In simple terms, we know that school students need something like 50,000 words in their personal lexicon to flourish in secondary and beyond. A primary school-age child is typically learning at a rate of around 4,000 or 5,000 new words a year. How can we supercharge this vocabulary development?

With this in mind, it is important for teachers to generate Tier II word lists to study and also identify Tier II words that are encountered in reading assignments. One criterion for identifying a Tier II word is determining that the word has multiple uses or applications. A word like precious is a perfect example. A precious gem might be studied in geology, while the concept of something precious could be found in a poem or novel. The goal is to isolate these difficult Tier II words and take time to explicitly teach them using a variety of strategies. As Quigley argues, knowledge about words underpins all education and learning. This is because word knowledge underpins speaking, listening, reading and writing. The importance for subjects such as English and modern foreign languages is obvious. But he argues that it may be even more important for other subjects, such as science and maths. Quigley emphasises the high vocabulary demands of the new key stage 2 and GCSE assessments. Such concerns have been widespread in my recent interactions with teachers and researchers alike. Starting with guidance for senior managers, SENDCos, or literacy leaders on developing a whole-school policy for closing the gap, Closing the word gap: activities for the classroom – secondary is divided into sections for English, maths, science, geography, and history teachers, each featuring two further sections: Vocabulary for your subject and Vocabulary to improve your students’ writing.After over fifteen years in the classroom, I now support the cause of education from the other side the school gates. For most of the week I work for an educational charity, supporting teachers and school leaders to access research evidence. Importantly, once children can read, it also involves written words. Vocabulary breadth - the number of words that you know - is important. But, as Quigley emphasises, so too is vocabulary depth: what you know about words and how they connect to other words. In Closing the Vocabulary Gap, the author explores the increased demands of an academic curriculum and how closing the vocabulary gap between our ‘word poor’ and ‘word rich’ students could prove the vital difference between school failure and success. In a sense, children are not just exposed to the definition of a word but have a detailed knowledge of its multiple meanings and the various ways that it can be used. Building children’s vocabularies opens doors to harder, more rewarding curriculums and lifelong learning, writes Alex Quigley, but it needs careful focus

Expertly weaving academic research with observations from the classroom, Alex Quigley explains why word poverty matters – and sets out what can be done about it. Word knowledge, he argues, is critical for success in every subject and as such it is the responsibility of all teachers to become word conscious. Don’t grab a dictionary. Read this excellent book instead and discover an approach to vocabulary instruction that is rich, organised and cumulative — and relevant for developing disciplinary knowledge across the entire curriculum." – Kate Nation, Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK A primary goal of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction is to model for students the depth of knowledge that is involved in mastering words: to own a word is to know not just its definition but its different forms, its multiple meanings, its connotations, and the situations in which its normally applied.’ Oxford Children's Language conducts research, shares insights, and supports teachers with advancing students' language and literacy development. As teachers grapple with the challenge of a new, bigger and more challenging school curriculum, at every key stage and phase, success can feel beyond our reach. But what if there were 50,000 small solutions to help us bridge that gap?

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Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world.” Steven Stahl (2005) Developing vocabulary knowledge is so much more than word lists and student-friendly definitions. Even the most careful curation of vocabulary on a knowledge organiser may only give the … Achieving consistency takes relentless effort but we take staff workload seriously, and the goal is to improve literacy via vocabulary in a way that works for our students and staff. We’re still on our journey to achieving that. What impact have you seen so far? I was left asking: how many times is James being left struggling in the dark owing to the academic language of school? How many students have the same challenges? And how can we help them? We, as teachers, should start with promoting ‘word consciousness’ – a deep understanding of vocabulary: how it grows, connects, and comprises a vital aspect of the language of school. It offers a great platform to consider curriculum, reading, exam craft, and much more. In doing so, we will be conscious that something like 50,000 words will never be learnt in lists, but that if we encourage a deep, explicit awareness of words, phrases, reading and writing, we may go some way to mitigating those summer exam worries. Even better, by attending to vocabulary and language, we can offer our pupils exactly the tools they need to flourish in the wider world.