Teaching vocabulary

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Teaching vocabulary

• Some Multimodal Alternatives
• Dr. Rory Donnelly
• Visiting Fulbright Scholar, University of Costa
  Rica,
• Professor, Northeastern Illinois University

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Outline

• Vocabulary development some principles
• Selecting words to teach
• Traditional methods for learning vocabulary in
  L1 a critique.
• Four alternative strategies
• Summary

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Vocabulary Development/ Principle 1

• There are four vocabularies, not just one
• Reading
• Listening
• Speaking
• Writing

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Vocabulary Development/ Principle 2

• Vocabulary words need to be planted deeply, like
  a good tree.
• ---- so multimodality helps
• (Multimodality using all senses to learn a
  word)
• Examples using association, using drawing,
  using speaking, using writing

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Vocabulary Development/ Principle 3

• Methods used in first language classrooms are not
  very useful
• Writing definitions? why isnt it useful for
  second language learners?
• Writing words in sentences why isnt it useful
  for second language learners?

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Selecting words

• Words students need for comprehension
• Words that are generally useful
• Words that are hard to get from context

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My list

• pelican
• elephant
• romance
• rhyme(s)
• marry/wed

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Four Alternative Methods

• Word Webs (before)
• Visual vocabulary (before or after)
• Writing Riddles (before or after)
• Journal writing (after)

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Word Webs
couple
boyfriend/ girlfriend
love
dating

• romance

kissing
not love of family and friends
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Visual Vocabulary
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Writing Riddles

• We are a team
• We both have the same sounds at the end
• We work in poems
• What word am I?

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Journal Writing

• Here are 4 words from the poem that we read. Use
  them in a paragraph about the poem.
• pelican
• elephant
• marry (or wed)
• pelicant

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Summary

• Vocabulary needs to be recycled many times
• First language strategies dont work well for
  second language learners
• Multiple modalities help students root those
  words in their new language and their brain