It's one of those assumptions of the English teaching game that students must learn and store up vocabulary as a precondition of tackling literature or history or any of those fields that feature big words. How, some ask, could a child read a challenging passage if he or she didn't understand those key, usually multisyllabic, words often sprinkled throughout textbooks and literary works? Over his first few years, the author struggled to contrive strategies that would lead to "real" comprehension. To understand a word, it is necessary to see it in as many contexts as possible. To define a word in isolation generally means a futile trip down a blind alley. The author suggests that reading is the key, and it is reading for enjoyment that is his way of teaching vocabulary.