7-Steps Vocabulary. The purpose of this strategy is so that ELLs will recognize the vocabulary when they begin to read. This is actually a very quick, manageable process for pre-teaching vocabulary prior to beginning a lesson or a text being read. It involves very little time from a class.
· This process for pre-teaching select vocabulary is composed of 7 very specific steps.
Teacher introduces the word by lifting it from the text in the sentence in which it appears.
Students are asked to repeat the word three times for pronunciation and oral recognition.
Teacher provides the dictionary definition appropriate for the context.
Teacher then gives a student-friendly definition to further clarify the meaning/context.
Teacher tells students something about the word that is relevant to the context in which it is used. Is it polysemous, present tense, past tense, a cognate, etc.?
Teacher engages students in structured oral interaction to develop word/concept knowledge.
Teacher reminds and explains to students how new words will be used. There is NO writing by students at this time.
· This pre-reading vocabulary process is JUST the first step in exposing students to the vocabulary – students need an average of 7–20 exposures to a word to know the word/concept. The number of exposures differs depending on students’ L1 development, whether the word is a cognate to their own language, whether it is abstract versus a concrete concept/word, etc.