ESL Lessons:
How do you Teach Vocabulary?
In my esl lessons, I want to teach vocabulary in a round sense. What I mean is, I want my students to learn both the meaning of the new vocabulary and how to use it.
Teaching the meaning of vocabulary is easy. I like to use one of five techniques:
- one to one correspondence if you teach a class of students who all speak the same language (fast)
- teach the definitions of the vocabulary for deeper acquisition (students must think in target language(L2) and construct meaning)
- teach the meaning using pictures
- teach the meaning using the words in several contexts that leads to constuction of the proper meaning (this is a great way!!)
Read More »
flashcards. Cloze exercises also form a good review. And (more difficult for teacher) converstation, where students have the opportunity (constructed by teach in converstation) to use the new vocabulary. This last technique is difficult since conversation is such an open-ended creature.
How to use vocabulary sounds hard to teach in an esl lesson, but in fact it is not. Simply use the new vocabulary in several sample sentences. I suggest about five for a good base.
I addition, construct stories for a fuller creation of context for the vocabulary. Stories which are recorded are great for the students. They can practice listen and repeat and simultaneous listen and repeat (also called shadowing). If they have several such stories they can get lots of practice, and learn other grammar peripherally.
I recommend making stories that are about 5 to 8 sentences in length and a recorded time from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. That makes it easier and more likely for students to do the shadowing exercises. They may even memorize the stories, and this is good.
You can then take the vocabulary and other expressions out of the story and have students make their own similar but different stories orally in class, or written for homework.
Have fun teaching vocabulary in your esl lessons!
Bruce
Verb list
1. depend on: rely on somebody
or something: to have complete confidence in somebody or something
2. deal with: have business dealings with somebody:
to do business with somebody or an organization
3. belong to:
be linked to somebody or something: to be linked to a particular
person, group, place, or time by a relationship such as birth,
affection, or membership
4. tend to: to be generally inclined or likely to
react or behave in a particular way, or be in the habit of doing
something
Read the story here: »
Bruce always wants to be successful, and works very hard. He always tries new businesses and recently he tried to open a store that deals in health food. He doesn’t want to depend on anyone so he won't join a union. Besides, he doesn't like dealing with unions. His friends think he won't join the union because doesn't want to belong to a group. He tends to try too hard to be independent. One day he might hurt himself.
1. What does Bruce want?
2. What kind of store did he open?
3. What doesn’t Bruce want?
4. What do his friends think?
You can get your own copy of this recording in mp3 format here - (at no charge).
return from esl lessons to Phrasal Verbs page