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Vocabulary Pathway

Vocabulary: the first rung

EAL-friendly — Great for building English skills

Vocabulary is the first rung. Before you can spot a technique or analyse a choice, you need to know what words mean, how they change in context, and which word is the precise one. Everything here is taught from the beginning — no terminology is assumed.

Where this sits

Understand the words first, then the techniques, then how texts are built, then full analysis. You can move between them, but this is the order that works.

  1. 1Vocabulary
  2. 2Language Techniques
  3. 3Structure
  4. 4Analysis

Every lesson runs on the standard LADDER loop: Learn → Practise → Apply → Feedback → Improve → Progress, with the same marking, feedback rules and rungs as the rest of the site. Original LADDER English practice material — not an official AQA paper.

Stage 1 — Understand the words

2 lessons

What words mean, how context changes meaning, and how to work out a word you have never seen before.

  1. Word meanings and vocabulary in context

    Learn what a word means on its own, then what the sentence around it does to that meaning.

    6 marksEAL — Great for building English skills
    • • Word meanings
    • • Vocabulary in context
    Start

  2. Working out unfamiliar words

    Four practical clues you can use when you meet a word you have never seen in an extract.

    6 marksEAL — Great for building English skills
    • • Unfamiliar words from context
    • • Reading strategies
    Start

Stage 2 — Choose better words

2 lessons

Synonyms, antonyms, shades of meaning and precise vocabulary for characters, settings, emotions and ideas.

  1. Synonyms, antonyms and shades of meaning

    Words that are close in meaning are rarely identical. Learn to hear the difference.

    6 marksEAL — Great for building English skills
    • • Synonyms
    • • Antonyms
    • • Shades of meaning
    Start

  2. Word choice and precise vocabulary

    Upgrade vague words into precise ones, and describe characters, settings, emotions and ideas accurately.

    8 marksEAL — Great for building English skills
    • • Word choice
    • • Precise vocabulary
    • • Improving basic word choices
    Start

Stage 3 — Vocabulary for writing about texts

2 lessons

Tier 2 academic vocabulary and the analytical words that let you explain what a writer's choice suggests.

  1. Tier 2 academic vocabulary

    The useful, subject-crossing words — significant, reveals, emphasises, contrasts — that make writing sound controlled.

    6 marksEAL — Great for building English skills
    • • Tier 2 vocabulary
    • • Academic word choice
    Start

  2. GCSE analytical vocabulary

    The verbs that carry analysis: suggests, implies, conveys, creates, positions the reader.

    8 marks
    • • Analytical vocabulary
    • • Explaining effect
    • • Bridge into Analysis
    Start

Ready for the next rung?

Once you can explain what a word means and what it suggests, Language Techniques teaches you to name the choice a writer has made — then Structure, then full Analysis.

Language Techniques