Through conversations, mostly with adults;
Listening to adults read to them; and
Reading extensively on their own (CIERA, 2001).
This finding has serious consequences for ELLs, whose parents and other adults in their lives are often not fluent in English. It is therefore extremely important for educators of ELLs to know and incorporate the ways that students learn vocabulary directly, including: explicitly teaching vocabulary words before students read a text, how to use dictionaries, how to use prefixes and suffixes to decipher word meanings, and how to use context clues (CIERA, 2001).