Vocabulary Revision StrategiesBy Nick Michelioudakis

Incongruity

• R: What is a ‘half-cake’?• R: How to quote the price…• Moral: Incongruity ‘wakes us up’ and forces us to

notice things.

Which is the safest place to hide information? The CIA archives or a

student’s vocabulary notebook?

…Well, the former will be opened eventually…

A question…

How do our students record vocabulary?•…They make lists….•…like this: cast = ρίχνω

How do our students revise vocabulary?•…they read the words….•…they test themselves by covering the translation…

Another two questions…

To look at some easy strategies which can... …help raise students’ awareness of what they need to

know about lexical items. …help students record vocabulary better. …help students revise more effectively.

SESSION AIMS

‘Words are like books’ (H. Puchta)

• Look at the 50 words in the list.• With a partner try to divide them into 5 categories. • Try to find a suitable name for each category. (E.g. ‘table’ –

‘chair’ – ‘desk’ : category: ‘furniture’)

Grouping

Grouping

oil field exam cool crude dairy

bright refine responsible illness pipes

mineral sunshine carbs attention test

heat honest notes indoors traditional

mixture homework underground huge liquid

class well essay overweight healthy

desert protein shade popular variety

barrels progress brave sweat drill

balanced diet air con mark thick

sunglasses producer school fuel contain

Grouping

Grouping

oil field exam cool crude dairy

bright refine responsible illness pipes

mineral sunshine carbs attention test

heat honest notes indoors traditional

mixture homework underground huge liquid

class well essay overweight healthy

desert protein shade popular variety

barrels progress brave sweat drill

balanced diet air con mark thick

sunglasses producer school fuel contain

Grouping

• Words do not occur in isolation!• Look at the category ‘ADJECTIVES’ and try to find a

‘partner’ for each word (e.g. ‘sharp’ – a sharp knife)• NB: Try to think of a ‘partner’ which helps you understand

the meaning of the adjective (e.g – a cunning man [?] / a cunning fox [√])

Pairing

ADJECTIVES

popular

bright

thick

honest healthy

huge

traditionalbrave

balanced

responsible

Pairing

ADJECTIVES

popular

bright

thick

honest healthy

huge

traditionalbrave

balanced

responsible

Pairing

soldier

TV series

ceremony

debt

carpet

student

parent

diet

lifestyleemployee

• Look at the words in the category ‘FOOD’, and try to think of others belonging to the same group (e.g. FOOD: salad / breakfast / …).

• Write these new words all around the original group – do not make a list!

Brainstorming

FOOD

illness

mineral

carbohydrates

proteindiet

variety

overweight

dairy

contain

mixture

Brainstorming

FOOD

illness

mineral

carbohydrates

proteindiet

variety

overweightdairy

contain

mixture

breakfast

salad sweets

calories

mealvegetables

fast food

snack

burn

fat

tasty

kitchen

restaurant

Brainstorming

‘Words are like boats’ (H. Puchta)

• In the same category, try to ‘link’ two or more words by finding some feature they have in common or some other way in which they are linked semantically (e.g. ‘diet’ and ‘vegetables’ – because a good diet contains lots of vegetables).

• NB 1: It is best to do so by drawing a line connecting one word with the other.

• NB 2: You need to say in what way the words are linked.

Linking

FOOD

illness

mineralcarbohydrates

protein

dietvariety

overweight

dairy

contain

mixture

breakfast

salad sweets

calories

meal

vegetables

fast food

snack

burn

fat

tasty

kitchen

restaurant

Linking

• Our students tend to focus equally on all lexical items, but this is wrong as not all words are equally useful or hard to remember.

• Look at the words in the category ‘HEAT’, and highlight the ones which you feel would be more important or harder to recall or use.

Focusing

HEAT

desert

cool

liquid

shadeheat

sunshine

air con sunglasses

sweat

indoors

Focusing

HEAT

desert

cool

liquid

shadeheat

sunshine

air con sunglasses

sweat

indoors

Focusing

OIL

crude

drill

underground

oil fieldfuel

refine

pipes well

producer

barrels

Recalling

• OK – now try to write down all 10 words without looking at them.

• Now compare the two lists – have you left any of the words out? If so, highlight it.

• NB: We are going to do the same thing again – later!

Recalling

• Look at the category ‘HEAT’ again and then try to associate each word in it with the notions ‘Good’ [√] or ‘Bad’ [x] – but you need to say why!

• (e.g. ‘sunglasses’ = Good – ‘because they protect your eyes from the sun’).

Associating

HEAT

desert

cool

liquid

shadeheat

sunshine

air con sunglasses

sweat

indoors

Associating

HEAT

desert

cool

liquid

heat

sunshine

air con sunglasses

sweat

indoors

shadex

x

x

x

√ √

√

√

√

√

Associating

• Some words are particularly hard. To remember these, we may need to ‘anchor’ them in our brains. To do this, we may need to create a mini network.

• Work with a partner. Choose one of the following words: crude – mineral – indoors – refine.

• Now try to create a mini-network, linking the word to as many other words / notions as you can think of.

• [Here is an example…]

Anchoring

Carbohydrates

fatprotein

carbohydrates

pastabreadrice

diet

easy to digest

fattening

energy

exercise

sources of carbohydrates

Anchoring

• Look at the category ‘OIL’ . The words are all clearly related to each other and it is easy to imagine them being used together in the same context.

• With a partner, try to write a short paragraph (about 4 – 5 lines long), linking as many of these words together as possible (min 5!).

Using

OIL

crude

drill

underground

oil fieldfuel

refine

pipes well

producer

barrels

Using

• Oil can be found in special places underground. To get it, people often need to drill deep wells. The oil is then pumped up and transferred through pipes to large factories, where crude oil is refined to make other products like gasoline and other kinds of fuel. Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the world. It produces 10.3 millions of barrels every day.

Using

• There are good students and there are better students. The former do what the teacher tells them; the latter go ‘one step beyond’!

• Look at the ‘SCHOOL’ group. Are there any words in this field you know in Arabic but not in English? With your partner, try to find at least 8.

• [Don’t forget to look them up when you go home! ]

Expanding

SCHOOL

essay

exam

homework

progressnotes

attention

classtest

mark

school

Expanding

SCHOOL

essay

exam

homework

progressnotes

attention

classtest

mark

school

Expanding

επανάληψη

τιμωρία

έπαινος

παρών

εκδρομή

αποβάλλω

επιμελής

συμμαθητής

αναβάλλω

αυστηρός

SCHOOL

essay

exam

homework

progressnotes

attention

classtest

mark

school

Expanding

επανάληψη (revision)

τιμωρία (punishment)

έπαινος (praise)

παρών (present)

εκδρομή (excursion)

αποβάλλω (expel)

επιμελής (diligent)

συμμαθητής (classmate)

αναβάλλω (put off)

αυστηρός (strict)

• Write down as many of the strategies as you can remember.• Which one is the most effective in your opinion? Why?• Which do you think your students are going to find easy to

use?

Remember: While pronunciation and grammar are both important, ultimately it is vocabulary that gets the message across. If our vocabulary is poor, then communication can be seriously problematic…

…just watch this…

Time to Reflect

Hope you found this session useful.

NB: All the video clips you have watched today can be found on YouTube NB: All the video clips you have watched today can be found on YouTube under ‘Comedy for ELT’ or ‘Psychology and ELT’. If you have any comments under ‘Comedy for ELT’ or ‘Psychology and ELT’. If you have any comments

feel free to contact me at feel free to contact me at nickmi@ath.forthnet.gr