In 2018 we surveyed over 1,300 primary and secondary school teachers about their experiences of the Word Gap in schools and collated our findings in the Oxford Language Report . The report found evidence of a significant word gap in UK schools, an increasing problem which is holding back children’s learning. Following on from this research, we partnered […]
Read moreWithout enough language – a word gap – a child is seriously limited in their enjoyment of school and in their success both within school and beyond it. The Oxford Language Report: Why Closing the Word Gap Matters , which brought together the thoughts of a number of leading academics and practitioners, was based on market research with over 1,300 primary and secondary […]
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Science, like every subject, has its own vocabulary. Sometimes it can feel like we are learning a different language, before we can even begin to understand Science. This vocabulary gap can lead students to be disengaged and disruptive in the classroom as well as underachieving in their exams and it is not just EAL students […]
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As a Speech and Language Therapist, I am constantly amazed by the number of skills a child needs to acquire in those all important early years. ‘Children can express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen […]
Read moreI suspect that when they read ‘ Why Closing the Word Gap Matters: Oxford Language Report ’, many teachers nodded in agreement but also, perhaps felt a little depressed by the picture it painted. The fact that many children arrive in school with limited vocabularies compared to their peers is well-known to early years teachers and that this gap persists through secondary school […]
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Over a year ago, in a previous post for this blog , I wrote about my focus of encouraging students of ALL ages to ‘Speak Like A Geographer’. This was in light of having previously restricted this focus on terminology to GCSE and A Level cohorts – and wondering why they didn’t manage to adjust to the required key words and […]
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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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