Words and their Concepts

In order for students to effectively learn vocabulary, it is essential that they learn the relationship between spoken/printed words and the concepts that the words represent.  According to Smith (1995), concepts are like the building blocks—the basic units of belief and thought.  Words are simply the labels that are attached to these beliefs and thoughts.  Whenever a person has a frame of reference (also known as background knowledge) for these concepts, the underlying meaning is understood, so the word is often remembered. For people who do not have language disorders, these words will be easily stored and retrieved.  The depth of understanding of the new concept continues to grow as the person learns more about the concept by reading about it and/or experiencing it personally.  The understanding of the concept is fine-tuned, and oftentimes, words can be added to convey these slight nuances.  

According to Shane Templeton and John Pikulski of Houghton Miffilin,  vocabulary knowledge can grow in four ways:

·   Elaboration of a vocabulary word—a student might learn that “cat” as a pet actually can apply to large, wild cats, such as lions

·    New words can be linked with understood concepts—miserable, a new word, can be linked to the understanding of “sad.”  Or, prosperous, with the idea of having a lot of money

·   New concepts can be connected with known words—learning that “resist” is not just applicable to physical resisting (pushing back against an object), but also resisting temptation (emotionally pushing)

·   Learning a word and a concept together—learning a new concept, and at the same time, being introduced to a novel word, such as metamorphosis 

How we teach new words will depend on which of the above processes is occurring for the

student. It is easiest--for most students--to learn a new word that can be linked to a  known concept. Many times, a simple explanation is enough for the new word to be learned. It is hardest to develop a concept and a label for the concept—the student must develop what is known as a “schema,” then link the novel word to this new schema.  Therefore, more time will be spent on this process.  Because we want students to understand words in a deep, broad way (Gaves, 1994,) we need to provide them with scaffolding so that novel words can be linked with known words and concepts as frequently as possible.  Words and concepts are inextricably linked. Depending on the role these new words play, teachers must expend different levels of instruction in order to teach them effectively.