The number of vocabulary words that upper elementary to high school students are supposed to learn each year is a staggering amount.  Most of the new vocabulary for older students is gained through reading, curricular teaching, and vocabulary-building programs. But SLPs couldn’t possibly increase vocabulary by this much in our hour or so weekly with our students. Some SLPs have had success aligning their other goals to the vocabulary being used in the curriculum. They can support their students’ academic progress this way.  But if you have students who take a long time to accomplish their goals and need much practice to retain new vocabulary, this may not work well for you. Then, to top it off, many special needs students have difficulty reading. Which means that they don’t like to read. So they don’t expand their vocabulary that way. They often aren’t able to grasp the complete meaning of words taught academically. So what are we to do?

Want to read more? Download the free PDF “A Review of the Current Research on Vocabulary Instruction” from the National Reading Technical Assistance Council in 2010. How about the K-3 teaching guide?  You could also read “Effective Vocabulary Instruction Fosters Knowing Words, Using Words, and Understanding How Words Work” by Margaret McKeown 2019.   “Teaching Children to Read”, by the National Reading Panel, is a very complete resource to read.

What surprising skills can be included when teaching multiple-meaning vocabulary?

1. Improve comprehension of sentence structure.

Many multiple-meaning words have similar meanings and are just being used as a different part of speech.  To fill in the sentence blank with the correct word, students use sentence structure clues to help them figure out which word and meaning fit that sentence. This works on understanding the role of different parts of speech in a sentence.

2. Increase the ability to make inferences.

When students figure out which meaning makes sense in a sentence, they infer from the context clues to make that decision. They need to find a connection between their knowledge of the word and the other words in the sentence, a critical skill used when making inferences.

3.  Improve comprehension of nonliteral language.

Multiple-meaning words are the first foray into the realm of figurative language. Students hear a word and have a particular meaning (and often a picture) in mind. When that meaning doesn’t make sense, they have to draw a new picture in their mind. Then they realize that words aren’t as concrete as they’d like them to be. This works on flexibility! When your first idea doesn’t work, you need to develop more ideas.

4. Realize that not everyone thinks the same way.

‘I read that word in the sentence and thought it meant this. But that didn’t make sense. It actually means something else. The author and I had different pictures (and thus perspectives) of the same word.’ This thought process is another way to grow flexibility. Very literal students, like those on the spectrum, can have great difficulty even realizing there is another way to think about things.

5. Improve critical thinking skills.

Providing a definition and drilling the words are not enough to build vocabulary skills! Do you have students who can parrot a list of meanings but don’t understand the vocabulary in context? This is exactly what got me started developing multiple-meaning sets that incorporate multiple skills. Using the same vocabulary in different contexts, with varied language skills, did the trick for my SPED students who couldn’t retain word meanings. Try the FREE Multiple Meanings mini unit to see for yourself when you sign up for the LLL emails below.

Did you find it surprising how many different language skills can be incorporated into learning multiple-meaning words?