Quick Vocabulary Practice by Suzanne Groth
At the TESOL 2018 held in Chicago last March, I attended a lot of excellent presentations, but a few presentations stuck with me, especially a few focused on building students’ vocabulary. Here are a few key take-aways:
- Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski’s research (2010) suggests that in order for English language learners to have “adequate” reading comprehension of academic texts, they should have a minimum vocabulary of 4-5,000 word families, not just single words. This translates to understanding 95% of the text.
- In order to retain new information, like vocabulary, you must encounter it 10-16 times. (I remembered this only because Eli Hinkle repeated this fact 10-16 times during her presentation to illustrate her point!)
Together, what these points emphasize for me is the importance of considerable, explicit, repetitive vocabulary instruction and practice, especially in programs where vocabulary is not taught as a discrete skill. As teachers, we could put the onus on students to do this practice outside of the classroom, but as Hinkel pointed out in her presentation, that’s often unlikely to happen. I’d like to share a few quick ways to integrate vocabulary practice that require little to no prep and hopefully get students closer to the 10-16 encounters with new words.
1. Quizlet
For almost all of my courses, I either create or assign students to create Quizlet vocabulary cards for all our vocabulary words, so using Quizlet in the classroom is just an extension of previous work done. For those of you not familiar with Quizlet, it is a free online tool (and Smartphone app) with many features for studying and practicing vocabulary words: flash cards, games, spelling, etc. Besides being a convenient study tool, the quiz feature can serve as an easy go-to for quick in-class practice. I typically move through the quiz as a class or have students compete against each other in groups.
Write vocabulary words on index cards/paper, enough so that there are 3-5 for each student in the class. Tape one index card on each student’s back so that the students can’t see the words on their back. Then students walk around the room asking each other Y/N questions in order to learn what their word is. (Is it a verb/noun/adjective/etc.? Is it an action verb/linking verb? Does it mean _____?) When students guess their words correctly (Is my word ____?), the teacher sticks a new word on their back. The student with the most correctly identified words is the winner!
2. What’s my word?
Write vocabulary words on index cards/paper, enough so that there are 3-5 for each student in the class. Tape one index card on each student’s back so that the students can’t see the words on their back. Then students walk around the room asking each other Y/N questions in order to learn what their word is. (Is it a verb/noun/adjective/etc.? Is it an action verb/linking verb? Does it mean _____?) When students guess their words correctly (Is my word ____?), the teacher sticks a new word on their back. The student with the most correctly identified words is the winner!
3. Scrambled words and sentence writing
Part 1: If you have a little time before class, create two PPT slides: one with 10-15 vocabulary words scrambled and the other with these words unscrambled. In groups and at the board, students unscramble as many words as they can in 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes is up, students check and correct their answers. (I find that correcting is an important step here so that even if students missed a word entirely, they still have an opportunity to work with it.) Groups get 1 point for each correctly spelled/unscrambled word.
Part 2: Students have 5 minutes to write one sentence (that makes sense!) with as many vocabulary words as possible. As a class, we then read through the sentences and check that each word is used correctly for meaning and word form. Again, groups get one point for each correctly used word. The group with the most cumulative points is the winner!
Adaptations:
- If you don’t have time before class to create a PPT, turn the first part of this activity into a spelling activity.
- I usually have a lot of board space in my classrooms, so if you don’t this activity would need to be adapted. If you have access to flip chart paper, you could use that instead. If you have access to a document camera or overhead projector, students could do their work on their paper or transparencies and you could project their sentences to discuss as a class.
4. Write a funny question
Assign groups 3-4 vocabulary words. For each vocabulary word, students have to write a discussion question using that word. Then, I have the students rotate the questions to a neighboring group. In the first rotation, the group takes a little time to evaluate the other groups’ questions for meaning and grammar, conferring with the writers and making changes as needed. Then, each group spends about 5 minutes answering the questions, and (this is key) using the vocabulary word in the answer. Then switch questions again until all groups had a turn with the questions they didn’t write.
For all of these activities, I suggest quickly reviewing the words before starting to re-familiarize students with the words. In Quizlet, you can buzz through the flashcards or even just slowly and silently scroll down the word list. (Or have students review the list on their cell phones.)
You can easily add another layer of practice to the last three activities as well:
- “What’s My Word?”: word forms, count-non-count nouns, transitive/intransitive verbs, etc.
- Scrambled words and sentence writing: compound/complex sentences, SV agreement, gerunds or wh- clauses as subjects, tense and aspect, etc.
- Write a funny question: question formation, conditionals, etc.
Share your class activities for developing vocabulary knowledge with us in the Comments section.
Suzanne Groth has taught English in the U.S. and abroad.
AES English 