Of the many compelling reasons for providing students with instruction to build vocabulary, none is more important than the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. The focus of this professional resource is on vocabulary instruction as a component of reading comprehension. The purpose of this professional resource is to examine what research tells us about how students acquire vocabulary and about what instruction must do to help students develop the kind of vocabulary knowledge that will contribute to their reading success. The article provides an overview of research related to vocabulary instruction and a summary of effective instructional practices. (author/mcg)

To understand the content in their career technical fields, students must acquire many new vocabulary words. This in-depth article reviews the research on vocabulary learning and its importance to comprehension. The following sections may be especially helpful to career-technical teachers who are integerating vocabulary instruction into their planning: "Choosing Words for Instruction," "Teaching Words for New and Complex Concepts," and "Using Word-Part Clues/Morphology." (sec)