To teach a word well: A framework for vocabulary instruction

A framework developed to describe effective vocabulary instruction suggests that vocabulary teaching methods can be described by the types of information they provide and the types of processing they require. It is suggested that people who know a word's meaning have both definitional and contextual knowledge about that word and that the most effective vocabulary teaching methods provide both types of knowledge. Further, it is suggested that having students engage in deeper processing will lead to better vocabulary learning. This framework can be supported by the results of methods comparison studies and can be used to improve existing vocabulary instruction.