Video infographic: Student word choice in 2020

Explicit teaching of vocabulary helps students develop their speaking and listening skills, writing and reading comprehension.

Oxford University Press has analysed stories written by students to assess their word choice during the year of 2020.

Using a database of more than 50 000 story submissions and three million words written by students in Years 3-8, researchers allocated a Word of the Year for 2020 and discovered patterns in the word choices and grammar decisions of students.

For instance, all students mostly used simple, one syllable describing words, with some of the most frequent to appear being ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘little’, ‘big’, ‘happy’ and ‘sad’.

The research findings could help inform your teaching to help develop students’ vocabulary and grammar knowledge.

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To access the full report, Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year: 2020 Insights Report, visit Oxford University Press’ website.

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