This is the second episode in a series on vocabulary and literacy. The first was episode 91 (Vocabulary Development).

Closing the Vocabulary Gap is a slightly longer book on vocabulary than Vocabulary Development was, and peeks into the domain of literacy more generally. In this episode, we will focus on the following questions:

• What is the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension? (Does learning vocabulary increase your reading comprehension? Or is there no direct connection - maybe smarter people just do better at both?)
• How many words do people know? And why is this question important?
• How do people learn words from context?
• How should you teach vocabulary?

The next part of the series will be focused on learning to read, which builds on knowledge from this book.

Enjoy the episode.