Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners

Building on Michael Graves’s bestseller, The Vocabulary Book, this new resource offers a comprehensive plan for vocabulary instruction that K–12 teachers can use with English language learners. It is broad enough to include instruction for students who are just beginning to build their English vocabularies, as well as for students whose English vocabularies are approaching those of native speakers. The authors describe a four-pronged program that follows these key components: providing rich and varied language experiences; teaching individual words; teaching word learning strategies; and fostering word consciousness. This user-friendly book integrates up-to-date research on best practices into each chapter and includes vignettes, classroom activities, sample lessons, a list of children’s literature, and more.

Michael F. Graves is Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota. His books include Teaching Individual Words: Once Size Does Not Fit All and The Vocabulary Book. Diane August is a Managing Director affiliated with the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC. Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez is Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy, and Technology at the University of California, Irvine.

“The Common Core State Standards have ushered in an era of rigorous performance standards for all students, including English learners. But the conversation has taken place almost exclusively in policy and academic circles, leaving teachers without a roadmap on how to translate these standards into successful practices in the classroom. In Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners, the authors successfully address this gap. They provide practical, research-based strategies to build a solid foundation for the education of English learners.” —Rosa Aronson, TESOL Executive Director

“If teachers are teaching vocabulary, why do students not know the words they need to read their texts?...Anyone faced with that challenge should jubilate at the appearance of this book. It lays out in readable prose and logical order the basic facts about word learning, the research-based principles of good vocabulary teaching, and concrete examples of the practices that exemplify those principles. ” —From the Foreword by Catherine E. Snow, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“A timely, comprehensive, and readable account of what we know about teaching vocabulary to students in general and English learners in particular. No one should underestimate the enormity of the challenge English learners face in acquiring vocabulary essential for school success. This book will provide educators with an important foundation to help meet this challenge.” —Claude Goldenberg, Stanford University, School of Education