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TEACHING VOCABUTARY
{ätl TEACHING VOCABULARY

10 tips for memorisi n g

you memorise look up ro orsomeone sight smell hearing touch taste
climbing over a broken heart emoji will
help with get o uer something. When you
teach new items, ask students to think of a

vocabulany
mnemonic and explain it to a partner. repetition by getting students to read 10 Positive emotions
a word, then say, hear and write it. and the senses
5 Start with a memoly Dictoglosses are good for this. A dictogloss
Memory works best when we feel
test for awareness is a kind of dictation. You read out a
text once containing target vocabulary
positive about something (the lesson, the
At the start of the course, slowly read out teacher or the vocabulary, for example)
and students have to write down what
Fiona Mauchline offers ideas to help learners with this important skill a list of 15 random items; e.g. nostalgic, they heard. They then work in pairs to
and when oursenses are activated. Ifyou
house, roiny, chocolote, pudding, hen, bring sound, smell, taste, touch and feel
try to reconstruct the text. You should
etc. Tell students they mustn't write into your vocabulary lessons (for sight,
always speak at natural speed (slightly
them down, but have to remember them see above), you help memorisation (see
slower for lower levels) and, if students
until the end of the lesson. Read the Unit 40). When you teach, say, holiday
ask to hear it again, never read out the

M emorising vocabulary is the first

stage in leaming it. Students will
probably manage io keep words in their
random set of vocabulary into categories
of their choice; for example, Things thot
fit in my bag, Things I'll neuer buy and
They'll also need a clean page or sheet
of paper. Ask them to write the topic
list a second time, then carry on with
the lesson. Ten minutes from the end,
text more than three times. The effort of
trying to catch words, transcribe sounds,
vocabulary, such as beach, hotel, bikini
and sightseeing, add in words with a
sensory connection, such as hot, sandy,
word in the middle of the page, and to ask students to write down the words comprehend meaning and work out the
short-term memory for the duration of Places, or Objects, People and Feelings. organise the vocabulary into a mind map that they remember. Discuss how many fish ond chips. Ask students to decide
context and grammarsurrounding it really
the lesson, but they need to be able to They write the words in each category in by grouping the items as they wish. When words they managed; seven or eight is if those are the words they associate
helps memory. Short pieces of students'
transfer them to their long-term memory. a different colour. They can then use the they finish, they can stick them in their the normal number of items a brain will with holidays, too. Then give them a
homework or a section of a text they read
Forming associations is key, and providing different colours to indicate thai words notebooks for reference, or use them as store, though an overt memory test like table to complete with two or three
in the previous lesson work well.
an 'emotional' context for vocabulary, as belong in those categories when making classroom posters. this might give higher scores. Next, form words in each column. If you wish, as
well as a semantic one, helps form 'whole' word cards to use forselfstudy. The groups, mixing those who remembered mime relates vocabulary to 'feel'and
memories. fu a teacher, you need to thinking and processing that goes into 8 Think beautiful physicality, end your lesson by asking
come up with activities that will help that this kind of task helps memorisation.
4 Mnemonics a greater number with those who
students to mime holiday words for
remembered fewer. They tell each other One thing that triggers memory formation
to happen, and these ideas will help you. Mnemonics are techniques for classmates to guess.
how they memorised them. This will not is beauty. Try using postcards of artworks
memorising long lists of items. For
3 Use mind maps only raise awareness but will also let for students to label with nouns, verbs
This article is based on one of the 50
1 Peer-teachingl example, when you first meet someone, them share successful techniques. and adjectives related to what they see.
Ifyou find it quite easy to walk around you might think of something their name units which appear in the forthcoming
They can also add adjectives of emotion
One of the best ways to memorise your room in the dark, it's because our reminds you of in order to memorise it, publication EZp edia Vocctbulary. !t's
something is to teach it. You can brains create maps in our memories like imagining a girl called Rosa holding 6 Personalisation or mood for their personal response to
another valuable resource in the ETpedia
the image. As beauty is in the eye of the
have students play a peer-teaching to help us remember. So, too, creating a rose, or a boy called Axel cleaning an series with 500 tips, ideas and activities on
Asking students to form opinions of words beholder, asking students to create their
game, where eroups teach each other maps and mind maps is a good way to axle. Mnemonics are particularly good for teaching vocabulary. It is written by one
helps memorise them. For example, ask own vocabulary pages by writing the
explanations and actions. The only rule memorise vocabulary. Give students a learning items like phrasal verbs, which students to look at a list of words and of the three coauthors.
words in the form of attractive graffiti will
is that they can't say the actual word. list of items related to a topic (e.g. house, students find notoriously tricky. If you choose the five they think will be most also help memorisation. This strategy is
Form two groups and give each group its freedom, animals), or ask them to review imagine standing looking upwards at, for useful to them, or the five they like best. particularly effective with teenagers, as
own list of items such as mug, rug, blinds, their notes and find the vocabulary. example, your grandmother, it will help They can then write a sentence using it helps develop their creativity - and
stool, armcholr. Students look up their
each one. You can also ask students creativity also aids memorisation.
words and decide how they will present to decide which is the least likely to be
them. Next, you form pairs with students bed stool memorable, and to compare and discuss
from each group and they teach each sofa the words they have chosen and why.
9 Use wordclouds
other their words. They must remember chair They are likely to then memorise the Wordclouds (also called text clouds or
the word and the mime. Finally, the furniture
rug table words chosen, having made the personal tag clouds) can be created using sites Fiona Mauchline is an ELT materials
students all return to their original groups
armchair association with uselessness. You can such as Wordle, Tagxedo and WordltOut. writer, teachei, and freelance trainer and
and they take turns to explain and mime, Gal also ask students which words they like They allow you to present groups of words conference speaker. She is currently
to check groupmates recall the words. detached based in the UK but has spent most of
the sound of, which ones sound funny to in interesting formats and in different
curtains her working life in Spain and other parts of
soft things them, or which ones their parents might colours. For this reason, they are very Europe. Her ELT materials include courses
2 Qse coloul House adjectives find useful. Hetping them find a personal useful for memory. So, after presenting for secondary, and resource books for
connection with vocabulary will help a set of new vocabulary, show a brightly teachers including How to write secondary
The vast majority of visual attention is cushion materials (ELTTeacher2Writer). Apart from
them memorise it. coloured wordcloud of the vocabulary to
drawn by colour, so activities exploiting secondary, her main areas of interest are
kitchen semi-detached your class. Let them see if for 30 seconds motivation, cognitive development and
colour help memory. For example, when
students record information about the rooms 7 Repeat, repeat, tepeat (a minute for lower levels) and tell them neuroscience as applicable to ELI She is
the cGfounder of EVE: Equal Voices in EL!
to memorise as many words as possible.
different word forms they could use living+oom and is a committee member of the IATEFL
terraced Researchers say we need to encounter a Take the wordcloud away and put
different colours for verbs, adverbs, TDSIG & MaWSlG. As well as Elpedia
lexical item at least 15 times to memorise students into groups of three or four. One Vocabulary,2019 sees the arrival of her
adjectives, nouns, etc. Altematively, you study/office bathroom it. We'd never present an item 15 times, person in each group can write down the summer course for secondary, Diye /nl
can ask students to organise a mixed or bedroom (Delta Publishing).
but we can, however, achieve this words the group remembers.

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