In her book Building Vocabulary Skills, Sherrie L. Nist says that the problem is all too familiar: students just don’t know enough words. Reading, writing, and content teachers agree that many students’ vocabularies are inadequate for course demands. Weak vocabularies limit students’ understanding of what they read and the clarity and depth of what they write.
My copy of Nist’s book has twenty chapters with ten words in each chapter. She adroitly uses an intensive words-in-context approach because students learn advanced words best by reading them repeatedly in different contexts, not through rote memorization.
Please take the following Vaughan’s Vocabulary quiz which uses Nist’s context approach, and look up the names mentioned, e.g., Livius Adronicus.
[1.] Children’s eating habits are erratic. One day they’ll barely eat, and the next day they’ll eat enough for three.
Conway’s batting is so erratic. In one game last week he batted in a team high four runs, but in tonight’s game he struck out twice and produced only one double.
The driver on Whippoorwill Road was erratic. He kept changing his speed and his lane.
[A.] noisy [B.] safe [C.] irregular
[2.] The night before running a marathon, Elsa fortifies herself by eating a large plate of pasta.
Berthold Brecht fortified audience members’ learning by keeping them separate from what was happening emotionally onstage.
The builders plan to fortify the old tower with steel beams.
[A.] to relax [B.] to strengthen [C.] to prove
[3.] I try to inculcate in my students the importance of knowing the Greatest Teacher, Christ.
When Collette saw that her Briard puppy had chewed on her $300 Larroude Valerie platform sandals, she realized how difficult it was to inculcate obedience in a pup.
Leigh makes it a point to inculcate Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems into her dinner party guests.
[A.] teach [B.] indoctrinate [C.] foist
[4.] In On Rhetoric, Aristotle codified three major forms of speeches. Note: codify’s first syllable is always like the fish.
In Don Rodney Radio’s Rhythm and Blues Show, the songs featured are codified by the genres of R and B.
Marisol adroitly codified her three main points about the Greco-Roman dramatist Livius Adronicus.
[A.] presented [B.] systematically arranged [C.] invented
ANSWERS: C, B, A, and B
Editor’s Note: Don Rodney Vaughan, Ph.D., teaches journalism, interpersonal communication, and public speaking at East Mississippi Community College and is the general manager of EMCC Radio, WGTC.
