Techniques for Teaching

Vocabulary
 DEVELOP WORD ATTACK SKILLS

• Recognizing syllable pattern

• When to use capital letters
• Prefixes and suffixes
• Punctuation and how it affects reading for meaning
• Contextual clues
• Visuals
• Mime, actions and gestures
• Dictionary skills
• Games
 RECOGNIZING SYLLABLE PATTERN

• It is important for students to recognize syllables in words. When they

are able to say one syllable at a time, spelling becomes much easier.
Fortunately, recognizing syllables is an easy concept to teach.
• Syllables play an important role in spoken English in that they greatly
influence the rhythm of the language, its poetic meter and its stress
patterns.
• Syllables are also important very early on as their mastery dictates a
child’s success in reading.
• Here is sample dialogue for demonstrating to your student what a
syllable is:
• All words have syllables. A word might have one, two, or even more
syllables.
• “Reading has two syllables: read (clap)—ing (clap).” To demonstrate,
clap as you say each syllable.
• “Blue has one syllable: blue (clap).”
• “Pumpkin has two syllables: pump (clap)—kin (clap).”
EXERCISE
THINK OF:
One word syllable
Two words syllable
Three words syllable

• Now use the clapping technique to teach your young learners

• Practise with your partners
 WHEN TO USE CAPITAL LETTERS

• Beginning a sentence – The first letter in a new sentence is always a

capital letter.
Example: the cat ran away. › The cat ran away.
• Names – Capital letters are always used for a person’s name and the
pronoun reference ‘I’.
Example: miss honey; sarah; i › Miss Honey; Sarah; I
EXERCISE
• Think of a sentence that require your students to use capital letters.
• Think of how you can ask them to use the capital letters.
 PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
• Learning prefixes and suffixes is a great way to boost vocabulary
quickly.
• However, these letter combos are best learned in the context of the
words that they create.
• They first need to know the different meanings of the prefixes and
suffixes
re - again , back ; un – not, opposite ; pre – before,
mis – wrong ; under - below
Exercise:
Students will:
• Understand the function of root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
• Create new words by adding prefixes and suffixes to root words.
• Increase vocabulary understanding by applying prefix and suffix
knowledge.

Think of an activity that will support those learning objectives.

Punctuation and how it affects reading for
meaning
 CONTEXTUAL CLUES
• Derive meaning through contextual clues
 VISUALS
• words supported with visuals for meaning
• A picture paints a thousand words, it's true, and pictures are a great
way of improving your English, especially if you are a visual learner.
• So, use pictures to learn vocabulary
Exercise
• Let’s go to KFC
• List all the things that you can see in the fast food restaurant
• Draw the pictures of the things you have listed
MIME, ACTIONS AND GESTURES

• A great way to make your delivery more interesting, especially to

lower level ESL classes is by using mime in the ESL classroom.
• Mime and gestures will be able to facilitate communication,
understanding and participation.
• Additionally, mime and gesture will make you appear to be a more
charismatic teacher.
• Putting yourself out there, fearlessly, demonstrates confidence.
• Your students will therefore be more engaged and more likely to
retain what they’re being taught in the classroom.
• When an ESL student has zero English or is a complete beginner, you’ll
want some options aside from translating directly in the classroom.
• Falling back on their native language can become a bit of a crutch and slow
down the learning process.
• In this case, gesturing will become indispensable.
• Additionally, gesturing can help you elicit certain key vocabulary and
phrases from your learners without you having to directly translate.
• In other words, it adds more variety to your method of ESL instruction and
avoids common pitfalls.
• Gesturing will help your younger students associate common words and
phrases with certain actions, which will accelerate their learning and give
them more confidence.
Exercise
• Think of an activity that uses Gestures and Mime to Teach
Vocabulary
 DICTIONARY SKILLS
• Introducing Vocabulary Families
• If you have a picture dictionary in your ESL class like The New Oxford
Picture Dictionary, you might want to use it as a resource for your
next thematic vocabulary unit.
• Have students turn to a particular page and introduce the
vocabulary in logical groups.
• By teaching your students several related vocabulary words at one
time and through one picture, they will not only learn the words
themselves but will also make connections between the English
words as they learn them, which will ultimately increase their fluency.
• Getting the Message Across
• Though many beginning ESL students already have some knowledge
of the language, some classes may contain student with no English
knowledge whatsoever.
• For students who have extreme trouble in communicating their ideas,
a picture dictionary can help them their meanings across and
decrease their stress.
• As they point to items in the dictionary, they will also learn the words
they are looking up.
• Vocabulary Eliciting
• How much vocabulary do your students already know about a
subject area?Using a page in the picture dictionary might help you
find the answer to your question. Have students cover the words at
the bottom of a page and just look at the picture. What items can
they identify? Are they using the same words listed at the bottom of
the page, or are they giving synonyms? Once you know what prior
knowledge your students have, you will know where to focus your
time and energy as you teach a vocabulary unit on that theme.
Exercise
• Think of an activity that you can use picture dictionary to teach about
the school.
Games

• Charades
• Write vocabulary words on individual index cards. Break your class into
two teams, and have one individual from each team act out the same
word. The team to correctly guess the word first scores a point.

• Memory
• Create your own memory game using vocabulary words. Write each word
on individual index cards. For each existing card, make a matching card
with the definition, a synonym or an antonym. Students shuffle the cards
and arrange them all face down on a table. Students take turns flipping
over two cards. If the cards make a set, the student keeps the cards and
takes an additional turn. The person with the most cards at the end of the
game wins.
• Scattergories
• Choose ten categories with your students or before class starts (e.g.
types of pets, city names, sports, items in a kitchen, etc.). Use an
alphabet die to determine the letter for each round of play. Set a
timer for three minutes, and students must think of one word for
each category that begins with that round’s letter. Students score one
point per word, and the person with the most points at the end of
three rounds is the winner.
• Pictionary
• Write vocabulary words on individual index cards or use your set
from charades. Break your class into two teams, and one individual
from each team draws a picture on the board. Drawers cannot use
letters numbers or symbols in their drawings. The first team to guess
the word correctly scores a point.
Exercise
• Use any of the games given to you and try to work out the game