Developing vocabulary in early years education

Preparing for Literacy

Discover methods for developing vocabulary in the early years and use EEF-backed strategies to enrich young learners' language and communication skills.

Education Endowment Foundation

Approaches that emphasise spoken language and verbal interaction can support the development of communication and language.1,2 In turn, communication and language provide the foundations for learning and thinking and underpin the development of later literacy skills.3 The evidence suggests that the quality of these approaches is more important than the quantity.3 Furthermore, all children are likely to benefit from a focus on communication and language,4 but some studies show even larger effects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.1

Focusing on language and communication is especially important for young children and will support the development of a range of early literacy skills as well as their wider knowledge and understanding.1 In addition, developing communication and language is linked to other important outcomes including children’s self-regulation,5 socio-emotional development,6 and reasoning.7 A wide range of activities can be used to develop communication and language including shared reading (Recommendation 2), storytelling, and explicitly extending children’s vocabulary.1 These activities should be embedded within a curriculum of rich and varied experiences.

Improving young children’s vocabulary is often a high priority, particularly when teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are more likely to have a less extensive vocabulary.3 Developing vocabulary is important for later literacy development, but it should not be seen as a silver bullet; 4,8 it should form part of a broad approach to improving communication, language, and literacy (see Recommendation 2). There is relatively limited evidence about how best to improve vocabulary, but the existing evidence suggests that the following should be considered:

  • providing children with a rich language environment (implicit approaches) as well as directly extending children’s vocabulary (explicit approaches);
  • carefully selecting high-frequency words for explicit teaching (see Figure 1);
  • developing the number of words children know
  • (breadth) and their understanding of relationships between words and the contexts in which words can be used (depth); and
  • providing multiple opportunities to hear and use new vocabulary.8–10

Figure 1: Prioritise tier 2 vocabulary for explicit instruction

Box 1: High quality interactions—it’s harder than it looks

Multiple frameworks exist to help structure high quality interactions.

Guided interaction occurs when an adult and child collaborate on a task and the adult’s strategies are highly tuned to the child’s capabilities and motivations.13 The adult is responsive to the child’s intentions, focuses on spontaneous learning, and provides opportunities for the child’s feedback. Discussion is a key feature of this approach and the use of a variety of questions helps to develop and extend children’s thinking.

Sustained shared thinking involves two or more people working together to solve a problem, clarify an issue, evaluate activities, or extend a narrative.12 Key features include all parties contributing to the interaction—one aimed at extending and developing children’s thinking.12,14 Techniques that adults might use include:15

  • tuning in—listening carefully to what is being said and observing what the child is doing;
  • showing genuine interest—giving whole attention, eye contact, and smiling and nodding;
  • asking children to elaborate—‘I really want to know more about this’;
  • recapping—‘So you think that…’;
  • giving their own experience—‘I like to listen to music when cooking at home’;
  • clarifying ideas—‘So you think we should wear coats in case it rains?’;
  • using encouragement to extend thinking—‘You have thought really hard about your tower, but what can you do next?’;
  • suggesting—‘You might want to try doing it like this’;
  • reminding—‘Don’t forget that you said we should wear coats in case it rains’; and
  • asking open questions—‘How did you?’, ‘Why does this…?’, ‘What happens next?’

Box 2: Types of questions to develop reasoning

Question typeExample
EvidenceHow do you know Winnie-the-Pooh got stuck in the rabbit hole?
Reasons/theoryWhy did Winnie-the-Pooh get stuck in the rabbit hole?
Counterfactual suggestionWhat would have happened if Winnie-the-Pooh had not eaten the honey?
False beliefWhat does Winnie-the-Pooh think has happened to stop him getting out?
Future hypothetical suggestionWhat could Winnie-the-Pooh do next?

Adapted from Taggart et al., ‘Thinking skills in the early years’.7

References

  1. Higgins, S. et al. (2017) Sutton Trust - Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Toolkit | Communication and language approaches, London: EEF. https://educationendowmentfoun...
  2. Sibieta, L., Kotecha, M. and Skipp, A. (2016) ‘Nuffield Early Language Intervention: evaluation report and executive summary’, London: EEF. https://educationendowmentfoun...
  3. Law, J. et al. (2017) ‘Early Language Development: Needs, provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds’, London: EEF. https://educationendowmentfoun...
  4. National Early Literacy Panel (2008) ‘Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel’, National Institute for Literacy. https://lincs.ed.gov/publicati...
  5. Barnett, W. S. et al. (2008) ‘Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, pp. 299–313.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecre...
  6. Dockrell, J., Llaurado, A., Hurry, J., Cowan, R. and Flouri, E. (2017) ‘Review of assessment measures in the early years: language and literacy, numeracy, and social emotional development and mental health’, London: EEF.
    https://educationendowmentfoun...
  7. Taggart, G., Ridley, K., Rudd, P. and Benefield, P. (2005) ‘Thinking skills in the early years: a literature review’, Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research. https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publica...
  8. Marulis, L. M. and Neuman, S. B. (2010) ‘The Effects of Vocabulary Intervention on Young Children’s Word Learning: A Meta-Analysis’, Review of Education Research, 80, pp. 300–335. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310377087
  9. Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G. and Kucan, L. (2013) ‘Bringing words to life: robust vocabulary instruction’, Guildford Press.
  10. Wasik, B. A., Hindman, A. H. and Snell, E. K. (2016) ‘Book reading and vocabulary development: A systematic review’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 37, pp. 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecre...
  11. Higgins, S. et al. (2017) Sutton Trust - Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Toolkit | Self-regulation strategies, London: EEF. https://educationendowmentfoun...
  12. Siraj-Blatchford, I. et al. (2004) ‘The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from Pre-school to end of Key Stage 1’, Department for Education and Skills – SureStart. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/18189/2/...
  13. Department for children, schools and families (2009) ‘Learning, playing and interacting – good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage’. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/epri...
  14. Siraj-Blatchford, I., Muttock, S., Sylva, K., Gilden, R. and Bell, D. (2002) ‘Researching effective pedagogy in the early years’, London: Department for Education and Skills. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/4650/1/R...
  15. Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2005) ‘Quality Interactions in the Early Years’, Presented at: TACTYC Annual Conference, Cardiff. https://tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/200...