The Internet is home to many vocabulary websites. The brief list
below focuses entirely on sites containing resources you
can use in conjunction with vocabulary building activities discussed
on this website.
I have omitted sites that consist primarily of activities
whose aim is to improve students' scores on standardized tests.
Such sites have limited usefulness in equipping students for reading
and writing.
Hear words pronounced
Howjsay
is free "talking dictionary" of English pronunciation.
When you type in your word, you hear it pronounced. To get a definition,
you need click a link that opens a page of written definitions from
online dictionaries. Various plug-ins extend the uses of the program
to browsers, iPhones, etc.
You can also hear the pronunciation of words in English (or other
languages) at The
Free Dictionary and get definitions and synonyms for the words.
The website also has a word-of-the-day, quizzes, news and general
interest articles where you may find material for teaching reading
comprehension.
YourDictionary.com
has an an audio pronunciation system as well as language-learning
activities.
Elsewhere on this site is an entire page devoted to free
online dictionaries you may wish to check out.
Vocabulary in timely reading context
Sean Banville's site BreakingNewsEnglish
has a broader objective than most vocabulary websites. The site's
focus is teaching English as a second language; however, anyone
teaching students with reading and writing deficits will find useful
material.
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Every three days BreakingNewsEnglish provides a news article
accompanied by a host of activities for developing vocabulary
and reading skills. Students can hear the article read aloud
and do various kinds of learning activities including responding
to writing prompts.
Each article has far more accompanying resources than you could
possibly use. Download a PDF of the article and all the related
materials to your computer for later reference.
Words in other contexts
Vocabulary websites that illustrate words in use in more than one
or two contexts are rare. Those listed below provide a deeper pool
of illustrations from which to choose.
The
Cool Dictionary provides definitions, oral pronunciation, and
sentences showing the words used in context. It also has links to
articles that show the word in use.
Logos
Library is an excellent source of words in context, but the
examples may be too difficult for weaker readers.
The Corpus
Concordance English will take a while to master (use the demos),
but it has great potential for teaching vocabulary in context. You
can not only specify a word to search for, but also the places to
search. Although most of the corpus search options are written,
some are oral (one is American television. Use the oral options
to help you decide students are likely to have heard a specific
word.
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Also worth checking is the Word of the Day on The
New York Times Learning
Network page. Each weekday the newspaper presents and defines
a work and tells how many times the word was used in the newspaper
in the previous year. The Times gives links to stories using
the word, but not to the location of the word within the piece.
The most efficient use of Times site in your teaching is
to watch it daily for words on your master list for the year. Then
copy the vocabulary sentence and URL of the story in which it appears
into your teaching notes to be pulled out at the appropriate time.
Roots, prefixes, suffixes
Another category of vocabulary websites are useful for study of
word roots.
For lesson plans on latin roots, prefixes and suffixes, check out
MyVocabulary.com.
Espindle is a membership site that began as a parent initiative
to improve spelling and other literacy skills. Espindle provides
some useful information free, including a list of word
roots and a list of word
suffixes.
BetterEndings, a site about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders,
has a page listing root
words, suffixes
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in simple table format. One column of the table gives the meanings
while another gives examples of words using that root/prefix/suffix.
At VirtualSalt, Robert Harris provides not only a list of
roots, but also a short and very readable introduction to the topic
of English
word roots.
Harris also has some worksheets available on the same page. The
one on number prefixes might appeal to your math and technology
oriented students.
PrefixSuffix
is devoted to English word roots and word creation. Besides lists
of roots, prefixes and suffixes, you'll find a wealth of information
to help you teach etymological topics. Many of the articles
are short and easy to read. You could have students
use them as texts or as resource materials for writing prompts or
other class activities.
