Glossary of instructional terms
Understanding instructional vocabulary
Understanding instructional vocabulary is essential for completing many school and life-related tasks. For some students, instructional terms though familiar may be difficult to understand and apply. The following guide is designed to assist students new to instructional terms and academic language, those finding the terms confusing to comprehend or translate to action, and those students for whom English is a second language.
Print the glossary for students. You may wish to print a blank template to create your own or add terms which relate to your teaching.
| Action | What to do | Other ways of saying this |
|---|---|---|
| compare | look for what is the same and different | identify similarities and differences, comparing & contrasting |
| complete | finish something | keep going until there is nothing left to do |
| contrast | look at two things and notice how they are different | different, unlike |
| choose the right answer | pick out the one you think is the best | select, determine, most accurate |
| describe | give details or information to show what something is like or what happened | recount, outline |
| estimate | give your best guess; give the closest answer you can | approximate, judge, gauge |
| evaluate | think about what is good and bad and use this to form an opinion | assess pros and cons, judge |
| explain | to make something clear by giving information; to give reasons | justify, illustrate why |
| infer | use what you know and clues you can find in the words and/or pictures | conclude, deduce |
| justify | give reasons | defend, explain, validate |
| match up | show which thing goes with another | connect, join |
| predict | say or write what you think might happen | forecast |
| opinion | what you think about something | point of view, belief, judgement |
| observe | to look and notice | see, spot, watch |
| record | write down | note |
| refer to | look at or in (something) to get information | reference |
| sort | put things that are alike together | group (by kind, type, or class), categorise |
| suggest why | give the reason for something happening | identify the cause, speculate, hypothesise |
| use the text | look at the information given in the words and/or pictures | find information from the words and/or pictures; use the information given by the author |
