Teaching Vocabulary to Children: Strategies and Techniques

Posted on Aug 31, 2024 in Teaching & Education

Teaching Vocabulary to Children

4.1 What Do Children Need to Know?

Issues to take into account:

4.1.1 Meaning

Two objectives:

Meaning in context: Words frequently have more than one meaning (that appears in the dictionary), so students will have to look at the context to select one meaning.
Sense relations: Sometimes words have meanings in relation to other words and the context, for instance: general and specific words (word families), synonyms, antonyms, etc.

4.1.2 Word Use

Metaphor and idiom: Word meaning is frequently stretched through the use of metaphor – figurative use of words – and idiom – a fixed phrase that becomes an idiom. Example: “Hiss” is a noise and a verb metaphor.
Collocation: Which words go with each other. Example: “Headache” but not “legache” (yes, “pain in my leg”).
Style and Register: What we say is governed by the style and register we are in. To say something, you can choose between the neutral expression of this fact and the informal version. On the other hand, we can talk in a different register (professions, doctors, mechanics, etc.).

4.1.3 Word Formation: How words are written and spoken, how they can change their form.

Parts of speech: Words can change their shape (form) and their grammatical value. It is about how to change words to fit different grammatical contexts. Example: The same word can be a noun or an infinitive verb (“run”).
Prefixes and suffixes: Not memorize, but be able to recognize them in different contexts.
Spelling and pronunciation: How words are spelled and how they sound. Indeed, the way words are stressed can change when their grammatical function is different.

4.1.4 Word Grammar

The use of certain words can trigger the use of certain grammatical patterns.
Countable and uncountable nouns (both can be singular and plural). Example: “Chair” – “furniture.” There are nouns that are neither countable nor uncountable: “people.”
Verb complementation, phrasal verbs: Verbs trigger certain grammar. Example: Modal verbs are followed by a bare infinitive without “to;” “tell” isn’t followed by “to,” and so on.
Adjectives and adverbs: Students have to know their position and order in a phrase.

Knowing a word means far more than just understanding its meaning. It is understanding what this knowledge implies both in general and for certain words in particular (contextual behavior of words).

4.2 Teaching Vocabulary

4.2.1 Active Vocabulary vs. Passive Vocabulary

Active vocabulary (= the vocabulary students are able to use) vs. passive vocabulary (= the vocabulary students know but don’t use).

Active vocabulary: Many words that students know come through that route (used in the classroom, appeared in reading texts, etc.) rather than through learning. At the elementary level, the teacher has to provide sets of vocabulary – memorize and practice – but at intermediate levels, active vocabulary can suddenly become passive and vice versa. Vocabulary is not in a permanent state.

4.2.2 Interactions with Words

To make the experience of learning as memorable and attractive as possible by connecting words with pictures, rhythm, sounds, etc. – not by repeating. Make words have a personal meaning for the students, so that students interact with words. Students remember best when they have actually done something with the words they are learning.

4.2.3 Discovery Techniques to Understand the Meaning

Teachers have to let students discover for themselves what a word means and how and why it is being used, instead of giving everything already done. Students already have a lot of vocabulary, so it is a good idea to show them examples of words in action. Involvement with words is likely to help students learn and remember them – by activating their previous knowledge and sharing what they know.

4.3 Examples of Vocabulary Teaching

4.3.1 Presentation: Ways of presenting words. They can be used in combination more than one:

Realia: To bring the real things they represent into the classroom. The teacher says the word and students repeat it.
Pictures: Charts, flashcards, magazines, etc. They can illustrate concepts such as above, opposite, cars, parts of the body, etc.
Mime, action, and gesture to explain actions – verbs.
Contrast: Synonyms, antonyms (see sense relation). Example: “Cold” and “hot.”
Enumeration of general and specific words: We can use mind-maps. Example: “Clothes” – “jacket,” “trousers,” “shirt,” etc.
Explanation (intermediate students), the different meanings of a word, remembering.
Translation: It discourages students from interacting with the words.
Presenting the sounds of words: It is very important; it helps to remember the words.

4.3.2 Discovery techniques

They are not always the most effective.

4.3.3 Practice

In contexts and, if possible, in pairs or groups.

4.4 The Importance of Dictionaries

Dictionaries are useful for children who want to increase the number of words they understand (to understand a song, to improve their writing, etc.)

4.4.1 Bilingual – Monolingual – Picture

4.4.2 Paper/Electronic

The greatest resource: a monolingual dictionary. As their English (vocabulary) starts to improve, we can begin to introduce the monolingual dictionary to complement the bilingual one. In this way, they can understand the definition and appreciate the information that they can find. However, we don’t want students to be checking every word of a reading text in their dictionaries when they should be reading for general understanding. Another objective is to make the dictionary a normal and comfortable part of language study and practice.