Vocabulary that learners seem to know can suddenly stop working; difficulty often comes from narrowing meaning rather than adding complexity.
Is familiar vocabulary as familiar as we think?
Most teachers recognise the moment. You are halfway through a lesson, working on something new, when a familiar word appears and the reaction is almost automatic: they should know this.
That reaction is not unreasonable. Learners recognise the word. Some can offer a definition. Others have encountered it repeatedly across subjects. On the surface, there is little to suggest a problem. The difficulty is that this sense of familiarity can mask a . . .
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