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Developing Vocabulary

The Oxford English Language Report (Oxford University Press)

The Oxford Language Report (Oxford University Press) is a useful document that explores the word gap that exists in UK schools and outlines why it is so important to address the development of vocabulary across the curriculum.

Oxford University Press also published an accompanying resource to help secondary schools develop a whole school literacy strategy, and also to help schools develop subject disciplinary vocabulary in subjects such as English, science, maths, history and geography. This document is attached to this page, but separate booklets can also be downloaded by clicking on this link:

https://www.teachitenglish.co.uk/wordgap

Recommended Reads

AWL - Academic Word List (Avervil Coxhead)

Averil Woodhead developed the Academic Word List (AWL) at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand as part of her MA.

This list contains 570 word families, sub-divided into sublists, which frequently appear in academic texts. Thus, the AWL is an excellent starting point when planning key academic words for explicit teaching as part of a whole school strategy.

Please click here for the AWL

The web links below are also useful in relation to the academic word list

Recommended Websites - Vocabulary

Bedrock

English Club - Latin phrases in use in modern English

Membean

Online Etymology Dictionary

Visuwords

Vocabulary.com

WordHippo

Other

EEF ARTICLE: 'The Vital Importance of vocabulary in Mathematics'

FREE Seneca Course: Key Stage 3 Decoding Words

FREE Future Learn course: An Introduction to Teaching Vocabulary