If You’ve Wondered How Many New Words To Teach In One Lesson (& What ELL Teacher Hasn’t?), Then You Want To Read This!

“geralt / Pixabay Teachers of English Language Learners and, in fact, of all students often wonder how many new vocabulary terms should be introduced at the same time. When I taught in the classroom, I would generally start a unit by presenting about twenty vocabulary words, either using the Picture Word Inductive Model with ELL Newcomers, a Word Splash with English-proficient students, or just a list of words with an essay-writing unit with Intermediate ELLs. Gianfranco Conti has now written an extraordinary post headlined How many words can we really teach in one lesson? that reviews all the research under the sun about this very issue. Every teacher could benefit from reading it, though it’s important to keep Dylan Wiliam’s comment in mind: “Everything works somewhere; nothing works everywhere.” Of course, another related question is, after introducing vocabulary, how many times do students need to see/use it before they truly learn it? Timothy Shanahan says 10-15 times with lots of variation. This ASCD article offers another perspective: A Game Plan for 12 to 20 Meaningful Exposures I’m adding this info The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary.

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