Word Work Instruction Across EFL and Native English Classrooms

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

word work; vocabulary acquisition; EFL; literacy instruction

Abstract

Vocabulary development is a central concern in language and literacy education, as it underpins reading comprehension, academic writing, and communicative competence. However, approaches to vocabulary instruction vary considerably across learning contexts. In EFL classrooms, learners often have limited exposure to English beyond formal instruction, which increases their reliance on explicit, structured, and systematic word work practices. In contrast, native English classrooms typically offer literacy-rich environments where vocabulary is acquired through authentic texts, meaningful interaction, and task-based activities. Against this backdrop, this paper examines word work instruction in both EFL and native English classrooms through a literature review and a small-scale case study. The findings suggest that explicit and structured strategies are particularly beneficial for EFL learners, while authentic and task-based practices are more effective in native contexts. The paper concludes that a balanced approach, integrating explicit instruction with authentic literacy tasks, can optimize vocabulary learning across diverse educational settings.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ziming Yan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/13
TI  - Word Work Instruction Across EFL and Native English Classrooms
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 108
EP  - 113
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_13
ID  - Yan2026
ER  -