I have a Year 9 English student at the moment who really struggles with enhancing his vocabulary and improving his essay/short story writing because of this. Hence, I thought I would share a few tips and tricks of how I’ve tried to work on improving his vocabulary to solve this issue.
1. Use Words in Context
One thing I’ve noticed is that students remember words better when they see them in action. Instead of just giving definitions, I highlight words in stories or articles and encourage them to use these words in sentences. For example, if we’re reading a short story, I might ask, “How would you describe the character using this new word?” or “Whats a synonym for this word that also works?”
3 Reading in your spare time.
I always encourage students to read as much as they can. I’ve found that recommending books or articles that align with their interest like fictional books or sports related texts keeps them motivated.
4. Revisit and Reinforce
I’ve learned that repetition is key. I like to start each session with a quick review of words we’ve covered before with vocabulary worksheets or in comprehension practice sets. Sometimes, we’ll even turn it into a fun quiz or casual chat where they can practice using the words.
5. Noting down new words
One thing I always encourage is for students to notice new words in their daily lives, on TV, in the book their reading on social media and write them down and look up their definitions. Then they can bring these new worlds to the session and try to implement the new vocabulary into their writing.
6. Re-writing sentences with synonyms
I will often have students re-write a sentence using better vocabulary, where I get them to replace basic language with synonyms that exhibit a higher level of sophistication to enhance their writing and elevate imagery in short stories, textual analysis of poems or evidence in essays.
Bianca Douroudis
