Vandreia Montano

ESC 766
Discussion board 3
a) It was very interesting to read Calderons chapters 1, 2, and 3, especially because I was
able to relate some of the strategies with my own experience as a second language
learner. I recall some very effective vocabulary teaching techniques that my EFL teachers
used to apply in the classroom and that are very similar to what Calderon describes in her
book. As an example, one of my EFL teachers used to select a number of words before a
reading activity, and she would translate the words to Portuguese (monolingual
Portuguese speaker class). In the sequence she would ask the students to repeat after her
as she read the words out loud modeling pronunciation. After reading the words in the
original context, she would give an activity for the students to practice the new
vocabulary, such as create sentences using the given words, mix and match the words and
their correspondent meanings, explain to each other the meaning of the words, and so on.
Also, the old vocabulary would be reinforced in the following class meetings, along
with the new vocabulary for the class. I found this practice to be very similar to the
seven-step strategy to pre-teach vocabulary. This is what stood out to me during the
reading, and especially because it was a very positive vocabulary learning strategy in my
second language learning process.
b) The reading I chose last week was intended to 8th or 9th graders, science students. Some
Tier 1 words from the text are: breath, strange, shapes, forced.
Tier 2: experts, enrichment, behavior, expelling, absolutely.
Tier 3: sloth bear, exhales, onto, paws, claws, mammals.
This was not a clear-cut exercise for me. I didnt find it easy to identify the words for
each category. It seems that the words could go in different categories depending on the
group of students. I think that after getting to know the students it would be a little bit
easier to select the words. It is really hard to judge what the students might or might not
know without any interaction with the students. I believe that after a few classes the
teacher can get a sense of the students vocabulary level and this selection might be
easier.
c) The tools I would like to try with my tutees are the polysemous words activities described
in the chapter. I liked the idea of looking up in the dictionary to find the different
meanings of a word, or invent a sentence using the multiple meanings of a words. I would
also like to try the seven-step strategy to pre-teach vocabulary. Since it was an effective
technique for me as a student I would like to try it with my tutees.