We need a proper conversation about vocabulary

I used to be a vocabulary puritan. I would go after “fancy” words like they were criminals, accusing them of tearing society apart by hiding meaning and understanding from the majority. Those who said or wrote something in a more complex way than necessary were, to my eyes, irresponsible and showy. I called them out and then I sought out simplicity and praised it for its power of accessibility.

With age, my views have softened. I can see now how, sometimes, a complex word can make the whole more accessible, the meaning clearer. I can also understand how some people delight in the beauty of a word when set apart from its function: the way it sounds, looks and is formed.  

But as a journalist, I still believe in the power of basic construction and I see a real beauty in the craft of ensuring that no one is left out of the conversation through a careful selection of vocabulary.

It’s why I give a cautious welcome to the push on vocabulary in schools. The notion of “boosting” vocabulary seems, to me, too broad. It leaves unanswered questions about what, when and how.

Certainly, in EYFS, I see the benefit every day of broadening a child’s knowledge of words. My daughters are the third and fourth of my children to go through early reading teaching, and the focus on vocabulary means that the blending process in phonics has been made easier by having a reference word bank in their memory. It has also enabled them to be clearer about what they want, how they feel and where they are struggling, both verbally and in writing.

Where we need more discussion, however, is to what level vocabulary should be pushed at this age and how it should be done. And for which children and when. 

Expanding children’s knowledge of words

As the primary years progress, again it is a delight to see a child expanding their knowledge of words, both to aid comprehension but also to fuel creativity. But again, we need to be cautious to not create what some teachers call “walking dictionaries but without the definitions”. This is when children throw in words without context or really understanding what those words mean. They have sensed this urgency around vocabulary, but the message has been misconstrued.

On into secondary, we certainly do want our pupils to be armed with the tools to understand and communicate their understanding around complex, subject-specific knowledge. But we also have a responsibility to find a balance that ensures we do not exclude children on the basis of vocabulary. We know that the so-called “vocabulary gap” feeds into many other issues in schools, including those around transition, behaviour and access to pastoral care and interventions. The solution is unlikely to be just making kids know more words; it may be looking again at our own word use - in class, in texts, in the curriculum - to justify the choices we make.

It may also be about looking again at how we teach vocabulary. Kate Parker wrote a fascinating piece this week about using Wordle to teach vocabulary. In it, Tes columnist Alex Quigley talked about games such as this being part of “high-quality teaching”. In a fantastic column from our archive, Tes columnist Megan Dixon talks at length about the key role interactions and oracy play in vocabulary learning.

We need more of these “how” conversations, as well as more specific “what” conversations, to run alongside the dominant conversations we are having now that focus almost entirely on the “why”.

If we do that, more children will understand the power of words and be able to wield that power. They will have better access to education, better tools for communication and a better knowledge of when a complex word that sounds clever can actually do more harm than good.