This was part of our school's Teacher Development Workshop. In this particular workshop we delved into the realm of vocabulary teaching. We established some common grounds about vocabulary, then we went on to discuss common ways of teaching lexical items to students as well as testing them.

2.  Last week we learned how to teach grammar
effectively through 3 different approaches
▪ Test-teach-test / task – teach – task
▪ Text-based approach
▪ Context-build / Situational Presentation
 We learned that presently the teaching of
Grammar is likeVERB, not NOUN anymore.
 We need to make sure that students use the
grammar thru constant repetitions so that the
language is automatized as shown in the video.

3.  Vocabulary is an essential building block of
language.
 Without grammar little can be conveyed, but
without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.
(Thornbury, 2002).
 Vocabulary is gaining importance in langauge
teaching recently.

4.  When teaching vocabulary, students need to know the form both in
spoken and written, the meaning, and other aspects such as its
grammar, its collocation links, connotations, and appropriateness. Using
dictionary is a good way to teach all of these aspects of vocabulary.
 Reading skill correlates with students’ amount of vocabulary. Research
has suggested that in order to understand a text well, learner should be
able to understand 95-98 % of its words (Schmitt, 2008 as seen in Ur,
2012).
 The implication of the research above is that in order to understand an
authentic text such as magazines or novels, learners should be able to
know at least 5000 word families.
 Research has also suggested that learners need to re-encounter the
words at least 8 times in order for it to be learned properly (Thornburry,
2002; Zahar et al., 2001 as seen in Ur, 2012)
 Words are better remembered if they are taught as a set. It is also
helpful to relate the words to students’ life, words with personal
significance can easily be remembered.

5. Build the
context
Add as much
interest as
possible
Elicit
Teach form
and meaning
Teach how
words are
pronounced
Teach how
words are
written
Teach meaning
Check
understanding
Ask ss to use
the word in
sentence
Use concept
question
Practice the
vocabulary
Controlled
practice
Freer Practice
Review
Do a short
review game at
the beginning
of the class
Recap at the
end of the
lesson
Test Feedback Retest if needed

6.  Show or draw Pictures
 Use flashcards
 Use a diagram tree for related words
 Bring real objects or realia to the class
 Synonyms / antonyms
 Definitions
 Example in sentences
 Mime / Gestures
 Use facial expressions
 Concept question -> see video
 Translations

7.  Say the words clearly and write it on the
board
 Get students to say as well as write those
words on their books for better retention
 Get the class to repeat in chorus
 Use dictionary
 Use fingering techniques for pronunciation
practice

8.  Compose a sentence and try to link the words
to students’ real life
 Compose a story
 Do a vocabulary game such as snatch it!
 Do any vocabulary practice activities from
resource books
 Set a task that will incorporate the use of the
target items in writing or speaking.

9.  For the words to be ‘stuck’ on learners’ long-
term memory, students need to have the words
repeated at least 8 times (Thornburry, 2002)
 A quick review game can be done at the start of
the game such as:
 Hangman - Brainstorm how many can ss remember?
 Bingo - Guessing game, back to the board
 A recap at the end would also provide learners
opportunity to re-encounter the words
 Use word cards or display the new vocabulary on
classroom wall.

10.  Learners are asked to respond by labeling the
pictures, or part of a picture.
 It’s relatively easy to design but limited to testing
only concrete nouns.

11.  Learners are asked to write words that correspond
to the given definition
 They provides a wider range of vocabulary to test,
but not all words can be uniquely defined.
A ____________ is a person who teaches in your class.
______________ is a loud noise that you hear after lighting, in a storm.
______________ is the first day of the week.

12.  There are many ways where translation is used in
measuring vocabulary.
 One of them is to ask learners to provide the
translation for each word in a list.
Note that the test
may be reversed

14.  Useful when testing a large sample of items
 Candidates are asked to only mark words that
they know
 To eliminate the possibility of guessing /
dishonesty, non-words can be included.

15.  One of the most common test formats, where
learners respond by choosing one possible correct
answers in the options.
 Can be used to test learners’ word knowledge of
synonyms, meanings in context, or expressions.

16.  Known also as completion, or gap-fill
 Learners respond by filling in the missing words in a text.
 More demanding because they must use the word (active
vocabulary) by making use of the context in the text.

17.  Not a vocabulary test on its own but forms a
larger construct of the four language skills.
 In reading, learners may be asked to infer the
meaning of a word from a reading passage.
 In listening, vocabulary knowledge may be
demonstrated through learners’ spelling.
 In writing and speaking, learners may be
assessed on the quality of vocabulary, also
referred to as ‘lexical source’ (Combee, 2011).

18.  There are two known issues: the nature of
vocabulary teaching, and the tough English
National Examination (ENE).
 The teaching of vocabulary is not given the
same prominence as grammar, it is only used
as a part of reading comprehension exercises.
Words learned are seldom repeated, and
practiced in a meaningful use.
 These same words do not even come in the
ENE.

19.  The test employs selective, embedded, and context-
dependent vocabulary measure.
 Although it may appear as if it was context-dependent, a
close look reveals that it is not.

20. In contrast to ENE’s exam, here
learners are forced to use context
in order to come up with the
correct response.