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Teaching vocabulary
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Sat, 03/14/2009 - 20:54
We all know vocabulary is crucial in language learning,but how can we help students remember words, collocations,expressions, etc?
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 13:55
#2
Hi Elena, I have a question, how do you assess vocabulary notebooks?
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 05:11
#3
Another way to teach vocabulary, is using "chunks", it really works.
Every class, I write on the board the chunk for the day. Students love it and they keep repeating it during the class. I have a question for you guys : do you have a list of chunks? I have some, but I could have more.
I also use to keep a vocabulary notebook. Ss must write the word, they have to write if it is a noun, a verb, a preposition, etc, and also they have to use it in a sentence.
With some classes, I play the "dirty ass", a very common game in Chile. They love to prepare their dirty ass with the vocabulary we are learning, then they ask a question and the other student must answer using the word.
Hope it's useful.
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 12:49
#4
Hello Mona!! I liked the idea of chunks, would you like to share your favorite chiunks?
keep in touch
Carmen Gloria
Thu, 03/19/2009 - 05:03
#5
Hi dear all, here you are some chunks
it's up to you as a matter of fact what's up? as far as I know here you are the sooner the better out of order how are you doing? and what about you?
Hope they are useful.
Thu, 03/19/2009 - 12:42
#6
Hi Mona, I cannot see the chunks, could you post them again, please?
thank you
Fri, 03/20/2009 - 22:56
#7
Hi Mona!!
Here are some more chunks for you.....
fall in love plenty of time cheek to cheek a good romance commit a crime sunny skies
Hope these are useful as well!!
Cheers!!
Anita
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 04:21
#8
thanks a lot Anita , and here you are some more chunks
Chunks of vocablary, words that most of the time are used together, ss learn them almost by heart.
never mind once upon a time time's up keep it in mind I'm pretty sure do you mind? upside down just a minute it doesn't matter set to work all the way back are you kidding? what a mess how are you doing? everynow and then by the way see you soon have a nice day sort of back and forth what do you mean?
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 14:31
#9
Hi everybody, thanks for the chunks; I'm making my list
keep in touch
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 06:40
#10
Hi dear all, this is getting amazing
Well, another way to learn vocabulary is with the cognates and false friends.
cognates: important, television, park, hotel, pub, tolerant, etc, etc
false friends: large, actually, carpet, attend, exit, fabric, library, parent, lecture, sensible, sensitive, etc, etc.
of course, in context.
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 14:46
#11
Hello Mona, and what about grammar? Can we use chunks to teach grammar?
carmen gloria
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 22:22
#12
Hi all,
Let me have a say in the topic you are discussing so far. I think that visual aids and gestures and realia facilitate the learning and the remembrance of vocabulary items-be them words, collocations or whatsoever. Don't you know that "L'image equivaut a mille mots / the image equates thousand words". Through the image, the teacher can reduce his / her TTT and can get the students speak freely about what they see. S/he should not also overlook that among the learners, there are some who are visually oriented and some who are auditory oriented...
I hope this can help.
Rachid (moderator of Literature, Media & Cultural Studies Area.)
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 06:37
#13
I agree that vocabulary notebooks are useful, but, as Elena points out, unless they are used, they don't really help. I like to have my students use the concordance program available at Tom Cobb"s site http://www.lextutor.ca to investigate the items and then choose the lines that they feel help them understand the meaning best. In this way they are the 'word experts' creating their own 'dictionary'. They also use the multiconc function to create tests for each other and the Dictator to help with spelling. As there are multiple corpora available and we practise in the labs first, even the weakest students can attempt this with some success.
Phil
Sun, 03/29/2009 - 19:20
#14
Hi all,
I've been reading this thread with interest and made my chunk list :), thank you!!
Dear Mona,
I'm not sure I understood the dirty ass game..could you pls explain it to me better?
Thanks so much!
Silvia
(Moderator of Testing, Evaluation and Assessment)
Sun, 03/29/2009 - 20:04
#15
Hi everyone,
I would agree with others that a vocab book is really useful, but so often sts miss lessons or forget their books and end up writing on scraps of paper that get lost in the bottom of their bags. Last year I tried to tackle this problem by setting up a class wikki. The idea was that sts would record new vocab or chunks and everyone would be able to access it and by the end of the course everyone would have a complete and thorough record of the language taught. I asked sts what they thought about it and they were all very enthusiastic and we disucssed how it would be organised and set up a rota for who would be responsible for recording each lesson's vocab. The first few weeks went fine, but the the inevitable started to happen - half the class started to lose interest. The other half were quite frustrated that they were putting in the work but others weren't. In the end we decided that those who were interested would continue with the project while the others would go back to recording vocab however they liked. One issue that I hadn't really considered before was just how large and complex the wikki would get. Those sts who continued using it, recorded not only the vocab from lessons but also any new language they came across (great!) but it did make the whole thing quite unwieldy and we had to go through some reorganisation and restructuring it make it more manageable and useful.
I like your idea Phil of encouraging sts to choose sentences from the concordance that they feel best shows the meaning of the word, this will definitely amke their dictionaries more meaningful and easier to use.
Mona, I also wait with interest to find out more about the 'dirty ass game' :)
Jo
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 02:59
#16
Hi Jo,
Have you tried using the Glossary module in Moodle? With some of my previous classes, I had students put s number of words into the Glossary each week. This was a 'homework' task, but we created activities from this, so that all the students needed to look at it. As this was a Glossary for three classes, this meant that there was quite a large collection at the end. We also set it up so that duplicates were not allowed. This, as one student told, made the students look to see if a word was there before spending time creating their entry. Students were able to comment on each others' entries and add other example sentences.
I had previously used a similar idea to your wiki, but using Access on the teacher's desk. Students were able to add ESP items as they found them and became quite competitive on finding new items for the 'dictionary'. They then made small quizzes for each other using their definitions.
Phil
A good way, and one that has worked with my students, is keeping a Vocabulary notebook where you ask them to consider, not only the word and its meaning but also the collocation- in case there is any.
But keeping this Vocabulary Notebook is not enough if they only do it for the mark or just because you asked them to do it. It is also necessary to raise awareness on what it is and its usefulness for them and not for you. This is the reason why I ask the to consider words that are new for them.