Learning Vocabulary
I am a second language learner, and I know that vocabulary is really important. When I was a teenager, and I was in high school; my parents could not afford the payment for the required books. Suddenly I had the huge bless that my mother brought me some books (Math, Biology and Chemistry) that people did not use anymore, but there was a problem, all of them were written in English. In my family, no one spoke English as a result, I had to look up the words in a dictionary. I didn't know about grammar rules, but I was able to read the words in context because I knew at least keywords that helped me to understand the context and communicate without grammar.
In my opinion, it is necessary to teach vocabulary through a wide variety of activities specially when it is a new topic for ESL students. I have noticed in my own English classes the fact that I do not have enough time to do many things as I wish because time is limited. That is why, I did not apply a lot of vocabulary activities even though when I know that students need about 8 instances of exposure to the new vocabulary keywords before they learned. The best way, to increase students lexicon is beyond memorization, repetition or circling the words, for example activities that include family words, synonyms, antonyms, among other. Using the new vocabulary in real situations and repeated contact with the the vocabulary are extremely important for remembering words. In this way I may help my students because I am fairly certain; they really need more than one specific learning vocabulary activity.
You got it, Lis!
ReplyDeleteYour first paragraph made me visualize this little girl struggling to learn, but at the same time, learning with pleasure. Congratulations! This shows how vocabulary acquisition ha helped you. Today, you understand deeply the importance of vocabulary.
It makes me very glad to see that you are aware of everything your students need to acquire new vocanulary words.
Congratulations!