Emma Percival

EDUC 359
Understanding Vocabulary Reflection
I found this activity to be very frustrating, but also insightful. It was challenging
to explain what a word means without actually giving the definition. My two words were
captious and malapropism. I had never heard these words before so I had to do some
research on their meanings. Malapropism is defined as a ludicrous misuse of a word,
especially by confusion with one of similar sound, and captious is marked by a
disposition to find and point out trivial faults. I was able to find some good cartoons of
malapropism online, such as if the dodge ball hits you, youll be illuminated, but
struggled with captious. I felt as though I had a good understanding of what captious
meant but I couldnt find a visual representation for it. I decided to try to act it out by
acting very critical.
My teaching methods worked to an extent. The student grasped the idea that I
was trying to convey but wasnt reaching a full understanding of the words. To help, I
explained that captious was an adjective and malapropism was a noun and they started
to understand it more. I think I achieved the objective because the student was able to
use the words in a sentence and give an example of each.
As a classroom teacher, I learned how tedious teaching vocabulary to ELL
students could be. I had never considered what the actual process would be like. I
always knew that it was a crucial part of an ELL students transition process but I didnt
think about the fine details of it. I believe using multiple methods when teaching
vocabulary is essential because it ensures that the student has complete understanding
of the word. I didnt have a full understanding of the words after reading the definitions;

I had to do more research and find examples. I think this is where the different levels of
understanding come in. A student might know how to define a word but they might not
know an example of it. This is why it is so important to elaborate on each word and
provide examples.