Levels or Stages of Word Knowledge

Abstract

Vocabulary knowledge can be seen as existing on a continuum from unknown to mastery.How well a student knows a word has been referred to as “depth” of vocabularyknowledge, as opposed to “breadth” of knowledge, which is the number of wordsknown. Several scales have been developed that describe the levels or stages of vocabularyknowledge. Teachers have a limited time in which to teach vocabulary. Therefore,they should adopt a strategic perspective and train students to develop vocabularyacquisition systems. Teachers would do well to foster fascination with words and sparkcuriosity within their students. Then they will be able to develop independent learnerswho will be successful in acquiring vocabulary knowledge.