Vocabulary exists in our long-term memory. The process of
learning a new word is first to notice and enter it into short-term memory and
then to work with in ways that will make it part of the lexicon stored in
long-term memory. Sophisticated readers constantly add new words to their
vocabularies, but they have been developing their vocabularies over many years.
These readers have learned powerful strategies for noticing important new words
and deriving their meaning.
You cannot expect less sophisticated readers, and certainly
not struggling readers, to pick up all their vocabulary from context as they
read or even when they hear texts read aloud. Along with having students read
lots of texts, you can use some simple techniques to help them learn the
meaning of words:
From When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works by
Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Copyright (c) 2009 by Irene C. Fountas and
Gay Su Pinnell. Published by Heinemann.