Nontraditional students’ insights into vocabulary learning in the ESL classroom

Abstract

Many nontraditional English language learners (ELLs) in urban two-year colleges come with limited
academic literacy experience. Research has shown that vocabulary is essential in developing the
necessary literacy skills to succeed in college, so vocabulary development is important for these
students. Because nontraditional students learn in different ways compared to traditional students, it
can be challenging for ESL instructors to devise teaching strategies to address the learning needs of
this population. This study seeks to gain insight into promising educational practices for the
vocabulary development of nontraditional ELLs by asking them for their awareness on (a) avoidance
of some of the college-level words they know in their speech and writing, and (b) the kinds of
practical classroom strategies that would help them learn and use new words more effectively. Study
participants’ responses were not only insightful, but also were in line with current learning theories in
language acquisition and linguistics.