New ways in Teaching Vocabulary
Edited by Paul Nation – Good Ideas to Use in the Classroom
There are several reasons for which the vocabulary component needs to be carefully
planned. Firstly, it is important to ensure that learners master the high frequency
words of the L2 before moving on to the less frequent words. Therefore, the level of
the vocabulary as well as the methods of teaching it should suit the learners.
Secondly, grouping opposites together (for example) can cause interference that
results in confusion for the learners. This can be avoided.
Thirdly, vocabulary learning opportunities and the quality of vocabulary learning can
be significantly increased through the careful design of both vocabulary and other
skill activities.
The book is divided into five sections to reflect the major components of a language
learning course:
1. Meeting new vocabulary for the first time
2. Establishing previously met vocabulary
3. Enriching previously met vocabulary
4. Developing vocabulary strategies
5. Developing fluency with known vocabulary
Since section 1 is elementary and more geared towards beginners I chose to start with
section 2, survey it very briefly and mainly elaborate on section 3. Section 4 focuses
on guessing words in context, dictionary use and word building. The latter topic will
be shortly presented. As for sections 2 & 5 I connected between the two as it is not
enough that learners have a large vocabulary. Assuming high school students need to
reach a proficiency level (based on the NEC) they must be able to access and use this
knowledge fluently. Fluency comes from having a well organized system of
knowledge that has been practiced in meaningful activities.
When the language, ideas and discourse in an activity are already familiar to a learner,
s/he are able to use the vocabulary in the activity with a higher than normal level of
fluency.
Sections 2 & 5-Establishing Previously Met Vocabulary and Developing Fluency with
Known Vocabulary
After acquiring new words, students must learn to recognize them in another context
and use them on proper occasions. This depends on frequent practice.
Sample exercises:
1. Recognition of the right word
Read as fast as you can and underline the word which is the same as the "test
word".
quiet: quite quilt quill quiet
2. Word –pair recognition
Read quickly, write S if the two phrases are the same, and D if they are not.
Poor man
poor men (D)
Next stop
Next stop
Good book Good book
3. Word matches
Link the words that are the same.
Either
whether
Neither
whither
Whether
either
Weather
wither
Wither
neither
Wither
weather
4. Recognition of the meaning of words
Underline the word that is nearest in meaning to the test word.
Easy: busy lazy simple ready
5. Recognition of words according to their prefixes and suffixes
Mark the parts of speech of the following pairs of words:
(v)
(n)
Sing – singer
Translate – translation
Care – careful
6. Filling the blanks with the appropriate words / structures- When they are
finished ask students to compare their suggestions. Are they all acceptable?
Would they reject any? Why? Use this stage of the activity to develop the
students' awareness of lexical choice, vocabulary restrictions, and collocation
(a good enrichment activity as well).
7. Matching L1 and L2 equivalents or L1 words and L2 definitions or halves of
simple conversational exchanges.
8. Listening and writing- have students step outside the classroom, sit down,
close their eyes, listen very carefully and later write what they heard. Time it
and then have them write a list of at least five items. Then have them walk
around and write what they saw. Finally, have them describe the atmosphere.
It is also possible to review parts of speech through such an activity.
What they hear: List five nouns and adjectives.
What they see: List five nouns and five verbs/ adverbs.
How they or others feel: List five adjectives or adverbs.
9. EFL Scrabble Students must use the seven tiles they have to add a word connected to the
words already on the board.
 They have only one minute to place their word on the board.
 They score points only for words that they can successfully define and use
in a sentence.
10. Vocabulary Bingo- The winner will have to make up sentences with the words
in the winning row.
11. Guessing the word Have learners sit in pairs, one partner facing the front of the room and
one facing the back.
 Present five of the items to be reviewed on the board. The students
facing the board begins to define a chosen item or suggest it in some
other way (by describing a situation, giving a context, miming), so that
the partner can guess it.
 Then have the partners switch roles, and offer five new items for
review.
12. Matching Synonyms using cards
13. Listening / speaking Crosswords for Vocabulary Practice
 Preteach the following types of phrases:
What's 6 across?; What's 3 down?; I'm sorry. I don't understand, could you
say that again?; How do you spell that?; Pass.
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Have the students sit facing each other. Give the grid to one students
and one set of clues to the other. While one students reads the clue, the
other tries to guess the answer and write it down.
Then hand out second set of clues and have them switch their roles.
Towards the end they should be working together to puzzle out the ones
they do not know.
After conducting a round the class check, give one students in each pair
the clue sheet to test the other students and encourage them to read and
answer quickly.
Section 3- Enriching Previously Met Vocabulary
1. Making connections Choose words of a similar part of speech that students have been studying.
 Divide the class into groups and ask them to arrange the words into groups and
explain the connections.
 Set a time limit for the activity ( 10-15 minutes).
 Ask group leaders to present their group's combinations. Check who could
make the most connections between the words.
A different version would be to supply the categories as well as the words when
there are a number of plausible sortings for learners to discuss afterwards. New
categories introduce a new perspective and, at the same time, clearly indicate that
sortings will depend on opinion and not fact. The following discussion is an
opportunity to review the known meanings and connotations of the lexical items.
2. Odd man out and nonverbal communication- Students are often confused by
semantically similar words for gestures, facial expressions and other forms of
nonverbal communication.
