Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning And Teach... BEST
Developmental delays, reading difficulties and infrequent exposure to new words can cause setbacks in student progress. However, most teachers agree that passive learning isn't the best way to help students grow their vocabulary skills.
Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning and Teach...
When teachers use word learning techniques and teaching strategies like dictionary use, morphemic analysis, cognate awareness and contextual analysis, students catch on quickly and can recall new words, synonyms and antonyms. Each of these components builds on their prior knowledge of other words to create their own vocabulary library.
According to the National Reading Panel (2000), explicit instruction of vocabulary is highly effective. To develop vocabulary intentionally, students should be explicitly taught both specific words and word-learning strategies. To deepen students' knowledge of word meanings, specific word instruction should be robust (Beck et al., 2002). Seeing vocabulary in rich contexts provided by authentic texts, rather than in isolated vocabulary drills, produces robust vocabulary learning (National Reading Panel, 2000). Such instruction often does not begin with a definition, for the ability to give a definition is often the result of knowing what the word means. Rich and robust vocabulary instruction goes beyond definitional knowledge; it gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words.
Research shows that there are more words to be learned than can be directly taught in even the most ambitious program of vocabulary instruction. Explicit instruction in word-learning strategies gives students tools for independently determining the meanings of unfamiliar words that have not been explicitly introduced in class. Since students encounter so many unfamiliar words in their reading, any help provided by such strategies can be useful.
One principle of effective vocabulary learning is to provide multiple exposures to a word's meaning. There is great improvement in vocabulary when students encounter vocabulary words often (National Reading Panel, 2000). According to Stahl (2005), students probably have to see a word more than once to place it firmly in their long-term memories. "This does not mean mere repetition or drill of the word," but seeing the word in different and multiple contexts. In other words, it is important that vocabulary instruction provide students with opportunities to encounter words repeatedly and in more than one context.
It is often assumed that when students do not learn new vocabulary words, they simply need to practice the words some more. Research has shown, however, that it is often the case that students simply do not understand the instructional task involved (National Reading Panel, 2000). Rather than focus only on the words themselves, teachers should be certain that students fully understand the instructional tasks (Schwartz and Raphael, 1985). The restructuring of learning materials or strategies in various ways often can lead to increased vocabulary acquisition, especially for low-achieving or at-risk students (National Reading Panel, 2000). According to Kamil (2004), "once students know what is expected of them in a vocabulary task, they often learn rapidly."
Mnemonic strategies are systematic procedures for enhancing memory. The word mnemonic comes from Mnemosyne, the name of Greek goddess of memory. The keyword method, a mnemonic strategy, has been shown to be effective with students who have learning difficulties and those who are at risk for educational failure. According to the National Reading Panel, the keyword method may lead to significant improvement in students' recall of new vocabulary words. This sample lesson model targets two contextualized vocabulary words. The same model can be adapted and used to enhance recall of vocabulary words in any commercial reading program.
Calderón, M., D. August, R. Slavin, D. Duran, N. Madden, and A. Cheung. 2005. Bring words to life in classrooms with English-language learners. In E.H. Hiebert and M.L. Kamil (eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbraum.
Cunningham, A.E. 2005. Vocabulary growth through independent reading and reading aloud to children. In E.H. Hiebert and M.L.Kamil (eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbraum.
Kamil, M.L., and E.H. Hiebert. 2005. Teaching and learning vocabulary: Perspectives and persistent issues. In E.H. Hiebert and M.L. Kamil (eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Stahl, S.A. 2005. Four problems with teaching word meanings (and what to do to make vocabulary an integral part of instruction). In E.H. Hiebert and M.L. Kamil (eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
ELs may require even more careful word selection and extensive vocabulary instruction because they may be learning conversational language and academic language at the same time. Colorín Colorado provides additional information about selecting vocabulary words to teach ELs.
Intentional Vocabulary Learning Students need to be explicitly taught methods for intentional vocabulary learning. According to Michael Graves (2000), effective intentional vocabulary instruction includes:
Semantic maps help students develop connections among words and increase learning of vocabulary words (Baumann et al., 2003; Heimlich and Pittleman, 1986). For example, by writing an example, a non-example, a synonym, and an antonym, students must deeply process the word persist.
There is an important tip here - one way to improve your vocabulary is to move more words from your passive vocabulary to your active vocabulary. This way, you can improve your English vocabulary without even learning new words!
What a fantastic article! I live and work in southern China (going on 8 years now) and use many of these tactics. All of my students are ELL (some speak three or more languages) and kind support goes a long way. I often tell my students to use a dictionary to look up words and I have them do pre-work in their first language then, change it over to English. Most of my students speak Mandarin Chinese and there are times that I will make a fun joke or help them with vocabulary in this language. Although many people have different ideas about this, I have noticed it has helped me build strong student-teacher relationships and I am learning more and more everyday about the many cultures here. Thank you for another great article!
The English language is distinguished by its vocabulary. To master the four language-learning abilities of hearing, speaking, reading, and writing, vocabulary is essential. Many of the instructional strategies used to teach the English language are incorporated into vocabulary instruction, which achieves the same goals as earlier strategies. This study seeks to examine whether Word Link and Grammar Translation Method (GTM) will increase students' vocabularies. This research employs the Pre-experimental designs methodology. The pre-experimental group consisted of 25 fifth-graders from an Elementary School in West Bandung. A pre-test was administered at the beginning of the program, and a post-test was administered at the conclusion of the 32-hour meeting. The adoption of GTM utilizing the Word Link application (crossword puzzle) has a good and statistically significant impact on the vocabulary development of students, according to the findings of this study. The crossword puzzleword Link apps appear to aid youngsters in expanding their vocabularies, and it is recommended that teachers employ this strategy while teaching and studying English, particularly in the early grades.in elementary school.
According to Wilkins (as quoted in Gómez 2008), by learning more words and expressions, students can learn the English language more quickly than by studying the grammar in depth. For this reason, when teaching new vocabulary to our students, we are not only adding words to their mental dictionary, but also increasing their linguistic abilities and providing them with tools that will help them to understand context and be able to express themselves with greater eloquence (Gómez 2008). On the other hand, music has always had a fundamental role in the life of human beings, especially in young people because through it they express their feelings, it serves them as entertainment and allows them to communicate and integrate socially (Merriam as quoted in Cruces 2001). Hence, listening to music is an activity preferred by teenagers and they can usually memorize a complete song if they like it, even if it is not in their native language. In addition, music allows learners to build up confidence and motivation to learn the target language, which as a result helps them to foster language acquisition (Kao and Oxford 2014). Based on this fact, it can be said that music really attracts and motivate students, so it is imperative to consider it as a didactic resource to be exploited. For this reason, the current study aims at determining the effectiveness of the use of YouTube music videos as an educational resource to teach vocabulary and improve the listening and speaking skills in the EFL Classroom. 041b061a72