10 activities for pre-teaching vocabulary

[surrealia]

Here are some activities I have used successfully to introduce new vocabulary before giving students a text.

1) Scatter 10 - 15 vocabulary words all over the board. Call on students to come up one by one to circle two words and make a sentence using both.

2) Write some key vocabulary words on the board. Read out each word and give a definition. Then ask some of your students in the class interesting questions using the new words.

3) Prepare 10 - 15 vocabulary words along with sentences that explain the words clearly. Read out the words and the sentences as a dictation, and tell the students they only have to write down the word, not the sentence.

4) Make a list of 10 - 12 key words from your text, including some new ones, as well as some that your students already know. Tell your students you are going to call out the words as fast as possible, and they must write down all the words they hear. Read the words out super fast, and do it a second time ONLY if they really insist. Then invite a student to come to the board and write the words on the board as other students call them out. When the students finish, then you can add any words they didn't get and correct spelling. Ask students if they have any questions about the words.

5) This one takes longer than some of the other activities, but the students really enjoy it. Assign 5 or 6 students to stand at the board, pens/chalk in hand, ready to write words as you call them out. Call out 12 - 15 key words, and have them write the words all over the board, as creatively as possible. Each time they write a word, make sure that they move to a new place, and change their writing style often. When the dictation is finished, you should have a board covered with words. Now ask the class if they see any interesting combinations of words on the board. Next, tell them they have 3 minutes to make as many sentences as they can using the words. Finally, ask a few to read out their sentences.

6) Write about 10 - 15 key words on the left side of the board. Get your students to give you some vocabulary related to water (ice, drip, puddle, wet, rain, etc.). You write these words on the right side of the board. Now, you assign them to make sentences establishing a connection between words from your list and the "water" words.

7) This next one is a fun way to get students pronouncing the new words. Write "ONE-WORD RAP" on the board. Ask your students if any of them can rap. If anyone says yes, ask him or her to demonstrate. Tell them you are going to demonstrate a one-word rap. Take a word from your text and write it on the board. Read it out as rhythmically as you can (PA-RA-DOX, PA-RA-DOX, PA-RA, PA-RA, PA-RA-DOX, PUH, PUH, PUH, PUH, PARADOX!). Write the next word on the board, read it out, and have students repeat it a couple of times. Call on one of your most outgoing students to come to the front, and do his or her best to rap the word. To get everyone involved, have all the other students pound out a rhythm on their desks (pound on desk twice, clap once, repeat). Do the same with the rest of the words. Give out a prize (candy, a bookmark, etc.) for the best rap.

8. Put a list of new vocabulary on the board. Explain the meaning of the first word, then give the students a couple of minutes to write a short sentence about themselves using the new word. Continue with all of the words. When you are finished with the list, encourage a few students to read out a sample sentence or two.

9) Before handing out the text, put 6 or 7 important words from the text up on the board. Make sure that they are not grammar words (the, and, what), but also make sure that they don't give away the subject of the text too easily. Ask your students to guess what the text is about. When they have made a few guesses, tell them and hand out the text.

10) Put a list of 10 or so important words from your text on the board. Then give each student an equivalent number of post-it notes. Tell the students to write down each word on a separate post-it note. Then have them put the words anywhere in the classroom (on desks, tables, windows, classmates, you) that they think is appropriate. Encourage them to ask their neighbors why they put the words where they did.

Do you have any other ideas for introducing new vocabulary? If so, post it here so we can all learn from each other.

If you are looking for more teaching ideas, try out this site:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[LarryLatham]

Some of the ideas posted are good. I especially like numbers 9 and 10, although I personally might alter number 9 so that after students guess about the topic of the text, I'd hand it out without telling them what I think it is, and then after they've processed the text (whatever you're going to have them do) ask them again what they think it is. Whatever you (teacher) think the topic is is of little value.

I also wonder what is meant, in number two, by "ask interesting questions." I'm not sure I know what an interesting question is. Interesting to whom?

And then I also wonder about the overall value of introducing vocabulary one word at a time. There is certainly some value in it, as "knowing" lots of words helps without question. But first, I have concerns about methods such as these which tend to introduce only one meaning of certain words that have multiple meanings and uses, hence one could question how well a student might "know" a word after these lessons. Second, and perhaps more troubling, is the emphasis in most of these techniques of treating the language as though it were made up of single words. Many "chunks" of English, as we all know, are multi-word units, including multi-word phrases, sentence heads, polywords, institutionalized utterances, etc. How are these handled within the suggested methodology?

I guess the main problem I have with these, as I have with all "teaching ideas" as are generally promoted in almost all teacher training at schools, universities, and web-sites, is that they seem to encourage teachers to acquire a 'bag of teaching tricks' rather than acquire a really deep understanding of the subject matter. I believe that, in general, the more a teacher personally knows about English and how it works, the better English teacher (s)he will be. Methodology may have its place all right, but techniques without the substance of depth in subject knowledge runs the risk of having students say (inwardly perhaps), "um...so what?"

