Vocabulary

Readers can recognise and understand familiar words (for example, names, common words and high-interest words) in different contexts. They also recognise and understand essential signs and symbols relevant to their own situations.

Readers have a reading vocabulary of everyday words (including some compound words, for example, lawnmower, middleman) that they can identify and understand. They can use their developing knowledge of words, topics and contexts to increase their reading vocabulary. Readers seek to identify the new meaning of a familiar word when it is used in an unfamiliar way. Areas of study can include:

• learning word families, because knowing a root word and understanding how it can be changed opens up the meanings of many more words (for example, love gives access to loves, loved, lovely, unloved, lovable)
• connecting new words with background knowledge, because when readers connect new words with a concept or topic they already know about, they are more likely to understand and retain the new words (for example, the vocabulary associated with tangi can include passed away, grief and wharenui)
• finding synonyms, because knowing words that have the same or very similar meanings increases readers’ vocabulary knowledge (for example, warm and tepid, cold and chilly, or wet, damp, moist and soggy).

Readers have acquired a reading vocabulary of everyday and some less common words they recognise and understand. They use their own knowledge of the world and the reading context to make inferences as they work out the meanings of new words and interpret definitions in a dictionary to find the best meaning. Areas of study can include:

• inferring the meanings of new words from knowledge about the context and about how words work in relation to other words
• distinguishing figurative and literal meanings, for example, in words and expressions such as “With your food basket and my food basket …” or “I heard through the kumara vine that you were going on holiday” or “Give me a hand”
• using dictionaries and discussing definitions
• learning the meanings of acronyms and abbreviations that are used in their reading.

Readers have acquired a reading vocabulary of some general academic words and some specialised words they recognise and understand. They are able
to use their knowledge of word formation based on roots, prefixes and suffixes to extend their own reading vocabulary. Areas of study can include:

• using known parts of words, such as specific prefixes, roots and suffixes, to increase vocabulary (for example, to read inadequately by knowing the meanings of in-, adequate and -ly)
• exploring word derivations. (Note that knowing such Latin and Greek morphemes as inter, poly, geo, bio, contra, multi, graphic and logic, which form parts of English words, will help readers to understand new words that use different combinations of these parts.)

Readers have acquired a large reading vocabulary that relates to their own knowledge of the world, and that includes general academic words and specialised words and terms. Readers use what they know about words and about the world to increase their vocabulary in a wide range of contexts.