Teacher Discussion Forums

I once read an article (lost now) about having ESL students (young adults and adults of all levels) keep vocabulary notebooks, where a page would be centered on a theme (such as 'weather') and the students would gather words related to weather (cloudy, rainy, misty, sunny, sunshine, snow, etc.) on that page. They would write a short definition, then use it in a sentence on that page. The example pages in the article were very visual...students were encouraged to doodle, draw iconic figures, and so on, but any text must be in English. The higher the level of student, the more sophisticated the vocabulary.

Does anyone know where I might revisit this article? Has anyone used this technique or a near-variation? I'm beginning a new class of 14-15 year old visiting Japanese students next week. They've had approximately 2 years of study and will be here only 2 weeks, primarily for conversation and vocabulary study.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

I think you're right on the ball there with what you have. I wouldn't present too much structure for the students because this type of activity in itself needs to be free.

I give students blank sheets of paper and they have to start by writing in the theme (rather large) anywhere they'd like on the page. They can build off of the theme in any manner spider webing out from the main theme or growing up, out, down or around. This is their creative/brain storming sheet. Which they enjoy designing and illustrating.

On a separate sheet of paper they do all of their work with the words. In the end you have 2-3 sheets of vocabulary and vocabulary in use.

It's a really good exercise and you'll see loads of variations from the same student.

I've found that structuring really dampens motivation for the next go around. By letting it be free and loose, the students have something to look forward to.

I have several examples prepared that show the students some ideas of how they can create their theme vocabulary pages. This gives them some ideas and for the less creative, they give them something to copy.

That's my 2 cents anyway. I didn't read the original post you're speaking of and they might have had a better plan.

Mark
www.mes-english.com

Thanks Mark. That sounds much like the notebook I read about. It was an article in a book, I think.... The idea is that the students build vocabulary words in a way that the words are related or in context (i.e. weather) so are more meaningful and therefore easier to remember/learn. The students can add words over time, as well. I think I may try to do some sample pages as handouts just to show what they can do. (Don't suppose you have any scanned pages you could send as a sample, do you? )

I also found an interesting 'Vocabulary Word Map' form at www.readingquest.org, but it uses an entire page for a single word. I really liked it, but practicality says it would become very cumbersome for students to do this with many words...and of course it doesn't really offer context.