The thing that caught my attention most about the readings from this week was the fact that vocabulary is integral to reading comprehension. This is important because, in my opinion, comprehension is the whole reason for reading. I think one of the best examples of how important vocabulary is to comprehension is when you are learning a new language. I took Spanish and I remember how difficult it was to understand something when I was first starting out. I had to look up every other word, and sometimes it interfered with me grasping the whole picture. I think it is important to teach words explicitly, but we cannot overlook the power of incidental word learning either. Think about it. Most of the words we know we learned by encountering them in everyday life and seeing how they are used. Sometimes I find learning words like that is easier and sticks with me longer. Check out this vocabulary video and see how many you can remember later.
I agree with you that vocabulary is integral in reading comprehension. I also think it is really important to teach students explicit vocabulary words, but learning words incidentally is important too. I think that word walls in an incidental vocabulary learning situation would be very helpful to students.
ReplyDeleteMany of these words did seem difficult that's why I think it is so important to review the vocabulary words often. Vocabulary words, I believe as well, need to be connected to their reading. This gives them a reason to think that learning these new words is important because they see the words appear in their book.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! We often forget this, but learning English for our young students is like us learning Spanish for the first time. They have not been exposed to this vocabulary yet, and you cannot expect them know it, until you have taught it to them and given them concrete experiences with unfamiliar words. It is said that immersing yourself in another culture is the best way to learn their language, so we need to do this with our students. Immerse them in new, interesting, and meaningful vocabulary that they can use in their every day language.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely.......having a strong vocabulary base helps tremendously with reading comprehension. I never had a very diverse vocabulary growing up, and I think it definitely hindered me with comprehension. It hasn't been until the last ten years that I've built up a great vocabulary base, and I think these words come from reading books for fun, as well as numerous magazine and journal articles.
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