Teaching ESL students vocabulary is an important component of their education.
The first time I announced we were playing SWOOSH!, my student Saleh crossed his arms and said, “I didn’t pay for this class to play children’s games.” Fair point. But you and I know games can have educational value. That’s why this happened… Fifteen minutes later, that same Saleh was on his feet, screaming “NO! […]
You know that student who swears they’re studying vocabulary every single night but still bombs the quiz? Yeah, I had Mesfer. This guy was COMMITTED. He proudly told me he was learning 30 words per day. Eeevery. Siiiingle. Daaay. That’s 210 words per week because weekends are for quitters, apparently. His vocabulary scores? Yeah, not
I loved using videos in my vocabulary classes. No, not like during the last few days of school back in the late 80s and early 90s where the teacher would pop in a BETA or VHS tape and nap while you and your friends giggled and talked through an old movie. I loved using short
My co-workers and I used to hash out the same problem over and over: How do you convince students that passing the TOEFL or IELTS isn’t enough to guarantee they can do well in university? So many of my adult and young adult students wanted a quick way to “learn” a lot of academic vocabulary…long enough
Do your students ask for your advise in learning vocabulary? Its a common question, right? You might want to take a brake in your lessen to insure your students have a through knowledge of commonly confused words. But first, what causes this confusion? English is full of word pairs that look similar, sound similar, or
“GAME.” When I say “game” in my adult ESL vocabulary classroom, the air crackles. Spines extend, eyes brighten, pulses increase. “GAME” they repeat to each other, and smiles break out. I smile, too, knowing that the next words out of my mouth have already grabbed their complete attention before even being spoken. Here’s the thing
