Ways of teaching vocabulary

Learning in different ways is an extremely helpful tool for getting a wellrounded understanding of new information. Actively teaching vocabulary foreign language teaching. But with effective strategies, students can leave our classroom with an enriched vocabulary. Effective vocabulary teaching involves providing opportunities to interact with new words, explore their meaning, creating context, and building. Here are 5 ways i teach vocabulary both in the classroom and with individual tutoring students without using boring word lists.

Certainly in our own teaching we have noticed that when children were. Many students learn vocabulary in ineffective ways such as rote memorizations copying words over and over in isolation vocabulary exposures are limited extensive word lists to memorize definition. This article looks at what needs to be taught when teaching vocabulary and ways to present and teach vocabulary. Classroom teachers contributed more than 100 stepbystep activities that fit any context, learner, proficiency level, or technology. Here are five ways to teach test taking vocabulary with task cards that will be a hit for you and your kiddos. Below are several techniques teachers should consider when teaching vocabulary.

You may not be able to use all of them, but i hope you can find some ideas that will work well for you. How vocabulary is assessed and evaluated can have differential effects on instruction. How to preteach key vocabulary to english language. Michael graves 2006 offers a framework for successful vocabulary programs that supports effective teaching and students development of word. Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. Make sure you introduce new words in context and give students plenty of chances to. In this lesson, you will learn methods to energize your classroom during vocabulary instruction. Learn how you should be teaching vocabulary to students, to help them get the most out of your tefl lesson, as itoi have the answers. For young learners, and some older learners too, you can try head and shoulders, knees. Common core considers the proper use of words part and parcel to. Why talk about theory and techniques for teaching vocab. However, there are some activities which dont follow recent studies and theories in vocabulary acquisition and teaching. So, crossword puzzles and word searches are my goto vocabulary game when teaching. One of the biggest things that teachers strive to teach from early years through college is vocabulary.

Follow a logical and organic order when teaching new vocabulary and put words into useful. Dec 05, 2018 learning in different ways is an extremely helpful tool for getting a wellrounded understanding of new information. Teaching vocabulary to young learners through brainbased teaching. Many of the activities are really good and easy to use in esl or efl classroom. Word clouds one way i use word clouds to teach vocabulary, is by uploading a text in the target language and getting students to select words from the word cloud and make as many sentences as they can in the past, present and future. Teaching vocabulary words to students doesnt have to be boring and repetitive. Common core considers the proper use of words part and parcel to preparing for college and career. Oh, and students will actually remember the vocabulary this way, too bonus. Vocabulary and spelling skill builders although not a complete solution to teaching students about new words, the web has several super activities, online games, puzzles, and ideas to help classroom teachers build students vocabulary and spelling skills. When it comes to teaching vocabulary words to younger students, there are plenty of easy options. Explicit teaching of carefully selected words improves understanding and helps students vocabulary. Word consciousness is not an isolated component of vocabulary instruction.

There are lots of ways in which you can effectively introduce new vocabulary and not have to resort to translation. Consider these suggestions for energizing your vocabulary. Word maps are graphic organizers based on the frayer model. For this activity each student is responsible for learning three new words and teaching. Here is a list of 3 engaging ways to teach vocabulary to your students. A more general way to help students develop vocabulary is by fostering word consciousness, an awareness of and interest in words. Rather than giving your students long vocabulary lists to memorize, build an emotional connection between your students and vocab words. I have found or taken pictures of the fun activities on how to teach vocabulary. Explicit teaching of carefully selected words improves understanding and helps students vocabulary grow. If you teach your students lots of fresh new words in your tefl lessons, mentioning them in subsequent classes is a must, otherwise theyll soon forget what they mean. But, returning to vocabulary and using words in a variety of ways will be more effective than hours of vocabulary instruction.

The five activities described below are effective ways to teach vocabulary for all students, but especially for struggling students, students with learning disabilities, and els. Teaching vocabulary through context clues encourages critical thinking skills and helps them make connections to the word, ultimately helping them remember its meaning. Cooperative learning is an effective way for students to learn and process information. How to preteach key vocabulary to english language students. Vocabulary is something thats often added to english classes as a bit of an afterthought.

