DID2920 ESL Pedagogy I Susan Parks

TEACHING VOCABULARY
A. THE TEACHER’S STRATEGIES

1. COGNATES
Cognates refer to words that are resemble words in the students’ first language or other
languages that the student may know. There are many words in English that are the same
as words in French or close enough to enable guessing. Cognates which have the same
meaning involve POSTIVE TRANSFER FROM THE L1. English words which do not
have the same meaning as in French are referred to as FALSE COGNATES. The teacher
needs to draw attention to these words so students notice them and become aware of their
real meanings. Drawing attention to the similarities and difference in a language creates
awareness and facilities language learning. This is referred to as METACOGNITION or
creating LANGUAGE AWARENESS.

POINTS TO NOTE
Pronunciation Even though words may look the same as in French, the
pronunciation in English is usually not the same. The teacher
should pronounce the words and have students pronounce them
to help them with listening comprehension
The French Obvious or fairly obvious Less obvious examples of
equivalent for a cognates – examples: cognates:
cognate may be more  a train  John works in a circus
or less obvious.  a doctor (cirque). He trains
 pronunciation (entraîner) tigers.
 examples  Fantastic beasts (bêtes)
 advantage
 fantastic
 no problem
False cognates Examples:
Sam got a good note. (MARK)
It’s not just. (It’s not FAIR).
Is it an obligation? (Do we HAVE TO? MUST we?)
Verify the answers. (CHECK the answers)
TEACHING Have students read a short  Write the cognates on the
STRATEGIES text and identify the words board.
that look like words in  Ask what the word in French
French. is.
 Pronounce the word in
English.
 Have students repeat the word

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Less obvious cognates  Ask students to look closely

and guess at features which
might help them figure out a
link with French.
Resource. Have a space From time to time, ask students to
reserved on the board for add words they find in their
cognates. readings.
Resource. Create WRONG
WORD/ RIGHT WORD WRONG WORD* RIGHT WORD
POSTERS for false It’s not grave It’s not serious.
cognates and display them It’s not just. It’s not fair.
in the classroom. Is it an obligation? Do we have to?
Must we?
METACOGNITION Creating an AWARENESS of language is referred to as
metacognition. One example of this strategy pertains to creating
an awareness of cognates (with respect to French or possibly
other languages that students know). Metacognitive awareness
can help students become better language learners.

2. GESTURES/ MIME
The use of gestures/mime is particularly useful for the following:

ACTION VERBS SIMPLE CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS

(managerial language)
 sit down  look at me
 stand up  listen
 turn around  speak
 touch your arm  write
 swim  read
 play tennis  draw
 play the piano  open/close your book
 walk  take your pencil
 run  repeat
 climb  stop
 open/close the door  come up to the blackboard/Smart board
 dance  it’s your turn
 laugh  put down/ pick up your pencil
 cry  put the paper in the wastepaper basket
 turn on/ off the lights  be quiet/ silence
 bite
 scratch

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 Action verbs/ instructions with non-verbal responses. The teacher says the
targeted word and demonstrates it through gesture/ mime. Students imitate the
gestures/mime or perform the appropriate behavior in response to the prompt. (CF
My First ESL Class)
 Writing on the board. To facilitate remembering the words, the teacher writes
them on the board.
 Total Physical Response. This approach to language teacher advocates starting
learners off through the use of non-verbal responses and is based on the use of
gestures/ mime. For an interesting demonstration where learners are taught
Indonesion, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6De52Pzr8c

Activities. Two widely used games in L2 classes are:

1. Charades – Actions are drawn from a hat and students take turns trying to mime them
so the class or their teammates can guess.

2. Simon says. All students stand up to start off the game. When a teacher say: Simon
says + an action (e.g., Simon says put up your hand), students must do it. If the teacher
gives an action without saying Simon says, students must not move. Those who forget
and do the action, sit down and are out of the game. The winner is the one left standing.

3. SYNONYMS/ SIMPLE PARAPHRASE OR EXPLANATIONS

This involves using known words to explain unknown words. Examples:

giggle => laugh tough => difficult barenaked => no clothes

a cue => signal sweat => perspiration If things don’t go my way, I might
bolt => leave
rotate => turn around swift => very fast goofy => crazy, funny
scared => afraid tough => difficult tide => in an ocean, the water
comes in – high tide – and the
water goes out – low tide (gestures
goofy => crazy, funny fall => autumn
can also accompany this
explanation).

