About “How to Teach Vocabulary?”

    In vocabulary learning and teaching, my failed learning experience only focuses on the presenting of new and difficult vocabularies. Nevertheless, the successful one emphasizes not only on the presentation but also on review and practice.

    Alice mentioned three steps of vocabulary teaching in her PPT which is clear and useful for developing a teaching plan. By presenting new words, helping students remember new wrods and making sure students make the new words their own, the sequence of vocabulary teaching is completed. Since each step is equally concerned, the focus will not be only  presenting or remembering vocsbulary.

    Today’s course reminded me of the way that my French teacher taught me the word “honest” in French. She just put her finger on her lips and also in front of her heart and said “here” (mouth) and “here” (heart) are the same. Without using any Chinese or English in her explanation of the vocabulary, I understood the word immediately and impressively. Furthermore, she also put the word in some contexts for us to practice, for example, describing a friend or celebrity’s personality. Gradually, I was more familiar with the vocabulary because I could use the word on my own.

    Therefore, to answer the question “what factors do you think are most important in getting children to remember words and patterns they encounter,” I would like to begin with three steps of vocabulary teaching as the fundamental framework to form an efficient teaching plan and to develop teaching strategies. Presenting a word a thousand times may help children to remember it eventually, but put some proper activities in the vocabulary teaching plan will lead to a much more meaningful and valuable result.

---