Words, words, words!!

Gerard McLoughlin International House, Barcelona Language learners are constantly trying to update their vocabulary but having problems recording and recalling words. This Workshops will look at the role of memorization and how we can help students with their vocabulary acquisition. We also look at ways to encourage our students to record and use new expressions by using practical classroom and out of class activities. Gerard McLoughlin has been a teacher and trainer for 20 years. He works at International House, Barcelona and is a co-author of Next Generation, a Bachillerato coursebook for Cambridge English. He is a board member of TESOL-SPAIN as Online Resources Officer and Webmaster. Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed David Wilkins Teaching vocabulary Paraphrasing Select 5 or 6 new vocabulary items and tell a story using them. Say the phrase using other words and elicit the phrase or tell students. Write it on the board. In small groups retell your story using the prompts on the board. Write their own sentences or stories using the phrases. Dictogloss Select a short text from the course book. Read at normal speed and set general question. Read a second time and students copy main ideas. In groups recreate text from notes. Dictate back to the teacher and write on the board. Compare with original text. Write their own version using key words. Exploiting Reading or Listening texts Once youve dealt with them for comprehension, show the students one or two useful expressions in the text. Get them to underline 4 or five new expression for them. In pairs compare and see if they can help each other. Regroup in 4s and repeat the process. Monitor and pick up unknown expressions. In open class, get groups to explain new expressions or you do it for them. Graded readers

Show the blurb from a selection of readers. Students decide which one they would like to read. Give an extract from the chosen book to different students. Use dictionaries to discover meaning and tell another group. They decide what happened before and after.

Concordancers A good way for looking at how words collocate. They present students with data to analyse, they can work out patterns and regularities associated with selected words. Use the British National Corpus, its free. http:/www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk

Useful for adjectives and dependent prepositions. Prepare a questionnaire that uses them as a follow up. What are you interested in? Which of your friends do you depend on? What things are you afraid of? Are you allergic to anything? What are you looking forward to? Blank the key word and get students to guess the missing word. Then categorise them into use.

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..Normally I ___ home by four oclock You can ___ them in other shops.. Go and ___ your coat then. Okay.. She ___ up off the ground .My tea is ___ cold. Whats it .Have you ___ any money on you?

Recording vocabulary Dictionaries record vocabulary alphabetically but our mental lexicon records them according to categories. We need to help students organize their vocabulary notebooks and do some learner training in the classroom.

Organising phrasal verbs Write phrasal verb, give the meaning and write a sample sentence.

Learner training Select 8 or 10 items and write a mini questionnaire. Divide the words into Student A and B. All the As work together and the Bs work together with dictionaries. They fill in the grid with meaning, spelling/pronunciation etc. Help with classroom language. Interview each other and peer teach the words. They record the words in the notebooks using the grid.

Student A How often do you cook dinner for friends? When was the last time you saw a play at the theatre? When was the last time you went shopping for some new clothes? What do you normally do when you have a night in? Have you ever played a contact sport?

Common phrases

Choose a group of common words related to the same lexical field. Put the words in alphabetical order. Listen and repeat the words. Prepare questions using six of the expressions, and ask your classmates. Report their answers to the class. Rank the words in order of personal preference. Make true or false statements about yourself using 8 of the words, beginning with I really like or I dont like very much. Look these words up in your dictionary and check you know the meaning. Translate the words into your language.

Revising Vocabulary cards Write new expression on one side with pronunciation and part of speech. On the other side write a combination of: meaning, sample sentence, picture or translation. Test each other by: lay them down with new word on top, make a sentence. Guess the word by asking yes/no questions; Is it a noun?, Does it begin with? Write the word without the vowels, partner has to work out the word. Write the word in the air and partner guesses the word. Put into categories according to association: good/bad, masculine/feminine, etc.

Back to the board Put students in teams of four, and one member sits with their back to the board. Write a word, expression or sentence on the board. The team members have to describe the word (without saying it). The student with their back to the board has to guess. First team to guess gets a point.

Web resources http://cdextras.cambridge.org/phrasalverbs/phrasal.html

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/e2dd477856992617ac9f0ebaffea5761

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?lang=en

http://storify.com/