4. GIVING THE OPPOSITE MEANING

Sometimes an unknown item can be explained by referring to its opposite (a known
word). Exampes:

 ugly => not beautiful

 crooked (road) => not straight;

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5. GIVING EXAMPLES OF A KNOWN CATEGORY OR USING EXAMPLES

TO TEACH THE CATEGORY (SUPERORDINATE TERM)
In the following examples, the unknown word is indicated with an asterisk:
 clothing* – for example, jeans, shirts, dresses, skirts
 crops* – for example, potatoes, corn, beans, peas.
 seasons – autumn, winter, spring*, summer

6. USING CONTEXT
In readings, the teacher can draw attention to contextual clues which can help explain an
unknown vocabulary word. See below for one example of an exercise which can be used
to make students aware of how they can use contextual clues to guess at the meaning of
unknown words. In certain instances, the teacher can explain the meaning of words by
pointing to objects in the classroom or by manipulating them as in the example below.

CLASSROOM CONTEXT

Objective – to teach prepositions: on, in, between, under.

The teacher manipulates objects in the classroom (e.g., pencil, book, cup) to demonstrate
what the prepositions mean. For example, the pencil is ON the book, the pencil is
UNDER the book, the pencil is IN the cup, the pencil is BETWEEN the cup and the
book. For demonstration by a teacher, see the following YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-NSKJ7PRpk

READING TEXTS: USING CONTEXTUAL CLUES

STRATEGY: Guessing words from context
For each word in CAPITAL LETTERS, find it in the text. Read the
whole sentence as well as a couple of sentences that precede and
follow. Then, try to guess the meaning. Following this, check the
meaning in a dictionary (paper or electronic) or use an online
translator.
1. Elephants are FOND OF water…
I think FOND OF means______________________________________
Dictionary: ________________________________________________
2. An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing,
trumpeting, drinking, and also for GRABBING things—especially a potential
meal.
I think GRABBING means______________________________________
Dictionary: _________________________________________________

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3. Female elephants (COWS) live in family herds with their young…

I think COWS means______________________________________
Dictionary: ________________________________________________

4. Elephants have a longer PREGNANCY than any other mammal—almost 22

months.
I think PREGNANCY means______________________________________
Dictionary: ________________________________________________
5. Female elephants (cows) live in family herds with their young, but adult males
(bulls) tend to ROAM on their own.
I think ROAM means______________________________________
Dictionary: _____________________________________________

STRATEGY: USING PICTURES TO FACILIATE GUESSING

Surveying pictures/ captions: Before reading, tell students to look at the

pictures and read the captions. To further exploit, follow-up by asking them
questions about the pictures to further explore ideas and bring up new words
in context in an indirect manner (eliciting strategy).

Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes
the African heat is too much. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by
sucking water into their trunks and SPRAYING it all over themselves. Afterwards,
they often SPRAY their skin with a protective coating of dust.
I think SPRAY means ______________________________________
Dictionary: _______________________________________________

spraying dust

FOLLOW-UP – CREATING METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS

Display the text on the board. For each question, refer to the spot in the text where the
word occurs. Ask students to say what clues helped them guess. Possibilities:

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+ general context
+ prior knowledge/ knowledge of the world
+ meanings/ synonyms/ explanations in parentheses
+ sentence structure/ syntax/ transition markers (e.g. words that indicate a contrast such
as but, on the other hand, by contrast)
+ referring to accompanying pictures/captions which could help to guess an action

7. VISUALS
Visuals can be used in a variety of ways to introduce or reinforce vocabulary as well as
help activate prior knowledge before asking students to read or listen to a text. Visuals
can be presented in the form of:

- depictions of things (clothing, fruit, food, sports, classroom objects, furniture,

seasons)
- a series of pictures to depict events or a story
- diagrams to show relationships (e.g., the water cycle)
- a collage to highlight items relevant to a text (see below for the African elephant
text)

Pictures can be labelled directly on the visual or the teacher can write the words on the
board or screen during interaction with students. An advantage of using the Smart Board
is that labels can be hidden behind the pictures or in small boxes and revealed as needed.

