Teaching Vocabulary

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Vocabulary

Teaching and learning new words is one of the hardest things to achieve in learning process. Today, I would like to share some tips which can help learners and teachers in this hard task. First of all, vocabulary is an essential thing. If students don't know enough words to express themselves in new language, they simply can't achieve any skills which are reading, listening, speaking and writing.

Learning through reading

Learning a vocabulary through reading texts is a great way. As we need to memorize the meaning of words and see how they are used in sentences, we need to read more and more. When students read a text and see the same word many times, it will help students to learn it through reading. Although reading doesn't sound so appealing, it is a must thing to do for language learners.

Reading a dictionary

Some students may prefer to read a dictionary. However, it is not the way I prefer to teach words. When you read a dictionary, you will surely see lots of new words, but you might forget them if you don't see them repetitively. It is better to see the words in a content. When we see them in content, it is easier to visualize them in our mind.

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Explaining in target language

As teachers, there are also some important points that we must be careful. Whichever language you teach, it is crucial to explain new words in target language. For example, if you are teaching a new word in English, you should do your best to explain that word by using some sentences in English. This will help your students to be more exposed to language.

Giving examples

Teaching the meaning of a new word is never enough to help your students learn a new word. Your students should see how the word is used in a sentence. Let's have a look at this example. When you teach the word of book, you should state that this word has different meanings and it is important where we use the word.

e.g We booked a room in hotel / I am reading a book every day.

Synonyms and Antonyms

They are also very crucial to boost your student's vocabulary knowledge. They may not remember the meaning of a word that they want to use. In this case, they can use synonyms or antonyms of those words. Instead of using the word of nice , it is completely fine to use the word of good. You can give some similar examples to your students.

Homework

After teaching new words, it is important to give your students homework. To be able to use a word efficiently, students have to use the word again and again so that they can get used to those new words. You can combine vocabulary homework with a writing exercise and it can be more efficient for them.

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