Job Discussion Forums

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

right now i'm teaching some vocabulary (business) to students. i know that vocabulary with no instruction on how to use it is relatively worthless. i just need a few ideas here on what exercises could be taught after teaching some new terminology. a cloze exercise? a dictation exercise? my students are business english, HR management, and marketing majors. any ideas welcome.

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Paul Barufaldi · Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 271 Location: Beijing

I favor groupwork roleplays. It can be messy, but at least it gets them to use the new words in context a few times. Of course, you need to spoonfeed them the scenario. Running around monitoring all the groups is tiring for the instructor, but it's a lot more efficient than one on one.

grwit · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 329 Location: Dagobah

I have tried this: Write the new vocabulary on the board. Explain the meaning of each new word. Use each word in a sentence yourself to give an example of how to use it. The ask the students to make up a story using all the words. It is good for about 4-6 new words. Any more makes the stories to long and difficult, any less makes the stories too easy. I saw this method also being used in an english speaking competition. It helps if the words have a common theme. But the stories can be more interesting if there is no common theme. A dialogue using all the words is also a good idea as Paul mentioned above.

How about a game of jeopardy. Write the new vocab on the board and then provide the meaning of each of them verbally and see if the students can guess the word from the meaning you have given. After giving a correct answer ask the student to use the word in a sentence. Give candy to the students who answer correctly and can use the word in a sentence to promote better participation. This is good for anywhere between 10 and 20 new words.

klaus · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 109

you shouldn't try to "teach" vocab by presenting them with isolated words.

this is what you should do: you should first present them with a short coherent text that has been provided to you or that you have written and which would incorporate "new vocab". for example

Customer service is very important when dealing with clients. Management should train staff in the correct way of treating customers who come to their businesses seeking products or services.

Any text will be comprised of a number of words that are related in meaning and are thus said to belong to certain "textual fields". you then organise your "vocab" into groups on the board according to the "textual field" - ie

for example:

customers clients

companies businesses

companies businesses products services

management staff customers clients

to treat to deal with

to train

you can then explain how these words are related within the different textual fields, and maybe give your own examples and ideas to support the process.

"vocab" only makes sense and is only "learnable" as it exists as part of a textual field(s) that occur within a complete and coherent text. concepts and the words with which they are associated are aboslutely meaningless if one does not first work from whole text ie from established textual fields.

also you should not expect memorisation to be of any use whatsoever. just be confident that after at most a couple of exposures in this manner, students will at the very least easily recognise and understand "new vocab" and this is an important step along the way to using it themselves.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

hi. thanks for the ideas. i think i'll take several words and phrases, introduce them, show their usage in a short text, and then have the students use those words and phrases in a short role play. for example, i'll use voacab related to hiring and firing someone. its relevant and should be able to produce some laughs in the classroom.

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7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

i do have one question on the use of the term "dismissal." if an employee on a period of probation isnt kept, has he or she been "dismissed" or is there another term thats more correct? dismissed usually means fired, but i'm not sure if we use the same term when applied to employees on probationary periods. maybe i'm reading too much into this.....

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