SMART BOARD WITH LABELS HIDDEN UNDER PICTURES

COLLAGE WITH LABELLED ITEMS

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8. ELICITING
Instead of explaining unknown words directly, the teacher asks questions so as to elicit
(or attempt to elicit) targeted items in a relevant context. Examples:

a. Pointing to a picture of a bottle, the teacher asks: What is this?

b. Referring to a scene, the teacher asks: What do you see in this picture?

c. To explain targeted words, the teacher asks questions and gradually explains the
meaning. Imagine, for example, that the teacher wants to bring up words such as
cavity, root canal, toothache in the context of a theme related to going to the
dentist. Instead of trying to explain such words in a contextual void, the teacher
could ask questions such as: Why did you go to the dentist? What was the
problem? Why do people go to the dentist?. If the students are trying to say the
word or say it in French, the teacher can 1. ask other students if they know how to
say the word in English or 2. supply or reformulate himself or herself. The teacher
should also WRITE THE WORD on the board to help them remember and enable
other students to re-use it.

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ENRICHING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY. This same strategy can be used

to enrich students’ vocabulary by supplying more sophisticated vocabulary. For
example, imagine that the teacher is talking about homeless people and asks why.
If a student says because they are poor. The teacher might rephrase by saying: yes,
they are poor, there is a lot of POVERTY (and write it on the board). If when
talking about skating, a student says that a person is a good skater, the teacher can
elaborate by saying: yes – the skater is good, the skater is very SKILLED (and
write the word on the board).

Using elicitation requires teachers to ACTIVELY LISTEN to what students are

saying. They must work with their ideas. It is a skill which needs to be developed
over time.

TO BE AVOIDED. Teachers should avoid asking questions such as the

following which require students to give definitions of words: What’s poverty?
What does poverty mean? Trying to answer such questions is often beyond
students in terms of language. A more viable solution is to use

Use of French. When the objective is initial brainstorming or exploration of a theme, the
teacher might tell students that if they can’t answer in English, they can get out their idea
in French. The teacher then helps the student reformulate as noted above. In an instance
like this, the objective is to get students to share their ideas. There’s no time to look up
words in a dictionary!! If students can’t say something in French, they will probably not
say anything at all.

9. USING COMBINATIONS OF THE ABOVE

Very often the best way to get across the meaning of words is to resort to combinations of
the above. For example, for the collage about elephants shown above, the teacher could
ask a series of questions intended to get students to use some of the labelled words as
well as elicit other theme-related words.

QUESTIONS re: elephant collage with TARGETED VOCABULARY ITEMS

labelled key words (in italics).
1. Look at this picture. Describe what an ears – tusks – grey skin - trunk – big legs
elephant looks like
Follow-up questions: What color is - Grey (skin)
elephant’s skin? What are the tusks made - Ivory (tusks)
of?
2. What do elephants eat? Grass (depends on what students know)
Do you think elephants eat bark (pointing bark
to tree)?
3. What do elephants use their trunk for? To drink water, to fight/battle with other
male elephants (depends on what they

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know)
What else? Look at this picture (POINT Spraying dust
TO SPRAYING DUST) Why do they do
this?

LESSON PLANNING: BEFORE YOU TEACH

When teachers prepare a lesson, they should read through all their materials carefully in
order to identify words which may be new to students. Once identified, they should
decide how best to explain the words using the above strategies. If visuals or objects are
required, the concrete items should be gathered together or a file prepared for the
interactive whiteboard. While going through their materials, teachers should also note
the cognates as these items facilitate guessing by students, especially in readings where
they see the written forms.

TEACHING VOCABULARY TO BEGINNER/

ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH VISUALS OR
OBJECTS

As shown in the chart below once a word is introduced, various questioning techniques
can be used to reinforce and practice it.

QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE EXAMPLE

1. Introducing a new word in response Teacher (pointing to the picture of an
to a prompt (picture or object) apple): apple, apple.
(teacher repeats 2 or 3 times)

2. Repetition in response to a prompt. Picture of an apple

Have students repeat words as a group or Teacher: apple. Repeat (to class)
individually. Normally, words are Class: apple.
practiced first with the whole class (choral Teacher repeats like this for the list.
repetition – a form of SIMULTANEOUS
response).
3. Non-verbal response in response to a Pictures of fruit on the Smart board
prompt (no written words) Teacher: Show me an apple.
4. Yes/no questions (prompts but no Picture of an apple
written words) Teacher: Is this an apple? (Yes/ Yes it is)
Teacher: Is this an orange? (No/ No it
isn’t)
5. OR questions (prompts but no written Picture of an apple

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words) Teacher: Is this an apple OR an orange?

Student: It’s an apple.
6. Eliciting the name of the item in Picture of an apple
response to a prompt Teacher: What is this?
Student: It’s an apple.
Picture of shoes
Teacher: What are these?
Student: They are shoes.

