Supporting Your Adolescent’s Vocabulary: A List of Commonly Used Academic Words

Families, schools, and other community members all have a role to play in helping adolescent learners understand, pronounce, and write new words. But which words are more commonly used in academic settings? The EAP Foundation website provides a list of the top 500 academic words used.

How can schools and families work together to support vocabulary development?

Schools routinely support vocabulary development in all classes. Parents/caregivers can ask their student or the school about how the school is planning to do that in a particular class or over the course of a year. In addition, families can make it a routine to build vocabulary skills at home together in a fun and multi-faceted way. For example, a family could make it a daily or weekly practice to look a word up online or in a dictionary. Or families could make up a sentence together using an academic word, then write the sentence down or draw a picture representing the word and what it means to them. If that sounds too complicated, don’t stress! Simply talking together during mealtimes is a great way to build your adolescent’s vocabulary skills.

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