Key Stage 3 languages · Grammar and vocabulary

KS3 languages vocabulary: building words beyond the basics

In Years 7 to 9, children are expected to build a vocabulary that goes beyond their own immediate needs and interests. Early lessons cover family, pets and hobbies. By Year 9 most pupils are learning words for wider issues, so they can give opinions and join in discussions. Schools choose the topics, for example the environment, health, technology or the future. A wide, well-used vocabulary is what makes speaking and writing feel fluent.

Wider vocabulary, explained

The National Curriculum asks that pupils develop and use a wide-ranging and deepening vocabulary, so they can understand and communicate personal and factual information that goes beyond their immediate needs and interests. In practice, this means a move from “my family and my pet” to topics such as protecting the planet, social media, healthy living or life in other countries. The programme of study does not give a word list or a set of topics, so schools choose them. Children learn whichever language their school teaches, and the examples here are in French and Spanish.

Teachers usually give priority to words that turn up most often in everyday speech and texts, because they are more useful than rare words. They teach vocabulary in themed groups, but also look at how words connect. A word family links several related words, such as the French travailler, le travail and le travailleur, or the Spanish trabajar, el trabajo and el trabajador. Knowing one member of the family helps with guessing the others. Prefixes and suffixes help too: French words ending in -tion often match English words ending in -tion, and Spanish has -ción.

Many words look like English ones, and these cognates are a quick way to widen vocabulary. The French environnement, pollution and recycler, and the Spanish contaminación and reciclar, are easy to guess. Cognates come with a warning, because there are also false friends: words that look the same but mean something different. Children learn to check a likely match against the context rather than simply trusting it.

Wide vocabulary is not only nouns. The words that bring most extra range are small and flexible: connectives such as parce que, mais, cependant (French) and porque, pero, sin embargo (Spanish), intensifiers such as très, vraiment and muy, and phrases for giving an opinion. Using these with a topic noun and a simple verb lets a child say much more than the same noun alone. Teachers also build dictionary skills, which means finding the right entry when a word has several meanings and noticing whether it is a noun, verb or adjective.

The word “deepening” in the curriculum matters. Knowing a word means recognising it when heard, recalling it when speaking, spelling it when writing and using it in a sentence. These are separate skills. A word met once on a list is usually forgotten, so good teaching brings words back in later lessons, in different activities and in a different context. This is why a little and often at home beats a last-minute rush before a test.

Words your child will hear

Cognate: A word in another language that looks and means nearly the same as in English, such as pollution or contaminación.
False friend: A word that looks like an English one but means something different, such as the French librairie, which is a bookshop, not a library.
Word family: A group of related words sharing a root, such as trabajar, el trabajo and el trabajador.
Prefix: A group of letters at the start of a word that changes its meaning, such as re- in recycler.
Suffix: A group of letters added to the end of a word, such as -tion or -ción, that often changes its type.
Connective: A word that links ideas, such as parce que (because) or mais (but).
Intensifier: A small word that adds strength to an adjective or verb, such as très or muy (very).

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 3 says:

Pupils should be taught to develop and use a wide-ranging and deepening vocabulary that goes beyond their immediate needs and interests, allowing them to give and justify opinions and take part in discussion about wider issues
It should enable pupils to understand and communicate personal and factual information that goes beyond their immediate needs and interests, developing and justifying points of view in speech and writing, with increased spontaneity, independence and accuracy.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: turning a basic sentence into a richer one

A child can say “C’est important” (it is important) and wants to talk about the environment in French. How can they build a richer answer using the vocabulary they already have and a few new words?

Choose the topic words. Start with words they can guess: l’environnement, la pollution, le plastique, recycler. These are cognates, so they cost little effort to learn. Check the gender of each noun and learn it with the word (la pollution, le plastique).
Use word families to extend. Notice the verb and noun pairs: polluer and la pollution, protéger (to protect) and la protection, recycler and le recyclage. Learning one of each pair gives the other almost for free, which doubles the words available for the sentence.
Add an opinion phrase and an intensifier: “À mon avis” (in my opinion) or “Je pense que”, and vraiment (really) with important. To say what is important, add de and an infinitive: “c’est important de recycler”, or in more formal writing “il est important de recycler”. These small words make a plain sentence sound more developed.
Add a reason with a connective: “parce que”, followed by a new clause with its own subject and verb: “la pollution détruit les océans.”
Put it together and check each word. Is there any false friend? Does each noun have the right article? Say it aloud once to hear whether it flows.

À mon avis, il est vraiment important de recycler le plastique, parce que la pollution détruit les océans. In Spanish: En mi opinión, es muy importante reciclar el plástico porque la contaminación destruye los océanos.

Common mistakes and how to help

Believing that each word has exactly one translation

Word lists show one English meaning per word, so children assume it is the only one. In fact many words have several meanings, and each language splits ideas differently. For example, the Spanish banco means both bank and bench.

What helps: Teach words in short phrases, not single words, and use a dictionary entry’s example sentences. If a word seems odd in the sentence, look at the other meanings.

Assuming a word that looks like English means the same thing

Cognates are common enough that children trust the pattern. But the French actuellement means “at the moment”, not “actually”, and the Spanish embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed.

What helps: Make a small false-friends list together, adding any that your child meets. Spotting one makes the next easier to remember. When a sentence does not make sense, check the look-alike first.

Learning a list the night before, then forgetting it

Reading a list repeatedly makes the words feel familiar, so children think they know them. Recognising a word is easier than recalling it, so a test of recall shows the gap.

What helps: Test by covering one side and recalling from the other, and do it again a few days later and a week later. Short repeated sessions give better results than one long session.

Grabbing the first dictionary entry for an unfamiliar word

Dictionaries list many senses, and children pick the first, which may be a noun when they need a verb. The sentence then comes out as nonsense.

What helps: Before looking up, decide what kind of word is needed (noun, verb, adjective). Then read the sample sentences and check the choice by translating back into English.

How to help at home

A theme at a time. Pick one topic your child is studying, such as the environment or technology, and agree on five new words to find and use this week. Linking words to something real, like a news item at home, makes them stick.
Draw a word family. Take a word, such as travailler, and ask your child to draw a tree of related words: the noun, the person, the adjective. Add to it as they discover new members.
Cover and recall. Fold a list in half so the English is hidden. Say the word in the language, then check. Repeat the following day, then a few days later. Missed words are the useful ones to practise.
Explain it without saying it. Choose a word and ask your child to describe it using only words they already know in the language, or with gestures. Others guess the word. It practises the skill of getting around a gap in vocabulary.
Read and listen a little above their level. Short, simple articles, picture books or videos for younger native speakers give new words in context. Encourage your child to guess a word from the context before they look it up.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: Building vocabulary
Key Stage 2: Using a bilingual dictionary
Key Stage 2: Masculine, feminine and neuter nouns
Key Stage 2: High-frequency verbs
Key Stage 2: Patterns and building sentences
Key Stage 2: Comparing a language with English