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Why Closing the Word Gap Matters

Closing the Word Gap in Science

September 10, 2019March 27, 2020Oxford Science Team 2 Comments
closing the word gap in science

Anhydrous, exothermic, fullerene, isomerase, medulla, monomers, ribosomes, titration, xylem… How many of these words do you know? For a scientist – or even a knowledgeable GCSE science student, no less – this list of complex words will trigger a wealth of background knowledge. For many pupils, however, the same list of words would likely provoke […]

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Closing the word gap: how many words do my pupils need to know?

May 28, 2019May 21, 2019Oxford English Team
Closing the word gap

Summer exams are almost here. It is a time for cautious optimism, but also a little teacher anxiety, as we will our pupils on to succeed. Worried questions race through our minds: what if they don’t understand the question? What if a word in the question trips them up? What if they give up? Each […]

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Why ‘Closing the Word Gap’ matters to History teachers

July 2, 2018July 2, 2018Oxford History Team

I was not surprised when I finished reading ‘Why Closing the Word Gap Matters: Oxford Language Report’ , but it still made for sombre reading. The report put in black and white what teachers already know: Most of the students we teach don’t have the vocabulary they need to fulfil their full potential at school. The word gap affects students’ wider life chances. After […]

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