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Ways to Use Activities and Games to Teach Vocabulary

Written by Dorit Sasson

Teaching and practicing vocabulary may be tedious and repetitive, but in order to make it an enjoyable and lively experience, we need to find ways to make vocabulary repetition interesting for our students.

There are three principles involved in teaching and learning vocabulary in context: practice, understand, and infer (going beyond the text). Vocabulary activities, read aloud and games are all part of this vocabulary learning.

As a general rule of thumb, vocabulary can be taught inductively (through some process of discovery) or deductively, by providing a picture – “this is a _________." Introduce no more than 7 new words per lesson. Five to seven words is ideal.

Stages of Practicing Vocabulary

Practicing vocabulary should be taught in a variety of fun, communicative and motivating contexts so students will feel confident using the new words.  The stages of practicing vocabulary can be done both orally and in writing.

Stage 1: Guided - teacher oriented activity.

Stage 2: Semi-guided - a clue is provided.

Example: Teacher asks: What did you do last night? [S/he guides the students to give an answer with the target word]

Stage 3: Free - students are expected to produce. [Example: Tell your neighbor what you did last night - again, hoping that students will respond using the target vocabulary words]

Fun Vocabulary Practice Techniques

Once the targeted word has been formally introduced, students can then practice learning the new words. Pictures are a great way to reinforce vocabulary concepts and words. Younger kids for example, can talk about the animals on Old McDonald's farm in context with the other animals.

·         Personalize: Teacher can ask students: "Do you have a dog at home?" or "What animal do you like the best?"

·         Teacher numbers each picture: Students say the number of each word as it is called or show the number of fingers if the teacher wants to keep the noise level down.

·         Students can describe the colors of Old McDonald's farm.

·         Interactive: Students come and put the dog in a place the teacher says.

·         I'm thinking of a word: Teacher describes the word and students guess the word or its meaning.

·         Use imagination: Example, imagine you are in a cabin. Students have ten minutes to create a story using as many words as possible.

Other Tips and Strategies for Practicing New Vocabulary

·         Be selective when it comes to exercises in the textbook. If it's too hard or too abstract, modify it or skip it altogether until your students are cognitively ready.

·         Examine the vocabulary activity. Is its purpose clear? Is it useful? Does it force the students to think about the language? Can it be made more interesting?

·         Make sure your drills are adapted to the needs of the individual student. Make up your own exercise if the book does not have any suitable ones.

·         Use as much time as possible for listening and speaking. Let students work in pairs or in small groups as often as possible.

·         Start written work in the classroom to make sure everyone understands what they are doing. Do some exercises orally first, then let the students finish them for homework. Don't underestimate your students. Show them that you expect them to be able to work individually or in pairs or groups.

·         Make the lessons as enjoyable as possible. If you enjoy your work, the students will enjoy your lessons.

The key to successful vocabulary practice is frequent exposure and repetition. So have fun while learning new words!