This report was assigned for us to learn understand language teaching and how it is practiced more. My assigned area is vocabulary learning and teaching. For this I have thought about what my thoughts and believes on the subject of learning and teaching vocabulary were and how they changed after interviewing a teacher of English as a second language and a learner of English as a second language.
In this report I will discuss my beliefs before and after doing the interviews and further research; the believes of a teacher with the help of a concept map; the thoughts of a learner by doing a small interview and what the experts think by discussing extra material I have read and analysed especially for this report.
When I started writing this report I have made a concept map displaying my believes in how vocabulary should be taught in English as a second language, to be referred to as ESL in the remainder of this report.
It shows that my belief rests on 4 pillars. Namely that context, time, balance and variation are essential to learning and teaching vocabulary. Not only in ESL but in any language that is learned.
My believe is that the bulk of vocabulary is not learned in the classroom, but rather out in everyday life by watching TV, movies and listening to music. Since I believe that context is by far the most important contributing factor when learning and teaching vocabulary. It make that a learner makes an association with the word that is something else than ‘I have to learn this word to pass a test and please the teacher’. Since this is not something that will motivate a learner. In a sense learning words in everyday life creates a need for the knowledge that is not as easily created in the classroom.
Next time is very...
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... ways and with many different methods, all of them have a different effect, good or bad, on different learners. But as soon as the learners see the point of learning this the biggest obstacle is out of the way and give the opportunity for many types of fun and educational assignments that ultimately learn the learner to communicate at it’s best. Which is the goal every language teacher should be striving to achieve.
Works Cited
Allan, V. F. (1983). In Russell N. Campbell, & William E. Rutherford (Eds.), Techniques in teaching vocabulary (14th ed., pp. 2) Oxford press.
Langhoff, D. (2011). Making words stick. English Teaching Professional, (72), 32-33 - 34.
Langhoff, D. (2011). Stratagies for learning lexis. English Teaching Professional, (77), 46-47.
Rosenberg, M. (2011). Different learners, different learning. English Teaching Professional, 1(75), 16-17-18.
I was interested in finding out how teachers can help ELL students to develop this type of vocabulary and whether or not there is a highly effective technique that can benefit every student in class. As classroom teachers we need understand the unique needs of our ELLs. We need to understand that while they are just as capable as our native speakers, they are at a distinct disadvantage because of the amount of information they must process all at once that is in a language they do not fully understand. I have found that there are a number of ways that teachers can foster vocabulary growth in ELLs, I am going to focus on of the most effective: use of graphic organizers.
In this article the evidence used from the first argument was from a study conducted by Biemiller and Slonim (2001) and Biemiller (2005). The average student knows about 8,000 words in 4th grade. The data that they showed explains that if a child is in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade and they know 8,000 meanings then most of those meaning are of the same words. Concerning ELL Learners this is very important if we can know the specific words and meaning students should know and practice then this could be very helpful to ELL learners. We can focus on the words that they will use often and to be more structured with our language teaching of ELL students. The data shows that these words being learned in a similar way (200). Andrew Biemiller determined that there are around 1600 words that should be labeled as high priority. These words will most likely be in books in 1st or 2nd grade so if they don’t have the meaning then it will become a struggle to understand what they are reading (202). It is important to say that many times some students might now how to read the word fluently but they might not understand the
Before I started planning the lesson, I asked myself whether the students possessed necessary vocabulary words to talk about the environmental issues. Vocabularies related to the environment are academic ones that need to be pre taught so that students can comprehend their reading, and then use the new vocabulary words in the production of English. Teaching vocabulary is extremely important because “second language learners rely heavily on vocabulary knowledge, and that lack of vocabulary knowledge
This is addressed through the idea of the Matthew Effect, which is applied to vocabulary instruction through SES groups. Beck and Mckeown shed light on the problems associated with teaching vocabulary and propose a change, which will undoubtedly help struggling students. The teacher’s responsibility is to instill a curiosity and love for words in his/her students. Reading through the article, it became evident that in order to know a word you must be able to apply it in different situations. As stated in the article “Simply put, knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing proposition: It is not the case that one either knows or does not know a word (9).” The authors propose a theory that student’s knowledge of vocabulary words lies on a continuum. This ranges from limited knowledge, narrow knowledge and finally a rich understanding of the word and use of it in context. Overall, the article has made it evident that direct instruction is correlated with student achievement in the classroom.
The purpose of this assignment is to explain the impact of English language learners in the classroom. As a foreign student, English language learner in the United States faces multiple challenges for achieving academic success. To successfully complete a task, they need to master both English as a language and how it is used in core content classes especially when they are an adult. When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation,
According to the Lexical approach, language demands immense exposure to lexis. But, text books, the only source of exposure to language for the ESL learners, are unable to cater learners need in learning lexis. Hence, it is important to make the learners get acquainted with supplementary materials.
