LANGUAGE
Our aim is to bring the best out of every pupil that attends Ermine Street Church Academy
We often take for granted that we can find the words we need to describe something and communicate clearly. However sometimes, learning new vocabulary and then recalling it to use in a variety of situations, can be difficult. Sometimes children need to be explicitly taught the vocabulary to be used and the way to form a sentence correctly.
There are 3 different levels or ‘tiers’ of vocabulary that we learn and use.
Tier 1: Basic vocabulary including many everyday words - often naming vocabulary and simple words: hair, coat, mum, dad, walk, run, happy, sad.
Tier 2: Common, regularly used vocabulary, which can be called High Frequency vocabulary. It also includes more adventurous descriptive vocabulary that children will begin to use in their speech and writing.
Tier 3: Topic specific vocabulary, which means vocabulary that is not commonly used in everyday speech, but is used in specific topics or subjects. For example, when working in Maths, you may need to know, understand and use words like perpendicular, vertices, angle. These words are specific to the topic in question and not to general language.
Sometimes specific vocabulary from these tiers needs to be taught explicitly to children. By doing this, and playing with the new vocabulary regularly, children are helped to remember vocabulary and use it in their own sentences.
Building Vocabulary
Here are a few ways you can help your child’s vocabulary to become more secure and expand.
Pre-teaching
This strategy involves teaching new vocabulary or reminding a child of the vocabulary they may come across or need to use, before a new topic is begun. Practicing relevant vocabulary before a topic is taught or discussed, enables the child to become familiar with relevant words and phrases. When they are then used in context in a lesson or discussion, the child will be aware of them and hopefully be more confident in being able to pick up key parts of the discussion.
Talking boxes
Talking boxes are little collections of objects that can be used to play with and talk about with your child. The items are collected to fit a theme, for example fruits. A collection of real and/or toy fruit that goes in a box, can be opened up with a child and talked about as they play shops or being at a restaurant. In this way, children are actively using the vocabulary they are being introduced to, which will make them more likely to remember the vocabulary being introduced, and be aware of the context in which it can be used.
Click here for an example of Talking Boxes you could set up with your child. The ideas can be adapted for any topic and vocabulary being introduced or practiced.
Vocabulary Maps and Books
Vocabulary maps can be made to present new vocabulary for a particular topic or theme. They can be created in different ways, depending on the age of a child and the detail needed, and what works best for any particular child. Most will use pictures and colour coding of some kind. Putting the maps created for different topics in a book, keeps the vocabulary collections together, and makes them easy to refer to at any time, when the topic is revisited or a recap is needed to boost a child’s confidence or recall.
Click here for examples of different types of Vocabulary Maps for Vocab books.
Click here for examples of making Vocabulary Maps work at different levels.
Developing Grammar in Speech
Sentence construction is a tricky thing when you analyse it in detail, and yet we often pick it up without having to really understand what goes where and why. Sometimes children need a little support to hear that words may be missing, are in the wrong order, or are confused, when they develop their own spoken sentences. Practicing the specific areas children find tricky, can help build their awareness of the building blocks of sentences and concepts.
Building simple sentences video
Pronouns
Pronouns are small words that can be used to replace using a noun all the time. They include words like; they, he, she, we, theirs, ours, us.
Activities to learn about pronouns
Positional vocabulary
Prepositions are small words that add detail and clarity to a sentence, often by describing the position of something. Sometimes children miss these words out of sentences. Practicing sentences using the correct vocabulary can help them get used to adding them into their speech.
Preposition poster and activity sheet
Conceptual language
Language that is used to describe a range of different concepts, is referred to as conceptual language. It may describe:
location (here/there/above/below)
direction (left/right/up/down) and position (first/second/third/last/middle)
number and quantity (more/less/greater/fewer),
order and sequence (first/then/last),
attributes (soft/rough)
size (big/small/large/tiny)
similarities and differences (the same/different)
Children will usually be given one particular concept to work at at one time.
Resources to support learning of many different concepts can be downloaded from the Twinkl website.
Activities to practice many different aspects of language including; pronouns, concepts, negatives, and question words. (Scroll down to Language section to find relevant activities)
Understanding Language
Even simple sentences contain words that give information for children to understand and follow. As a child’s understanding of language develops, they will move from being able to pick up 1 information word in a phrase, to 2 information words, to 3 and then 4. This sequence of development often occurs in the first 4-5 years. However, many children need a little help to be able to consistently understand and therefore follow instructions at the 3 and 4 information word level.
Understanding key words and instructions
Practicing sentences that contain information carrying words with your child, as they play or do things to help around the home, models increasingly complex instructions and sentences to them, and encourages them to develop their ability to pick them up.
Here are a few examples of different sentences that show 2, 3 and 4 information carrying (key) words. You can use them as they are in play with your child, or use them as a model to create similar sentences for activities around the home or to structure questions as you and your child read a book.
1 Key Word sentences … Shopping activity (1 ICW)
2 Key Word sentences … Monsters activity (2 ICWs)
… Communication video (2 ICWs)
3 Key word sentences … Train and Bus activity (3 ICWs)
… Communication video (3 ICWs)
4 key word sentences …
The Lion and Elephant activity (4 ICWs)