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Vocabulary is the pillar of any foreign language . We need a wide range of words to express ourselves and interact with other people. As Wilkins ( 1972, p.111) claims “ Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed “ .Thus, Vocabulary is one of the most essential aspects in English language teaching . Commonly, vocabulary instruction can be a challenge for teachers when it comes to making it efficient and engaging .Therefore, teachers need to create appropriate techniques to broaden students’ vocabulary mastery . To gain satisfying results, English as a Foreign Language teachers have been implementing an array of effective strategies in the classroom and this essay will focus on three of them : Use of pictures, Semantic mapping and Music . First , Use of pictures has been viewed as one of the most beneficial strategies to enhance learners’ learning process. Pictures bring the real world into the classroom and they can be illustrated as drafts, comic, posters, cartoon, board drawing, pictures from newspapers or magazines . There is an english saying that “ A picture is worth a thousand words “, indeed, it makes the meaning of unknown words clear and it helps learners understand and memorize the meaning. For instance, Teachers can introduce the item ‘ship ’ by showing a picture of it and this can be supported by Harmer ( 2001, p.135 ) “ One of the most appropriate uses of pictures is for the presenting and checking of meaning of the word airplane, for example, is to have a picture of it .”In order to help students practice vocabulary ,capture their attention and spice up the classroom , Teachers need to design numerous ways of using pictures such as drilling , communication activities , prediction and games. This visual aid makes the lesson more enjoyable and memorable . Second , Semantic mapping is a form of word mapping and has been considered as a useful tool to boost the learners’ vocabulary acquisition .More precisely , this startegy is mostly based on activating students’ prior knowledge about a topic/key word by eliciting vocabulary . Teachers, for instance , start by placing a topic/key word in a central circle, then students add terms and concepts as well as definitions, synonyms and antonyms that relate to the topic / key word . This graphic organizer helps students explore their knowledge of a new word by mapping it and associate it with words they already know .Hence ,the more exposures to a word, the more likely to be remembered and recognized . One study found that students who used semantic mapping technique had a 40 % increase in their vocabulary measure than students who used a strategy in which they only used the word in a sentence (Boulware-Gooden, Carreker, Thornhill&Joshi;, 2007 ). In other words, this startegy keeps the students motivated and promotes their vocabulary retention and understanding. Third, Music plays a powerful role in people’s lives . Hence , EFL teachers use music as an authentic material to create a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in the classroom, which allows the students to be more comfortable to access to new information. Thus, Teachers need to select songs that are popular among students because along these songs’ melody and rhythm , vocabulary can be easily recalled and retained over the long- term memory , this is called the song-stuck-in-my-head phenemenon (Murphey, 1990 ) . In this sense, Selecting interesting songs affect the students’ mood, memory ,accent and motivation . In addition, listening to a native pronunciation through songs , enables students to communicate properly and fluently . Furthermore, Teachers can use songs as beneficial materials for example, using the words of a song for a gap-fill , dictating , practicing pronunciation and karaoke performances. Teachers can also ask students to guess meanings from a music video and this a good activity to test their memory and evaluate their imagination . In fact, these song activities help students to be exposed to new words several times and when words are in a musical context ,they are easy to recall and remember. Music in the classroom keeps the students motivated and interested as it boosts their self-esteem and fluency and helps them retain the target language. To sum up, Teaching English as a foreign language is not an easy task . In fact , Teachers need to be aware of their students’ interests and needs when presenting new lexical items . On the other hand, they need to establish numerous strategies and techniques that help students learn how to apply new words in different contexts and situations. Teaching vocabulary using different methods and practise activities definitely enhances the effectiveness of vocabulary instruction and it improves students’ vocabulary mastery .Therefore, Vocabulary is one of the most needed component of any language as it provides people a broader ability to produce a well-structured language , develops their reading comprehension and their writing and speaking skills . References : Maria phillips 2016 : The effects of visual vocabulary startegies on vocabulary knowledge .
