Teaching Vocabulary Based on Learning to Teach English

Teaching Vocabulary Based on “Learning to Teach English” By: Peter Watkins Presented by : Maysa Quto

Why you need to teach vocabulary “The fact is that while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. ” Wilkins 1972 Presented by : Maysa Quto

Vocabulary has become increasingly central to language teaching 1 • Successful teaching of new words and phrases 2 • Successful progress making for students 3 • The ability to communicate successfully Presented by : Maysa Quto

Ways of presenting vocabulary �There a variety of techniques in teaching vocabulary �A teacher need to choose what suits her class and the types of words that she is teaching. Presented by : Maysa Quto

Words may be taught in �isolation �combination “make a decision” “by the way” “absolutely brilliant” Presented by : Maysa Qutob Quto

Example 1 Do you know what is this?

�Who gets the opportunity to say the word first? �Would this activity suit high level learners or low lever? �As well as pictures, are there any other types of visual stimulus a teacher can use? Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 2 Put a tick under the words that go with “make” or with “do”. a profit make do a phone call busines s your best a bed nothing a mistake

�Can you think of any other verbs that combine with a lot of different nouns? Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 3 • Look at each other’s words to find a partner. • Stick the word on the board. • Words we don’t know Presented by : Maysa Quto

self-confident arrogant freedom-fighter terrorist Presented by : Maysa Quto

• What is the difference between a terrorist and a freedom-fighter? Arrogant and selfconfident? • Should the learners already know all the words the teacher uses in the activity, some of them, or none of them? • What other sort of word relationships could this activity work with? Presented by : Maysa Quto

denotation: eg: storms - air connotation: negative - positive Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 4 • Give definition • Clue What’s the word for a thing you hold which produces light – it has a battery? Starts with Presented by : Maysa Quto

The teacher could have said ‘What does ’torch’ mean? ’ but what are the advantages of the approach taken in the example? Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 5 A learner asks what a particular word means and the teacher translates it for her. Presented by : Maysa Quto

What are the limitations of using this technique? What are the advantages of using this technique? Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 6 • Giving a list of words all related to one specific word. Then supplying them with a list of definitions and the learners try to match the words with the definitions. Example: money-invent, earn, owe, save, waste and so on Presented by : Maysa Quto

• If the teacher is teaching concrete nouns to a lower level class, what could replace definitions? • What are the advantages of teaching words together that are thematically linked? Presented by : Maysa Quto

Example 7 • Using context to understand the meaning. Example: “The dog ran into the road and the driver had to swerve to miss it. ” From the sentence, give the meaning of Presented by : Maysa Quto swerve.