T echniques in T eaching Vocabulary
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ⅠIntroduction
As every language learner knows, communication is the ultimate goal of learning a language, then acquiring, remembering, and meaningfully using newly learnt words is an esntial part of learning a foreign language. When students learn a foreign language, students tend to forget or misu new words. There are many reasons for that: words are not properly stored in students' minds, they are not practiced enough, and they are not related to students own experiences and interests. In order to make learning more effective, Professor Allen shares a rious of successful techniques with learners and teachers newer to the field of ESL.
In the introduction part, he discuss why vocabulary teaching was neglecting in the past and how it became more and more crucial for the prent. In the past, people believe that knowing words and their meanings are not enough, and learners have to know how the words work together in English ntences. Gradually, they tend to pay attention to the learning of vocabulary. For the ultimate goal of language learning is to communicate. V ocabulary is the basic element of communication. Without grammar, the communication may be interfered, but without vocabulary, there’s no communication at all.
Knowing how significant the vocabulary is, the author tells some very effective ways of teaching vocabulary. According to their learning experiences and ages, he divided the learners into three levels: the beginners, the intermediate students and the advanced students. He assigns different activities to learners of different levels, which are very helpful for both language learners and teachers.
ⅡTechniques in teaching vocabulary
Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Co nstant effort is required to understand, produce, and manipulate the target language. Effective activities have proven to have advantages and effectiveness in learning
vocabulary in various ways: activities bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily, activities usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested, vocabulary activities bring real world context into the classroom and enhance students’u of English in a flexible, communicative way, and activities are highly motivating and they give students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings.
妥帖读音1.Techniques for the beginners
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In books that are intended for the first stage of English, the vocabulary lessons usually contain words for person and things in the classroom, words like boy, girl, book, pencil, window, door. The words can be taught by eing the objects, by touching them as well as hearing. The ns are working together to focus the learners’attention. What’s more, the words are very helpful for defining more difficult words in later stages of the program. It is good to make an early start on such important words.
Usually, there is a list on the textbook page. The effective way for students to remember the words is to look at the words while hearing their pronunciations. Hearing the word, eing it, and saying it—all of the may be aids to learning. But it is more important to teach them the meanings of the words and how to u them in communication.
In some class for beginners, teachers u all three ways to show the meaning of the words: pictures, explanations in the students’own language and definitions in simple English, using vocabulary that the students already known. In prenting the common kinds of vocabulary, teachers should think about the order of prentation. Whether the new words should be prented first or the meanings? According to one’s growing experiences, a child know the object first, and then he knows the name for it. So it is with teaching. That is to say, teachers should draw attention to mea
nings before drilling words.
V ocabulary is best learned when someone feels that a certain word is needed. Teachers can make the basic words in English necessary for communication. To do so, we engage students in activities that require tho English words for the exchange of
information or the expression of personal feelings. In some class, the students spent a great deal of time saying English words without thinking about the meanings. In such class, time should be better spent on meaningful u of the words.
Here is one simple communication experience: when there are both boys and girls in the classroom, the teacher writes the following dialog on the blackboard, using names of girls in the class where blanks appear:
The first speaker: I’m thinking of a girl in this room. Y ou have three guess.
世界上最诡异的地方The cond speaker: Are you thinking of_______?
The third speaker: Are you thinking of_______?
The forth speaker: Are you thinking of_______?
The first speaker: I’m thinking of ________.
The teacher shows how this dialog will be ud for a game. The first speaker is the teacher, who is thinking of some girl in the class, and the students can guess who it is. Is someone los a guess by naming a boy, the respon to that guess will quickly teach both of the English words.
In the following three chapters of this book, the author mentioned veral ways to show the meaning of an English word, through such aids as the following:
a.Objects already in the classroom
检讨书开头怎么写b.Objects that can easily be brought to class(umbrellas, scissors, tools, etc)
c.Drawings by the teacher and drawings by students
d.Pictures from magazines and newspapers(as well as from commercial
sources)
e.Demonstrations to show actions
2.Techniques for the intermediate learners
Defining English words by means of other English words require real skill. It is a skill that is particularly needed by teachers of intermediate class. Unlike most words that are in the elementary level, much of the intermediate vocabulary cannot be demonstrated through actions or shown through pictures. However, we can usually show the meanings of intermediate-level words by putting them into English explanations where the other words in the ntences are already known. Teachers can
u simple English to show meanings of words. Fortunately, there’re two excellent learner’s dictionaries which are known as the Oxford Student’s Dictionary of American English and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. What’s more, simple example ntence is especially needed by teachers of intermediate level students. It shows both the meaning and the using of the new words.
Like the elementary students, the intermediate student needs to learn words for common areas of living: words related to food, clothing, shelter, and so on. In order to make vocabulary learning more systematic, therefore, intermediate level students should keep a notebook. In the notebook there are
veral different ctions and different categories of words---veral pages rerved for weather words, other pages rerved for health words, and so on. There are also many activities to help students u the words they copied in their notebook, such as the category guessing game.
Pictures are also necessary in this part. Pictures which show human situations often interest students at this level. Students enjoy imagining who the pictured persons might be, where they are, what they are, what happened before pictured moment, what might happen next.
Dividing a class into smaller work groups is an important technique at the intermediate and advanced levels of English instructions. After divide the class into small groups, teachers can give tasks for them to do in class. They can u pictures and the exercis in the textbooks. In this process, teachers should keep the intermediate student interested and encouraged.
In intermediate class, we make a special effort to introduce vocabulary that is related to lives of English-speaking people. At this level, we began to go beyond the students’intermediate experience. Also we teach students the social meanings of words. We can help, first, by making students aware that social meanings exists. We can also help by drawing students’ attention to the special meanings that are related in stories and other readings about English-speaking people.
Teachers can help students notice that certain words mean to speakers of English, show students how much they are able to do with the words they have already known, and enable the better students to progress more rapidly.
3.Techniques for the advanced students
In advanced class, we had two major aims: one is to prepare students for the kind of English ud by and for native speakers and the other is to help students become independent, responsible for their own learning. As reading and learning materials becomes increasingly difficult, and there are many more new words to be explained. The teacher may not help them learn all of the new words. So dictionaries play as passport for the learners to become independent.
Any dictionaries can help students, but before looking at the dictionary, students should follow the steps:
a.Think carefully about the entire ntence in which the unfamiliar words
appears.
b.Look carefully at the unknown word. What kind of word is it? A noun?
c.Think of some possible meanings for that kind of word in the ntence. If the什么是节气
word is a noun, might it name some thing? Some person? Some idea?
This kind of thinking may help students produce more understanding of the word for the student’s prent purpo.
Advanced students’vocabulary can be greatly incread by awareness of the fact that certain English words have different grammatical functions in different ntences. So Allen suggests both teachers and students should keep the questions in mind:朱赫来
a.Which nouns in this ntence may also be ud as verbs?
b.Which of the verbs may also be ud as nouns?
c.If such a shift in function occurs, does the meaning also change?
Knowing the questions does help students to expand student s’vocabulary effectively. It is also important to introduce word familiars to students.
Sometimes a learner feels the need to learn certain words becau tho words hold esntial keys to understanding something interesting or important. At this level, the n of need for a word is often induced by reading. V ocabulary is learned through reading something that students really want to understand, or something they know they must understand for some reason important to them. Much vocabulary in the advanced class is learned for comprehension of what is being said.
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