Oxford University
Tackling the widening vocabulary gap in the UK
Four in ten UK pupils have fallen behind in vocabulary development according to our latest Oxford Children’s Language Report. We surveyed more than 800 teachers and parents across the UK in our annual study of vocabulary development in under 18s in the UK.
Teachers are keen for schools to work with parents to tackle the issue, with 85% believing schools could do more to encourage parents to get involved in their child’s vocabulary development. Our UK Policy Director Avnee Morjaria shared “[this] is a significant issue for many children, and one which can impact their learning at school and later life chances.” Equally over two thirds of parents surveyed are eager to engage with schools, with 68% of parents welcoming more guidance when it comes to developing their child’s vocabulary.
Overwhelmingly, teachers highlight the significant consequences of the pandemic with 95% believing school closures and disruptions during Covid-19 contributed to a widening vocabulary gap.
To help tackle the issue, we’re launching the second year of our pioneering Raise a Reader initiative — our campaign to support children’s literacy in the wake of the pandemic — in continued partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
We are extending our Oxfordshire Raise a Reader programme to an additional ten schools across the county in 2024, including Banbury, Witney, and Oxford.
Almost 3,000 children growing up in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Oxfordshire benefitted from the programme in 2023, where we set up dedicated libraries in ten primary schools. This included donating 5,000 books, furnishings, storage, as well as training and support from OUP and the National Literacy Trust.
Sinéad Naidoo, National Literacy Trust, Senior Programme Manager, Raise a Reader, said:
“This report is further evidence of the need for every primary school to have a library. School libraries are essential in helping to fuel a child’s imagination, build a rich vocabulary, and give them the literacy skills they need to succeed in life. We are delighted to be working with Oxford University Press for a second year to get ten wonderful new reading spaces into primary schools in Oxfordshire.”
If you’re a parent looking for support with developing vocabulary at home, check out our filled with tips and activities based on the latest research to support vocabulary development and reading at home.
Chair of the Global Prize Committee and Professor of International History and Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute
“This year’s pool of submissions was remarkably strong. A large number of manuscripts made genuine contributions to their respective fields and were worthy of serious consideration. The judging process was accordingly tough and energizing. I, for one, learned an enormous deal about themes as diverse as Caribbean environments, Vietnamese cities, and Latin American rivers.
“The ECR First Book Prize is invaluable. It doesn’t just recognize excellent books, but helps launch them.”
Rhea Realo, Head of Digital Product at OUP ANZ, said:
“Oxford Digital brings together proven education research, recognized accessibility standards, and ongoing feedback from teachers. Being named a finalist on the global stage is a strong endorsement of the practical, inclusive learning experience we’ve worked with educators to create.”
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a historical dictionary, containing over 500,000 entries and 3.5 million quotations to capture over 1,000 years of English.
Every quarter, we update the OED by revising versions of existing entries as well as defining new words and senses. These updates subtly broaden our understanding of the English language and its use around the world.
10 highlights from this quarter’s update
1. We added more than 400 new words, phrases, and senses to the OED this quarter, including hot yoga, fantabulosa, will-they-won’t-they, and auto-reply.
2. By happy coincidence this update lands just before International Coffee Day (1 October). Coffee drinks new to the OED include Café Cubano, café con leche, cafezinho, and cold brew.
3. This release sees additions from across the world, including contributions from East Africa, Caribbean, Bermuda, New Zealand, Wales, and the Isle of Man. Learn more from Executive Editor, Danica Salazar.
4. From shadeesh to hamma, we welcome several Bermudian English additions, as part of a valuable new collaboration with the Bermuda Spelling Bee. This is an annual spelling competition for 9- to 13-year-olds designed to foster a love of language and learning among young Bermudians.
5. Several new words for supernatural creatures appear in this update. From Welsh folklore we have a bwbach, from Caribbean folklore a jablesse, and we also have the Trinbagonian addition of douen.
6. An important feature of the OED’s New Words team’s work is its Monitor Lexicography (MonLex) programme. This is our way of monitoring, collecting, and prioritizing contemporary language for inclusion in the OED, looking at sources including trending words on language corpora, social media, material generated by our reading programmes, and suggestions made by colleagues on our own internal database. Every other quarter we gather the items collected and assess them for inclusion, prioritizing so that we include the most relevant and important.
Some new words added this quarter from our MonLex programme include: the social media sense of timeline, the sense of slammed meaning very busy or overcome with work, the chiefly North American English word bothsidesism, and lastly, overnight oats.
7. Craig Leyland, Executive Editor, notes the welcome of two reference related words – thesaural and mountweazel. The latter is defined as ‘an invented or fake entry in a reference work (esp. a dictionary or an encyclopedia), a database, etc., typically used by the publisher to identify plagiarism that constitutes an infringement of copyright’. Does the OED contain any mountweazels? We can’t say, of course. You can read more from Craig about both here.
8. More than 700 entries have been revised as part of this update, including ‘gym’ and ‘kanaka’ words. Read more in this commentary from Andrew Ball, OED Editor.
9. The words newly revised this quarter show an especially rich variety of etymologies. In the month that the Bayeux Tapestry goes on view in London, it is fitting that we have a healthy crop of Middle English borrowings from French, or more specifically Anglo-Norman (i.e. French as used in medieval Britain), including doubt, equity, fantasy, and garner. Read more from Philip Durkin, OED Deputy Chief Editor.
10. And finally, being asked about ‘scone’ usually raises a groan for pronunciation editors, but it was good to have the opportunity to provide the ‘skoon’ pronunciation appropriate for the Stone of Scone in this update. Hear more from Catherine Sangster, OED Pronunciation Editor.
Explore the update in more depth here.
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