The annual research from Oxford University Press involved more than 8,000 children from years 3 to 9 who were asked to choose the most common words they would use when talking about health and wellbeing – the theme selected by researchers in light of the pandemic.
Almost a quarter of the children chose “anxiety” as their number one word. “Challenging” came in second, chosen by a fifth of the respondents, closely followed by “isolate”,“wellbeing”and “resilience”.
The word of the year has long reflected the influence and impact of media news stories and important topics of conversation in the adult world on our young people.
The 2020 word of the year was, unsurprisingly, “coronavirus”, and this followed “Brexit” in 2019, “plastic”in 2018, “trump” in 2017, “refugee” in 2016, and “#hashtag” in 2015.
The 2021 research also asked teachers from across the 85 schools for the word they use most often when talking to their pupils about health andwellbeing in the context of the past year. Almost a third chose “resilience”.
In response to the latest findings, the children’s Language department at OUP has published the Oxford Children’s Language Report 2021 and will be updating their dictionaries and resources to support teachers and pupils in both primary and secondary schools.
Words such as “bubble” and “lockdown” will be revised to reflect current usage in relation to the pandemic and new phrases such as “self-isolation” will be included.
- Armstrong & Banerji: Oxford Children’s Language Report 2021, OUP, January 2022: https://bit.ly/3FIuWNc