Tips for teaching vocabulary tips for teaching vocabulary that include letting students select the words, putting away dictionaries, and creating time for talk and play with new terms. To effectively acquire new vocabulary, students must go through four essential stages. A part of esl teaching involves introducing new vocabulary to students during esl lessons. Learning vocabulary may not be the most exciting thing students do school, but by using interesting and fun ways to teach vocabulary words, educators can increase student interest and help with both memorization and retention. It can be fun and challenging to find ways to teach a single vocabulary. Language learners encounter vocabulary on a daily basis, and must be able to acquire and retain it. Learn how to pre teach key vocabulary from text to equip english language learners for a. How to teach vocabulary effective strategies and lesson ideas. Whether you are teaching vocabulary, grammar, phraseology or pronunciation, do your best to make sure your students can relate to each lesson and are almost immediately able to use what theyve learned. Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learners. Choosing the right vocabulary it is important to make the right selection of words. By explaining their etymology and taking your class back in time.

Top 5 ways of teaching vocabulary to students itoi tefl. It is now well accepted that the chief cause of the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups is a language gap. The following methods are supported by the research provided in the next section. As a language teacher, one of your main tasks is to help students develop a rich and useful vocabulary. I left the workshop thinking about how i personally teach vocabulary without making it seem like im forcing new words into the absorbent brain tissue of my students. Music is an engaging and fun way to teach new vocabulary as well as proper pronunciation and grammar. This is a great collection of a lot of new ways in teaching vocabulary. When teaching new vocabulary, the method of delivery needs to be fresh and interesting for the students or else they will not remember the words ways in which to liven up the introduction of new english vocabulary could include brainstorming around an existing word in the students vocabulary knowledge. Its a good idea to think about how students will recall a word.

This can be done by using any of the following ideas. It can be fun and challenging to find ways to teach a single vocabulary term in every one of the explanation tools below. One of the most effective methods of helping children learn new vocabulary words is to teach unfamiliar words used in a text prior to the. Five researchbased ways to teach vocabulary texas center. As teachers, we can sometimes get into a routine and just stick to the classic methods of teaching vocabulary. This will give them the chance to identify words and then be able to place them in context and remember them. Teachers love them because limited preparation is required, and there are countless ways to use them in classroom lessons. Thank you tanya, new ideas can always make learning and teaching easier, here in latin america the use of english language is becoming more and more popular, when i moved here some fifteen years ago you had to convince someone to take classes, now a days people look for new opportunities, learing new vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary using the same games and activities can become repetitive and stale. So, here are 10 great ways to teach english vocabulary, outlined for each of the stages of vocabulary acquisition. Teaching a diverse range of english vocabulary is inde. Introducing nouns, things, objects, animals, etc visual elements work best with concrete nouns, but try to go beyond flashcards and illustrations. May 16, 2011 vocabulary development doesnt happen overnight. When it comes to teaching vocabulary words, having students copy definitions from the board into a notebook week after week can become boring for both the students and the teacher.

Before doing an activity, teaching content, or reading a story in class, pre teaching vocabulary is always helpful, especially for ells. Enhance all your vocabulary lessons by building the four major language skillsspeaking, listening, reading and writingat the same time. Nov 01, 2014 because vocabulary is a central building block for all learners, new ways in teaching vocabulary, revised is designed to make vocabulary teaching almost effortless. Teaching vocabulary is an important part of a language program. Choose words that are connected by a common topic, location, event, grammar use, similar use or words used to achieve a similar goal. Dependence on a single vocabulary instructional method will not result in. Developing students vocabulary will support them in reading, writing, and oral language weaving vocabulary lessons into your language.

