Teaching Vocab but I Don

8/13/2019 Teaching Vocab but I Don

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I need to teach vocab but I dont even know how to begin! This

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Posted on February 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

I hope theres a little bit for everyone in todays post. For teachers just startingout on their career, this whole post might serve as a useful guide in how to go aboutteaching vocabulary in the language classroom, while the experienced among usmay wish to fast forward to the third section and explore the tools I suggest.Whoever you are, please drop me a line in the comments section and let me know ifyou found this post useful

Learning vocabulary is as important a step in developing future reading, listening, writing andspeaking skills as any other aspect of language learning. Consequently, in this post Ill reflect on

what we teachers need to do in terms of dealing with what learners need to know about the wordswe want to teach, and how we can effectively teach them. In part one Ill cater specifically tonewbie teachers and briefly consider some of the most effective ways of presenting vocabulary. Illmove on to look at what learners might need to know about a word. In part three Ill cater toeveryone and introduce ten useful tools for teaching vocabulary in class. Ill round up with somesound advice that we could all do with remembering!

k, ready "ere we go#

!art "# $ffective ways of presenting vocabulary

$t this point its important not to worry and to remember that there are loads of techniques wecan employ to teach vocabulary in a stimulating and effective way. "ere are a few of the best#

1.1 A Written definition

It might seem like an obvious suggestion, but its one that you need to make sure you do properly.%hen deciding how to define a word, make sure that it is clear and remember to ask questions tocheck if learners really have understood properly. ne good way of getting used to writing cleardefinitions is to consult a learner dictionary to see how they do it.

1.2 Visual illustration

Concrete nouns, by which I mean &things that have a physically distinct shape or form 'dog, rain,tall, etc.( can often best be dealt with through the use of images. Conversely, you are perhaps bestadvised not to try and illustrate emotional states such as despair, love, etc, unless you are anincredibly talented artist!

1.3 Gradable items/Synonyms/Antonyms

$ lot of ad)ectives work on a sliding scale 'cold, warm, hot, etc.(, while many others have

opposites 'good and bad, for e*ample(. +sing the words a student already knows can be effectivefor getting meaning across. his can of course be dangerous, especially when you know that a

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word either means one e*treme or another, but cant remember which- I remember a colleaguedescribing a student as incredibly &stupid to a parent, as hed got the word mi*ed up with &clever!

1.4 Mime

o, you have to teach your learners the meaning of certain action verbs. %ell, miming lends itselfe*tremely well to showing what action verbs mean. %hats more, it tends to be both fun andmemorable.

1.5 Translation

ranslating from /nglish into the mother tongue has its pitfalls, but if you know the students L0reasonably well, it can often prove to be a fast and efficient technique. 1emember- not every wordhas a direct translation into /nglish and this is where it can prove to be an ineffective technique.

1.6 onte!tuali"e

$s far as Im concerned, this is the king of techniques. If you can provide one 2 or more 2 clearconte*t in which the word is used, youre well on your way. /ither describe it to the students orgive them e*ample sentences to clarify meaning further 'preferably, do both(.

!art %# What might learners need to know about a word&

In one unit of a course book I regularly use, I have to teach a te*t about desertification. 3ow, forall intent and purpose, the /nglish word &desertification isnt actually that necessary in the wider

scheme of things, but it would be e*tremely difficult for this particular te*t if learners didnt knowwhat it meant. 3aturally, the e*tent to which a learner really needs to &know a word will dependon a number of factors, but here are the aspects of knowing that are generally considered the mostimportant. $s I suggested earlier, e*perienced teachers might want to skip through this and )ustfocus on the ideas part.

2.1 W#at does it mean$

I cant imagine getting learners to try and confidently use a word without knowing what it means.4et the meaning of the item across clearly and to ensure that your learners have understoodcorrectly with checking questions.

2.2 T#e form

o be able to use it effectively learners need to know if it is a verb 5 a noun 5 an ad)ective etc. Itsalways useful to bear in mind that they might need to review what these parts of speech mean intheir L0, too!

2.3 %o& is it 'ronoun(ed$

6ronunciation can be especially problematic for learners because there is often no clear relation

between how a word is written and how it is pronounced. imple classroom activities like drilling

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words that you think might cause pronunciation problems can resolve a lot of pronunciationissues.

2.4 %o& is it s'elled$

$s with pronunciation, and for the same reasons, this is frequently problematic in /nglish. It isusually useful to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form.

2.5 )oes it follo& any *un+'redi(table ,rammati(al 'atterns$

7or e*ample, &man8men is an e*ample of an irregular plural. &Information is an uncountablenoun 'in many languages it would be &informations(. 9epend is always followed a particularpreposition 'i.e. depend on(.

2.6 )oes t#e &ord #a-e 'arti(ular (onnotations$

&velte is a nice way of describing a woman, while &skinny is distinctly less positive! &:achelor is aneutral 5 positive word to describe an unmarried man, whereas &spinster con)ures a morenegative image, even though it is basically the direct female equivalent.

