Despite what we have learned about effective vocabulary instruction, and despite the fact that many teachers know vocabulary is important, teachers do not always incorporate best practices with their own instruction. These authors argue that part of the reason may be that the "general" instructional recommendations of vocabulary research don't always help teachers, particularly content teachers, bridge theory and practice. The issues in teaching vocabulary are often "specific" to the content, the students, and the instructional purposes. To help teachers address questions of which words to teach, which strategies to use, and how long to spend on teaching them, the authors propose a "four-level" instructional framework tailored to content area vocabulary. Using this framework, the authors show content teachers how to choose words and methods that match their students and their purposes. (Contains 4 figures and 3 tables.)