Teaching vocabulary (G.M.T)

Teaching vocabulary

With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. Remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover,  students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of particular students is therefore essential. Once you have chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what students need to know about the items, and how teacher can teach them.

What a student may need to know about an item

What it means
It is vital to get across the meaning of the item clearly and to ensure that students have understood correctly with checking questions.

The form
Students need to know if it is a verb / a noun / an adjective etc to be able to use it effectively.

How it is pronounced
This can be particularly problematic for learners of English because there is often no clear relation between how a word is written and how it is pronounced. It is very important to use the phonemic script in such cases so the students have a clear written record of the pronunciation. Don't forget also to drill words that will cause pronunciation problems for students and highlight the word stresses.

How it is spelt
This is always difficult in English for the reason mentioned above. Remember to clarify the pronunciation before showing the written form.

If it follows any unpredictable grammatical patterns
For example, man-men / information (uncountable) and if the word is followed by a particular preposition (e.g. depend on)

The connotations that the item may have

Bachelor is a neutral/positive word whereas Spinsterconjures a more negative image.

The situations when the word is or is not used
Is it formal/neutral/informal? For example, spectacles/glasses/specs. Is it used mainly in speech or in writing? To sum up is usually written whereasand mind you is spoken. Is it outdated? Wireless instead of radio.

How the word is related to others
For example, synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets.

Collocation or the way that words occur together
Describe things 'in great detail' not 'in big detail' and to ask a question  'raise your hand' you don't 'lift your hand'. It is important to highlight this to students to prevent mistakes in usage later.

What the affixes (the prefixes and suffixes) may indicate about the meaning
For example, substandard sub meaning under. This is particularly useful at a higher level.

Which of these areas teacher choose to highlight will depend on the item they are teaching and the level of students. Now it's time to think about how teachers can get the meaning across.

Ways to present vocabulary
There are lots of ways of getting across the meaning of a lexical item.

Illustration
This is very useful for more concrete words (dog, rain, tall) and for visual learners. It has its limits though, not all items can be drawn.

Mime
This lends itself particularly well to action verbs and it can be fun and memorable.

Synonyms/Antonyms/Gradable items
Using the words a student already knows can be effective for getting meaning across.

Definition
Make sure that it is clear (maybe check in a learner dictionary before the lesson if teacher is not confident). Remember to ask questions to check they have understood properly.

Translation
Ifteacher know the students' L1, then it is fast and efficient. Remember that not every word has a direct translation.

Context
Think of a clear context when the word is used and either describe it to the students or give them example sentences to clarify meaning further.

Again which teachers choose will depend on the item they are presenting. Some are more suitable for particular words. Often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable

Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary

Give students a few items of vocabulary and tell them to find the meaning, pronunciation and write an example sentence with the word in. They can then teach each other in groups.

Prepare worksheets and ask students to match words to definitions.

Ask students to classify a group of words into different categories. For example, a list of transport words into air/sea/land.

Ask students to find new vocabulary from reading homework and teach the other students in the class.

Other things to consider

Review the vocabulary to teach through a game or activity and encourage  students to do the same at home

Encourage autonomy in learners. Tell them to read, watch films, listen to songs etc and note the useful words

Have a section of board for vocabulary items that come up while teaching. Use different colours for the word / the phonemics / the prepositions / the part of speech

It is a good idea to teach/learn words with associated meanings together

Encourage  students to purchase a good dictionary and use class time to highlight the benefits of one

Teach students the grammatical names for the parts of speech and the phonemic script

Teacher must keep a good dictionary in case a student asks about a word teacher don't know

If teacher doesn't and have never heard of the word, he/she must tell the student to check and get back to them.

Give extra examples sentences to the students if they are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an example sentence (maybe for homework)