TEACHING VOCABULARY - TASKS

TASK 1 Discuss the following questions connected with teaching

and/or learning vocabulary.

1. Do you keep a record of words you have tried to learn, or have you done so
in the past? If you do, what are your reasons for doing this?
2. If you record vocabulary, what is your preferred method? What do you write
it on? How do you organize it? What information do you include, and where
do you find the information you need? Do you record the words
pronunciation?

3. Do you have any special tricks/ways of learning English words that help
you to remember and use them? If yes, list your ways.

4. What do you do when you do not know a word in an English text? (try to
guess its meaning from the context, skip the word, as someone to tell
you etc.)

5. What types of dictionary do you prefer to use? (online/paper,

monolingual, bilingual, pictorial, thesaurus etc.) Why?

6. Which courses at the English Department developed your vocabulary

best practical grammar, integrated skills, literature classes, linguistics
classes, other?

7. Is there anything else in you could still improve in your English lexicon?
(e.g. you need more individual words, specialized vocabulary, idioms,
collocations, ready-made phrases, modern slang, Academic English for
your MA thesis etc.)

TASK 2 Think how the meaning of the following items would be

best presented to learners who are encountering them for the
first time. Discuss with your partner and note down some ideas.
carpet, slowly, lemon, purple, famous, poverty, recognize

TASK 3 Draw simple pictures to illustrate meanings of the words

given to you by the tutor. Do NOT show your words to your
partner! When you are ready, exchange your papers with pictures.
Look at your friends drawings and write down what you think
they show. Then give the paper back to him/her. Did you guess
rightly? Did your friend recognize your words correctly?
TASK 4 You want your students to learn the following words
connected with the environment. Think of how to organize them
better to make it easier for students to remember.

pollution, recycling, deforestation, global warming, alternative energy,

ozone layer,
hybrid car
TASK 5 The examples below arent enough to make the meaning
of the words clear. Add 1 or 2 sentences to each one, so
that the meaning of the word is shown clearly.

a) market. You can buy food at the market.

b) noisy. Students are often very noisy.
c) impossible. Your plan is impossible.
d) to reheat something.

TASK 6 Write appropriate concept-checking questions for the

following words:

Word Concept-checking questions

greedy

hard up

patient (n)

burgle

rip of

run out of
TASK 7 Analyze the vocabulary presentation and lexical tasks in a
selected contemporary English coursebook.

Home task:

For our next class prepare a vocabulary activity (activities) and a

few testing techniques to teach your friends the words given to
you by the tutor.