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. Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary are the ones students have the most difficulty learning. 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. Presenting vocabulary teachingenglish british council. Many of the activities are really good and easy to use in esl or efl classroom. Explicit teaching of carefully selected words improves understanding and helps students vocabulary grow. For this activity each student is responsible for learning three new words and teaching. How to preteach key vocabulary to english language students.
Limited academic vocabulary hinders many english language learners from reading and learning classroom content. Essential strategies for teaching vocabulary 85 1 interactive readalouds of outstanding childrens literature, 2 dialogicbased instructional activities, 3 independent reading, 4 interactive writing, and. From its analysis, the panel recommended using a variety of direct and indirect methods of vocabulary instruction. Students treat vocabulary items indiscriminately, or without context. Classroom teachers contributed more than 100 stepbystep activities that fit any context, learner, proficiency level, or technology. For young learners, and some older learners too, you can try head and shoulders, knees. Teaching vocabulary has classically been addressed in the classroom using word study, site words, dolch and hifrequency words.
How to teach english vocabulary to adult students blair english. Every english student text book will contain reading exercises which teach vocabulary meaning through context. However, there are some activities which dont follow recent studies and theories in vocabulary acquisition and teaching. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. Michael graves 2006 offers a framework for successful vocabulary programs that supports effective teaching and students development of word. Teaching vocabulary using the same games and activities can become repetitive and stale. Effective vocabulary teaching involves providing opportunities to interact with new words, explore their meaning, creating context, and building. As a language teacher, one of your main tasks is to help students develop a rich and useful vocabulary. Presenting vocabulary teachingenglish british council bbc. I left the workshop thinking about how i personally teach vocabulary.
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. Teaching vocabulary is an important part of a language program. Introducing nouns, things, objects, animals, etc visual elements work best with concrete nouns, but try to go beyond flashcards and illustrations. Its a good idea to think about how students will recall a word. Show learners some examples of picture dictionaries, words with sentences in english explaining what they. Word consciousness is not an isolated component of vocabulary instruction. This lesson focuses on ways of teaching vocabulary, especially for younger students. 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. Each activity involves 34 of the domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The national reading panel 2000 concluded that there is no single researchbased method for teaching vocabulary.
So how can educators effectively teach vocabulary across grade levels and content areas. The jigsaw learning technique is a quick and effective way for students to work with their peers while learning key vocabulary words. This post is part 3 of a fourpart series on teaching vocabulary. 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. They get a point for the number of sentences their group believes they used accurately. One significant way to help our english learners succeed is to be intentional about teaching vocabulary. A note on keeping score you can keep score in most of these games, but ive found things actually go more smoothly teaching vocabulary.
Another way to help young learners learn new words is to explore ways of recording vocabulary. Proper vocabulary instruction doesnt just teach the. Why talk about theory and techniques for teaching vocab. In addition, i combine fun ways of learning vocabulary, which can break up the monotony of traditional vocabulary teaching methods.
Music has always been a great tool to help with memorization. Five researchbased ways to teach vocabulary texas center. Teaching a diverse range of english vocabulary is inde. By explaining their etymology and taking your class back in time. Vocabulary is a necessary ingredient for all communication. Explicit teaching of carefully selected words improves understanding and helps students vocabulary. This guide is a collection of practical ideas for teaching vocabulary and vocabulary development skills to learners of a second language. Did you know that a student needs to encounter a new word 10 to 16 times to effectively learn it according to recent research. Top 5 ways of teaching vocabulary to students itoi tefl. Using a variety of effective teaching methods will increase the.
So, to help, i want to give you some great activities and methods that i use regularly to make teaching vocabulary. 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. Hirsch noted the importance of teaching literacy in schools. 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.
This may seem basic but often teachers end up teaching a wide variety of seemingly unconnected words. Our context clues unit is a great addition to vocabulary. Ideas for teaching vocabulary and spelling education world. Choosing the right vocabulary it is important to make the right selection of words. Tips for teaching vocabulary that include letting students select the words, putting away dictionaries, and creating time for talk and play with new terms. Consider vocabulary instruction as one way to level the playing field for all of your students. 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. Enhance all your vocabulary lessons by building the four major language skillsspeaking, listening, reading and writingat the same time. 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. Before doing an activity, teaching content, or reading a story in class, pre teaching vocabulary is always helpful, especially for ells.
