WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO AND COMPLETE THE TASKS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUlS_aGQ1I

1) Watch the video and discuss with your partners about the following information:
a) Teaching Objectives:
b) Class description:
c) LANGUAGE FOCUS: Input:
d) SKILLS:
e) Materials:

2) Explain in your own words what a multisensory technique is.

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3) Watch again and complete the chart:
TEACHER´S ACTIONS TEACHER´S WORDS COMMENTARY

Learning words -  Cameron lynne - teaching language to Young learners

Building up a useful vocabulary is central to the learning of a foreign language at primary
level.
Children are still building up their first language vocabulary, and this development is
intimately tied up with conceptual development.
The role of words as language units begins with the early use of nouns for naming
objects in first language acquisition, and of use of other words to express the child´s
wants and needs, e.g. “more!” or “no!”
 We need to be aware, as Vygotsky warned, that although children may use the same
words as adults, they may not hold the same meanings for those words (Vygotsky
1962; Wertsch 1985)
 Vocabulary development is about learning words, but that learning words is not
something that is done and finishes with. Learning words is a cyclical process of
meeting new words and initial learning, followed by meeting those words again and again,
each time extending knowledge of what the words mean and how they are used…
 knowing about a Word involves knowing about:
- its form (how it sounds, how it is spelt, the grammatical changes that can be made to it),
- its meaning (its conceptual content and how it relates to other concepts and words),
- and its use (its patterns of occurrence with other words, and in particular types of
language use)

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  Vocabulary teaching can be focused to help learners build up the language efficiently
and successfully.

Categorisation and Word learning

• The words for basic level concepts are the most commonly used words, they are
learned by children before words higher or lower in the hierarchy, they are the shortest
words, and they are words used in neutral contexts.
• At the basic level, a child´s experience with the physical world links directly into the
concepts and vocabulary, serving as an “entry point” for learning.
The development of children´s vocabulary:
• The types of words that children find possible to learn will shift. Five year olds learning a
foreign language need very concrete vocabulary that connects with objects they can
handle or see, whereas older learners can cope with words and topics that are more
abstract and remote from their immediate experience.

Learning and teaching vocabulary

Hatch and Brown (1995) describe 5 “essential steps” in vocabulary learning based on research
into learners ‘strategies:
• 1. having sources for encountering new words,
• 2. getting a clear image, whether visual or auditory or both, for the forms of the new
words,
• 3. learning the meaning of the words;
• 4. making a strong memory connection between the forms and meanings of the
words.

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 • 5. using words
• *vocabulary needs to be met and recycled at intervals, in different activities, with
new knowledge and new connections developed each time the same words are met
again.
Basic techniques
Nation (1990) listed basic techniques by which teachers can explain the meaning of new words:
By demostration or pictures:
• 1. using an object
• 2. using a cut-out figure
• 3. using gestures
• 4. performing an action
• 5. photographs
• 6. drawing or diagrams on the board
• 7. pictures from books
• (to these we might add moving images, from TV, video or computer)
By verbal explanation
• 8. analytical definition
• 9. putting the new Word in a defining context (e.g. an ambulance takes sick people to
hospital)
• 10. translating into another language (*)

Tips!
Introducing vocabulary Practising vocabulary Consolidating vocabulary

Presenting new vocabulary should At the stage of practicing Consolidating vocabulary is essential
be attractive enough to catch vocabulary, children are those who for effective teaching because
children’s attention. It is a good idea should be more active than a children forget almost as quickly as
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to use lots of visuals such as real
objects, drawings, illustrations or
flashcards. The simplest way is to
show the object and repeat the
name several times. To spice the
presentation up you can use a magic
box or say the new words in
different way (ex. quietly, loudly,
with exaggerated voice, fast or
slowly). It is also necessary to use
the new vocabulary in context to
show students how the words work
in sentences. What is important,
sentences included new vocabulary
should be as short and simple as
possible and new items should be
emphasized.
teacher. It is an opportunity to put
new vocabulary into practice and
learn how to use them correctly.
There is a wide range of techniques
for practicing vocabulary. All types
of flashcards activities can be
helpful, for example ‘What’s
missing?’ or matching words to
pictures. Some other fun and
effective activities are guessing or
miming games, picture dictation,
board games, Bingo, Domino,
Memory games or Chinese
whisper. All kinds of sorting and
classifying activities can be also
involving and valuable. Play and
games in the primary classroom is a
funny way to teach a foreign
language to children. They provide
meaningful context and students’
motivation.
they learn new things. ESL kids can
create their own picture
dictionaries, minibooks, collages or
comics. They can make posters of
word families or vocabulary cards.
Some students will  be interested in
reading stories or taking part in
mini school plays. It is also a good
idea to play over and over again
children’s favourite games.
To teach ESL children new words
and how to use them properly none
of the three stages cannot be
omitted. New vocabulary needs to
be introduced, practiced and
consolidated, then we can be sure
that new items have been taught
and learnt properly.

Working with English words

 Susan House – An Introduction to Teaching English to Children (p: 42)

Your students don´t need to know all the names of animals in English, but they should be
able to remember a few from each type (i.e. farm, wild and domestic). Here are some simple
activities, which you can use as individual exercises, pairwork or team games:

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 More useful activities!

Introducing and practicing vocabulary

• Introduce each vocabulary item with the

flashcards. Ask your learners to respond
non-verbally to the flashcards through actions. For example, can they move like tigers or elephants?

