Students may learn word meanings by recognizing the semantic relatedness of words and concepts as well as by using context and morphology to become strategic.
The way to learn less frequent words is through reading, but instruction is important for learning core vocabulary in order to learn from context.
Five essential steps for ESL students learning vocabulary: (a) have sources for encountering new words, (b) get a clear visual and auditory form of the new word, (c) learn the meaning of the word, and, (d) use the word (Hatch & Brown, 1995, as cited in Blachowicz & Fisher, 2008).
Focusinstruction onvocabulary learning andlearning vocabulary strategies,in addition to thepreteaching vocabulary prereading portion of the lesson to aid comprehension of that particular passage.
Three main strategic processes for content vocabulary learning: independent vocabulary selection strategies, understanding the words receptively and expressively, and retaining vocabulary to scaffold future learning (Carr & Mazur-Stewart, 1988). Add to that the metacognitive process of evaluating success in learning new words (Blankowitz & Fisher, 2000 as cited in Blachowicz & Fisher, 2008).