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Vocabulary /vōˈkabyəˌlerē/   1. The body of words used in a particular language 2. A part of such a body of words used on a particular occasion or in a particular sphere: "the vocabulary of law".  (Google's define: vocabulary) Vocabulary is a basic part of any textbook or book, there is always new words to learn for each subject, with much of the new vocabulary appearing in the textbook's glossary. As for a students personal vocabulary, it only makes sense that there is a relationship between background knowledge and vocabulary: The more you know about a topic, the more likely you are to already be familiar with the vocabulary of that topic, although this can cause conflicts when students may be using words from a common context that they know to when that word is used in a specialized situations - such as for science class. Also it just makes sense that better readers have a better vocabulary, and vocabulary can be used to explain current and future reading ...

I was just reading today how Google Books (in the Flowing text view), now has an option that lets you look up the word in the dictionary or have the word translated. I think that such tools are very important and actually increase the chances that a student would look up a word that they are unfamiliar with. Back when I taught middle school, we used to keep a collection of dictionaries on the side of the class, and realistically they were never used by my student, even in our textbooks, unless they were doing a vocabulary exercise there wasn't a lot of turning to the back of the book. I'm often surprised by how much students read without knowing all the words. This was shown to me when I had an undergraduate class work to create an audiobook version of Tarzan. Students were constantly noting words that they either didn't know or know how to pronounce as they read the text aloud. An issue with looking words up in a dictionary or glossary is the dis...

I have often read how we learn the meaning of words when reading though context, and that is a great thing. But often the new word's context can not even be understood or I often feel that language drift has cause the speaking and writing patterns to change over time that the words used and their meanings may have changed. Yes, of course we should look things up in the dictionary to find out what that new word means, but perhaps we are right in the middle of an exciting passage and we just don't want to stop right now, or we don't have a dictionary with us (or there just isn't a dictionary around right now - if you look in the modern office you will most likely not find one). I feel that a big part of the regular dictionary use is the actual process that occurs in the room while reading: you read the new word, now you have to stop reading, remember the word, walk across the room, look up the word, read the defined word, remember all the definitions, go back to the des...