Vocabulary Development and Vocabulary activities

The theme of the month in 9^th grade is “Beyond”. This chapter in the course book consists of texts about supernatural phenomena. Before we started working with the texts, we talked about some of the topic words such as senses, sceptical, spectre, to haunt, spooky, atmosphere, phenomena/phenomenon and supernatural. We talked about and explained what the words meant and the students wrote sentences using the newly learned vocabulary. During the lessons these topic words will be used several times both orally and in writing (recycling). In addition, we talked about supernatural experiences. Some of the students shared their knowledge and opinions about the theme.

One of the texts we listened to and read was about a physicist who explained supernatural phenomena by science. While listening the students wrote words they did not understand or found useful. Furthermore, they wrote arguments the physicist used to explain that paranormal activities could be explained by science. One of the learning objectives was to use arguments for and against supernatural phenomena. Then we put the words and arguments on the board and talked about the meaning. The students then wrote two paragraphs in which they had to use the words and arguments to convince a fellow student that ghosts do not exist.  Furthermore, some of the students took the role of a ghost trying to persuade the class that ghosts actually do exist.

To retrieve and recall the vocabulary in a fun way we used the game back to the board. To get a competitive element I divided the class into two groups. Each group chose six words from the text and by turns, they sat with their backs to the board. The student with the back to the board asked his/her group questions like: Is it a verb, a noun, or an adjective? Does it exist? Is it human? Is it a phenomenon? Can I touch it? Some of the words they picked were difficult to guess so they were allowed to give hints without revealing the actual word. The group that guessed the words fastest and with less hints won the competition. Actually, the students thought this was so fun that I had to come up with more words from the text.

There are productive activities one can use to assess the students’ acquisition of the words and phrases.  To check if they have required and incorporated the studied words, they can use the words and phrases in sentences, making their own definitions of the words and explain it orally or in writing. My further plan is to let the students write their own texts, a ghost story or an article about paranormal activities, in which they have to use words and phrases they have learned. In this way, I can assess if they have fully understood the meaning of the words. I guess I will give them a list of the words and phrases they have to use in their texts.  Writing a creative text is also one of the learning objectives in this theme. During the course, the students will get the opportunity to write texts in different genres, both fictional and factual.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the words and phrases the students study will be recycled multiple times during the course. In order to incorporate the words and phrases into the learners’ long–term memory, I will suggest these three ways that might be effective to recycle and actively retrieve the vocabulary:

1    Playing different vocabulary games such as Backs to the Board, Pictionary and Word Race.

2    Various writing tasks such as completion of sentences and texts in addition to the students’ own creation of sentences and texts.

3    Word maps, vocabulary notebooks and word cards.