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Presenting, practising and revising vocabulary

As with structures (see Section 1: Structures: grammar arid functions), there are a variety of ways of introducing, practising and revising vocabulary.

Presenting a vocabulary set via a visual/oral context

As with the presentation of structures, introducing vocabulary through a visual/oral context is very effective, especially with lower level students and with children. It is particularly useful when the teacher wants to present a set of 'concrete', demonstrable words and expressions on a particular topic. You can proceed in a way which is very similar to that outlined in the inductive approach to presenting a structure (see pi 29), with a few notable changes:

Example The teacher wants to elicit the words for food and drink that the students already know and then introduce some new items of vocabulary before going on to practise ordering food in a restaurant.

1 Illustrate the meaning using visual aids (pictures and drawings or, if possible, real food and drink).

2 Say the words. Don't forget to include any grammar words that make up the lexical item: for example, the preposition o/as in a bottle of mineral water. At this point you can write the words on the board, or you can leave this step until later.

3 Check the students' understanding of the meaning of the items. (For ideas on how to do this, see below.) In steps 2 and 3 involve the students as much as possible: elicit what they already know and encourage them to help one another.

4 The students practise saying the words. Concentrate on the pronunciation -the sounds, the word stress and, in items of more than one word, the way the words link together (see Section 3: Pronunciation). 1 .et the students repeat after you or from a model provided on cassette, together and/or individually.

5 If you haven't already done so, write the words on the board. Mark the word stress, note what parts of speech the items belong to, any spelling points worthy of note, contractions, punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Write down examples of the language item in sentences - try to make the sentences personal and memorable to the students.

6 Give the students time to make a note of where the information is recorded in their coursebook or to copy the information in vocabulary notebooks under the topic heading of Food and Drink. You can encourage the students to include any 'memory triggers' - a picture or diagram, a translation, information about how the word is pronounced, the use of different colours for different parts of speech, etc.

7 Any further practice activities you organize will depend on the vocabulary items and whether you expect the vocabulary to be for receptive use only (ie students can understand the word or expression if they see it written or hear it spoken) or for productive use (ie they should be able to use the item correctly and appropriately). For the former it may be enough to give some controlled or guided practice activities: filling gaps in a text with words from a given list or matching words and definitions, for examp

2 Vocabulary

If you want to provide freer productive practice you may plan to integrate work on vocabulary with some productive skills work. For example, after you have revised and introduced some food and drink vocabulary the students can take part in a roleplay set in a restaurant where they read a menu and choose and order food.

In addition, you may often want to set vocabulary-learning homework. You can decide on the words and expressions to learn and give a short test during the next lesson. Alternatively, you can ask the students to choose, say, ten words or expressions from the day's lesson to learn. The next lesson you can then put them in pairs and ask them to test each other. In this way they learn their own list and get further practice in the words their partner has chosen to learn.

Vocabulary

If you want to provide freer productive practice you may plan to integrate work on vocabulary with some productive skills work. For example, after you have revised and introduced some food and drink vocabulary the students can take part in a roleplay set in a restaurant where they read a menu and choose and order food.

In addition, you may often want to set vocabulary-learning homework. You can decide on the words and expressions to learn and give a short test during the next lesson. Alternatively, you can ask the students to choose, say, ten words or expressions from the day's lesson to learn. The next lesson you can then put them in pairs and ask them to test each other. In this way they learn their own list and get further practice in the words their partner has chosen to learn.