Lexis

TEACHING VOCABULARY

Here are a few quick tips for teaching vocabulary that can be investigated further for TASK 7 of this unit.

THINK ABOUT THE NEED FOR THE WORDS YOU ARE TEACHING.

You can’t teach ‘the past perfect tense’ in English if your students are not yet sure about past tense and perfect verb forms.

You can’t teach ‘general election’ vocabulary with 9 or 10 year olds if they do not understand about voting.

You can’t ask the class to ‘have a debate’ if they do not have the vocabulary to do it.

HAVE I GOT TOO MUCH?

TOO LITTLE?

OR JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF LANGUAGE?

Teachers can make mistakes easily here. Sometimes they try to make students learn long lists of words. If you are teaching fruits and vegetables, do not teach all of them including ones that the students rarely eat!

Teachers can make mistakes easily here. Sometimes they try to make students learn long lists of words. If you are teaching fruits and vegetables, do not teach all of them including ones that the students rarely eat!

Teach a few common ones, do a role play, bring in some real vegetables and research others for homework!

Sometimes teachers do not introduce enough words. It is very boring for students to repeat and repeat ‘This is my mother, this is my father. Is this her brother? Is this their sister.’

Set aside part of every lesson for the students to experiment a little. Once they have got the basic vocabulary, it will not hurt to introduce ‘step-brother’ if someone in the class needs the word to describe their family. Have a listening where someone talks about their family. Also build in time for them to ask questions: How do I say my sister’s child? Is it the same as my brother’s child?

TIMING

‘Teaching vocabulary’ does not need to go on for hours - small concentrated sessions are good, especially if you make sure the students see, hear and use the words.

FREQUENCY

We use the word ‘frequency’ to talk about words having ‘high frequency’ and ‘low frequency’. For example: the word ‘Stop!’ is a high frequency word.

Stop writing

Stop talking Stop smoking

Stop here please (taxi)

Next stop, Central Station. (train)

Other words also mean stop in some way, but they are lower frequency and they have special uses, such as desist, cease and halt. Of course your students will need these words at some time, but at lower levels, most of your teaching should be with high frequency words.

TEACHER LANGUAGE

The language of instructions and explanations should be easier than the level of language you are teaching.

Be especially careful about using too many grammatical terms:

We are going to look at describing things using ‘who , which and that’.

NOT:

Today we will be considering the intratextual uses of defining and non-defining relative clauses.

SELF CHECK 2:3 6

Look at these two lesson transcripts and homework assignments. Decide which statements apply to which lesson - A or B. The classes are both 15-16 years old

EXAMPLE:

The students do not speak at the beginning of the lesson ( Lesson A)

The students are asked to speak right from the start. (Lesson B)

STATEMENTS

Long words are used: conjunctions, connectives, and there are vague phrases: ‘thing,… thing’

The context is not connected with the students.

The language is simple, and the teacher gives the function of the language.

The students give their own context and talk about themselves.

The sentences on the board all have the same ending.

There are three different sentences on the board.

The students do not choose their sentences in the second exercise.

The students give personal information to each other and so make more sentences

The teacher does not know whether they know any of this language already.

Students’ mistakes and correct language tell the teacher about what the class can do.

Lesson A

Teacher: Good morning class. Do you all have your books ready? Good.

This morning we look at the use of conjunctions in English. Write down the following connectives in your book under the heading ‘conjunctions’.

(Teacher writes these words on side of the board)

So that

In order to

Because

We will look at how to join sentences so that we can give reasons for doing things.

Look at these three sentences (writes them on board) .

He is saving money so that he can buy a new car.

He is saving money to buy a new car.

He is saving money because he wants to buy a new car.

They all show the man’s intention. He is doing one thing so that he can do another thing. The structures are different.

Write down the sentences in your books.

Teacher: Have you all finished? Good. Now turn to page 4 in your books and do exercise 2.

Lesson B

Teacher: Good morning everyone!

Who in this class has a money box? Are you saving money? (Draws coins or notes going in to a money box).

Everyone: yes.. yes…..

Mohammed: (hand up, teacher gestures him to answer) I no money box my mum buy everything.

Teacher : OK, but many people have a money box.

Why are you saving money in your box. Ali?

Ali: For buy mobile phone (Teacher writes ‘mobile phone’ and draws picture to the right of the board space)

Jamila: For ‘Prada’ bag (Teacher writes ‘new bag’ + picture underneath the phone)

Peter: So that I can buy an electric guitar because my mum she is not paying for one. (T writes electric guitar, plus picture under the bag)

Teacher :

Ok, class. This morning we are talking about why we do things, our plans for the future. (writing on board)

Ali is saving money to buy a mobile phone.

Jamila is saving money because she wants to buy a new ‘Prada’ bag

Peter is saving money so that he can buy an electric guitar.

3 ways to say why we are saving money.

Now, in pairs, see if you can tell your partner 3 things you are saving money for.

Now look at the homework of the two classes.

COMMENT

The students do not speak at the beginning of the lesson. (A)

The students are asked to say something right from the start. (B)

Long words are used: conjunctions, connectives, intention and there are vague phrases: ‘thing,… thing’. (A)

The context is not connected with the students. (A)

The language is simple, and the teacher gives the function of the language. (B)

The students give their own context and talk about themselves. (B)

The sentences on the board all have the same ending. (A)

There are three different sentences on the board. (B)

The students do not choose their sentences in the second exercise. (A)

The students give personal information to each other and so make more sentences. (B)

The teacher does not know whether they know any of this language already. (A)

Students’ mistakes and correct language tell the teacher about what the class can do. (B)

Overall, in the second lesson the students are more engaged in the topic and it seems as if they will have more fun. As for the homework, it is going to give them the opportunity to use words that they need. The first lesson’s vocabulary and homework task are very limited and controlled. Watch out for this when you are planning lessons.