Educational Testing: Vocabulary Building

In order to succeed in school and beyond, students in grades 6-12 need to understand and use both academic language and discipline-specific vocabulary. This book describes effective practices for integrating vocabulary study with instruction in English language arts, history/social studies, and math and science, and for helping students become independent, motivated word learners.

This book focuses on case studies of vocabulary strategy use and presents an in-depth account of the vocabulary learning experiences of Chinese students in the UK. It challenges the view that vocabulary strategies result only from learners' cognitive choices, and provides insightful analysis of the interplay between learner characteristics, agency and context in the process of strategic learning.

Word lists lie at the heart of good vocabulary course design, the development of graded materials for extensive listening and extensive reading, research on vocabulary load, and vocabulary test development. This book has been written for vocabulary researchers and curriculum designers to describe the factors they need to consider when they create frequency-based word lists.

This innovative book provides more than 100 research-based mini-lessons with vocabulary exercises to help teachers efficiently shape instruction, each taking no more than 20 minutes of instructional time. Teachers can modify these flexible, effective templates to fit their curriculum and their students' needs.