Teach English in Youwei Zhen - Shuozhou Shi

It often happens we want to say something but struggle to find the right word. As teachers, we are responsible for the language we use. At the same time, we should care about how to teach our students to express themselves without problems. More vocabulary means that students have more words at their disposal to use—plus they will understand more of the words they hear. That is why teaching vocabulary takes a leading role. While presenting a word I go through some steps. At the first step, which is called ‘the sound and the meaning’, I identify the word with the help of some means of presenting vocabulary. The second step is ‘repetition’. I pronounce the word two-three times; the students repeat it in chorus. The third step is ‘written form’. I write down the word on the board with its transcription and get the students to give its translation. The fourth step is to ‘illustrate the sentence. I use the word in a sentence and check if the pupils have grasped the meaning of it. There exist two ways of presenting the meaning of a new word: direct which divides into visual and verbal, and translation. To visual means belong pictures, drawings, everyday objects, models, maps, scales, situational pictures, mime. The name of concrete objects may be presented with the help of pictures, photos, drawings, everyday objects. Situational pictures are useful in presenting more abstract, conceptual vocabulary. A mine can easily convey an action or concept as can drawing or a sketch on the board. For presenting adjectives denoting colour, size, shape, condition we can use different objects possessing necessary qualities, such as colour pictures, photos and drawings. Everyday objects, calendars, tables are good for presenting numerals. Scales, maps are useful for presenting adverbs (far-near; always, usually, never, seldom, etc.) Scales show the relations between the numbers of words. I facilitate the identification of prepositions by showing everyday objects and special pictures. We can identify some abstract notions trough audio presentation. The concept of traffic, birds' singing and river gurgling become quite understandable while listening to the corresponding sounds. Presenting vocabulary through verbal definition means giving synonyms, antonyms, definitions or creating a situation (or context) to present a new word meaning. These means are especially useful for presenting abstract nouns and adjectives. To understand word fully, a student must know not only what it refers to, but also where the boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning. Translation is obviously one way around the problem of explaining difficult concepts. Much of what we say in any language is prompted by what we see or have seen around us. We have to give students practice in reacting in English to objects or pictures. They allow me to explain a word or concept simply, by showing a picture or pointing to an object. Abstractions can often be explained in this way where mime or words are insufficient. The most valuable teaching aid, worldwide, is a blackboard or other writing or drawing surface. In many ways, a blackboard is more essential than a textbook. It has the advantage of providing a focal point of attention for the whole class and can be used for a variety of purposes. There are many different kinds of task types that a teacher can set learners in order to help more words into long term memory. Some of these tasks will require more brain work than others. Learning vocabulary is largely about remembering, and students generally need to see, say, and write newly learned words many times before they can be said to have learned them. Some researchers have suggested various numbers of encounters with a word for learning to take place, ranging from five to up to twenty. Researchers also agree that repeating words aloud helps students remember words better than repeating them silently. Another area of research is how long students can remember words after first learning them, and again researchers agree that forgetting mostly occurs immediately after we first learn something and that the rate of forgetting slows down afterward. Materials can also provide students with ideas to activate and practice vocabulary in their everyday life, which is especially useful for students who live in non-English-speaking environments. Activities might include labeling items of furniture in English in a room or trying to remember the English name for all the items they see in a clothing store. As mentioned earlier, the act of retrieving vocabulary seems to be an effective way of learning, and such activities can take place at any point in the day – not just at times designated for studying English. The acquisition of vocabulary is arguably the most critical component of successful language learning. Until recently, however, it has been difficult to determine the most important words and phrases needed to establish a suitable vocabulary for conducting conversations most effectively. The Corpus’ massive collection of texts has given us access to a wealth of information regarding spoken and written English that was previously unavailable. The task at hand, therefore, is to take this new information and apply it in the classroom. Since there are so many things to learn about each piece of vocabulary (meaning, spoken/written forms, collocations, connotations, grammatical behavior, etc.) it is important that we as teachers only introduce a little at a time, starting with the most frequent, useful, and learnable vocabulary, and turning later to more difficult vocabulary and less frequent uses of previously earned items. We need to repeat vocabulary often because students must work with a word or phrase many times before acquisition takes place, and we must offer variety to keep the exercises fresh and to cater to different learning styles. Finally, we need to help students understand that learning is a gradual process that takes place in small, manageable increments over time, and to encourage them to seek additional information on their own, personalizing the learning experience and tailoring it to their own specific needs.