10 SIMPLE VOCABULARY REVISION STRATEGIES
Our students often note new vocabulary but do they ever go back to revise? The answer has to be not very often…. This may be partly because when they do revise, they don’t know how.
When faced with the problem of ‘learning new vocabulary’ most students resort to memorisation. This very straightforward lesson plan contains 10 simple ideas which encourage students to ‘play’ with the new words they encounter in the hope that they will adopt some of these so they can study vocabulary more effectively on their own.
To read an article on this, just click on this link: http://wp.me/p3Y3b8-7h
2. Incongruity
• R: What is a ‘half-cake’?
• R: How to quote the price…
• Moral: Incongruity ‘wakes us up’ and forces us to
notice things.
3. Which is the safest place to hide
information? The CIA archives or a
student’s vocabulary notebook?
…Well, the former will be opened
eventually…
A question…
4. How do our students record vocabulary?
•…They make lists….
•…like this: cast = ρίχνω
How do our students revise vocabulary?
•…they read the words….
•…they test themselves by covering the translation…
Another two questions…
5. To look at some easy strategies which can...
…help raise students’ awareness of what they need to
know about lexical items.
…help students record vocabulary better.
…help students revise more effectively.
SESSION AIMS
7. • Look at the 50 words in the list.
• With a partner try to divide them into 5 categories.
• Try to find a suitable name for each category. (E.g. ‘table’ –
‘chair’ – ‘desk’ : category: ‘furniture’)
Grouping
8. Grouping
oil field exam cool crude dairy
bright refine responsible illness pipes
mineral sunshine carbs attention test
heat honest notes indoors traditional
mixture homework underground huge liquid
class well essay overweight healthy
desert protein shade popular variety
barrels progress brave sweat drill
balanced diet air con mark thick
sunglasses producer school fuel contain
Grouping
9. Grouping
oil field exam cool crude dairy
bright refine responsible illness pipes
mineral sunshine carbs attention test
heat honest notes indoors traditional
mixture homework underground huge liquid
class well essay overweight healthy
desert protein shade popular variety
barrels progress brave sweat drill
balanced diet air con mark thick
sunglasses producer school fuel contain
Grouping
10. • Words do not occur in isolation!
• Look at the category ‘ADJECTIVES’ and try to find a
‘partner’ for each word (e.g. ‘sharp’ – a sharp knife)
• NB: Try to think of a ‘partner’ which helps you understand
the meaning of the adjective (e.g – a cunning man [?] / a
cunning fox [√])
Pairing
13. • Look at the words in the category ‘FOOD’, and try to think
of others belonging to the same group (e.g. FOOD: salad /
breakfast / …).
• Write these new words all around the original group – do not
make a list!
Brainstorming
17. • In the same category, try to ‘link’ two or more words by
finding some feature they have in common or some other
way in which they are linked semantically (e.g. ‘diet’ and
‘vegetables’ – because a good diet contains lots of vegetables).
• NB 1: It is best to do so by drawing a line connecting one
word with the other.
• NB 2: You need to say in what way the words are linked.
Linking
19. • Our students tend to focus equally on all lexical items, but
this is wrong as not all words are equally useful or hard to
remember.
• Look at the words in the category ‘HEAT’, and highlight the
ones which you feel would be more important or harder to
recall or use.
Focusing
23. • OK – now try to write down all 10 words
without looking at them.
• Now compare the two lists – have you left any of
the words out? If so, highlight it.
• NB: We are going to do the same thing again –
later!
Recalling
24. • Look at the category ‘HEAT’ again and then try to associate
each word in it with the notions ‘Good’ [√] or ‘Bad’ [x] – but
you need to say why!
• (e.g. ‘sunglasses’ = Good – ‘because they protect your eyes
from the sun’).
Associating
27. • Some words are particularly hard. To remember these, we
may need to ‘anchor’ them in our brains. To do this, we may
need to create a mini network.
• Work with a partner. Choose one of the following words:
crude – mineral – indoors – refine.
• Now try to create a mini-network, linking the word to as
many other words / notions as you can think of.
• [Here is an example…]
Anchoring
29. • Look at the category ‘OIL’ . The words are all clearly related
to each other and it is easy to imagine them being used
together in the same context.
• With a partner, try to write a short paragraph (about 4 – 5
lines long), linking as many of these words together as
possible (min 5!).
Using
31. • Oil can be found in special places underground. To get it, people
often need to drill deep wells. The oil is then pumped up and
transferred through pipes to large factories, where crude oil is
refined to make other products like gasoline and other kinds of
fuel. Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the world. It
produces 10.3 millions of barrels every day.
Using
32. • There are good students and there are better students. The
former do what the teacher tells them; the latter go ‘one step
beyond’!
• Look at the ‘SCHOOL’ group. Are there any words in this
field you know in Arabic but not in English? With your
partner, try to find at least 8.
• [Don’t forget to look them up when you go home! ]
Expanding
36. • Write down as many of the strategies as you can remember.
• Which one is the most effective in your opinion? Why?
• Which do you think your students are going to find easy to
use?
Remember: While pronunciation and grammar are both
important, ultimately it is vocabulary that gets the message
across. If our vocabulary is poor, then communication can be
seriously problematic…
…just watch this…
Time to Reflect
37.
38. Hope you found this
session useful.
NB: All the video clips you have watched today can be found on YouTubeNB: All the video clips you have watched today can be found on YouTube
under ‘Comedy for ELT’ or ‘Psychology and ELT’. If you have any commentsunder ‘Comedy for ELT’ or ‘Psychology and ELT’. If you have any comments
feel free to contact me atfeel free to contact me at nickmi@ath.forthnet.grnickmi@ath.forthnet.gr
Editor's Notes
All the words are taken from ‘Family and Friends 3’.