 Prepare a handout with sets of three or four words referring to a gesture, facial
expression, sound or body movement.
 Ask the students to select the odd word. It is also possible to ask students to
indicate whether a word carries a positive, negative or neutral connotation in their
culture.
 At the end of the time allowed ask students to compare and discuss the reasons for
their choices.
Hopefully, a sample list will be attached.
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3.Teaching vocabulary through word domainsChoose a theme or concept from a reading passage. Decide what the focus word
for this concept will be. For example, in case the theme deals with horror movies,
the focus word might be afraid.
Conduct a discussion about the concept afraid by asking different questions. Then
present the domain to the class.
To help the students put the new words in short term meory, create one step
manipulative exercises: multiple choice, Hangman Game, scrambled letters,
categorizing words or recreating the domain.
The degrees of being afraid.
_____________________________________________________________________
Less Worried
Afraid
More Terrified
Worried
afraid
terrified
Nervous
scared
horrified
Tense
frightened
panic-stricken
Uneasy
fearful
scared stiff
Not at ease
paralyzed ( with fear)
ill at ease
frozen ( with fear)
uncomfortable
skittish
 To put a word in long term memory, they need to understand i6ts meaning and
use it to solve a problem. Problem solving activities include-matching words and situations
-fill in the blank
- multiple choice or vocabulary games.
For ex': Ben thought he saw a ghost. His face turned white and he was speechless.
Was he uncomfortable or frozen with fear? This should lead to class discussions
that clarify word meanings.
 Finally, the students can make up their own word domains.
Periodically, review the words with games, practice and discussion.
4. Sense or nonsense- create sentences using new vocabulary items. These sentences
should either make sense or not. For ex':
SENSE NONSENSE It's chilly in here. I think I'll take off my sweater.
SENSE NONSENSE
The water in the bathtub is lukewarm. It won't burn your
skin.
When the students become familiar with this type of exercise, ask them to create their
own sense- nonsense sentences.
5.Collocation Bingo- Collocational activities lead to the type of deeper processing that
promotes learning.
Develop a list of 30 or more pairs of words that collocate based on texts that have
been studied. One side of this list becomes the "called" word list, and the other side
are "card" words to be written on the bingo cards. The cards can be made in advance
or by the students. Read words from the called list, and if a students thinks that it
collocates with a word on their card, s/he writes it in the same square under that word.
When a student gets a bingo, read the five winning word pairs and let the class decide
if they match well. The object is to get a "blackout bingo" so that almost all of the
collocational pairs will be used.
6.Story retelling- Students focus on a topic while gaining productive knowledge.
 Choose a tue, interesting and short story.
 Select 5-10 useful target words the students may know receptively, not
productively. They should be relevant to the meaning of the story.
 Write the target words in the order you will hear use them.
 Send half the students (group 1) outside the room or out of earshot. Tell the
story to the remaining students (group 2), using the target words in the order
they are listed. Clarify as needed.
 Group 1 returns, and each student is assigned a partner. Partners from group 2
Tell the story, using the words on the board as a guide for both speakers and
listeners.
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When the pairs are finished, review the story to check comprehension. Follow
up with activities based on the message of the story, such as:
mock interviews
letter writing
a future chapter / episode
discussion
7. Discovering meaning constraints- A major difficulty in vocabulary learning is
the understanding of the constraints on the uses of a particular word.
Choose a word and prepare a list of sentences that contain a range of uses of that
word. Instruct the students to examine the uses and work out the constraints
compared with those of the counterpart in the L1.
Students can build their own minidictionaries and put their acquired knowledge of
constraints into practice, providing the teachers offers ample opportunities for
regular use.
Sample sentences with the verb see:
I can see the sea from my house.
The boss wants to see you tomorrow.
Ah, yes, now I see what you mean.
Has she been seeing anyone since she broke up with him?
I could see there was trouble in store for the two business partners.
We saw them off at the station.
Section 4- Word Building
1. Peer teaching prefixes – If the main derivational prefixes and suffixes of English
are learned, this can help give the student access to the other members of a word
family, even though only one member may be initially learned.
- Divide learners into pairs- one will be the teacher, and the other be the the
learner.
- Give the 'teacher' the list of prefixes with the meaning and the example words.
For ex':
Dis- not
disagree
Ex – out, beyond
extract
- Give each 'learner' the list of meanings (e.g., out, not, with).
- The 'teacher' should say the prefix two or three times and then say an example
word.
- The 'learner' has to look at the list of meanings and choose the right meaning.
- If the 'learner' does not choose the right meaning by the third attempt, the
'teacher' tells the answer.
2.Word Building- Choose a set of words forms to work with ( such as prepositions,
prefixes or suffixes, phrasal verbs.
Ask students to form groups and to think of many ways in which the word can be
used.
Set a time limit. Finally, ask students to read out their examples and attach further
explanations concerning usage.
3.The keyword technique-This technique involves associating the new word with
a similar sounding word in the L1.
For example, when my English speaking grandfather tried to retain the word
‫ רגע‬in his long term memory, it reminded him of President Reagan. That is how
he came to understand it when he heard it, and eventually he stored it
successfully this way as well. The same happened with the word ‫ תודה‬which he
remembered this time as Sadat….
Select several words and write them with their meaning on the board. Have the
students think up their own keywords and images.