Welcome to Get VOCAL

VOCAL: Vocabulary and Academic Language

This online site was developed to share research-based best practices for teaching and learning academic language and vocabulary. From the national, state, and local levels, researchers and educators have become aware of the need to boost student learning in the areas of academic language and vocabulary. In all content areas and at all grade levels, students need to increase their ability to comprehend text, to write and speak more academically, and to apply these skills across the curriculum. While this is especially critical for English language learners, research shows that all learners need to improve in these areas.

One of the reasons educators are focusing on vocabulary and academic language instruction is that vocabulary knowledge contributes significantly to reading comprehension. In fact, the correlation of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension is one of the most replicable findings in reading research. In the field of comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and word learning strategies are concrete skills that can be directly taught by teachers.

A group of educators representing universities, county offices, districts, and school sites met, read research, attended professional development, and implemented research-based strategies in classrooms. As a result, students were excited about learning vocabulary and understood the advantage of knowing academic language. This site was developed to share these best practices. The practices in this resource are generic enough to work with existing preschool through high school curriculum. These best practices, research, and resources are intended to provide ideas and examples to jumpstart schoolwide or districtwide VOCAL programs across the county.