With such a large number of words in the English language learning vocabulary for many students can seem rather daunting. A frequent question many teachers get from students is “Why do I need to know the meaning of this word?”.
Some words will be necessary only to recognise in a book or during their studies while others will rarely be used.
1. Choosing which words to teach needs a lot of time but we can use this time wisely and have some help from the students themselves.
- When introducing a new book/ story we can ask them to go through the text briefly and select the words they don’t know or are not sure of.
- The next step is to instruct them to write a chart of three columns where in the first column is “know it”, the second one “sort of know it” and the third and last one “don’t know it”.
- Then on the same piece of paper they can write the meaning or their guesses for each word on the first and second column and with that you then read through all of them and select finally which words to teach them or dismiss any known words.
2. Another method to introduce learners with a new text and vocabulary is to create and use a Word Cloud before beginning to read and analyse it.
A word cloud is as its title suggests, a shaped cloud and its content is a number of words from the text you read each time. It is created in a free web application where you paste the text you will use, you choose the colour scheme, layout and font and you are ready! It can highlight the keywords and the subject of the text to prepare the students and help with the discussion when finished reading.
3. A favourite for many teachers but students also, usually of a young age, is flashcards! There is a great variety in shops and bookshops but if you like to create some yourself and introduce a different theme each week you can search online for vocabulary sheets with words of a certain theme according to your choice. Another alternative of course are board games.
4. Encouraging students to read books is a brilliant way for them to enrich their vocabulary and if you want to use modern technology (computer, tablet, smartphones, e-books) there are also many downloadable texts online. Also to expand their knowledge in different areas there are online articles or media about ongoing events. Many educational publishers and organisations provide these for free and can be excellent informational tools. The advantages are numerous in using the Internet since an article can consist of apart from the written text videos, graphics and sound which motivate the students to seek the meaning of the unknown words in the text and then most importantly remember them!
5. Similar results are seen with the use of audio books. Nowadays an age and level appropriate CD is offered with reading books bought from most publishers in education which motivates students as said above and assists them to increase their reading speed, improves their pronunciation and even comprehension for some.
6. Finally for children with a vivid imagination an excellent choice are comics. These can be attempted for individuals or a group. You begin by introducing the story to the students and then present them with pictures from the comic or both pictures and comic strips. In the first version you can ask them to fill in the comic strips by using new vocabulary they’ve recently learnt and perhaps leave out the last frame so each child decides on its own ending which they can draw themselves. In the second version you can cut out each frame and strip and then they can match each frame with the correct comic strip to create the story.
Whichever form of teaching vocabulary you choose can be beneficial so why not make it fun?
Natasha Athanasopoulou
English Teacher
Sources:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-ways-use-technology-build-vocabulary
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/presenting-vocabulary
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/325666616798939786/
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-cartoons-comic-strips