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Learn Vocabulary Using Fun Activities

Both from personal and professional experience, learning and being able to use vocabulary is a vital component to having confidence and being successful in communicating in any foreign linguistic communication. Therefore it is important to teach vocabulary well to help students acquire and utilise the language, too as develop that confidence.

I recently travelled to Spain and managed to communicate with hand gestures and the words I remembered from doing my GCSE in one twelvemonth, in 2003. I didn't need grammar, considering I could communicate with the words I knew and recognised. Nonetheless, I certainly would accept felt more confident if I had had more than vocabulary in my encephalon. Hence, the reason for this postal serviceand the focus I experience that the power to exercise vocabulary should accept in any language learning environs.

What Is This Post About?

This post on '10 Fun Ideas To Teach Vocabulary' will explore effective methods to improve vocabulary conquering, as well techniques that should exist included to successfully teach words. I will also present you with ten fun ways to help students to learn words, whether this be in English, French, German, Spanish or any other foreign language!

(Condensed) Theory And Inquiry Into Language Acquisition

According to Wyner (2014), 'to improve your vocabulary, you demand to larn vocabulary'. Whilst this concept might sound self-explanatory, there are actually a number of approaches that could be taken to accomplish this aim.

Clark states that increasing vocabulary 'does not begin and cease with a work sheet on vocabulary', whilst, Folse (2004), in contrast, believes that word lists or the utilise of translation, if used in moderation, are effective ways to larn new vocabulary. This begs the question, should nosotros actually use vocab lists to teach lexical items? Graves (2016) suggests another way to build students' vocabulary is to 'immerse students in a rich array of language experiences so that they can learn words through listening, speaking, reading and writing'.

In order to understand written or oral communication, students do non need to know the pregnant of every single word they see (as is evident from my aforementioned trip to Kingdom of spain), especially since a native speaker only tends to use around five grand words in every twenty-four hours speech (Frost, 2004). Graves (2016) concludes that 'explicit vocabulary teaching' should be included in vocabulary education; pregnant that a maximum of 4-v 'useful' words should be taught at any one fourth dimension, in social club to 'attack' vocabulary acquisition. This could include using visuals, semantics or mnemonic strategies.

Stewart (2004) is clear, nevertheless, that vocabulary is something that students must own. They need to have the opportunity to appreciate, be encompassed past, and truly see words for the dynamic presence that they concur. Giving students many chances to empathise and utilize words will modify the way they look at words, and open up their understanding.

What Do I Do?

In my classroom, I combine all of the strategies suggested above: vocabulary lists, activities around listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as explicit vocabulary teaching. All of these methods permit my students the ability to develop their agreement of lexical items through repeated exposure and variety. I find that this works very well. In addition, I combine 'fun' ways of learning vocabulary, which can intermission upwards the monotony of traditional vocabulary teaching methods.

I have found or taken pictures of the fun activities on how to teach vocabulary, which you lot can adapt for your classroom. They include activities to expand vocabulary, how to teach vocabulary as a starter, ways in which students can recycle previously seen and taught vocabulary, as well as ways to meliorate their vocabulary through lexicon, pairwork and group work. All of these ways in which to teach vocabulary have been tried and tested by me, too. I have explained how I apply the fun ways to teach vocabulary below and have a handy handout out which lists of all of the activities outlined beneath here: Ten Fun Ways To Learn, Practise and Teach Vocabulary

Watch the video: X Ways To Learn Vocabulary In The Languages Classroom here, or read on to get the full details below!

X Fun Ways To Larn Vocabulary In The Language Classroom

1. Emoji Prompts– I accept written about emojis in my Vocabulary Builder Post which I highly recommend checking out. If you are teaching a topic for which you tin can notice emojis, utilise them! Emojis are electric current and something that students tin related to. I created this fix of 'sports' emojis on the messages app on my iPhone. You could do the same for: food and drink, jobs, modes of transport, technology, numbers, directions and the time, for case. Get students to write downward the vocabulary for any words they know starting time, and so add more than ideas in pairs and small groups and finally, complete the activity as a grouping. In guild to do something with this vocabulary, ask students to write about the sports they and their friends/family like or dislike.

2. Odd One Out – this i pretty much does what information technology says on the tin. Choose 4 words related to the theme you are talking nearly, 1 of the words has to have an 'odd one out' element. This action works well as a starter to introduce a topic. It can be used to teach new vocabulary, only is besides a good method to recycle sometime vocabulary that will exist used in the 'new' topic. Quite ofttimes, I discover that different students will choose a unlike 'odd ane out', to what I had originally considered. If this is the instance, as long as they can justify their choice, in the target linguistic communication, they should go the credit.

three. Lego Bricks –a bright method to acquire, practise or teach synonyms or antonyms, as well as create sentences including new vocabulary or previously taught vocabulary. Using a dry-wipe marker means you lot can rub the words off once they take been used with one class, ready for a new fix of vocabulary. You lot could likewise use this activeness with stickers on the bricks. An extension for this could be to create a story using vocabulary from X number of the lego brick blocks. Using lego bricks to teach vocabulary is very interactive and fun! If y'all're interested in purchasing some lego bricks, these might exist useful to you lot.

