Alex Quigley

CPD: Cognitive Science Level 2, topic 1.1.3

Alex Quigley is an important education writer, who has interesting ideas about the vocabulary gap.

A lack of vocabulary makes it more difficult for children to follow the curriculum in schools.
There is a massive gap in vocabulary between children of different Socio-Economic Status.
This means that, in addition to all the other disadvantages, children from lower social classes also face an extra challenge: understanding and following the lessons when they do not have the necessary vocabulary.

The lack of vocabulary demotivates students to learn in school.
The mental velcro is the idea that the more words one knows, the more new information gets hooked in their brain and the better they understand it.
Schools should have room in their timetables for explicit vocabulary teaching

Morphology and etymology should be taught when teaching a new word.
Morphology is the study of how words are structured, such as roots and prefixes.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words.
It helps students to understand and spell the words.
It also helps them to understand and spell future words with similar shape and origin.
Etymology will even help them to understand science and maths subjects, as many of the concepts are derived from Latin and Greek.

Test yourself on Alex Quigley