How to Teach Vocabulary Effectively

 

How to Teach Vocabulary Effectively?

What needs to be taught?          

 1. Form (pronunciation and spelling)

2. grammar

3. Collocation

  4. aspects of meaning: denotation, connotation, appropriateness

 5. aspects of meaning: meaning relationships such as synonyms or antonyms

6. word formation (prefixes & suffixes)

How to teach new vocabulary?

 Step one: presenting new words

 Step two: helping students remember new words

Step three: making sure students make the new words their own Step One: presenting new words (meaning & form)

1. explanation: concise definition /detailed description

 2. using visual images • realia • pictures • masking • drawing • scales

 3. using gestures and actions • mime • gesture • facial expression • action

 4. showing lexical relations • synonyms • antonyms • associated ideas, collocation

5. words in context • dialogues • role play • drama • stories • songs • rhymes & poems • videos

 6. guessing / predicting

7. translation Step Two: helping students remember new words use memorizing games and activities

 1. matching words 2. labeling words 3. sequencing words 4. guessing words 5. eliminating words 6. classifying words 7. Others?   

 

Note:  n It’s better if items can be linked with each other, or with ones already known, through meaning-or sound-association n It’s better to teach vocabulary in separated, spaced sessions than to teach it all at once. In other words, words will be learned better if they are taught briefly at the beginning of a lesson, reviewed later in the same lesson, and again in the next than if the same total amount of time is used for learning the words all at once. This needs careful lesson-planning, but will repay the efforts. n Teach more important new words first or at the beginning of a lesson.

Step Three:

 making sure students make the new words their own

1. recycle words

 2. personal dictionary (word notebooks/vocabulary books) • marking word stress • adding pictures • putting a L1 translation • putting the word into context • adding a synonym /

 3. mapping a word family

  4. personalize the new words

5. design wordsearch games / picture labeling /crosswords / Bingo / dominoes / puzzles/ charts or survey for their peers Question

 3: How to test vocabulary

1. Multiple choice

 2. matching

3. odd one out

4. writing sentences

5. dictation-translation

 6. gap-filling

7. gap-filling with a pool of answers

8. Translation

 9. sentence completion Online Learning Resources & Tools