Dear Teacher Zee: How can I teach my child vocabulary at home?

A parent asked me this question so, here is my answer.

First, we have to accept two things: one is that language is knowledge and the second one is, we use language as knowledge that we know. Applying these concepts to how the child is learning may indicate that she is acquiring knowledge and making use of language as she experiences it from her interaction with the world, in general. What can help your child, I think, is to see how words can take on different meaning depending on context and culture.

In our class, I always begin with what the student knows. By mining the existing and prior knowledge, the student and I form a baseline for the definition of words. We then move to the use of words, especially new ones, in a sentence and in the entire paragraph. I often ask my students what idea do you have of the “new” word.

I also prepare vocabulary exercise for them because we have completed knowing the meaning of words as used in the sentence and in the paragraph. We will verify and validate the meaning of these words in the dictionary. 

This will be followed by a writing exercise with a focus on using the new words we have defined in 3 different ways and from different sources. It is my objective to see if the knowledge of a word changed or transformed.