Teaching vocabulary for A2 level learners with Communicative Approach

Eliciting and contexts
Eliciting words from students is an effective way of activating their memories. In a class of students it is quite possible that one or two may have come across the word before, even with low levels. It also helps you find out how much your students already know. There are a few different techniques for eliciting vocabulary, from drawing a quick picture on the board to giving an explanation or a short example of a situation.
It’s important to remember when you are eliciting (or explaining) vocabulary that the language you use is simpler than the language you are trying to elicit.
Giving the context for a word, just like embedding the word in an anecdote, helps students see how a particular item of vocabulary might be used. It also makes the word more memorable, helping students learn the item. Even if you are unable to elicit a word from your students, when you eventually tell them the word you were trying to elicit it is far more likely that they will remember it and its meaning.
Using synonyms and antonyms
A technique often used by teachers, especially at low levels, is to explain words by using a synonym or antonym. In many respects this is a flawed idea. Firstly, because many of the words will be of a similar level and, if a student doesn’t know one, then they won’t know the other, i.e. if a teacher wants to elicit black and they say it’s the opposite of white then this is unlikely to be helpful as the students probably don’t know white. Secondly, it can be very misleading as very few words have a direct antonym. For example, what’s the opposite of old? Is it new or young? Both, but then that becomes confusing. Thirdly, many words have more than one antonym or synonym all with similar meanings, so which do you use? For example, the opposite of happy could be sad or unhappy, it often depends on the context.
Having said this, using antonyms and synonyms to help elicit words can sometimes be useful, as long as it’s thought through carefully. Synonyms and antonyms can also be extremely useful as a framework for recording and remembering vocabulary (we’ll look more at this in the section on learning vocabulary).