By: Steve Patterson
Submitted: 2010-11-24 19:22:43 | Word Count: 783
English language learners need to have large recognition vocabularies if they are to speak fluently and to comprehend what they read in English. Simply giving students vocabulary pre-teaching exercises or providing glossaries are not the most effective ways to help ESL students. More dynamics methods of vocabulary learning may be needed, according to Professor Mary J. Drucker in a 2003 article published in the The Reading Teacher journal.
Strategies for Defining and Remembering New Words in Texts
Rather than relying on glossaries, which require students to disengage from the text while they look up the word, teachers can provide students with key definitions or synonyms to be written on sticky notes and placed next to new or challenging words.
When students do look up new words in a glossary or dictionary, they should be encouraged to write word meanings or synonyms in the margins or on sticky notes to be placed right in the text.
[ advertisement ]
Students can also work collaboratively to create anchor charts with challenging words they encounter, along with their meanings. This strategy is especially effective when studying content area units or themes. By cooperatively collecting words, reviewing them, grouping them, and using them in a variety of contexts, the students will be more likely to retain the new vocabulary.
Building Vocabulary Through Focused, Extended Content Area Reading
An effective method for helping English language learners increase critical content area vocabulary is to provide a variety of different texts on a single topic. This approach exposes students to the same vocabulary in a variety of contexts. Key words will be encountered multiple times, increasing the potential for integrating those words into the reader’s vocabulary.
Resources for focused, extended content area reading might include text books, newspaper and magazine articles on the topic, Internet content, trade books found in the library or in classroom collections, and edited writings by other students.
The Total Physical Response Method of Vocabulary Building
Younger children – kindergarten through elementary – benefit most from kinesthetic approaches to language building. One such method is called total physical response (TRP). TPR relies on pairing speech and action. TPR typically integrates the active use of music, poems, finger plays, games, choral reading and other activities to encourage and support vocabulary development. For example, young children more easily learn the names of the days of the week and the months of the year when those words are put to simple tunes.
While the total physical response method of introducing and building vocabulary is most often used with young children, it can also be used quite effectively with older students and even adult learners in appropriate and fun contexts.
Using Read-Alouds to Help ESL Students Grow Vocabulary
Read-alouds provide a powerful means for helping English language learners of all ages develop and extend their vocabularies. By reading to the students, the teacher can modulate the rate of speech, enunciate key words for clarity, emphasize and repeat words, phrases, and concepts, paraphrase or explain language, and use gestures and body animation along with visuals in the book to bring greater meaning to the words.
Picture books, typically used with the very young, can be a valuable read-aloud resource for ESL teachers working with students of any age. Many picture books are based on sophisticated themes or illustrate complex concepts. The advantages of picture books are their illustrations and the wide variety of topics that have been written about. There may be several books on a single topic, each of which approach the subject in a different way or through different contexts.
Sometimes the language in picture books is simple, but not always. Just as with chapter books and longer selections, picture books will need to be chosen based on the proficiency of the intended audience and the type of language used. Picture books should not be chosen just because they have few words or simple sentence structures, but rather because they bring an illustrated and often sophisticated context to the vocabulary being learned.
English language learners have the challenging task of building their vocabulary repertoires quickly in order to become proficient in both speaking and reading. Often that vocabulary is specific to content area subjects. Providing students with definitions that can be placed near new words in texts, teaching students to make meaningful notes in margins or on sticky notes when they read, and providing a wide array of reading opportunities on a single topic are ways to help older students build and retain content area vocabulary. Employing total physical response techniques and taking advantage of the richness of picture books are strategies that can help both the very young and even more mature students to develop a broader array of functional vocabulary quickly and effectively.
