Vocabulary Learning With Reading Materials

In the course I teach in, learners are required to read a number of graded readers each term. There has been extensive research into vocabulary acquisition via reading. Whilst the proponents of acquisition via extensive reading (Krashen) and the proponents of intensive vocabulary learning might be at loggerheads, not many people can argue with the fact that motivated learners who take ownership of their learning will be in a better position to actually acquire new language.
It was with this in mind that I started to think about the processes my students go through in trying to acquire new language from graded readers.
The first step was to notice the new language. With this in mind I asked my learners to highlight or circle any words in the reader which they were unfamiliar with.



The learners recorded these words on a vocabulary bookmark (which they made and decorated themselves).



At the end of each week, as a class we went through our vocabulary bookmarks and identified a group of words (5-10) that we were not sure about. The learners recorded these words on vocabulary cards and over the weekend found out the Chinese translations of the words using their dictionaries.



While the learners were finding their vocabulary translations, I made up a set of cards that contained the target words, a Chinese translation, and an example sentence.



When the learners came back to school with their translations done, they had hopefully gained a better understanding of the words (through the act of defining). Each learner was assigned one of the above cards and asked to write two sentences of their own on the backs of their cards, using a cloze format.



Once this was done, the learners used their self-made cloze sentences to ‘test’ one another’s understanding of the vocabulary. This was done in a fun game-like way and the student with the highest score was awarded a prize at the end of the week.
The whole process took about two weeks yet only required a minimal amount of extra class time. The benefits for this format were that the learners essentially selected their own target vocabulary. In addition, they got repeated and time-spaced exposures to the target vocabulary over a period of time. Such repeated, spaced exposures make retention more likely.

The first time this was done, all students worked from the same graded reader. This had the benefit of learners focusing on the same contexts for vocabulary and thus aided the procedure familiarization process. Subsequently, learners were able to engage in the same process but with their own individual graded readers.
I can highly recommend any procedures that we, as teachers, use to involve our learners in the vocabulary learning process. Have you had any success?

Drama! Drama! Drama!

For 3 years now I’ve been teaching drama in an ELT program in Taiwan. Each year my grade 7 learners put on a drama show. Each homeroom class puts on a separate short play. During this time I’ve made a few observations in terms of how drama can aid English language learning as well as promoting learner confidence and learner autonomy.
Drama holds great power for helping learners improve their fluency, intonation and speech rhythm. In terms of fluency, they will practice saying many of the same things multiple times – the key here is getting them to say those things in a fluent and natural-sounding manner. This is where drama teachers can be extremely helpful in providing models of natural speech intonation and rhythm. However, this can only work if the text one is working with is well within the learner’s ability level. If there are too many unknown words then they will not be able to focus on producing fluent speech. Similarly, if the text consists of long chunks of text, low level learners will have great difficulty in saying their lines in a fluent fashion. To this end, teachers have a significant role to play in text selection. Most commercially available texts will be inappropriate (long chunks, unknown words) for English language learners. Therefore, teachers will either have to modify texts or write their own.
Putting on a play can require a lot of work. In-class role-plays are simply done, but if you’re planning to put on a show then there is a wide variety of jobs that must be completed. From choosing music, designing costumes, making props, choreographing dances, as well as positioning actors on stage, there is a wide variety of jobs which students can take responsibility for. By successfully completing such tasks, students can raise their self-confidence, build teamwork through working towards a common goal with others, and introduce their own ideas and creativity to the classroom. Such actions allow students to really take ownership of the task (putting on a play).
The fact that my learners perform many of these functions in English leads them to raised confidence and self-awareness of their English abilities. It also gives learners a reason for using English other than the normal classroom tasks.