Word Knowledge The Vocabulary Teacher's Handbook

Zimmerman's handbook is organized into seven chapters and begins with an introduction to the central notions of her book: "word consciousness" (p. 3) and "word layers" (p. 5). She draws on the work of other researchers in the field who have introduced this concept, and she states, Word consciousness is a critical skill to develop, first for vocabulary teachers, and then for their students. It will enable learners to improve their use of words by making insightful observations about words in authentic use. A key aspect of word consciousness is acknowledging the extensiveness of what it means to know a word. That is, word consciousness includes a growing understanding of the many layers of word knowledge.