Teaching difficult vocabulary items

Most of the words our young pupils have to learn are relatively easy, but some of them may present quite a challenge! Like, for instance,'' trousers'' or ''wardrobe'' that are not even remotely similar to any Spanish words. So, how can we go about it in order to help the kids assimilate these words?

These are some of the ways I employ in my classroom.

1. Personalise!

When the ''clothes'' topic comes up, I always say that ''trousers'' is my very favourite word. And I keep repeating it. Children love to know stuff about their teachers and as it draws their attention, it becomes easier to remember the word. After some time, when I ask what my favourite word is almost everybody identifies it as ''trousers''!

2. Repeat in a fun way!

Repeating the words in various ways is also pretty effective. You can whisper them and make the kids do it, too, you can sing, shout, draw them in the air - whatever that makes it memorable!

3. Word of the week!

When I had to teach ''wardrobe'' I pinned it into our English corner as a ''word of the week'' and I referred to it as often as I could.

4. Print the words out and put them on the wall.

I always put the most important words on the wall and I highlight the most difficult ones. Sometimes I even asked my students to decorate the most complicated words.

5.Funny gestures

You can also ask the kids to think of a funny gesture to associate with the word you're teaching. Then, you tell them that each time you (or them!) make this gesture, the first person to say the word out loud, wins a point.

6. Rhyme.

Some time ago, I had to teach the word ''straight'' (as in ''I've got straight hair'') and I couldn't think of any fun way to do it. Then, it struck me: it rhymes with ''eight''! So, I draw an ''eight'' with ''straight hair'' on the board in a really funny way and I said: ''Hey, it's an eight and, look, its hair is straight!'' The kids loved the rhyme and they memorised it immediately.

7. See, smell and feel

I very often bring real objects to my classroom. For example, I always bring vegetables and fruit and I let the kids use all their senses to remember what they are called. They first see, then smell and feel them. It works especially well with the items that kids are not normally familiar with (e.g. an avocado, a grapefruit,etc)

To sum it up, it's all about making the difficult word memorable.

Good luck!

How to use flashcards in the classroom

You can't overestimate the importance of using flashcards* in the classroom, especially in the first cycle. 

First of all, they let you avoid using the mother tongue to translate. You show the image and the kids know immediately what the new word means. Secondly, children love pictures, posters and other visual aids, so if you use flashcards properly, it will guarantee you their undivided attention, which will result in faster and effective learning.

Also, the key to success is INVOLVE the kids in the process of learning. So...don't keep the flashcards to yourself! Let your students play with them, touch them and look at them closely. Apart from the flashcards, I always add wordcards. Luckily, the publishing houses have discovered that method, too, so next year when we change the coursebook, there is a good chance I won't have to prepare them anymore.

Enough with theory and let's get down to some practice.

STAGE ONE: Introducing new vocabulary

- Traditional way: show the flashcards to the kids and attach them to the board. Then, put the corresponding wordcard next to them.

More ideas to break the routine: Let the kids guess what the objects are by revealing the picture slowly, uncovering it step by step. You can also use this method for revisions.

STAGE TWO: Practice

 -Traditional way: Leave the flashcards as they were and mix up the wordcards (or you can do it the other way round). Individual students have to come to the board and match the words with the pictures again. 

Variation: Instead of moving the wordcards, they can also match them by drawing a line.

More ideas to break the routine: Play a ''what's missing'' game. Tell your pupils to close their eyes. When they are ready, remove one flashcard or wordcard (or both). The first person to guess what the missing word or picture is, wins. After two or three times, you may invite one of the students to take off the word/picture they want. I use the following commands for this game:

one, two, three....close your eyes!

one, two, three... open your eyes! Look at the board. What's missing?

Idea 2: Invite some students to come to the front of the classroom. Ss form a circle. Play some music and pass the flascards. Students have to keep passing the flashcards until the music stops. Then, they have to name the objects on their flashcards. If they don't know them, they have to leave the circle. Student who last leaves the circle, wins.

Idea 3: Play a memory game on the board. Display the flashcards and the wordcards with their faces down. Children  have to uncover the cards and they get a point if the uncovered picture matches the word.

STAGE THREE: Production 

- Traditional way: Slowly, take off the wordcards and ask children to name the pictures on the flashcards. When you finish, ask the kids if they can name all the objects. Help, if necessary.

More ideas to break the routine: Kids prepare their own flashcards. Then, they play with them in pairs. Person A says: What's this? Person B says the word. The one who guesses more words, wins.

Idea 2: Take off all the wordcards. In their notebooks, students have to copy the pictures and write the correct words next to them. Help out with the spelling, if necessary.

There are of course more ideas you can employ while using flashcards, the sky is the limit! Now, if you don't have enough flashcards that come with your book or you want to extend the vocabulary you teach, have a look at these three websites that have a lot of flashcards ready-to-use:

http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/flashcards.html

http://www.eslflashcards.com/

http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
http://www.kids-pages.com/flashcards.htm

* by ''flashcards'' we understand here a set of cards with pictures on them.