[dduck]

But first, I have concerns about methods such as these which tend to introduce only one meaning of certain words that have multiple meanings and uses, hence one could question how well a student might "know" a word after these lessons.

Interesting point. The only niggle I have concerns the amount of time required in order to teach multiple definitions of multiple words. Obviously, some sort of balance needs to be found!

Many "chunks" of English, as we all know...

Excellent point. I think all language learners acquire language in this way; I also think "context" is another important building block of language learning.

I believe that, in general, the more a teacher personally knows about English and how it works, the better English teacher (s)he will be.

I don't agree with this I'm afraid. The skill of teaching is the ability to transfer knowledge to another - in my book. A teacher may well learn the finer points of the language, but still not have the first clue about how to interest, motivate, inspire, or control a class of students.

Iain

[LarryLatham]

A teacher may well learn the finer points of the language, but still not have the first clue about how to interest, motivate, inspire, or control a class of students

.

It's quite possible you have a point there. But I have the gnawing feeling this originally came out of a brochure for a program in the College of Education. There may be some teachers who know their stuff but are personally boring. But when I think about the really interesting, motivating, inspiring teachers I've had, the list is short. It's the people who loved their subject. They were the ones who warmed to it in a way that was infectious. They knew it backwards and forwards. Theirs were the classes where I really felt there was something worthwhile going on; something worth my efforts as a student. Those who had techniques and little else left me cold, I'm afraid.

[spinkbri]

does anyone have some good games for vocabularly at the high school level?

[Pamlc]

Have a look at this website www.funandgames.org Its not an ESL site but has a lot of good games that can be adapted and rearranged if you use your imagination a bit to be vocabulary games

[surrealia]

Larry and dduck have made some good points here.

Here's one more idea for pre-teaching words and phrases in a dialogue:

Take 10 key words/phrases from a conversation in the coursebook, and write them on the board. Check to see if students understand them. Then get the class to read them in various ways (in a sad voice, whispering, in a bored voice, quickly, loudly, etc.). Put students into pairs and have them create a short dialogue using ONLY the words and phrases on the board. Call on students to present their dialogues to the class. Then, finally, play the conversation from the coursebook for the class a couple of times.

[nomadxx]

This was copied from Hong Kong Pnet website..........
"I was also very impressed with what I saw at the King Lam Catholic School on Friday afternoon. I do believe Pnets have some very creative ideas to share. I saw Toms P6 Phonicball championships where he set up 4 boards mounted on whiteboards the end of the assembly area. The students started at the other end but before they reached the boards and threw a ball he put them through a series of what could only be described as "physical activity English". Students had to hop three times on right foot through a series of circles then on left foot through three more. Run to letter he had chalked on ground and shout out the vowels AEIOU before proceeding to a hoop where he had placed small cardboard circles with blends on them. Students had to pick a blend then think of a word and spell it to the teacher referees before running to the phonicball area and throwing at the target. When they hit a letter they them had to write the name of an animal on the white board. They then ran back to the next team member, who repeated the process. Students watching were all laughing and shouting out English words. Please contact me if you come up with other creative uses as we would love to share them around.
Date 2005/1/10 上午 08:09:24 by Lisa Lau.
.......................................................................
See www.phonicball.com or www.pnets.org for photos

[lelo]

7) This next one is a fun way to get students pronouncing the new words. Write "ONE-WORD RAP" on the board. Ask your students if any of them can rap. If anyone says yes, ask him or her to demonstrate. Tell them you are going to demonstrate a one-word rap. Take a word from your text and write it on the board. Read it out as rhythmically as you can (PA-RA-DOX, PA-RA-DOX, PA-RA, PA-RA, PA-RA-DOX, PUH, PUH, PUH, PUH, PARADOX!). Write the next word on the board, read it out, and have students repeat it a couple of times. Call on one of your most outgoing students to come to the front, and do his or her best to rap the word. To get everyone involved, have all the other students pound out a rhythm on their desks (pound on desk twice, clap once, repeat). Do the same with the rest of the words. Give out a prize (candy, a bookmark, etc.) for the best rap.

I think this is a great idea. There is actually a program that uses rhyming to teach vocabulary words. It plays on the mnemonic power of rhyme in rap music. I think it's pretty fun: Flocabulary vocabulary Hip-Hop

[karenk12]

does anyone have some good games for vocabularly at the high school level?

I have always found it difficult to convince upper-left high school students to study new vocabulary words; many of them consider such activities as being most suited for middle or elementary school students. Regardless, I think the same holds true for high school students as it does for younger students -- you have to make it fun. I'd recomment games, such a Scrabble or Dictionary, or various word game websites, two of which are http://www.vocabulary.co.il/, which is a traditional game page, and http://www.vocabularycoach.com, which is a more structured page with easy, medium, and difficult words, all of which are applicable for test preparation as well as college.