Teacher Discussion Forums

[Mindful]

Hi there! Any ideas on how to use word flash cards with an advanced adult student? The words on the card aren't really categorized. So there are a lot of different words.

Thanks.

[Sally Olsen]

You can catagorize them and keep them in separate packs with rubber bands or by putting a coloured marker along the edge to keep the categories together for a while at least.

If you have two packs you can play "Match" - even adults seem to enjoy that and "Memory". Give two people one pack each and have them shuffle the cards. They then put the cards on the table one at a time naming the card. if they happen to get the same card, they shout "Match" and keep the other person's pile until someone gets both piles.

Or match 8 cards so there are 16 pairs and turn them over in random order. The first participant turns over two cards and tries to match them. If they don't match turn them back down but both players try to remember what they were so they can match them in the future. That is Memory.

Share the cards with four participants and let them learn their 10 cards, then they go into pairs and test each other. They save the cards that are difficult and practice those ones.

You can play the TV show game where the partners try to get their partner to say the word by making a sentence that would include the word or giving another word that means almost the same. It is easier if the participants know the 10 words and practice these before they play the game. You can time it to make it more exciting when they get good at it.

You can make up word puzzles that go along with the categories and they can fit their words into the puzzles. They can make up puzzles for others.

They can make up a story that includes the 6 or so words you give them using the words in any order. Points for using more than one word in a sentence.

They can catagorize the words according to their parts of speech when they get to know the whole pack.

You can add words to pack as they come up in the class and so can they.

You can put the difficult words on a Word Wall or words that appeal to them because of sound or spelling.

Ask them how they would use the cards to help them remember their vocabulary. I had one student who kept two cards, one in the right pocket and one in the left every day and learned some difficult words that way. Of course, his cards were small.

We once conducted an experiment for fun and had students memorize 10 words according to alphabetical order, randomly and then in categories. We tested them after 5 mintues or so by having them write down as many of the 10 as they could remember. They always remembered more when the words were in the same category. We also tried to do the same thing a day later and again they remembered more with the same category. One fellow had a photographic memory so it didn't matter which way he learned.

Of course, this is all after introducing the vocabulary in an article written at their level so they get the meanings of the words in context, discussion, writing of their own article using the vocabulary or doing some project to use the vocabulary and reading another article to reinforce the vocabulary. The flash cards are used at the end of unit to review or just before a test if they have to take tests.