Many research studies inform us that vocabulary learning is an essential component of early literacy achievement, oral language mastery, and reading comprehension. Then we ask ourselves, what exactly is vocabulary? Vocabulary is the body of words we learn to read and use every day. An essential element of early reading development is learning the meanings of these new vocabulary words (Marulis, & Neuman, 2010). Vocabulary development is especially important at a young age as it will guide comprehension success as children grow. Developing a broad vocabulary is critical in learning to read. Children must know and be able to visually identify the words that make up a text so they can later understand the content (Neuman, & Wright, 2014).
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Due to the facts discovered in research, we can conclude that teaching vocabulary to children in early childhood will benefit their future vocabulary development. Vocabulary teaching strategies are focused towards children from age six to age fourteen (Han et al., 2010). Researchers believe that by developing strategies that are also aimed towards children under the age of five, they will also benefit in vocabulary development and language skills (Han et al., 2010). Vocabulary development is crucial to children of the preschool age (Hoffman et al., 2014). Between the ages of twelve months and eighteen months, children learn an average of ten words a day if their environment is full of new words (Christ, & Wang, …show more content…
When children come to school lacking a range of vocabulary, action must be taken to catch those children up with the others. One way to do so is through intervention. Intervention would be used to help expand children’s vocabulary with definitions or explanations of words they may be unsure of (Hoffman et al., 2014). The decision to take action on vocabulary development through intervention is always questionable. Interventions are found to accelerate a child 's learning but not necessarily improve it (Marulis, & Neuman, 2010). In order for children on interventions to improve they would have to learn a couple hundred new words, in addition to what their whole class is learning (Marulis, & Neuman, 2010). This theory results in failure to narrow the vocabulary gap, leaving us wonder if vocabulary intervention is the most practical action that can be taken (Hoffman et al.,
Due to the facts discovered in research, we can conclude that teaching vocabulary to children in early childhood will benefit their future vocabulary development. Vocabulary teaching strategies are focused towards children from age six to age fourteen (Han et al., 2010). Researchers believe that by developing strategies that are also aimed towards children under the age of five, they will also benefit in vocabulary development and language skills (Han et al., 2010). Vocabulary development is crucial to children of the preschool age (Hoffman et al., 2014). Between the ages of twelve months and eighteen months, children learn an average of ten words a day if their environment is full of new words (Christ, & Wang, …show more content…
When children come to school lacking a range of vocabulary, action must be taken to catch those children up with the others. One way to do so is through intervention. Intervention would be used to help expand children’s vocabulary with definitions or explanations of words they may be unsure of (Hoffman et al., 2014). The decision to take action on vocabulary development through intervention is always questionable. Interventions are found to accelerate a child 's learning but not necessarily improve it (Marulis, & Neuman, 2010). In order for children on interventions to improve they would have to learn a couple hundred new words, in addition to what their whole class is learning (Marulis, & Neuman, 2010). This theory results in failure to narrow the vocabulary gap, leaving us wonder if vocabulary intervention is the most practical action that can be taken (Hoffman et al.,