Why Vocabulary Still Matters—and How to Build It the Right Way

In a world full of autocorrect, emojis, and TikTok slang, it’s fair to wonder, does vocabulary still matter? We believe it does, now more than ever. A strong vocabulary isn’t just about sounding smart, it’s about understanding, expressing yourself clearly, and making sense of the world around you. It’s one of the most powerful tools a student can carry into any test, classroom, or future goal.

Strong vocabulary doesn’t just mean knowing fancy words. It means being able to unlock meaning, understand nuance, and make sense of complex texts across subjects from poetry to math word problems. Vocabulary isn’t just a reading skill—it’s a comprehension superpower.

Why Vocabulary Is the Secret Ingredient to Reading Success

Decades of research have made this clear: vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading comprehension. In fact, the more words a student understands, the more capable they are of making inferences, navigating context, and understanding what’s being asked. It’s no coincidence that students with richer vocabularies consistently perform better—not just on reading tests, but in science, history, and even math.

Here’s the hard truth: high-achieving students may know up to twice as many words as their peers in early grades. That gap doesn’t close on its own. But here’s the hope: with intentional instruction, even struggling readers can learn new words at the same rate—and make real progress.

So, How Many Words Do Students Need?

Research suggests that students should be learning around 3,000 new word meanings per year. That’s about 60 per week. Sounds daunting? Don’t worry, it’s possible when you combine the right strategies: explicit teaching, incidental learning through reading, and lots of chances to use new words in real conversations and writing.

What Works: Smart, Student-Friendly Strategies

1. Teach Vocabulary Like a Daily Workout

Vocabulary isn’t a once-a-week lesson, it’s a daily habit. Quick, 10- to 15-minute sessions are more effective than long lectures. Aim for 5–10 target words a week, and build routines around introducing, discussing, and revisiting them.

• Use student-friendly definitions, not just dictionary ones.

• Post new words on a visible word wall or let students keep vocabulary journals.

• Create opportunities to act out, visualize, or connect words to prior knowledge.

2. Choose the Right Words

Focus on “Tier Two” words—words like “analyze,” “establish,” or “emerge.” These are common in academic texts but rare in everyday conversation, which means students need your help to learn them. Avoid spending too much time on overly simple (Tier One) or niche (Tier Three) vocabulary unless they’re essential to the topic.

3. Use Rich Texts to Do the Heavy Lifting

Read-alouds, picture books, and compelling nonfiction passages offer high-quality words in context—and that’s where the magic happens. Context is king when it comes to figuring out new meanings. Ask students to identify new words, guess their meaning, and reflect on how authors use them.

Bonus tip: Reread those same passages later in the week, and watch the lightbulbs go off as students recognize and use those “new” words with ease.

4. Teach Students to Be Word Detectives

Encourage students to notice clues—prefixes, roots, synonyms, and definitions embedded in the sentence. Show them how to look for context cues and make educated guesses. Not every word needs to be memorized when they can figure it out for themselves.

A great activity? Give them a sentence like “The fumerole discharges vapors from a hydrothermal system,” and ask, “What do you think fumerole means?” Help them use clues like “vapors” and “hydrothermal” to decode meaning.

5. Reinforce, Reuse, Repeat

Want words to stick? Students need to encounter them again and again—in reading, in writing, in class discussions. Plan intentional spirals back to previously taught vocabulary. Ask students to use target words in a sentence, write short stories with them, or do “word walks” around the classroom, discussing examples and non-examples.

The goal? Not just recognition, but fluent, confident use.

Final Thoughts: Vocabulary = Power

Here’s what we tell our students: the more words you know, the more you can think, read, write, and express. Vocabulary opens doors—not just on tests, but in life.

We believe building vocabulary isn’t about memorizing word lists. It’s about developing thinkers, readers, and confident communicators who can tackle any text, any subject, and any challenge.

Want your child to grow their vocabulary the right way? Let’s talk. Because word by word, we’re building more than test scores—we’re building futures.