Teaching vocabulary and VAK

Now that you’ve looked at the four language skills, what about vocabulary? There many different ways of presenting and practising vocabulary and different ways to help learners remember it.

By varying the type of learning activity you will address different learning styles and also help to make the vocabulary more memorable for your learners.

Read the Teaching vocabulary and VAK resource to find out more.

Teaching vocabulary and VAK

Now that you've looked at the four language skills, think about vocabulary. There many different ways of presenting and practising vocabulary and different ways to help learners remember it. By varying the type of learning activity you will address different learning styles and also help to make the vocabulary more memorable for your learners.

Watch the following video showing two different techniques.

The first teacher elicits animal noises to help learners remember the word. The second uses drilling with varying intonation, speed and volume to present the vocabulary in an interesting and memorable way. Which of the three learning styles do you think these techniques appeal to?

Some other techniques you may use when teaching vocabulary are the following:

· noises on tapes

· pictures to elicit the words orally

· matching words to situations, definitions or pictures

· picture dictionaries

· translation

· mime or gesture

· a text with gaps and a list of words.

Look at the activities above and try to decide which type of learner (V, A or K) each activity would suit. The answers are not provided because you should be able to work this one out for yourself!

A multi-sensory approach to teaching

Having looked at the teaching implications, you will now focus on a variety of activities that were devised specifically for young learners.

Observe the demonstration lessons in the Multi-sensory activities - Parts one and two resources below and reflect on some of the management and planning issues involved.

5.2 Multi-sensory activities -
Part one

Having looked at the teaching implications, now focus on a variety of activities that were devised specifically for young learners. In previous sections, you read about some activities that addressed more than one learning style. Picture dictation is one of these.

As you watch the Picture dictation video, think about the following questions:

· What size class could this be used with?

· Does the activity really address all three learning styles?

· What language could you focus on?

· What level of English do the students need to do this?

· How does Raymond finish the activity?

Picture dictation

What size class could this be used with?

Any size. Obviously the larger the class, the more difficult it will be to walk around and see all of the students' work but there are no limitations in terms of classroom space and management.

Does the activity really address all three learning styles?

Visual and auditory certainly. Kinaesthetic is perhaps debatable and depends on whether you consider drawing to be doing.

What language could you focus on?

Very flexible. Notice how Raymond makes the language slightly more difficult as he progresses. In this case he is focusing on the lexical sets of colours, animals, etc and later the present continuous tense but obviously this can be adapted as is required. This activity is particularly good for the first lesson because it is a good way of seeing how much English your learners know, for example, if you say "There is a red dog sitting by a green house ..." and the students have problems with the colours then you know that you will need to teach colours in a later lesson.

What level of English do the students need to do this?

Low to high. As mentioned above you can adapt according to the level and needs of your students. The activity is also good for mixed ability classes (classes where the students have different levels of English) because weaker students can look to see what their classmates are drawing.

How does Raymond finish the activity?

An important part of any activity is how you finish it. In this case Raymond asks the students to look at and applaud each other's work (good for group formation). Sometimes it is difficult to get the children to look at each other's work (like everyone they are more interested in their own work and not the work of others!) but you can try different techniques, for example, put the work up on the walls and the students can walk around and look pretending they are visiting an art gallery.

Now continue to the next part of the observation in the Multi-sensory activities - Part two resource.

5.2 Multi-sensory activities -
Part two

In the next part of the observation you will see the teacher, Raymond, presenting new language.

As you watch the Love and hate video, think about the following questions:

· What size class could this be used with?

· Does the activity really address all three learning styles?

· What language could you focus on?

· What level of English do the students need to do this?

Love and hate

What size class could this be used with?

Any size. The students only need to come to the front of their class or stand in their seats.

Does the activity really address all three learning styles?

The flashcards would appeal to a visual learner. Auditory learners are catered for a little because Raymond varies his intonation, tone and speed of delivery. Kinaesthetic learners would enjoy the standing up part, while matching the position of the flashcard to the structure (I like, I really like, I love etc.) might appeal to left-brained learners. You could argue that there is bit of something for everyone in this lesson.

What language could you focus on?

In this lesson Raymond uses a group of words for food (we sometimes call this a lexical set) but you could do the same thing with different vocabulary, e.g. sports, animals etc. You could also change the structures to more informal English, e.g. "I can't stand ...", "I'm a big fan of ...", "I'm really into ..." etc.)

What level of English do the students need to do this?

Low to high. As mentioned above you can adapt according to the level and needs of your students. The activity is also good for mixed ability classes (classes where the students have different levels of English) because weaker students can look to see what their classmates are drawing.

In this unit, you have looked at the way the brain works and also at learning styles. You have also thought about your own teaching style, and how to teach so that all learners can learn effectively in your lessons. Finally, you have thought about aids and activities that can help you to incorporate VAK into your lessons.

Rounding up

This exercise will take around 30 - 40 minutes.

In this unit you have explored many factors related to learning styles: left and right brain functions, teaching styles, and visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning modalities.

In this final section you will review the key areas and complete your third assessed task.

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 833