Vocabulary Teaching
1. How important do you think it is for students to
learn vocabulary?
- Students need vocabulary to communicate.
- Students need vocabulary to read materials for
their subjects.
- Having a strong vocabulary helps them - in a master's program / in their future
careers.
2. What are problems you have encountered when
teaching vocabulary?
- It is
difficult to make students retain vocabulary.
- It is challenging to make new vocabulary words
interesting and desirable.
- It is hard to help students see the value of
learning these new words besides being
necessary to do well on an exam.
- Teachers sometimes lack accurate understanding of
meaning.
- Eliciting the meaning is good sometimes but can
be frustrating and not practical if
you haven't the time.
3. What are problems you think students encounter
when learning vocabulary?
- There is a
problem in accurate understanding and use; it's difficult for students to use
new words in a proper context.
- Students have difficulty distinguishing the
different forms of a word based on the part
of speech and tend to repeatedly use a wrong
form.
- Students cannot spot the difference(s) between
two words with similar meanings and
therefore cannot use them properly.
- Students do not actively participate in their own
learning and are really quite passive
as they require it to be fed to them.
- Students worry too much about spelling.
4. What are your techniques for teaching
vocabulary?
- Go over
key vocabulary first when learning a new passage.
- Use pictures.
- Use synonyms and antonyms.
- Use the white board a lot and break a word into
its syllables, noting the stressed one.
- Say each syllable aloud and students must repeat. Then say the whole word and
students repeat.
- Have students write their own sentences using
selected vocabulary.
- Have students rephrase sentence samples with new
words to check their
comprehension.
- Use vocabulary quizzes where they have to fill in
the blank with the correct
vocabulary words.
- Have students try to explain the meanings of the
words in class (in English).
- Use games & exercises. Word searches and
crossword puzzles work well, but it takes
some preparation.
Games are some of better ways because students are more engaged.
- Have students use new words in role play.
- Explain new words through examples.
-Draw on other uses of the word after students
understand the main meaning
previously taught.
- Before making a transition to the next unit, ask
students about key vocabulary they
have learnt.
5. What are your techniques for learning vocabulary?
- Repetition
promotes word retention. [One gets a good sense of a vocabulary word
from "repetitive listening, reading, and
speaking".]
- Try to find an excuse to use a new word in a
sentence.
- Learn new words when looking them up in a
dictionary.
- Use mnemonic devices.
- Learn and remember more advanced vocabulary
through reading high-level
magazines.
- One said he has not developed a conscious and
systematic technique for learning
vocabulary words.
He felt that he simply went to his language classes.
- One picks up what s/he can from here and there in
the “real world”.
- One directly studied words and phrases from his
notebook after class.
- First decide if the word is one worth retaining.
if it is, write it down in a vocabulary
log book.
- Make a small flashcard with a Thai equivalent on
one side and English on the other.
[You can then carry them around and use them
whenever you want. Flashcards are
very portable, very inconspicuous.]
