10.5
Presenting vocabulary
10.5.1
Familiarization
Presenting vocabulary is primarily about making vocabulary salient. This entails concentrating learners' attention on the new words, either by teacher-fronted whole-class activity, or by learner-centred group or pair work. Presentation, in my terms, means that learners attend to both meaning and form, including pronunciation and spelling. In taking the decision to present new vocabulary, we would normally focus on vocabulary for active productive use, or on vocabulary that needs to be understood in order to make sense of a reading or listening text. We have also to decide whether to present it in its written or spoken form first.
The most common points in a lesson where vocabulary is taught out of context is in brainstorming for a speaking or writing activity, or pre-teaching items from a reading or listening text which is about to be used in class. In these situations it is a good idea to pre-familiarize the vocabulary item, ie to give the sense first and then the item. Here is an example of pre-familiarization:
| T: What kind of coat is
it? (shows picture of fur coat) S: White T: White yes, what kind of material? S: Cotton, cotton T: Oh it's not cotton is it? S: Wool T: It's not really wool. Em … em … S: Material T: Material yes. It's the kind of … S: Sof or soft … T: Animal. What … er animal skin, isn't it? S: Frer … Furr T: Fur. Have you heard that before? I'll write it up on the board. |
In the above example, we see that the students are working hard and engaging with a wordsearch activity, showing the teacher what they know in the process. The stimulus for the engagement here is prompted by verbal and visual means.
But presentation does not stop here. We need to check understanding. So, we could check by asking, 'What other bird do you know that has feathers?' 'What are feathers for?'
Activity 14
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1. You are preparing to use a text in which the word 'industrial' appears. You think your class will not know this word, so you decide to pre-teach it. How will you present it and how will you check understanding? Click on 'Commentary' for feedback on this activity. 2. Now choose one of the following French, German, Italian, Russian or Spanish words (or select one yourself from the language you teach) and record yourself as you present it orally to one of your lower to intermediate level classes:
Review the recording and consider how might you improve your presentation of the word. |
Here is an example of the alternative presentation technique of post-familiarization, ie presenting the item first and then the sense.
| T: 'In fact'. Do you know
what that means? S: In fact. T: In fact. It means 'really' |
The procedure for checking understanding would then be the same as for pre-familiarization.
Activity 15 gives a further example of post-familiarization.
Activity 15
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In this extract, the teacher is presenting the item, 'bungalow'. He shows a visual of a bungalow, which he thinks is adequate to convey meaning. Instead of starting with pre-familiarization, by using the picture to elicit the word from the students, he gives it straight away, and so this extract represents post-familiarization. Why do you think these Arabic-speaking learners of English are having such difficulty understanding the item 'bungalow'? What could the teacher have done to make things clearer? Teacher: This we call
a bungalow, only one floor, all right? |
Click on 'Commentary' for feedback on this activity.
Activity 16
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Consider the item, 'backpack' in the following classroom extract. Do you consider that it has been adequately presented? S: One day is go to the
sightseeing in the weekend, take some er clothes and some things
in er in ba … in bag her back er … |
Click on 'Commentary' for feedback on this activity.
The intensity of most of the above approaches might mean they are less appropriate for advanced learners.
