Teaching Vocabulary

As a foreign language teacher, I love words; I always have. When my 10th grade English teacher passed out a 1,000 word list of SAT words, I smiled. I spent hours studying Greek vocabulary cards as a Greek major in college. I still have both that cherished list and the flash cards in a box at home. But I'm a word geek, so I'm drawn to activities like these.

With my classes, I wonder what is the best way to teach vocabulary? Students who know the words well do better on the various assessments I give. Yet, where is the balance between using instructional time so that students can memorize vocabulary and practicing those same terms?

I ask students to complete either lists or flash cards for our upcoming chapter after the previous chapter's exam. I integrate the new vocabulary into our lessons, through videos, audio activities, songs, and conversations. If a student has been studying the words at home, the in-class lessons sink in more and have a greater benefit. I try to let them have time at the end of class (at least once or twice a chapter) to review their flash cards with a partner. We turn it into a game where they see who can end up with the most cards.

I've asked several of my students who have found some great strategies for vocabulary learning to share those with me. I will be posting those this coming week.