The CATESOL Journal

While most teachers of ESOL recognize the importance of vocabulary, many are unfamiliar with vocabulary research and unsure about how to best address wordlearning needs. This article presupposes that word learning is a complex task requiring more than formulaic methods. To prepare teachers to address the dynamic and often unwieldy nature of word learning, we propose several central questions designed to help teachers reflect on fundamental issues such as word selection (e.g., Which words should be targeted?), word knowledge (e.g., What does it mean to know a word?), and word teaching (e.g., What should be included in the definition, instruction, and practice that I provide?).Each question is followed by initial answers based on vocabulary research that teachers are encouraged to apply to their own situations. The goal is to enable teachers to apply research findings to the development of their own principled and effective approaches to vocabulary instruction.