Vocabulary Acquisition: Some Ideas and Experiences

Vocabulary is really a part of language that is constantly being built upon. Even in my native language, I am learning new words every day like the word "pernicious," which I just learned last week. Constantly building on our vocabulary makes us a better writer and speaker because we are able to create speech and writing in many different ways. Perhaps we don't know the word for teacher, but we could say "a person who teaches." They both have the same significance, but the wording is different. Vocabulary is extremely crucial, especially in learning a second language, and I have found, through the reading, several ways to help students build their vocabulary. The text reads, "Learning vocabulary might even be considered the most challenging component of learning a language," therefore as teachers we must figure out ways for students to really retain and understand vocabulary (75).

            In my placement, my cooperating teacher and myself have different techniques in teaching vocabulary, but now I will be able to implement more techniques that are suggested by the text. The real goal is to get students to retain the vocabulary into their long term memory. However, there are several ways in which students can retain this information. Students must receive input visually and audibly, and the material must be presented in a meaningful context. The visuals, such as pictures, to associate with the vocabulary should be as authentic as possible. Teachers should try to use authentic texts like restaurant menus and pictures of people from actual Spanish-speaking countries, although these may be somewhat difficult to incorporate into lower level classes. These types of input provide cultural experience for the students as well, which is a crucial aspect of foreign language. The visuals are usually better for association with vocabulary, but auditory learning should not be forgotten. Auditory learning can be harder to implement into a classroom, but it is very important for the students to be able to hear native speakers and real speech.

            In addition to using real native speakers with the auditory input and real cultural pictures and texts for visual input, it's great to contextualize the vocabulary to students' lives and make it interesting. When introducing numbers, we could say, "Now you can ask a cute girl/guy for their number!" These kinds of things get the students excited to learn vocabulary.

            Some things that I find my CT doing is playing music during exercises which can be very distracting for the students when they are acquiring new vocabulary. However, she definitely makes up for it when she acts out vocabulary words in a manner that makes sense to the students. She uses the TPR method, which I think is great for beginner language learners when it is more difficult for students to retrieve vocabulary meanings from authentic texts. Something that really stuck with me is when the text said, "Rich levels of encoding can be achieved by asking students to manipulate words, relate them to other words and their own experiences, and to deduce the meaning of new words by immersing them in contexts that are familiar to them" (83). I do this all of the time, and I have found it very useful in my own learning! For example, I will say, "Think about how a fork has tines. Tines is similar to tenedor, the word for fork in Spanish." These mental connections really store those vocabulary words into long term memory. I will continue to try to use different techniques for vocabulary acquisition, really hitting home at contextualizing the vocabulary in authentic, interesting settings with very good visuals and body movements.