Teaching Vocabulary - Project
Lukcs Edit
1. Crossword with picture cards Level: beginner 4th grade School: Dek Ferenc Gyakorl Gimnzium s ltalnos Iskola Date: 19. 03. 2013 Task type: warm up task, practicing subjects, crossword puzzle Individual work The task: Every learner gets a sheet of paper with a crossword on it. The teacher shows the group different picture cards (made by hand) referring to the subjects at school and the learners task is to fill the crossword in order to solve the puzzle and get the final solution. (When they finish the puzzle it is discussed together.)
Aspects of vocabulary knowledge involved (Schmitt, 2008, p. 334): Form: written, spoken Meaning: form and meaning, concepts and referents Use: -
Experiences: The fourth graders enjoyed this task very much and they managed to solve it quite easily. There was only one difficulty with the history-card since they had not met the sign of battle (the one you can also find in historical maps) and at first they thought the years are just
simple numbers so I had to help them with some other explanation; however, this trouble did not make them to lose their interest in the task.
2. Word cards Source: classroom observation (Dek Ferenc Gyakorl Gimnzium s ltalnos Iskola, 04. 03. 2013) Level: low intermediate 6th grade Task type: testing the newly learnt vocabulary Individual work (for a grade)
The task: The teacher shows the class cards with words on them (mainly one word noun, verb, etc. per one card; she also reads them aloud). Learners have to write sentences with the given words but the sentences have to be derived from the story (in the book) they have worked with during the previous lessons. The teacher helps the learners with showing the meaning of some of the given words (~ imitating the meaning). Altogether ten cards with words are used for the test. Aspects of vocabulary knowledge involved (Schmitt, 2008, p. 334): Form: written, spoken Meaning: form and meaning, concepts and referents Use: grammatical functions, collocations
Experiences: Unfortunately I could not visit the lesson when the class got and discussed the results; however, it seemed to me that most of the learners solved this task/test without any difficulty.
3. Eastern rhyme with pictures Level: beginner 4th grade School: Dek Ferenc Gyakorl Gimnzium s ltalnos Iskola Date: 20. 03. 2013 Task type: warm up task, preparing for Easter, learning new vocabulary in connection with it Group work The teacher tells the learners an (easy) Easter rhyme then the group learns it line by line. The teacher starts and the learners have to repeat what they hear. The teacher shows pictures
for every line (except for the last line of each stanza where she can imitate what is said) so the learners are reinforced with the help of visual aid.
Easter Surprise Easter eggs, Yellow and blue, Easter eggs, For me and you. Easter eggs, Candy sweet, Easter eggs, Are good to eat.
Aspects of vocabulary knowledge involved (Schmitt, 2008, p. 334): Form: written, spoken Meaning: form and meaning, concepts and referents, associations Use: grammatical functions, collocations, constraints on use
Experiences: Children really loved this Easter rhyme. After three repetitions of it they already knew the whole rhyme. For red points everyone applied for telling the rhyme alone (which was also motivating for them).
