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The Importance of Explicit Vocabulary

Instruction for English Learners

By Lori Holguin

The author discusses an action research effort to improve vocabulary for English Learners in a Title I
school. She provides steps for explicitly teaching vocabulary to this targeted group of students. However,
this research may be useful for teaching any students who have limited vocabulary in English or for
students’ language acquisition in any “new” language.

s the English as a Second Language Coordinator for our district, I am constantly
Acollecting data to assess how English Learners (ELs) are learning. Our district
is in a rural area with a large population of low socioeconomic students. In fact, we
are a Title 1 school with 100% of our students receiving free and reduced lunches.
Not only do our ELs have language limitations, but, due to low socioeconomic
background, our native English speakers often struggle with limited vocabulary and
a lack of reading materials at home as well. This study, conducted as an action
research project in collaboration with an elementary EL teacher, focused only on our
EL population: 7 females and 7 males. All were Grade 3 students, conversationally
fluent in English though not academically fluent. They were able to have conversations
with friends in the hallway about everyday activities but were unable to comprehend
vocabulary in a textbook or academic vocabulary that was used infrequently. Eight
of these students were born in the United States, while the other six had immigrated
from other Latin American countries. Ten of these students had been in U.S. schools
since kindergarten or Grade 1.
Our district has seen an influx of ELs within the past several years. For example,
we had a 10% increase in the 2022–2023 school year. Many of those students
entered school with fewer words in their vocabulary lexicon in both their home
language and the target language, which immediately put them at a disadvantage
in reading and language acquisition. According to Sopris Voyager Learning, as
outlined in their LETRS program, a lack of vocabulary is a predictor of reading
problems, and, to increase students’ reading proficiency, educators must increase
vocabulary knowledge (Moats & Tolman, 2019). One member of Ohio State’s Crane
Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy noted of the university’s research
results, “Kids who heard more vocabulary words were going to be better prepared
to see those words in print when they entered school . . . They were likely to pick
up reading skills more quickly and easily” (Grabmeier, 2019). Such preparation
is a concern for our school because most
students are from homes in which the parents
have had limited formal education and are of
low socioeconomic status. These factors all ...to increase students’ reading
contribute to a less robust vocabulary than proficiency, educators must
that of many of their non-EL counterparts who
come from homes where the income is above increase vocabulary knowledge.
the poverty line.
A Home Language Survey completed by
parents upon enrollment confirmed that many

Promoting Professional and Personal Growth of Educators and Excellence in Education 37