As shown in the above chart, the questioning techniques place increasing cognitive
demands on the learner. With non-verbal requests, students do not need to speak. With
yes-no or OR questions, the targeted word is supplied. Eliciting the name of an item
(What is this?/ What are these?) is the most demanding type of questioning as students
must remember the target words themselves.

GENERAL ADVICE FOR TEACHING STUDENTS

WITH BEGINNER/ ELEMENTARY PROFICIENCY

1. QUESTIONS
 Use the same question repeatedly.
 Ask questions with the WH-words (what, where, when, why, how) at the start of the
question: WHERE did you go? WHAT did you eat?.

Avoid indirect questions or statements or long questions which are difficult to

process, e.g.:

INDIRECT QUESTIONS* DIRECT QUESTIONS

Could you please tell me what this is? What is this?
Could you please tell me what John is What is John eating?
eating?
Does anyone know what her name is? What is her name?
I’d like to know if you can tell me when When did Mary go to the store?
Mary went to the store?
* Note that in indirect questions one
uses NORMAL WORD ORDER -
subject + verb.

With WH-questions as the first word, the focus is on the main information. Use
stress and repetition to make the word more salient and repeat it as necessary, e.g.,
WHAT – WHAT is Mary wearing?

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 Ask the questions first, pause, and then identify a student. If you say
the student’s name first, the others may not make the effort to think of an answer.
 If a student does not answer immediately, do not rush in with an
answer or ask another student. PAUSE. GIVE STUDENTS TIME TO THINK. It
takes time for students to process information, especially in a second language.
Take your time.
 Giving feedback. If a student makes a mistake, reformulate the
answer and have the student repeat. In certain instances, you may wish to have the
whole class repeat. To help students out, you can also point to relevant information
on the board or a functional language poster.

2. VOCABULARY/FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE.
 Use the same words over and over again.
 Use a limited range of vocabulary.
 Display functional language in posters or refer students to resources.

PRACTICE TASKS FOR BEGINNERS-ELEMENTARY

STUDENTS

Once vocabulary is introduced, students need lots of practice. Typical types of

tasks/activities at the beginners-elementary levels include the following:

 Mini-dialogs. These are simple conversational exchanges which are modelled by the
teacher and generally practiced in pairs. The Inside-Outside or Heads Together videos
which were shown in class showed how mini-dialogs were being used with students in
ESL classes in a Quebec school. Such mini-dialogs can be readily done using the
cooperative learning structures Inside Outside Circle or Mix-Pair-Share.
 Roleplays. Use a dialog as a model (elaborate versions of a mini-dialog). When
practising, students can personalize the original model by drawing on their own
experiences or in response to various situations with which they are presented. Props
can also be used (e.g. a restaurant roleplay where students are seated at a table and use
menus).

 Kim’s game – This is a memory game. Objects can be placed on a desk or shown on an
interactive board. Students have a minute or two to check out the items. Then, they are
removed and students write down all the ones they can remember. Although this game
can be played individually, it can also be played as a team using Heads Together. In
this latter instance, one person notes the items the team remembers. To turn it into team
competitions, give points.

 Flashcard Game (Kagan Cooperative Learning, p. 6.27). Flashcards have the cue on
one side and the answer on the other. One main use is to practice different concrete
vocabulary words such as names of clothing, food, animals, fruit and vegetables, types

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of furniture, etc. However, other uses include singular and plural of nouns, colors and
descriptive words, action verbs and various verbs tenses.

Vocabulary item Cue on one side of Answer on the other side

flashcard
Concrete nouns

Verbal cue: What is it? It’s a fish

Action verbs
Right now
Examples of verbal cues to she’s skiing.
practice various verb
tenses:

What is she doing right

Last weekend
now? she was skiing.
What was she doing last
weekend?
Yesterday she
What did she do skied.
yesterday?
Plural
Verbal cue: What do you
I see THREE
see? APPLES.

Digital versions of * Smart Board – hide the words under the pictures
Flashcards can also be
created. Suggestion: use * QUIZLET
HEADS TOGETHER so
students can participate in
teams.

 Word sorts. Sorting words into categories (e.g., winter sports vs summer sports, fruit
vs vegetables vs meat, winter clothes vs summer clothes. Smart Board (Gallery): Create
tasks with Vortex and sorting tools (e.g. categories with columns). Suggestion: Have
students answer in teams using Heads Together.

 LEARNING AND EVALUATION SITUATIONS (LESs). In the elementary and

secondary grades, LESs are organized in terms of themes. This ensures that
vocabulary is recycled throughout the various tasks and activities.