Ministry of education and science of ukraine

1.3 Teaching Vocabulary in English Language: Effective Methodologies

It is noteworthy to mention here that vocabulary items are imparted mostly by translation: either a list of words with their translation at the beginning of the lesson or the translation of the content having new words or glossaries at the very end. This is an erroneous practice as it leads to a state of confusion for the learners. On the teaching skills of vocabulary items, Frisby commented that "While the teacher is not, himself, concerned with the actual selection of vocabulary for text book purposes since practically all the books we use are based on limited vocabularies, it is important that he/she (the teacher) should know the principles, which underlie vocabulary selection" [15, p.34]. Thus it signifies that a language teacher should be innovative and proficient in the application of methodologies pertaining to teaching vocabulary items in a classroom situation.

Following are the main methodologies for teaching vocabulary items in an English language classroom.
Listening Carefully
Careful listening to the words may be a good option in teaching vocabulary items in a heterogenic classroom. "Let the students hear the word in isolation and in a sentence. If the sounds of the word have been mastered, the students will hear it correctly with two or three repetitions. "
Slow pronunciation without distortion will help. Breaking the word into parts and building up to the whole word will also be helpful.
Pronouncing the Word
Pronouncing the word enables the students to remember it longer and identify it more readily when they hear or see it.
The teacher in the process of teaching vocabulary should work on fostering word consciousness.
A more general way to help students develop vocabulary is by fostering word consciousness, an awareness of and interest in words. Word consciousness is not an isolated component of vocabulary instruction; it needs to be taken into account each and every day. It can be developed at all times and in several ways: through encouraging adept diction, through word play, and through research on word origins or histories. According to Graves, "If we can get students interested in playing with words and language, then we are at least halfway to the goal of creating the sort of word-conscious students who will make words a lifetime interest. "
Multiple exposures in multiple contexts are very efficient. One principle of effective vocabulary learning is to provide multiple exposures to a word's meaning. There is great improvement in vocabulary when students encounter vocabulary words often. According to Stahl, students probably have to see a word more than once to place it firmly in their long-term memories. "This does not mean mere repetition or drill of the word," but seeing the word in different and multiple contexts. In other words, it is important that vocabulary instruction provide students with opportunities to encounter words repeatedly and in more than one context.
Restructuring of vocabulary tasks is given below.

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  Intentional instruction of vocabulary items is required for specific texts.
  
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  Repetition and multiple exposures to vocabulary items are important.
  
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  Learning in rich contexts is valuable for vocabulary learning. Vocabulary tasks should be restructured as necessary.
  
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  Vocabulary learning should entail active engagement in learning tasks.
  
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  Computer technology can be used effectively to help teach vocabulary.
  
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  Vocabulary can be acquired through incidental learning. How vocabulary is assessed and evaluated can have differential effects on instruction.
  
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  Dependence on a single vocabulary instructional method will not result in optimal learning.
  

It is often assumed that when students do not learn new vocabulary words, they simply need to practice the words some more. Research has shown, however, that it is often the case that students simply do not understand the instructional task involved. Rather than focus only on the words themselves, teachers should be certain that students fully understand the instructional tasks. The restructuring of learning materials or strategies in various ways often can lead to increased vocabulary acquisition, especially for low-achieving or at-risk students. Once students know what is expected of them in a vocabulary task, they often learn rapidly.
There are several games and other fun activities you can do with students to help them to learn new vocabulary. For example, you can encourage students to participate in Dictionary Races. Give each student a series of words to look up in the dictionary and a copy of a dictionary. Have the students look up the words and write down the definitions. The first student to find and write down all of the definitions wins.
Students can then be encouraged to come up with creative sentences for the words they looked up in the dictionary races. You can ask each student to select a word and write a sentence on the board with that word. If you gave the students a series of related words, you can also have these sentences tie together as a story. Ask one student to begin the story using the first sentence containing a vocabulary word, and go around the room, having each student build upon the story using the next word on the list.
These activities will help students learn to use the dictionary, and will provide two exposures to the words within a brief context of time. You can then ask the students to identify prefixes, suffixes or roots contained in the words they looked up. Of course, before doing this part of the game, you will need to ensure that each student knows exactly what a prefix, suffix or root is. You can turn this into a contest as well, awarding a prize to the student who can identify the most prefixes or suffixes from your word list within a given period of time.
You can play this series of games repeatedly with different word lists, mixing in some of the old words each time with some of the new words. With repeated exposure to the existing words and a fun and engaging atmosphere in which to learn new words, students will be able to commit the words to memory more quickly and will have fun in the process.
Students can keep these lists of words, sentences and prefixes/suffixes in a special vocabulary notebook which they review periodically. This will allow them to build upon their knowledge of vocabulary and to slowly learn new words throughout the course of the year. By referring back to existing word lists and definitions in addition to looking up new words, students will experience repeated exposure to the words that they have looked up, ensuring that they commit those words to memory.