Most vocabulary programs fail to help students learn new words faster and there are two main reasons.

1. They start everyone at the same place (no-word difficulty list and no placement test)

2. Students get only a fraction of the repetitions necessary to put new words into long-term memory.

Research shows that children entering the first grade have large differences in their oral (pre-reading) vocabulary. In one study the top five percent of first graders had a working vocabulary of 7000 words. Children in the bottom 28 percent had an average vocabulary of 1500 words. These differences were not, on average, due to IQ (children in the bottom 28 percent learned new words just as quickly as those in the top five percent, once they started school) but to environment- how many hours did each child spend being read to or in conversation with adults?

Schools in general are unaware of K-1 student’s vocabulary level (the only way to measure it is orally and they do not have the tools to do that). But if nothing is done to help children with vocabulary deficits catch up, they will remain behind their peers and, with each new grade (as the vocabulary level of their textbooks rises), they will fall farther and farther behind in reading. How to close the gap? Find out what words students already know then start them on an intelligent vocabulary learning path to accelerate their acquisition of new words. Most vocabulary programs offer students a one-size-fits-all vocabulary list in which many of the words are either too easy or too hard for individual students. Such lists either bore or frustrate students but they have never been shown to increase new word acquisition.

What does an intelligent vocabulary learning path (a “perfect practice” path) look like? It must give students enough multi-mode repetitions to put a new word’s primary meaning, spelling, and pronunciation into their passive (”I recognize but don’t necessarily use that word”) vocabulary. It must make the word-recognition automatic so that when a new word is encountered in reading is absorbed immediately, without bringing the whole show to a stop!

The last thing that must be considered is that the learning process must be something that the student enjoys. The simple fact is that if they don’t like the process they will never use the program enough to make a difference. Improving their vocabulary is the best way to help them catch and ultimatley pass there peers.