Dictionaries can be used effectively in the ESL classroom set up to facilitate language learning and acquisition. It enlists certain dictionary activities to be carried out in the classroom.

1. Dictionary Activities for ESLDictionary Activities for ESL
LearnersLearners
Dr. Vandana PathakDr. Vandana Pathak

3. Classroom Set Up

4. Learner’s Dictionary

5. Dictionary Activities
Fastest Person/ Group
• The topmost word on any
page (both columns) and
the lowermost word
• The shortest spelling &
the longest spelling,
along with definitions and
page number.
Spell Check
• The initial alphabets of
the word should be given
correctly.
• List of ten wrongly spelt
words is given to the
groups/ persons
• Correct spellings in
minimum time.

6. Dictionary Activities
Vowel Chase
• Five vowels on B.B. -an
activity in which vowels
from given words missing
• Fill in the blanks with
correct vowels with the
help of a dictionary. eat,
rat .., and rat etc, bet, set,
den, and hen, etc.
• Use other three vowels.
• Longer words later
elephant, ice creams…
Alternate Alphabets
• Alternate alphabets
missing with definition is
provided.
• Word like ‘Daffodils’. Its
meaning should be given
and it should be written
as ‘D-f-o-i-l-.’
• A list of ten to fifteen
words should be given at
a time.
• New words…

7. Dictionary Activities
Dice Game
• Snakes and Ladders kind
of game- 5-
• Plus points for the right
spelling
• Correct definition bonus
points
• Wrong spelling and
definition-Negative points
• Move ahead and down in
the row in time bound
frame
‘ antakashari ’
• a circle game or one after
another kind of a game: It
is played like
‘antakashari.’
• First student to spell a
word, Elephant-tiger-
radiant… the highest
number of words and a
student who is able to
correct maximum number
of wrong spellings are the
winners in the activity.

8. Dictionary Activities
Advanced Antakshari
• Eg: Superstition
• Words with ‘on’-onion
• Words with ‘on’-Only
• Lynch..
• Chart…
• Artist….
• …….
Parts of Speech
• a list of fifteen to twenty
words
• include all parts of
speech
• be instructed to find out
what part of speech it is &
jot it down.
• a list of suffixes to be
added to words to form
nouns, adjectives &
adverbs, etc

12. Specific Vocabulary
• Students prepare a list of vocabulary on a topic
with the help of members & with dictionaries.
• Topics- birds, animals, games & sports,
automobiles, parts of body, kitchen utensils,
cooking ingredients, electronic gadgets, basic
colours, trees ,flowers, family members, etc

14. Collocations
• make and do’ (make
noise, make a bed),
• ‘verb and noun’ (cash a
cheque, keep a promise),
• ‘adjective and noun
dominoes’ (heavy traffic,
a light breeze, pastel
colours, etc) can be
taught with the help of
games.

15. Collocations

16. Phrases and Idioms

17. Phrases

18. Break…

19. Come…

20. Idioms
Dictionary
• Idioms too can be taught
with the help of a
dictionary. The teacher
writes a word like ‘fish’ on
the blackboard and with it
writes ‘ a cold fish’. Then
the students are asked to
find out its meaning from
a dictionary and enlist
more ‘fishy’ items with
meanings.
‘Fishy’ Examples

21. Apple Idioms

22. Relay Race
• Dictionary Race -activity to be tried out in the
classroom.
• Class is divided into teams &each group has
one dictionary (same dictionary).
• The teacher provides lists of words and the
corresponding page numbers. One member of
the team comes up per round to find a set of
words, or at times it is made into a relay race.
• The fastest or first to finish with all correct
answers.

23. Spelling Game
Check It
• In this game, the teacher
provides a list of words in
which some words are
spelt correctly and some
wrongly. The students, by
referring to the dictionary,
mention which spellings
are correct and which are
the wrong ones. Then
they write the correct
spelling of the wrong
words.
Second Version
• The teacher mentions the
first two alphabets of a
word and after leaving
some gap, mentions the
last alphabet. One of the
meanings of that word is
provided. Students have
to write the correct
spelling with all missing
alphabets and provide all
other meanings of the
word.

24. ‘Hairy Headlines’
• A very unique and offbeat activity
• Newspaper is a commonly available
resource. It contains many amazing
headlines containing polysemous terms.
The teacher, with the help of students,
collects a number of different headlines
and distributes these among groups of
students.

25. ‘Hairy Headlines’-cotnd.
• Headlines such as
• ‘Drunk gets nine months in violin case’,
• ‘Milk drinkers are turning to powder’,
• ‘bank of China floats in Shanghai’,
• ‘Red tape holds up bridge’ and
• ‘People turn to beans’ create mirth and
humour on comprehension after referring
to a dictionary.

26. Picture Game
• Students watch various pictures in books
and magazines.
• The teacher provides one picture each to
different groups of students and asks them
to enlist whatever they see in the picture
or what they think about it.
• They can name the objects/birds &
animals etc.in the picture. This game
helps the teacher in knowing if the
students have acquired adequate range of
vocabulary.

27. Pelmanism
• An advanced game to learn, practise,
revise and master phrasal verbs. The
students can be divided in a group of
three each. Two of them play the game
and the third one checks their work. The
teacher prepares different cards like verb+
participle + meaning cards that form a
correct set. These cards are kept upside
down.

28. Pelmanism
• First player turns three cards & tries to
form a correct set. If he fails, the second
one gives a try. If a player gets a correct
set, he keeps it with him. The game
continues in this manner and the player
who collects maximum sets becomes the
winner of this game. The students refer to
the dictionary to form a correct set. For
example, three different cards like ‘hack’,
‘into’, and ‘to get into someone’s computer
system without their permission.

29. Summing Up…
• “There is tremendous amount of
information in a good learner’s dictionary –
sometimes an overwhelming amount.
Helping students tap into that information
efficiently is one of the best ways to help
them become independent, lifelong
language learners”.
• A well-chosen dictionary can be a lifelong
learning tool.

30. Summing Up…
• Different connotations of words, word
building and word families, multiword
expressions, grammar, parts of speech,
word formation, collocations, prefixes and
suffixes, idioms and phrases, synonyms
and antonyms, etc can be learnt.

32. Works Cited
• Facebook.com/student committee mexico
• http://www.amazon.in/Cambridge-Learners-Dictionar
• https://www.google.com/search?
q=Oxford+concise+dictionary&rlz
• Facebook.com(learn eng 1)
• Cork English teacher facebook
• www.grammar.cl.
• https://www.google.com/search?rlz/parts of
house

33. Works Cited
• www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1VFKB_enIN627IN627&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=6
67&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=collocations+list&oq
• www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1VFKB_enIN627IN627&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=6
67&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=phrases+and+idioms&oq=phrase
s
• www.google.com/search? Fish+idioms
• http://www.pagat.com/misc/pelmanism.html
• www.google.com/search apple+idioms&oq
• www.englishcoursemalta.com
• Leaney ,Cindy. 2007.Dictionary Activities.
• Cambridge University Press.

34. The EndThe End
Thank You !Thank You !