2. W#en is t#e &ord used or not used$

Is the word formal 5 neutral 5 informal 7or instance, think about how we might describe eyewear in different situations- spectacles 5 glasses 5 specs. Is the word used mainly in spoken or inwritten language 7or e*ample, &to summari;e is usually used in writing, whereas &mind you is

almost always spoken. "as the word become outdated or archaic %ould we, for e*ample, everrefer to a &pilot as an &aviator these days

2. %o& is t#e &ord related to ot#er &ords$

/*amples of this might be a particular vocabulary items synonyms and antonyms, or the le*icalsets in which it appears 'yellow would belong to the &colour set of words, for instance(.

2.0 W#at are its (ollo(ations *t#e &ay t#at it o((urs to,et#er &it# ot#er &ords+$

$s obvious as it might be to us that we describe things &in great detail and not &in big detail, suchthings might not necessarily work the same in our learners native tongues. Collocations areimportant to highlight to learners in order to prevent mistakes in usage.

2.1 W#at do affi!es *'refi!es and suffi!es+ indi(ate about t#e meanin,$

%hat does the &sub8 mean in substandard


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!art '# (seful tools for teaching vocabulary in class

3ow we get on to the cool part of todays post. 3ow that weve looked at some basic techniquesand the various aspects of knowing what words mean 'or, if youre an old pro and have followedmy advice, have fast forwarded to this part(, Ive done some research and prepared a list of really

useful tools that are free to use and will help you address the issues mentioned in the first twoparts of this post.

'." )emrise

=emrise is immense. I mean really# its huge. here are so many vocabulary resources here thatthe most difficult thing will be for you to decide where to start. >ou can use what you find here inclass, or you can recommend to your learners for self study. heres something good forpractically every aspect of knowing a word, and theres also a nice range of activities.

'.% *exipedia

Le*ipedia is a really nice multi8lingual visual dictionary that creates a word web and defineswords based on parts of speech. he toolbar bookmarklet makes using it convenient and easy.

'.' +uilet

his free tool allows you to make lots of fun little qui; activities that will help you build up learnerknowledge of vocab. :ecause you input the data yourself, you can easily cover the various aspectsof knowing a word depending on how you decide to make each qui;.

'.- *ingro

his is an ama;ing tool that turns all the words in any website or digital te*t into a clickabledictionary and translates te*t into 0? different languages.

'. !hrasr

his is a quick and very functional little tool that enables learners to attach visual images to theirsentences. >ou have full control, as you write the e*ample sentence yourself and then choose theimage you want to go with each word.

'./ 0nappy Words

nappy %ords is an online interactive /nglish dictionary and thesaurus that helps learners findthe meanings of words and draw connections to associated words.

'.1 2ag 3alaxy

ne of my favourites, this fabulous tool creates a @9 orbiting gala*y of words and their

associations 'perfect for seeing the most frequent collocations(. Click on any word to move it tothe center of the gala*y, then click again and watch the globe populate with images from 7lickr.

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http://www.memrise.com/http://www.lexipedia.com/http://quizlet.com/http://lingro.com/http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/http://www.snappywords.com/http://taggalaxy.de/http://www.memrise.com/http://www.lexipedia.com/http://quizlet.com/http://lingro.com/http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/http://www.snappywords.com/http://taggalaxy.de/


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'.4 Word 0tash

>ou have to sign up for this one, but the account is free and you can create word lists to support awritten te*t. %ith a click of a button, learners can access dictionary information and create flashcards for review.

'.5 6ocab 3rabber

%ith Aocab 4rabber you copy and paste te*t into a bo* and this tool then generates a word cloudto help you identify the key vocabulary. >ou can sort words by content area.

'."7 6isuwords

Aisuwords enables you to look up words to find their meanings and their associations with otherwords and concepts.

If you have any other suggestions, please mention them in the comments section below and Illadd them to the list.

!art -# 8 few other things

%hen it comes to learning vocabulary, your learners should be encouraged, above all else,to be as autonomous as possible. he best way to pick up, retain and develop vocabularyknowledge is through repeated e*posure, so get them to read, watch films, listen to songsand note down useful words.

In addition to teaching your learners the grammatical names for the parts of speech'never take knowledge of this for granted(, familiari;e them with the phonemic script, asthis will greatly benefit them in terms of pronunciation.

/ncourage your learners to get hold of a good dictionary. 9evote class time to highlightingthe benefits of having one and how to use it effectively.

1eviewing the vocabulary you teach in class through a game or some similar motivatingactivity is a surefire winner. $lso, I strongly suggest that you encourage your learners to dothe same at home.

:e ready for on the spot questions! =y advice here is to always have a good dictionarywith you in case a learner asks about a word you dont know, or cant define, or cantconte*tuali;e. rust me on this one!

Its generally a good idea to teach 5 learn words with associated meanings together.

>our learners will discover all kinds of weird and wonderful words while watching filmsand A shows# and theyll ask you about them. If you dont know or have never heard ofthe word, be honest and tell the learner that youll check and get back to them. here aremore than a million words in the /nglish languageB you can be forgiven for not knowingthem all!

4ive further e*amples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them towrite the word in an e*ample sentence 'maybe for homework(.

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http://wordstash.com/http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/http://visuwords.com/http://wordstash.com/http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/http://visuwords.com/

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Teaching Vocab but I Don