Teaching

Vocabulary
Josue Miranda Amador

The crucial role that vocabulary plays in second language learning and
teaching has been repeatedly acknowledged in theoretical second language
acquisition, thats why English teachers spend a lot of time trying to create new
creative ways to introduce vocabulary to their students.
Vocabulary is crucial to English language teaching because without
sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own
ideas. People can expand their English vocabulary knowledge in many different
ways. As an English teacher and speaker, I have been learning vocabulary for
many years, but I am still a learner because English vocabulary is really wide.
There are many important aspects of English vocabulary, which teachers
have to teach, they have to think about the kind of corpus are they going to use, in
order to fit the students environment to new knowledge. As teachers, we
recognize that cognitive processes on students minds are different, so students
have different needs and they acquire new vocabulary in different ways. Thats
why vocabulary knowledge is very personal.
The native language plays an important role when a student is learning
vocabulary because students always try to adequate the new vocabulary to words
they actually know in their mother tongue.
It is normal to ask students for the meaning of the word library and they
will interpret and translate the word as libreria and it is not the correct meaning of
the word.
In order to provide students vocabulary, teachers should ask themselves
three main questions:

What does the word sound and like? (form)

What meaning does this word have?(meaning)
Where and when can students use this word?(use)

When we think about the answers to the last questions, we can stablish
more clearly objectives of teaching vocabulary, materials, managerial, classroom
model and context in which the language will occur.
Teachers must provide students opportunities to communicate using
meaningful vocabulary and that will motivate students to find new ways of how to
express themselves using new words.
As teacher I encourage you to begin with your students strengths,
because every person has some vocabulary knowledge that is relevant to English,
even if it derives from his or her own native language.
Teachers and students can develop a growing love for English vocabulary
learning and naturally share a passion for words and phrases in any language.