Presentation

How to present the meaning?

Experiments on vocabulary seem to suggest that students remember best when they have actually done something with the words they are learning.

The following are the most popular ways of presenting the meaning of a word. It should be noted that only one meaning of a word should be presented at a time. Remember that it is possible and often recommended, to use more than one technique for each new word.

• Real objects. Interesting but useful for small number of concrete nouns.

• Pictures/drawings/photographs. Sometimes it’s difficult to find necessary pictures/photos. Drawings are better but still cannot be used for all types of words, sometimes take too much time and not all teachers are good at drawing.

• Actions, mime and gesture. Only useful for action verbs and some adverbs. May be easily misunderstood.

• Definitions. Difficult for students to understand because usually the definition contains words which students do not know.

• Synonyms/antonyms. It is argued that there are no true synonyms and antonyms in English. However, if you want to explain a low frequency word quickly, it is useful.

• Example sentences. The teacher gives the students at least three sentences which contain the target word. The sentences must define the target word and so the other words must be familiar to the students. This is probably the most useful technique because it can be used with almost any word, it shows the word in context and, what is even more important, it gets the students to work out the meaning for themselves (inductive learning) which gets them into the habit of guessing the meaning of words for themselves.

• Translation. This technique has some points for and against:

It requires no preparation It is quick It can be used for most words	It is too quick and students might forget the new word quickly It encourages students to think that all English words have Russian equivalents It reduces the amount of English the students hear

So translation is quite effective when you don’t want to waste time and the students do not need to remember the word anyway. If you do use translation for high frequency words then it is essential to revise the word later to help student to remember it.

To summarise, choose techniques which get the meaning across as clearly as possible in the minimum amount of time, i.e. be effective and efficient.

What must be remembered with vocabulary presentation, too, is that pronunciation is just as important as other information of the word. We should not introduce words without making sure that students know how they are said. There are a number of ways of presenting the sounds of words:

1. Through modelling. The teacher can model the word and then get both choral and individual repetition. When the teacher is modelling the word he or she can use gesture, etc. to indicate the main stress in a word.

2. Through visual representation. When teachers write up new words on the board they should always indicate where the stress in the word is. They can do it by underlining, putting a stress mark before the stressed syllable, etc.

3. Through phonetic symbols.

Discovery

• Matching. The use of simple matching activities is a prelude to repetition and practice and it allows the students more involvement than a presentation made by the teacher. However the same procedure repeated for the introduction of all new words would become boring. The way out is that teachers prepare their versions of the activity.

• Labelling. Matching words to pictures without giving the words to the students. They have to find them from their own memories or form the peers. Notice that students are encouraged to come up with any more words they know to extend the vocabulary list. It is often a good idea to have working in pairs or groups for this activity.

• Mind mapping. The activity expands the concept to include word fields – i.e. areas where a number of words group together.

• Words in context. The new words (5-9) are given in the text(s) first. When students have read the texts they are in a position to guess the meaning of the words, and the chart of the following type helps them to do it:

	stroll	wander	march	limp	hike	tiptoe	stagger	crawl
with each step equal			
quietly, on your toes
pressing more on one foot than the other
in a slow, relaxed way
in a unsteady way
in the countryside
on your hands and knees
in no particular direction

This discovery activity is made usable because students have a chance to see words in context. This kind of activity can be used by teachers when working with any text. If there are a number of words that group into a vocabulary field it will be easy to design a similar chart – which is a matching-word-and-definition activity.

• Suffixes and prefixes. This activity is designed to make students aware of how suffixes and prefixes work. After the students are reminded (told) how suffixes and prefixes work they are asked to look at the list of words and see what they mean:

non-fiction

dishonest

misunderstand

oversleep

undercook

redecorate

ex-president

helpless

anti-social

autograph

microscope

post-graduate

• Gradation exercises. Understanding how words relate to each other also involves understanding which words are weaker or stronger than others:

afraid nervous terrified petrified scared frightened

A little fear ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

A lot of fear ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

Notice that students involved in discovery activities should be provided with answer key or teacher’s help to give feedback on the discoveries they have made.

H ow to check understanding?

After you have presented the word, it is wise to check that the students have understood what you mean. It is not enough just to say ‘Have you understood?’. If you presented a word using one technique, then check the meaning by using another. So, for example, if you have presented the word stir by using actions, then you could ask students for a translation or ask them to give you an example sentence.