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!!)
Then
it is up to the teacher and student to review the new vocabulary.
Students can do this quickly and effectively with 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
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