Presenting Vocabulary

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I'm always on the look out for new ways to introduce new vocabulary, as I find standing at the front presenting it to a class, with them repeating it extremely tedious and such hard work. Therefore, when I saw Chris Fuller ask about interesting ways to introduce vocabulary earlier this week, I followed the replies with interest.

Firstly, I was glad to see that many ideas that were suggested were things that I already do - nice to be reassured that you're not rubbish by seeing other teachers, who are fantastic using them!

Secondly, I was reminded of some things I that I have done in the past and forgotten about.

Thirdly there were some new ideas that I'd never even thought of.

One of those ideas was a vocabulary treasure hunt, suggested by @germanprof. At first I thought it would take ages to organise and could lead to chaos. However, as Friday last lesson with 33 Year 9s approached the idea suddenly became more appealing. We're doing directions at the moment. Stimulating, I know (personally, I blame the Head of Department) and, having covered the "basics" earlier in the week, I wanted to extend their knowledge. As we all know standing up and presenting stuff to a (large) class last thing on a Friday is never an easy task so I was thinking of getting them to match up new vocab with the tried  and tested line drawing. Having done that last week, and the week before...and the week before I thought they might be a little sick of that by now and my mind was drawn to the treasure hunt idea that someone had suggested to Chris Fuller earlier in the week. At the end of the day it is still the matching up vocabulary idea but a bit more engaging and active.

I gave the pupils 13 new phrases in English on a worksheet. Then I stuck round the room the corresponding French meanings. Most had at least 1 word they already know in it or cognates. (With the exception of allez jusqu'au pont and allez aux feux). Pupils were then given time to work their way around the room, matching the meanings. Cue chaos, so I thought. I have to admit I worried that all 33 would try crowding round the same phrase to find it's meaning. (I did tell them not to do this!).

The result was amazing. All were engaged (except for when they had to go to the phrases stuck on the window where they got a little distracted by the football match on the astro-turf) and all did it much more quickly than I anticipated. I was particularly impressed with those who split into teams and arranged to split the task to be more efficient.

By the end of the lesson all had acquired and used successfully the new vocabulary plus they hadn't had me constantly nagging at them to be quiet and listen to me.

I suppose there is sometimes a worry that pupils won't know how to say new vocabulary presented like this, however with the current push to focus on spelling pattern, phonics etc..., I don't see this as too much of an issue. After the treasure hunt we did check that pupils had the correct meaning and I asked pupils to say in French what they had found and there were very few pronunciation problems, as they already know how to pronounce those tricky sounds.

Other activities I like for presenting vocab are quiz,quiz, trade and running dictations. However I am always on the look out for new and interesting ways to present vocabulary so I await the results of Chris' research with great anticipation.

All of this also reminds me of how amazing Twitter is because I would never had moved away from my PowerPoint flashcards had it not been for the amazingness and wonderfulness of the #mfltwitterati and Dawn who suggested the treasure hunt...and several other ideas I'm going to in the coming weeks!

If you would like to find out more about the other suggestions that Chris Fuller has or have some interesting ways of introducing vocabulary that you would like to share, go to Chris' newly created Google Doc on introducing new material without delivering from the front.