Teaching vocabulary

2. TEACHING
VOCABULARY
A presentation by:
Fawaz Hamad AlGhoraibi

3. Objectives
To establish the importance of teaching
new vocabulary, as well as the form,
and of showing how words are used in
context.
 To present techniques for showing the
meaning of new words.
 To show how to reinforce new
vocabulary by asking questions using
the new items.


4. The importance of teaching vocabulary items
1- to provide students with a tool that will allow them
to become independent readers.
2- to pronounce and understand new words they
encounter as they read.
3- to qualify them to communicate with their teacher in
English.
4- in reading, writing , and discussion lessons teachers
are required to introduce new vocabulary items .
Therefore, they have to have the sufficient skill to
present those new words.

5. The importance of teaching vocabulary items
5- the language consists of words and without
understanding those words , we lack the means of
understanding that language.
Certainly, once the problem of the vocabulary items
is solved , consequently a great deal of the
language teaching problems will be solved.

6. Introduction
Here are some techniques of teaching new words.
- Say the word clearly and write it on the board.
- Get the class to repeat it in chorus.
- Translate the word into Arabic.
- Ask the students to translate the word.
- Draw a picture to show what the word means.
- Give an English example to show how the word is
used.
- Ask questions using the new word.

7. 
Decide with the rest
of your team which
are the most useful
techniques.

Can you think of any
other techniques you
could use?

8. Rumble & Grumble

Rumble = ‫صوت الرعد‬
Grumble
Some people grumble about
everything. For example,
they grumble about the
weather. If it is sunny, they
say, ”It’s much too hot
today.” If it’s cool, they say,
“It’s very cold” They are
never satisfied.
Do you know what “grumble”
means in Arabic?


9. Which One Is better?
Having studied the two previous techniques,
consider these questions with your
colleagues:
- Which one is easier and clearer?
- Which one shows how the word is used in a
sentence?
- Which one encourages the student to listen
to the word being used?
- Finally, which one do you think is more
interesting?

10. Showing the Meaning of Words
I – Showing Meaning Visually

11. Seeing
The word is written on the chalkboard or a flash
card or a piece of paper.

12. How could you explain these words?

Watch – Window – Elbow

Tree – Tractor – Cow

Sneeze – Dig - Open

13. Some words can be
presented visually through
the use of real objects,
pictures, drawings or mime.
Not all words can be
presented this way.
Vocabulary should only be
presented visually if it can
be done quickly, easily and
clearly.

14. Discussing
after the word has been written
.It should be read aloud by the
teacher and by the children.

15. Showing the Meaning of Words
II – Giving Examples

16. Which way is better?
 Building
Building
It is the general term Houses are buildings.
applied to a fixed
This school is also a
structure in which
building. In big
people dwell, work,
cities there are
etc.
many large
buildings – there
are hotels, offices
and hospitals.


17. Which way is better?
Lazy
My brother is lazy.

Lazy
My brother is lazy.
He gets up late,
and then he does
nothing all day. I
say to him, “Don’t
be so lazy! Do
some work!”


18. 
It is not necessary to give
complicated explanations; the
meaning can be shown in simple
sentences.

A good example should clearly
show the meaning of the word
to someone who does not know
it already.

Examples are specially useful to
show the meaning of abstract
words, e.g. love, happiness,
impossible.

19. Using
they are asked to use the word in
a sentence.

20. Showing the Meaning of Words
III – Guessing the Meaning from
Context

21. Try to guess the meaning of the
underlined words.

The children were bleebing all over
the ground.

A country girl was walking along the
snerd with a roggle of milk over her
head.

22. 
It is possible to guess the meaning
of many unknown words from
their context.

Asking the students to guess the
meaning of new words helps to
focus attention on them, and
makes them want to know what
the words mean.

23. Defining
It is a little bit hard for our students but they
may say the synonyms or the antonyms.

24. Methods of Teaching Vocabulary
1- matching exercises
Divide students into groups
Give them a list of words and their definitions
The students will discuss these words .They may
use dictionaries .

25. 2- Rearranging letters to form words
By using a list of pictures or
definitions
 E.g.. ( yipped )
a feeling of being
sorry for someone.
 Sometimes you can use scrambled
sentences.


26. Using known vocabulary
Synonyms &antonyms
The meaning of soccer is football.
 The meaning of clever is smart.
 The opposite of big is small and so
on.


27. Carrying out the role of the student
teacher .

Ask students in advance to prepare
some items using illustrations to show
the meaning to their classmates and
give them marks for their work.

28. Combining Different
Techniques

29. Look – He is smiling.
Now look at me.
I’m smiling. We
smile when we are
happy. What does
it mean?

30. In the previous example,
what are the different
techniques used to
explain the word
“smile”?

31. Picture on board (interesting
students remember it)
 Facial expression (gives meaning
clearly)
 Examples (show how ‘smile’ is
used as a verb)
 Translation (to make sure
everyone understands)


32. Working with your group, decide
exactly how you would present each of
the following words. If possible think
of a variety of techniques.
laugh
cheese
cold
wall

33. Using A New Word

34. A teacher has just presented the word
‘mosque’. Now he is asking questions
using the new word. What is the purpose
of this?

Does your father go to the
mosque?

When does he go there?

What does he do there?

Do you live near a mosque?

35. 

These questions help the teacher
to be sure that students really
understand the word.
They give the students more
examples of how the word is
used, in a way that involves the
class.
Note:
These questions should be simple
and require only short answers.

36. Working with your group, try to think of
two or three questions you could ask
the class, using these words.
lion
holiday
magazine
sunny

37. Vocabulary
Expansion

38. When students come
across a new word, they
are likely to be interested
in learning other related
words, and this presents a
natural opportunity for
vocabulary development.
This is sometimes called
“vocabulary expansion”.

39. Look at these sets of words. How are the words in
each box related to “cook” ?
(A)
(B)
Cook
Cook
bake
fry
stove
boil
grill
pot
stir
spoon

40. 
The words in (A)
are synonyms:
they are words
of the same type
and have the
same general
meaning.

The words in (B)
are related by
context: they
might be all used
when talking about
cooking although
they are not
synonyms.

41. Imagine you are teaching the words below.
Think of four or five other related words that
you could teach at the same time.
living room
desert
doctor
heavy
write

42. Vocabulary Games

43. STOP THE BUS
Animals Colours
Countri
Sports
es
Food
Clothes
Trousers Tunisia
T
Tiger
Turquoise
Tuna
Tennis
B
O

44. SNAKE - WORD
T
S1
S2
S3
S4
D Data Amount Tomato On..

45. Flash Games
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5

46. ‫‪T E‬‬
‫‪he nd‬‬
‫‪Thank You for Your Participation‬‬
‫سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك ,‬
‫أشهد أن ل إله إل أنت ,‬
‫أستغفرك وأتوب إليك‬