THEME: Influence of vocabulary in oral expression. Design of a teaching guide with vocabulary of the English language.
There is no acceptable or unacceptable ways to teach vocabulary. Everything depends on the teacher, student and methods that are used by everyone involved. It is important to have the desire to teach and to learn, it is relevant to explain why vocabulary learning is significant to know and where it will come in handy in life. However, one of the most important elements is to make an interest in the pupils. It is the only way how the teacher can to give them not only the will to learn basic vocabulary, but to find a willingness to look for additional information. (Schmitt, 2000: 142)
Our vocabulary is the set of words and their meanings that we possess and are able to use. It is an instrument for verbal communication used to acquire knowledge through language, both written and oral. Our vocabulary allows us to spread information and communicate it not only to others but to ourselves. As a powerful tool that we often use to share and obtain knowledge, vocabulary, or lack thereof, will have an effect on our knowledge, but to what degree? According to the claim in the title, our vocabulary affects our ability to know to a large extent, and is capable of shaping, or in other words, confining and influencing, our knowledge and its scope. This essay will explore the validity of this claim by examining the roles and limitations of vocabulary in knowledge acquisition for different areas of knowledge, and the extent of these roles and limitations.
Thus, the book answers numerous practical questions that teachers have often struggled with; for example, how to increase the chances of academic success for language learners, how to use technology to teach language effectively, or how to teach language and content material concurrently. From the preface, the author makes it very clear that the book is designed to support language teachers in their journey as new teachers and throughout their teaching careers. In total, the book contains eleven chapters, which have been divided into four parts. The first part, "What Do Language Teachers Think About?" includes topics of foreign/ second language acquisition theories and language teaching methodologies. This part introduces the background knowledge readers will need in their journey as language teachers. The second part, "How Do You Teach a Language?" introduces approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ writing, listening, speaking and reading abilities. Each chapter in this part includes suggestions for how students can be motivated and describes teaching and testing approaches to assess students ' language skills and academic literacy. The third part, "How Do I Know What to Teach?" is instrumental in helping teachers adopt teaching practices to particular teaching settings. The fourth part, "Where Do I Go from Here?" helps teachers gain a clearer perspective of what language teaching is all about; this section also considers teacher 's self-assessment and personal
Knowledge of vocabulary plays the key part for successful language acquisition and is crucial for language development. Vocabulary has been overlooked in the past, but researchers now view vocabulary knowledge as a vital tool for successful language acquisition as limited vocabulary of a target language hinders successful and meaningful communication.
Teaching students a language that is foreign can really be challenging for students as well as for the teachers. The dynamic rule for implementing instructing in a diverse class to English-learners is to use resourceful life skills such as diligence, hard work and patience. There are also methods that are involved in teaching English as a second language that can be creative for the teacher, yet beneficial to the student. First building a strong foundation that is essential to English learners will promote the language acquisition process. To do this teacher’s should always start with preparation. Advance preparation is essential in order to provide necessary adaptations in content area instruction and to make content information accessible for second language lear...
Vocabulary development should give the students the ability to learn the meaning of new words and concepts that are presented to them in their text. Learning this skill will help students with comprehension and their content area curriculum. By teaching students vocabulary development, students will have a reserve of new words, connect new words with their previous knowledge, gain the ability to understand and comprehend the text, and lastly, it will increase a students’ word knowledge to connect with their comprehension and success.
In most institutions of learning today, the classes are made up of students from different ethnic backgrounds. These have different traditions and also speak different languages. In a typical classroom, the majority of the students will speak the same language. The teacher must then employ strategies which will accommodate all the students in the class. This will ensure that every learner gets the best quality of education. This will enable them to be better prepared for career and expressing themselves. In this paper, strategies to assist learners of the English language in their literal development for third grade learners. In the paper, three strategies that can be used by the teacher will be discussed. New strategies and research that will help the English language learners to gain in depth mastery of the language will also be discussed. Due to the widespread learning of the English language in most schools, addressing issues of the language learners is of vital importance. Teachers should have the understanding that cultures are what give someone identity and therefore no student should leave their culture for another. Instead, there should be the blending of different cultures so that students can appreciate and learn from each other.
Vocabulary seems to be a major barrier to many English language learners. Most of learners are deal with the problem lack of word storage and because of that they cannot communicate well in a foreign language. When students begin learning another language, vocabulary should be at the heart of instruction. Vocabulary instruction forms a very important aspect of any foreign language teaching and learning. This is because the knowledge of vocabulary determines and decides the level of a foreign language learner. If foreign language learners lack a mature vocabulary, their other language skills suffer significantly. The knowledge of vocabulary plays a very crucial in the major language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Mastery