New rooms; new teachers; new classmates; new subjects; new words.
Moving to secondary school is a daunting experience practically and socially, but there are also the academic challenges, including what Professor Jessie Ricketts termed “the language leap”.
As pupils move up through school, the language of each subject changes. That may sound obvious - but do we really understand exactly how different it is? And if we did, could it help us better support pupils as they transition across the school phases by offering more coherent academic support?
With this in mind, whether the vocabulary pupils hear and read in class is markedly different between late primary (Years 5 and 6) and early secondary school (Years 7 and 8), and if so, how.
Eight primary and five secondary schools generously let us into their classrooms to audio record teachers and gave us copies of resources such as PowerPoint presentations and worksheets, totalling around 3.5 million words.
We then used computer software to find the most frequent words, and to compare primary and secondary language, the language of different subjects and school language with everyday out-of-school talk.
Abrupt language leap at secondary
It is not surprising that the vocabulary students meet becomes increasingly specialised; there would be no progression if it didn’t.
However, the research found there appears to be an abrupt leap from primary school, where language often has a lot in common with everyday language, compared with the specialised, academic language of secondary school.
For example, in primary science, the most frequent words (not including “empty” words like the) are plant, animal, food, water and light - all used in ways pupils are probably familiar with from everyday life.
However, while frequent words in secondary data included water and light, there were many hundreds of words that didn’t appear in the primary science data at all and were unlikely to have been heard in everyday language, such as alkali, cytoplasm and vacuole.
We also found words like invention and minibeast, and words for animals and parts of animals, like wing, that are common in primary science didn’t occur at all in secondary.
Even names (eg, Darwin, Curie) and roles (explorer, inventor) that were widespread in primary data are not seen at all in secondary.
Conversely, words for parts of the atom, elements, parts of cells and abstract processes are common at secondary - underlining the shift in key stage 3 away from people and towards processes.
Of course, teachers support students with new technical terms where they can, but given how many they will encounter, it is not realistic for all to be explained.
As such, practitioners need to think carefully about which words to amplify: some are more equal than others.
To aid selection, teachers might consider:
- Depth: Will a word’s meaning require some careful explanation?
- Connectivity: Does the word’s usefulness extend across more than one lesson or across topics?
- Longevity: Is this word likely to occur in later key stages?
This last point stresses the need, ideally, for selection to involve teachers from both primary and secondary classrooms.
New meanings and combinations
Furthermore, as well as learning new words, students can also have to learn new meanings of words within subject disciplines.
For example, very frequent words in our secondary maths data included expression, problem and prime (number), which may look familiar to students.
However, in everyday English, expression is associated with someone’s face rather than a combination of numbers and symbols, a problem is something wrong rather than a question and the most frequent phrases with prime are probably prime minister or Amazon Prime.
From the student’s point of view, a known word has suddenly taken on a new, often abstract meaning. It is therefore hugely important to present words in their contexts.
Linguistic challenges provide opportunity
In her book on vocabulary instruction, Inside Words, Janet Allen quotes research evidence that knowing words means much more than knowing definitions, and that “repeated exposure in meaningful contexts improves comprehension”.
Classroom strategies should enable pupils to actively engage with a word, to use it in different contexts and in combination with other words, and to revisit and recycle key words.
Morphology and etymology, the Frayer Model, word maps and judicious use of supporting images can all be impactful, as can, where possible, consistent strategies across secondary schools and their feeder primaries.
Ultimately, the linguistic challenges of the transition are significant, but also provide an opportunity.
If we think actively about vocabulary and are explicit in how we use new words with students, it can become a powerful tool to support academic transition and ensure young people can thrive in the new world of secondary school.
Alice Deignan is professor of applied linguistics at the School of Education, University of Leeds
Marcus Jones is a secondary English teacher and head of literacy at a secondary school in York
For the latest education news and analysis delivered every weekday morning, sign up for the Tes Daily newsletter
