make sense of the material. Students with poor reading comprehension don’t tend to read very often which causes them to miss out on learning new words. Since most classes have some form of written study papers, articles, or textbooks, limited vocabulary can affect many of their grades.
Communication is improved by knowing more words. They don’t have to be big words, but the meanings should convey what the person is trying to say. When people fail to communicate clearly and accurately, it can be difficult to give instructions or understand them. Mistakes can be made, costing time, effort and money both in school and in the workplace.
The importance of vocabulary can extend to spelling instruction. If the reader cannot make out a word, he will skip it or stop reading. This can easily be illustrated by looking at poorly written and gibberish articles on the Internet. When concepts can’t be expressed clearly, it’s easy for readers to click and look for another source. Spelling errors tend to spread, especially online, making written communication difficult to understand.
Teachers can emphasize the importance of vocabulary early in school and continue to provide students with opportunities to develop verbal skills. One way to do this is to pre-teach keywords in all subjects. This strategy helps students understand concepts that contain terms they may not be familiar with. Placing emphasis on root words, prefixes, and suffixes assists students in morphemic analysis, which combines this knowledge with context to figure out the meaning of a new word. Multimedia tools are great ways to expose students to new concepts and increase their desire to develop vocabulary skills.
Reading and discussing books is also a great way to build vocabulary. Parents can do this with both younger and older children. Studies have shown that parents who read regularly are more likely to have children who do. Frequent verbal interaction with young children that emphasizes repetition and expansion of their communications helps cement words in their minds and exposes them to new ones. The importance of vocabulary training can make all the difference in their ability to be successful in school and at work.
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