Vocabulary: Striving for Mastery

By Helen Prince, Founder of ChatterStars

What does it mean to be a master of your language? How can we tell if our child’s command of language and vocabulary is sufficiently broad to open the doors to all the opportunities (and schools!) to which we aspire? According to the Cambridge dictionary, ‘if someone has a mastery of something, they are extremely skilled at it’. But what does that really look and sound like?

A rich and deep vocabulary allows us to articulate what is important to us, what inspires, frightens, or intrigues us. Crucially, ‘the correlation between vocabulary size and life chances is as firm as any correlation in educational research’*, but it’s hard to know if this means we simply focus on increasing the number of words we know – endlessly plodding through flashcards and lists. Well, not in my experience! Building vocabulary should be a far more exciting adventure than that.

Mastering a language goes beyond simply knowing the words. It involves navigating the complexities of connotation, synonym, idiom, and nuance. It means being able to adapt and shape your language fluently to understand and convey thoughts and ideas, to unpick meaning, and to establish identity. Like a many-layered cake, the complexities and shades of meaning within a language add wonderful flavours to our expression, our understanding, and importantly, our ability to empathise with others.

For our children, exploring the depths of meaning behind words and phrases is a fundamental part of preparing for national tests and for the 11+. It forms a major element of both tutoring and English lessons at school, where debates about the subtleties of word choice in stories like War Horse, or Stevenson’s poetry, play a crucial role in building and mastering vocabulary.

The British National Curriculum makes the importance of mastering language skills clear, requiring pupils to:

• Explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases

• Give or explain the meaning of words in context

• Make inferences from the text

• Explain, comment on, and analyse how writers use language

• Use a range of vocabulary…for clarity, purpose, and effect,

• Communicate clearly, effectively, and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences

These are all vital skills for the 11+. If you’re busy trying to help your child master these skills, then these suggestions from Ofsted and the EEF might help:

'Vocabulary learning should entail active engagement in learning tasks'

- Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) 2018 Literacy Guidance Report

'Pupils usually need to encounter a word a number of times in different contexts for it to enter their working vocabulary'

- Ofsted research review: English (May 2022)

'Digital technology can be used to help develop and teach vocabulary'

- Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) 2018 Literacy Guidance Report

It takes time to delve into language and develop understanding. It’s important to start early. By noticing and commenting on language choices around us from their earliest days, we help model and build the kind of word curiosity that enables our children to flourish. So, value the moments of family talk around a dinner table, play word games in the car, debate different endings to favourite stories, play digital word puzzles together, learn songs and poems together by heart, discuss the word-meanings in stories you read and listen to together. These are the moments where vocabulary comes to life. Cherish and enjoy them for the important moments of learning that they are.

Resource: *Ofsted English Review, 2022’