• Place the flashcards around the room, on the wall, door, window, chairs or floor. Ask your learners to point
to the correct flashcard when they hear it. Depending on the size of the class, learners could run to the
correct part of the room or stand next to the correct card.

• Give each of your learners a set of flashcards and ask them to show you the correct card when they hear the
item, for example, you could say, 'Show me the giraffe!', 'Hands up if you've got the jellyfish!', or 'Point to
the yak!' This activity works very well in teams – give each team an equal number of flashcards, and the first
team to show you the correct item scores one point!

• Choral drill the vocabulary on the flashcards, as a whole class, teams or small groups in turn. This can be
great fun when drilled in different ways: say the words slowly, happily, angrily, loudly, quietly or like an
orang-utan, for example!

• Place five or six flashcards in a line on the board. Drill each item and remove the last card. Drill again, up to
and including the missing item. Remove another card. Continue until all the flashcards have been removed
and your learners can remember all the missing items!

• To keep your learners on their toes you could 'flash' the flashcards fast, upside down or back-to-front (just so
they can see the outline of the picture or word through the paper) and ask them to identify the item.
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 Alternatively, you could cover the flashcard with another piece of paper and slowly reveal the picture or the
letters of the word.

• Colour code or number your flashcards. Once you have shown your learners both the picture and its
corresponding colour or number, place the cards face up on the board or a table. Now ask, 'What
colour/number is the aardvark?' Next, place the cards face down and ask, 'What's red/blue/green?' or
'What's number 1/2/3?'

• Ask your learners if they like the items on the flashcards. Your learners can respond by putting up their left
hand for yes, their right for no, or other culturally appropriate gestures. Alternatively, they could shout
'Hurray!' or 'Boo!', then finally 'Yes, I do!' and 'No, I don't!'

• Make dialogues using new vocabulary items. Pairs or small groups choose a new word that they think is
useful and want to remember. With lower levels, you could do this as a class and build up a dialogue to
illustrate the meaning of the word on the board. Higher levels learners can use dictionaries and work in pairs
to write their dialogues and then act them out. If your class like making videos you could also film learners
performing their dialogues and then show the films to the class to revise vocabulary in future lessons.

Recycling vocabulary

• Here are a variety of games your learners will enjoy playing whilst practicing their language skills and
recycling target vocabulary:

Bingo

• Give your learners a photocopy of flashcards for the vocabulary and a blank bingo card. Ask them to
choose a certain number of vocabulary items and stick them onto their bingo card. Alternatively, they
could either draw or write the vocabulary. Place a complete set of flashcards into a hat and pull them out
one by one. The first player to cross off all the items on their bingo card shouts 'Bingo!'

Hangman or Shark

• Play traditional hangman, or a variation on hangman: draw a shark in the sea with its mouth wide open
and lots of teeth. Draw ten steps going into the shark’s mouth. Indicate the word to be guessed with lines
as in regular hangman. Each time a learner says the wrong letter draw a stick man going down the steps.
They lose (and get eaten by the shark!) if the stick man runs out of steps).

Noughts and crosses

• Select nine flashcards and number them 1-9. Draw a grid on the board, numbering each square 1-9. Divide
your learners into two teams, noughts (O) and crosses (X). In turns, each team chooses a number between
one and nine. If noughts choose square 5, for example, show them flashcard 5. If they can correctly
identify the card, draw (O) in the square. Each team should try to choose squares that block the other
team from making three in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Telephone

• Put learners in a circle. Whisper a word to the learner on your left. They whisper the word to the person
on their left and so on. The last person to hear the word has to write it on the board – see if the word is
the same or if it’s changed! Change places to give everyone a go.

Categorise
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 • Give each group a set of flashcards and ask them to put them into categories. For instance, animal
flashcards could be divided into those with four legs, those with two; those that can fly, those that can't.

Board rush

• Place flashcards on the board. In teams, ask your learners to stand in a line facing the board, a little
distance away. Say a flashcard, learners must then run and touch the correct flashcard.

Snap

• Give each group of learners a set of flashcards with two copies of each card. Ask them to shuffle and deal
the cards equally, face down. Each player now has a pile of cards. In turn, the players turn over a card, say
what it is and place it in the middle of the table. If a player turns over a card which is the same as the
previous one the first player to say 'Snap!' wins all the cards. The game ends when one player has all the
cards.

Odd one out

• Write up four words on the board, one of which is the odd one out, e.g. cheeky, happy, curly, nice. 'Curly'
is the odd the out because it describes physical appearance and the others all describe character. Get your
learners to make their own examples and test each other.

Kim's game 

• Place the flashcards on the board or a table. Ask your learners to close their eyes. Remove a card. Ask
them to open their eyes and tell you which card is missing. For even more of a challenge, gradually
increase the number of cards that you remove. Having demonstrated the activity, this is another game
your learners can play together in groups with their own set of flashcards.

Pelmanism

•  Give each group of learners a set of flashcards with two copies of each card. Ask them to place them in a
grid face down on the table. In turn, each player turns over two cards and says what they are. If they turn
over the same cards, they keep them and have another go. If the cards are different, they turn them back
over and the next player has a go. The player with the most pairs is the winner.

More ideas!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KebTgfLJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmm16_bJerg

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Cameron, Lynne; “Teaching Languages to Young Learners” Cambridge University Press, 2001.
 HOUSE, SUSAN, An Introduction to Teaching English To Children, Richmond Publishing, 1997.
 https://www.teachers-zone.com/blog/?teaching-vocabulary-to-esl-children
 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/kids-and-vocabulary

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