Teacher Discussion Forums

I teach in a high school, most of the students think that English is useful, especially the 2008 Olimpic Games will be held in China. At that time they will have more chance to use Engish. They like NBA and they know many basketball stars well. They also like English songs. But they don't like remembering English words by heart. It is difficult for them to express their ideas freely. I really want to know how to arouse the student' interest of remembering new words by heart.

various methods can be applied into your daily teaching activities. one of the best way, in my opinion, is to use the concept schemata. students can be required to brainstorm the related words and phrases about one topic. thus, they form a systematic knowledge structure.
in addition to that, you may encourage your students to read the simplified novels or magazines. by means of reading the novels or articles in the magazines of the similar topic, students can consolidate and expand their vocabulary as well.

I like that idea as well. Give them as many chances to use the vocabulary as you can. First a story of something that interest them, then another story they can share with another student who doesn't have the same materials, then some way to use those words - making a dialouge, making posters on the topic and having a poster display, making up a short play or movie, giving a presentation on their experience and so on. I would get them to list the words they don't know in a personal dictionary with notes or drawings or scribbles to help them remember and finally some kind of writing about the topic that would be useful for others- something to put in the library or stories for younger children or something for the school newspaper or bulletin board or a letter to the local paper or writing a brochure.

In order to help students memorize the vocabulary you have to offer them different (simple) tasks, the right moments to repeat vocabulary you may want them to learn by heart.
- listen to songs (carefully chosen according to their favourite singers/bands and to their lyrics.) They can also sing along so that they can remember words more easily.
- draw the words (BIG vs small…)
- use drawings/pictures/stories
-ask them how they feel/react to some words
- students can make unit glossaries (with translation/drawings/definitions…)
- you may also do a simple task at the end of a unit: English vocabulary «problem clinic»: students talk about vocabulary learned in the previous lessons using their mother tongue.
- at the end of a unit (after a small number of lessons) ask students to write down on a separate small piece of paper the words they have learned; put their words into a bag/box…; ask a student to pick one piece of paper and ask him to say what that word/expression means (he may speak in his mother tongue, I think.)
- use simple vocabulary revision activities you may find on the internet (written/oral)


Jorge (Portugal)
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