4. Post Information technology Notes – Post information technology notes are very versatile when it comes to teaching and learning vocabulary. This movie was taken from a lesson revising adjectives and the English was written in 1 colour and the German in another colour. Students were asked to work in teams to match the adjective sets from around the room. The kickoff squad to friction match all sets in their area, correctly, was the winner.

5. Pictionary With A Twist – A archetype, fun classroom game, which is fantastic for revising vocabulary at the end of a topic. Yous demand to put students in minor groups of 3 or 4 students per table and have small-scale pieces of paper cut out ready for them. Give students the instructions that they must each draw a unlike object, related to your chosen topic, on each piece of paper. I recommend getting students to do 3 or four each. Once drawn, each slice of paper must be folded in half and put in the center of the table, ready for play. When you are prepare, instruct students to take ane sheet and describe it to the rest of the group in the target language, without saying the actual word. Whoever gets the correct word, gets to keep the canvass until the stop of play, i.e. when yous stay end. The winner is the person with the most sheets at the finish of the action.

6. Word Clouds – One way I use word clouds to teach vocabulary, is by uploading a text in the target language and getting students to select words from the give-and-take deject and brand as many sentences as they tin can in the past, present and future. They get a betoken for the number of sentences their group believes they used accurately. The winner is the person with the nigh tally points at the end. This vocabulary activity is brilliant for recycling lexical items, merely besides for linguistic communication product.

7. Lolly Popular Sticks – There are lots of activities that you can practise using lolly pop sticks. This is an case I recently constitute online with antonyms of adjectives. This blazon of action could be used to revise previously learned vocabulary, combined with some new elements. Information technology could as well be utilised with one word on each lolly pop stick, around different themes and students have to categorise the word on each lolly pop stick based on topic. For instance, you could write adjectives, nouns and verbs on the topic of 'home', which students must sort. If you're interested in buying lolly pop sticks, y'all tin can find loads of quantities at affordable prices online.

8. Randomised Vocabulary Lists and Highlighters – I am a list maker, then this activity comes very easily to me! I write a number of words on an A4 sheet which I photocopy. Each student must highlight all the words to do with 'X' in ane colour and all the words to do with 'Y' in another colour. This normally includes recyclable lexical items which they have seen before, or which they tin can probably guess through strategies such as because cognates. Students could also work in pairs to do the same activity.

ix. Spongy Messages –or whatever letters, really. In this example, there are small sections cut out of a sponge tube. They have an individual letter of the alphabet written on each. This activeness can be used every bit revision, simply also to see what vocabulary students already know, related to any given theme or topic. The aim of this activity is to create as many words as possible. The messages used in these words volition include vii letters (that you, or the students take selected at random), as well as 1 actress letter that has besides been selected at random, but which must be used in all words. I recommend a minimum of three letters per word, I advise that proper nouns are not allowed and that the teacher's say is last when it comes to choosing a winner!

x. Vocab Spirals – These are fabulous for a number of means to teach vocabulary and can be used to break down long chunks of text into comprehensible elements. This could be done with a list of vocabulary effectually a topic, as well as with a long text which includes previously learned words. Yous could besides add some new lexical elements for the students to expect up, with the assistance of a dictionary, perhaps. I recommend the website: festisite to endeavor this out.

And then… that's 10 fun ways to teach vocabulary in the language classroom.

Something Actress!

This is an extra fun way to acquire vocabulary, just for you!

Vocab Scrabble– I mentioned vocabulary scrabble in a previous 'tip of the week' mail service and I highly recommend using this as a starter, in the heart or at the end of teaching a topic. You project the alphabetical scrabble pieces to the students and instruct them to make as many words as they can, on a topic of your choice.

Which is your favourite 'fun' fashion to learn vocabulary and teach vocabulary in the classroom? I can't really pick and I honey combining all of them during each term!

Did you notice the ways to do, learn and teach vocabulary useful? If so, subscribe to my newsletter for all my latest teaching and learning content based around language acquisition straight to your inbox!

Need more than fantastic ideas to teach vocabulary?

Check out this post > Vocabulary Challenges for The Language Classroom

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References

Clark, Southward., (1999) How To Amend Your Vocabulary, Westminister United states: Instructor Credited Resources
Frost, R., (2004), Presenting Vocabulary, British Council: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/presenting-vocabulary
Graves, M., (2016) The Vocabulary Book, 2d Ed., New York: Teachers College Printing
Stewart, E., ( 2013), Vocabulary: Implicit vs Explicit, http://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/mutual-core-classroom/55272
Wyner, G., (2014) Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It, New York: Crown Publishing

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