137. Vocabulary
Here you have a comment I just sent to BBC-British Council. I gave up because I could not transcript the catcha after I had written the comment. Anyway, I hope it might help you and your kids or adult learners.
Hello, evergreen and every teacher,
You are so right when you say that both understanding and being capable of retrieving vocabulary are important points. You do need vocabulary if you want to utter any message.
Both vocabulary and grammar stuff are kind of the skeleton that hold communication, which is the target of ours, teachers of English.
Briefly: Fun. This is paramount, I guess.
Firstly we read a simplified version of a classic, say, or any other type of reader, fit for your kids' level. Even, a bit higher a level of your students.
We get stuck to the plot, because I ask questions to help my kids understand the thread, more or less. So, first, fun. I help them with my presenting new vocabulary that would help them understand what is going on in the novel. They achieve to say something, broken English though. They will do better and better. Pacience.
I use nonverbal language as well. I act out, for example, to raise some interest among my students. I make faces as though putting some intrigue and suspense among them. Plus silences by me, to create an atmosphere of suspense.
Sometimes I ask them to say something tiny about the plot or a specific character. The kids, for the description of one character for example, have got to precisely use one new word. Give them a clue.
Repeat the same concducting next class, the weekly class-period dedicated fully to reading. They again have to retrieve some words. This conducting makes them to get their memory more and more trained in being capable to recall a word. Say, the memory is like chewing-gum, it can get larger and larger.
Just a tip. Hope this may help you, evergreen.
At your disposal.
Remember: Fun.
Fernando
Teacher of English and teaching trainer
Granada (Spain)
You are so right when you say that both understanding and being capable of retrieving vocabulary are important points. You do need vocabulary if you want to utter any message.
Both vocabulary and grammar stuff are kind of the skeleton that hold communication, which is the target of ours, teachers of English.
Briefly: Fun. This is paramount, I guess.
Firstly we read a simplified version of a classic, say, or any other type of reader, fit for your kids' level. Even, a bit higher a level of your students.
We get stuck to the plot, because I ask questions to help my kids understand the thread, more or less. So, first, fun. I help them with my presenting new vocabulary that would help them understand what is going on in the novel. They achieve to say something, broken English though. They will do better and better. Pacience.
I use nonverbal language as well. I act out, for example, to raise some interest among my students. I make faces as though putting some intrigue and suspense among them. Plus silences by me, to create an atmosphere of suspense.
Sometimes I ask them to say something tiny about the plot or a specific character. The kids, for the description of one character for example, have got to precisely use one new word. Give them a clue.
Repeat the same concducting next class, the weekly class-period dedicated fully to reading. They again have to retrieve some words. This conducting makes them to get their memory more and more trained in being capable to recall a word. Say, the memory is like chewing-gum, it can get larger and larger.
Just a tip. Hope this may help you, evergreen.
At your disposal.
Remember: Fun.
Fernando
Teacher of English and teaching trainer
Granada (Spain)
ballhype com . One of the Williams sisters, Serena I think.
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