"Many authorities agree that oral language experiences
and wide reading influence students’ word knowl-
edge and refer to this type of word learning as “inci-
dental word learning.” In fact, they believe that the
majority of new words acquired over the life span are
learned incidentally (Cunningham, 2005). "
The quote above is from the article "Ten Important Words Plus: A Strategy for Building Word Knowledge" by Yopp and Yopp. This quote reminded me of another article we read in earlier in the year that discussed statistics in the # of words children are exposed to everyday, depending on race, class, etc. It made me think that if a child's environment is filled with uneducated people, this could indefinitely affect them (and their vocabulary) for the rest of their life. This just proves how individual conversations with children in the classroom are very important!
Below is a chart of ways to expose children to vocabulary! This chart is a great overview of this article too.
http://www.ldonline.org/article/9943/
I completely agree with this quote as well! It is very fascinating and relatable! Many new words that I learn now are learned incidentally. Knowing that some children may not receive as many strong opportunities or experiences to learn new words as other children might have motivates me as a teacher. I want to try my best to introduce many new words as often as I can in their environment inside the classroom.
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