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

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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 starting out on their career, this whole post might serve as a useful guide in how to go about teaching vocabulary in the language classroom, while the experienced among us may 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 if you found this post useful Learning vocabulary is as important a step in developing future reading, listening, writing and speaking 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 words we want to teach, and how we can effectively teach them. In part one Ill cater specifically to newbie teachers and briefly consider some of the most effective ways of presenting vocabulary. Ill move on to look at what learners might need to know about a word. In part three Ill cater to everyone and introduce ten useful tools for teaching vocabulary in class. Ill round up with some sound 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 we can 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 to check if learners really have understood properly. ne good way of getting used to writing clear definitions 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 best advised not to try and illustrate emotional states such as despair, love, etc, unless you are an incredibly 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 effective for getting meaning across. ,his can of course be dangerous, especially when you know that a

word either means one e*treme or another, but cant remember which- I remember a colleague describing 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 itself e*tremely well to showing what action verbs mean. %hats more, it tends to be both fun and memorable. 1.5 Translation ,ranslating from /nglish into the mother tongue has its pitfalls, but if you know the students L0 reasonably well, it can often prove to be a fast and efficient technique. 1emember- not every word has 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 clear conte*t in which the word is used, youre well on your way. /ither describe it to the students or give 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, for all 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 know what it meant. 3aturally, the e*tent to which a learner really needs to &know a word will depend on a number of factors, but here are the aspects of knowing that are generally considered the most important. $s I suggested earlier, e*perienced teachers might want to skip through this and )ust focus on the ideas part. 2.1 W#at does it mean$ 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 understood correctly 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. Its always useful to bear in mind that they might need to review what these parts of speech mean in their 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

words that you think might cause pronunciation problems can resolve a lot of pronunciation issues. 2.4 %o& is it s'elled$ $s with pronunciation, and for the same reasons, this is frequently problematic in /nglish. It is usually useful to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form. 2.5 )oes it follo& any *un+'redi(table ,rammati(al 'atterns$ 7or e*ample, &man8men is an e*ample of an irregular plural. &Information is an uncountable noun 'in many languages it would be &informations(. 9epend is always followed a particular preposition '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 a neutral 5 positive word to describe an unmarried man, whereas &spinster con)ures a more negative 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 eye wear in different situations- spectacles 5 glasses 5 specs. Is the word used mainly in spoken or in written 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, ever refer 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*ical sets 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+$ $s obvious as it might be to us that we describe things &in great detail and not &in big detail, such things might not necessarily work the same in our learners native tongues. Collocations are important to highlight to learners in order to prevent mistakes in usage. 2.11 W#at do affi!es *'refi!es and suffi!es+ indi(ate about t#e meanin,$ %hat does the &sub8 mean in substandard! <nowledge of affi*es greatly helps when having to guess them meaning of unknown words, for instance. ,he areas you choose to focus on in class will depend on the item you are teaching and the level of your students. Its fair to say that this is something that youll have to reflect on every time you teach vocabulary. 3ow its time to think about how we do all this in class.

!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 techniques and the various aspects of knowing what words mean 'or, if youre an old pro and have followed my 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 two parts of this post. '." )emrise =emrise is immense. I mean really# its huge. ,here are so many vocabulary resources here that the most difficult thing will be for you to decide where to start. >ou can use what you find here in class, or you can recommend to your learners for self study. ,heres something good for practically 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 defines words based on parts of speech. ,he toolbar bookmarklet makes using it convenient and easy. '.' +ui,let ,his free tool allows you to make lots of fun little qui; activities that will help you build up learner knowledge of vocab. :ecause you input the data yourself, you can easily cover the various aspects of 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 clickable dictionary 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 their sentences. >ou have full control, as you write the e*ample sentence yourself and then choose the image you want to go with each word. './ 0nappy Words .nappy %ords is an online interactive /nglish dictionary and thesaurus that helps learners find the 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 to the center of the gala*y, then click again and watch the globe populate with images from 7lickr.

'.4 Word 0tash >ou have to sign up for this one, but the account is free and you can create word lists to support a written te*t. %ith a click of a button, learners can access dictionary information and create flash cards for review. '.5 6ocab 3rabber %ith Aocab 4rabber you copy and paste te*t into a bo* and this tool then generates a word cloud to 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 other words and concepts. If you have any other suggestions, please mention them in the comments section below and Ill add 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 vocabulary knowledge is through repeated e*posure, so get them to read, watch films, listen to songs and 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, as this will greatly benefit them in terms of pronunciation. /ncourage your learners to get hold of a good dictionary. 9evote class time to highlighting the benefits of having one and how to use it effectively. 1eviewing the vocabulary you teach in class through a game or some similar motivating activity is a surefire winner. $lso, I strongly suggest that you encourage your learners to do the same at home. :e ready for on the spot questions! =y advice here is to always have a good dictionary with you in case a learner asks about a word you dont know, or cant define, or cant conte*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 films and ,A shows# and theyll ask you about them. If you dont know or have never heard of the word, be honest and tell the learner that youll check and get back to them. ,here are more than a million words in the /nglish languageB you can be forgiven for not knowing them all! 4ive further e*amples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an e*ample sentence 'maybe for homework(.