Vocabulary courses are a relatively new concept. So new, in fact, that when we started, we were the only company that offered live vocabulary classes. Even though vocabulary classes are catching on, good classes are so rare that we’ve had pupils joining us from across the globe.
Reading has long been the most popular way for parents to improve their children’s vocabulary, however, a well-taught, structured vocabulary course can improve vocabulary far more effectively and in a shorter space of time.
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Learning common Latin and Greek root words and affixes (prefixes and suffixes) enables children to decode new words in future. For example, one of my former pupils had learnt in class that mono- means “one” and that -ous is a suffix. She was then able to figure out that “monotonous” literally translates to “one tone”. This prior knowledge, coupled with the context of the passage, enabled her to easily figure out the meaning of the word, therefore deepening her understanding of the story.
When reading challenging texts, children will see new words “in the wild”, so to speak. In order for them to retain this new vocabulary in the long-term, however, it is essential that they see the word multiple times in the near future. Research indicates that we generally need 3 exposures to a new word in order to remember it. If a new word is featured only once in a passage, children won’t have the chance to ingrain this new knowledge and the new vocabulary will be quickly forgotten.
Through a well-structured vocabulary course, your child will have the opportunity to encounter a new word several times over a sustained period. This expedites their learning, providing a far more effective means of learning vocabulary when compared to reading alone.
If your child attends our live vocabulary classes, Wordier Live, they’ll be encouraged to submit their own example sentences and to get feedback from a tutor. This feedback is crucial in ensuring your child has fully understood the new word and can use it correctly. Often, a native English speaking tutor will be able to pick up on incorrect usage that just can’t be conveyed by a dictionary.
For example, during a live session, our pupils recently learnt the word “flaunt”. One of the children then came up with the example sentence “My friend flaunted to me.” The tutor was able to explain that we don’t usually use “to” after “flaunted”. Instead, we usually follow “flaunt” by the object that is being flaunted. It would therefore be more accurate to say “My friend flaunted her expensive clothes or her fancy car.”
When children are able to get instant feedback on their use of vocabulary, we’re able to nip any misunderstandings in the bud. If your child is preparing for the 11+ or looking to improve their creative writing, deepening their understanding of how a word can be used means they can increase their accuracy in verbal reasoning and write more fluently in future.
I’ll never forget how mad my old pupil, A., was when he sat his 11+ and none of the words from his vocabulary list were featured in the exam (this was in the days before Wordier). He’d spent months working diligently through a list – and hating every moment of it – only to find that the words didn’t come up in his exam (don’t worry, he passed with flying colours anyway).
By the time A’s younger sister was sitting the 11+, we had launched Wordier and our vocabulary course so she was able to actually enjoy learning vocabulary. Her parents were able to scrap laborious word lists and simply did occasional revision of the words from the course. Happily, due to the breadth of high frequency words that A’s sister had managed to study, she reported that several of the words from the vocabulary course featured in her 11+ exam. Even before the big day, she had also told us that her practice paper scores were increasing the more she worked on her vocab. Of course, seeing an improvement in her scores also helped to motivate her to learn more.
Not only are the vocabulary courses a fun way to prepare for the 11+ but, for many of our 11+ students, they’re so enjoyable that they wished to continue. Many Year 6 pupils continued with their vocabulary classes after their 11+ exams as they wanted to stretch and challenge themselves.
