Unit 2: Helping students learn
and remember new vocabulary
Reviewed
✦ Recording new vocabulary
Keep a careful record of the new vocabulary you have taught, so that you can
incorporate it into other lessons:
encourage students to keep a separate vocabulary book or to record new
items on cards
discourage students from just writing a long list of words in the order they
come up in class – they cannot then find the word when they need it
if students want to put in a translation that is up to them, but you should try
to convince them that just a translation is not enough; ideally they should
note not only meaning, but also word class (grammatical category),
pronunciation
they can also note down other words from the same word family, and an
example of the word in context
Unit 2: Helping students learn and remember new vocabulary 1
, ✦ How to recycle vocabulary
Vocabulary revision is often done at the end of a class as a short activity or as
a warmer in subsequent classes. Students will need to be exposed to, and
use, words or phrases a number of times if they’re going to be able to actually
remember and produce them when they speak and write. This is why it’s
important to recycle your vocabulary. Expanding rehearsal is a system of
recycling vocabulary whereby it’s practised more often when it is new and
then by returning to it at increasing intervals. For example, your students
would practise the vocabulary after the lesson, the next lesson, the following
week, the following month and then six months later.
One common technique for recycling vocabulary for a continuing group of
students is to create a vocabulary box. A vocabulary box is a box with pieces
of paper in it. The pieces of paper must be two-sided. During or after a
vocabulary lesson the teacher can write one vocabulary item on a piece of
paper. On the one side the word is written and on the other the definition, an
example sentence with the target language missing, or even a drawing. These
can be singular vocabulary words, like ‘dinosaur’, phrases and expressions,
Unit 2: Helping students learn and remember new vocabulary 2
and remember new vocabulary
Reviewed
✦ Recording new vocabulary
Keep a careful record of the new vocabulary you have taught, so that you can
incorporate it into other lessons:
encourage students to keep a separate vocabulary book or to record new
items on cards
discourage students from just writing a long list of words in the order they
come up in class – they cannot then find the word when they need it
if students want to put in a translation that is up to them, but you should try
to convince them that just a translation is not enough; ideally they should
note not only meaning, but also word class (grammatical category),
pronunciation
they can also note down other words from the same word family, and an
example of the word in context
Unit 2: Helping students learn and remember new vocabulary 1
, ✦ How to recycle vocabulary
Vocabulary revision is often done at the end of a class as a short activity or as
a warmer in subsequent classes. Students will need to be exposed to, and
use, words or phrases a number of times if they’re going to be able to actually
remember and produce them when they speak and write. This is why it’s
important to recycle your vocabulary. Expanding rehearsal is a system of
recycling vocabulary whereby it’s practised more often when it is new and
then by returning to it at increasing intervals. For example, your students
would practise the vocabulary after the lesson, the next lesson, the following
week, the following month and then six months later.
One common technique for recycling vocabulary for a continuing group of
students is to create a vocabulary box. A vocabulary box is a box with pieces
of paper in it. The pieces of paper must be two-sided. During or after a
vocabulary lesson the teacher can write one vocabulary item on a piece of
paper. On the one side the word is written and on the other the definition, an
example sentence with the target language missing, or even a drawing. These
can be singular vocabulary words, like ‘dinosaur’, phrases and expressions,
Unit 2: Helping students learn and remember new vocabulary 2