Developing students vocabulary will support them in reading, writing, and oral language weaving vocabulary lessons into your language. Limited vocabulary is one of the greatest obstacles english language learners face when they read. Discover interesting ways to teach vocabulary to esl students with fun and engaging activities. But, returning to vocabulary and using words in a variety of ways will be more effective than hours of vocabulary instruction. 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. 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. It is now well accepted that the chief cause of the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups is a language gap. It can be fun and challenging to find ways to teach a single vocabulary term in every one of the explanation tools below. Follow a logical and organic order when teaching new vocabulary and put words into useful.
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. These are some of the ways to teach vocabulary that i have found work really well with. To help students develop a robust vocabulary, all teachers, at every grade and in every subject, are vocabulary teachers. Oral vocabulary refers to words that children can understand or use while speaking and listening. Teaching vocabulary through context clues encourages critical thinking skills and helps them make connections to the word, ultimately helping them remember its meaning. One of the biggest things that teachers strive to teach from early years through college is vocabulary. Cooperative learning is an effective way for students to learn and process information. To effectively acquire new vocabulary, students must go through four essential stages. Learning in different ways is an extremely helpful tool for getting a wellrounded understanding of new information. Prepare worksheets and ask your students to match words to definitions. Jan 16, 2017 5 tips for teaching vocabulary that teacher life ep 23 pocketful of primary. Oh, and students will actually remember the vocabulary this way, too bonus.
Teachers love them because limited preparation is required, and there are countless ways to use them in classroom lessons. Vocabulary skills are essential to building a students confidence in reading and writing, and the right activities can help get. The best way to pre teach vocabulary words is to allow students to have repeated exposures to the new vocab words. 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. Word maps are graphic organizers based on the frayer model. Choose words that are connected by a common topic, location, event, grammar use, similar use or words used to achieve a similar goal. 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. Consider these suggestions for energizing your 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. Certainly in our own teaching we have noticed that when children were. Ive shared books about vocabulary instruction, as well as the theory and techniques.
This is a great collection of a lot of new ways in teaching vocabulary. Dec 05, 2018 learning in different ways is an extremely helpful tool for getting a wellrounded understanding of new information. It can be fun and challenging to find ways to teach a single vocabulary. As teachers, we can sometimes get into a routine and just stick to the classic methods of teaching vocabulary. How vocabulary is assessed and evaluated can have differential effects on instruction. 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.
May 16, 2011 vocabulary development doesnt happen overnight. The following methods are supported by the research provided in the next section. Give your students a variety of cards with words that are similar to the testtaking vocabulary. Vocabulary is something thats often added to english classes as a bit of an afterthought. Actively teaching vocabulary foreign language teaching. 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.
So, here are 10 great ways to teach english vocabulary, outlined for each of the stages of vocabulary acquisition. There are lots of ways in which you can effectively introduce new vocabulary and not have to resort to translation. Here is a list of 3 engaging ways to teach vocabulary to your students. Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. Teaching vocabulary to young learners through brainbased teaching. Here are five ways to teach test taking vocabulary with task cards that will be a hit for you and your kiddos. But with effective strategies, students can leave our classroom with an enriched vocabulary. I have found or taken pictures of the fun activities on how to teach vocabulary. This can be done by using any of the following ideas.
Dependence on a single vocabulary instructional method will not result in. Music is an engaging and fun way to teach new vocabulary as well as proper pronunciation and grammar. Common core considers the proper use of words part and parcel to. 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. In this lesson, you will learn methods to energize your classroom during vocabulary instruction. 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. Language learners encounter vocabulary on a daily basis, and must be able to acquire and retain it. 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. Make sure you introduce new words in context and give students plenty of chances to. 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.
Rather than giving your students long vocabulary lists to memorize, build an emotional connection between your students and vocab words. So, crossword puzzles and word searches are my goto vocabulary game when teaching. How to teach vocabulary effective strategies and lesson ideas. A more general way to help students develop vocabulary is by fostering word consciousness, an awareness of and interest in words. A part of esl teaching involves introducing new vocabulary to students during esl lessons.
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. Learn how to pre teach key vocabulary from text to equip english language learners for a. How to preteach key vocabulary to english language. Below are several techniques teachers should consider when teaching vocabulary. 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 will give them the chance to identify words and then be able to place them in context and remember them. This article looks at what needs to be taught when teaching vocabulary and ways to present and teach vocabulary. 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.
When it comes to teaching vocabulary words to younger students, there are plenty of easy options. Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learners. If you would like to check out the rest of the series, visit the posts below. Here are 5 ways i teach vocabulary both in the classroom and with individual tutoring students without using boring word lists.