YOUNG CHILDREN | November 2012 Sagacious, Sophisticated, and Sedulous: The Importance of Discussing 50-Cent Words with Preschoolers Molly F. Collins View Interactive PDF Download PDF A teacher once told me, “Don’t use a 50-cent word when a 5-cent word will do.” While current expression of such sentiments might differ, we commonly follow this practice in many early childhood classrooms. Adults often use simple words instead of complex words when talking to young children. Reasons vary from teachers’ beliefs that young children cannot understand sophisticated vocabulary because they are too young or have limited language skills, to teachers’ unfamiliarity with complex words or with strategies for supporting vocabulary. As a consequence, sophisticated vocabulary learning is thwarted and opportunities to nurture children’s curiosity about words go unrealized. In this article, I show how to fortify the vocabulary knowledge of soon-to-be readers with sophisticated vocabulary—words that are high level, communicate subtleties in detail, and are less common in everyday parlance (sometimes called rare words).... continue reading
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