English language learners who experience slow vocabulary development are less able to comprehend text at grade level. Such students are likely to perform poorly when assessed in various areas and are at risk of being diagnosed as learning disabled. I am cognizant of the fact that vocabulary acquisition, semantic development and growth of word knowledge are currently being studied in several interesting ways, hence the research that is presented here is to complement and augment these studies by introducing effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for academic purposes ESL classroom that will expedite the vocabulary development in ELLs.