Vocabulary Development and the Curriculum.

A person can communicate more accurately by possessing a rich vocabulary, be it in listening, speaking, reading, or writing. Then too, students need a well developed vocabulary which is integrated across the entire curriculum. This paper focuses on the plethora of vocabulary terms in diverse curriculum areas, including social studies, science, mathematics, and language arts. The paper discusses disciplines in each curriculum area in turn and suggests strategies to develop a strong and relevant vocabulary knowledge for each one. It states that the teacher needs to provide a variety of learning opportunities to assist student vocabulary development achievement, and that these learning opportunities should do the following: they should be engaging and involving; they should increase student interest in achieving instructional objectives; they should develop student purpose for learning; they should encourage learning motivation; they should provide for individual learning styles and intelligences; they should help students to become lifelong learners; and they should assist students to evaluate their own progress. (Contains 10 references.) (NKA)