VOCABULARY DRILL

Level: Any (really good for a warm-up before a short lesson, or possibly,
with a little work, as a full lesson in and of itself).
Aims: Encourage careful listening, develop word memory, improve
pronunciation
Materials: Sequenced vocabulary cards, stop watch
Steps:

1. Compile a list of 6 or 7 words. They could be a category of words or

words from something that your students have recently studied.

2. Write the vocabulary words on the board and model them. Practice
pronunciation with the students chorally.

3. Hand out copies of vocabulary cue cards to each row of students. The
first student in the row gets card 1 and the last student gets card 6 or 7.

Example: vegetables
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6
peas peas peas peas peas peas
carrots ______ carrots carrots carrots carrots
turnips ______ turnips turnips turnips
potatoes ______ potatoes potatoes
lettuce ______ lettuce
onions ______
beans

4. Tell students to practice the word drill in sequence. Student 1 says

“peas, carrots” then student 2 has to recall the last word that Student 1
said and so on.

5. Take the drill one step further and play in teams against one another.
Increase the difficulty of the vocabulary words and have students memorize
words without using the cue cards.