If you would like to check out the rest of the series, visit the posts below. These are some of the ways to teach vocabulary that i have found work really well with. Tips for teaching vocabulary that include letting students select the words, putting away dictionaries, and creating time for talk and play with new terms. Proper vocabulary instruction doesnt just teach the. Ive shared books about vocabulary instruction, as well as the theory and techniques. Give your students a variety of cards with words that are similar to the testtaking vocabulary. These are some of the ways to teach vocabulary that i have found work really well with primary students, although i have also used them with middle school students 1214 year olds. Vocabulary skills are essential to building a students confidence in reading and writing, and the right activities can help get. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. One of the most effective methods of helping children learn new vocabulary words is to teach unfamiliar words used in a text prior to the reading experience. This post is part 3 of a fourpart series on teaching vocabulary. In addition, i combine fun ways of learning vocabulary, which can break up the monotony of traditional vocabulary teaching methods. This may seem basic but often teachers end up teaching a wide variety of seemingly unconnected words.

Using a variety of effective teaching methods will increase the. A note on keeping score you can keep score in most of these games, but ive found things actually go more smoothly teaching vocabulary. They get a point for the number of sentences their group believes they used accurately. Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary are the ones students have the most difficulty learning. Jan 16, 2017 5 tips for teaching vocabulary that teacher life ep 23 pocketful of primary. Give your students a few items of vocabulary and tell them to find the meaning, pronunciation and write an example sentence with the word in. So how can educators effectively teach vocabulary across grade levels and content areas. This guide is a collection of practical ideas for teaching vocabulary and vocabulary development skills to learners of a second language. Students treat vocabulary items indiscriminately, or without context. Vocabulary is a necessary ingredient for all communication. Hirsch noted the importance of teaching literacy in schools.

Thus, vocabulary programs should be designed to support childrens word learn ing through a combination of approaches to teaching, direct instruction, and incidental word learning. Did you know that a student needs to encounter a new word 10 to 16 times to effectively learn it according to recent research. Limited vocabulary is one of the greatest obstacles english language learners face when they read. Every english student text book will contain reading exercises which teach vocabulary meaning through context. To help students develop a robust vocabulary, all teachers, at every grade and in every subject, are vocabulary teachers. The best way to pre teach vocabulary words is to allow students to have repeated exposures to the new vocab words. Another way to help young learners learn new words is to explore ways of recording vocabulary. Show learners some examples of picture dictionaries, words with sentences in english explaining what they. From its analysis, the panel recommended using a variety of direct and indirect methods of vocabulary instruction.

Each activity involves 34 of the domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This lesson focuses on ways of teaching vocabulary, especially for younger students. Music has always been a great tool to help with memorization. The national reading panel 2000 concluded that there is no single researchbased method for teaching vocabulary. Its just often the way we learned, and as teachers, we sometimes fall back on using these ways when teaching rather than taking a good look at student data, the. Discover interesting ways to teach vocabulary to esl students with fun and engaging activities. The theory and techniques for teaching vocabulary may not be as fun as the ideas that ill share in the next post or as perusing the books in. Our context clues unit is a great addition to vocabulary. Presenting vocabulary teachingenglish british council. Limited academic vocabulary hinders many english language learners from reading and learning classroom content. Consider vocabulary instruction as one way to level the playing field for all of your students. Although you can use any type of text like a news article from a newspaper or website to do this, it is easier to teach english vocabulary using texts which have been especially written for the purpose of teaching specific words. How to teach english vocabulary to adult students blair english. Oral vocabulary refers to words that children can understand or use while speaking and listening.

Methods for teaching esl vocabulary bridge education group. The jigsaw learning technique is a quick and effective way for students to work with their peers while learning key vocabulary words. Teaching vocabulary has classically been addressed in the classroom using word study, site words, dolch and hifrequency words. Prepare worksheets and ask your students to match words to definitions. So, to help, i want to give you some great activities and methods that i use regularly to make teaching vocabulary. Vocabulary skills are essential to building a students confidence in reading and writing, and the right activities can help get students excited about language learning. Vocabulary is an important focus of literacy teaching and refers to the knowledge or words, including their structure morphology, use grammar, meanings semantics, and links to other words wordsemantic relationships. Essential strategies for teaching vocabulary 85 1 interactive readalouds of outstanding childrens literature, 2 dialogicbased instructional activities, 3 independent reading, 4 interactive writing, and. One significant way to help our english learners succeed is to be intentional about teaching vocabulary. I left the workshop thinking about how i personally teach vocabulary. Ideas for teaching vocabulary and spelling education world. Presenting vocabulary teachingenglish british council bbc.