Once words have been initially introduced and placed into semantic domains, the real work of wrestling with words shifts to the students. Cementing and expanding word knowledge is a result of processing tasks that ask students to interact with words in a variety of ways. An efficient method of organizing basic processing tasks is by grouping them under the four major learning styles: mastery, understanding, self-expressive, and interpersonal.

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While basic processing tasks supply ask students to supply answers to various prompts and cues, complex processing tasks are more generative in nature. Students produce novel responses with little to no support according to tasks that span all four major learning styles.