Teaching vocabulary
The role of vocabulary
The role of vocabulary changes depending on the aims of teaching we strive to achieve. As a result, in
courses aimed at teaching and mastering grammar, lexis has never played a predominant role.
However, nowadays in most cases teachers concentrate on developing speaking competence of their
students and thus teaching vocabulary plays a vital role in language teaching.
Very often the lack of vocabulary hinders or even prevents getting our message across, while being
grammatically correct is not so important. Consequently, a constant and regular work on enriching
students’ vocabulary is crucial, also because without lexical exercises the further development of
speaking, listening, reading and writing skills becomes impossible.
There are three main stages of vocabulary teaching:
I. Introducing new vocabulary
II. Practising vocabulary
III. Revising and practising vocabulary learnt before
Exercises used in these stages are known as pre-communicative exercises, which will later facilitate
teaching of particular language skills. The success of vocabulary teaching will depend, as a result, on
the fact how early new vocabulary is incorporated into teaching language skills (speaking, listening,
reading and writing). The success depends, in other words, on teachers’ ability to incorporate new
vocabulary into tasks known as communicative exercises.
I.
Introducing new vocabulary
Teaching new vocabulary depends on the level of our students and on the lexis we strive
to teach. Introducing new words must always happen in some context, never as
isolated single words. It is important that the new word/words should be the only
difficulty in the sentence, no other difficulty (e.g. grammatical) should occur. New lexis
should be presented in a fairly easy, already mastered structure, preferably accompanied
by a picture, gesture or object which help in understanding new words.
Below there are some ways of presenting new vocabulary:

Presenting an object (limited obviously to the objects easy to bring to the
classroom)

Showing an object (maps, pictures, photographs, postcards are useful; the
method can be also used to introduce new verbs or adjectives showing
particular activities or feelings)

Showing with gestures (non-verbal means such as gestures, poses, facial
expressions are used to introduce verbs-a teacher is opening the window,
walking, jumping, etc.; shapes and colours-by pointing to particular objects;
adjectives-by showing how proud, conceited, shy, etc. somebody is;
prepositions- by showing where some objects are)

Synonyms (explaining new vocabulary when using words students are already
familiar with- small-tiny, big-huge, etc.)

Antonyms (explaining new words using their opposites, already known to
students; hot-not cold; teachers must make sure that students understand the
words uses are opposites and not synonyms of the new words)

Explanation (explaining new words in a short story or a few sentences, e.g. to
inherit; if teachers are not sure their students understand the word, Polish
explanation or translation should be used)

Definition (explaining new words by providing definitions, simple or more
sophisticated definitions can be used, depending on the level of the class)

Polish equivalent (explaining new words by providing Polish translations; this
method is frequently overused by teachers and leads to serious problems:
 Students start to treat the foreign language as if it were a literal
translation from Polish, which results in many lexical and
grammatical mistakes
 Forgetting the words which will be otherwise used in definitions,
explanations, etc.
 Being afraid of the texts whose meaning would be understood by
students although there are some unfamiliar words in them
 A slow development of listening , which results from a relatively low
usage of a foreign language
 A slower learning process, as a result of the predominant role of
Polish during classes
When teachers use Polish translations or equivalents, they should try to use a
technique known as a sandwich:
1. An English sentence with a new word, pronounced clearly and loudly
2. A Polish equivalent said much more quietly
3. A repetition of an English sentence
Techniques that are useful while teaching vocabulary
1. Think of a shape that will help you to remember a new word (vertical/horizontal,
etc. )
2. Associate the word with a name beginning with this letter (to exaggerate-Eve;)
and then use both in a sentence of your own, e.g. Eve often exaggerates when
she describes her problems)- a graphic association
3. Associate the word with a job (to evaluate- engineer, to smell-cook)-a thematic
association
4. Associate the word with a room (sour-kitchen, to relax-sleeping room)
5. Draw a picture (students are asked to draw a picture next to a new word that will
help them remember a new word better)
The more associations the easier it becomes to remember a word.
II. Practising vocabulary

Imitation (students repeat new words after a teacher )
 Students repeat in chorus
 Students repeat in groups (smaller and smaller)
 Individual repetition
 If students have problems repeating long and complex words,
teachers may ask them to repeat from the end, e.g. ‘examination,
-ation,-nation, -mination, examination’

Names (students are asked to form sentences with a name and a new word
beginning with the same letter)

Memory game (a teacher says 10 words introduced before and asks students to
memorise as many as they can manage)
III. Revising vocabulary
The best method to remember new words is to revise them over and over again. As a
result, teachers should try to come back to old texts or recordings, e.g. we may use an
old text to introduce speaking and writing exercises based on an already familiar topic,
pronunciation may be practised on old recordings, etc
Lexical exercises can be divided into thematic and associative (tematyczne, asocjacyjne
czyli skojarzeniowe)
Thematic exercises relate to grouping words around one issue, idea or topic.
Associative exercises relate to matching words and creating associations in students’
minds ;
Very useful exercises used in revising vocabulary are:
a. Thematic associations (mind-maps)
b. Chain associations (a teacher provides a word and asks students what other words
they associate with it, e.g. Water....makes me think of swimming. Swimming....make
me think of summer, etc.)
c. Three of a kind (e.g. . colour, food, drink, vehicle)
d. Odd one out
e. Profiles (a teacher gives students three words, e.g. yellow, round, sour and asks to be
given a word that they associate with all three adjectives- in this case it can be both a
lemon or vitamin C)
f. Situations (students are presented with a situation and asked to give/write all the
words that they can think of while looking at it)
Lexis is very often practised while introducing or revising new grammatical material (teachers change
the words but the structure remains the same)!!!
Lexical exercises related to texts
I.
Exercises that may be done before working on a text:

Guessing what words may occur in the text- on the basis of the title of the text or
its introduction
II. Exercises that may be done while working on a text:

Synonyms-students are asked to replace words with their synonyms

Antonyms- students are asked to replace words with their opposites, e.g. it was
big-it was not small

Paraphrases- students are asked to retell the text using other words
III. Exercises that may be done after working on a text:

Key words- students are asked to choose some words that are the most
important in the text and summarise it best; then the list may be made shorter
and shorter, and the need for negotiations appear

Word roses- students are asked to find key words, but not more than 6 and write
them in such a way that they form a circle- then students may be asked to add as
many words associated with those words as possible

Mind maps
IMPORTANT FACTS:
1. Lexis is important in creating communicative competence and has to be practised and
revised a lot; a serious mistake is when teachers concentrate solely on grammatical
correction
2. Revision must refer both to a new and already known lexical material
3. Revising must be done regularly- revision classes are very important!!!
4. Revising should not always happen in the same order- we remember best what we hear at
the beginning and end of each utterance
5. Revising should happen at all stages- during pre-communicative and communicative
exercises, in tasks focused on revising separate words but also whole sentences containing
those words
6.
Successful lexical teaching happens when students have a lot of associations (e.g. dance – a
regular verb, a verb beginning with d, a pastime, hobby, a text in which it was mentioned, a
picture of a dancing couple)
7. Lexis should be taught and revised while using dictionaries:
From The Practice of English Language Teaching by J. Harmer p.245