Teaching Vocabulary Resources

Acquiring vocabulary is a relevant aspect of language learning. Learning vocabulary can be incidental or intentional. There are specific websites or tools for teaching vocabulary must be accurately chosen while planning a lesson. It depends on your aims, goals, and outcomes, what do we expect of our students or which specific skills or habits do I expect of my students to develop? Explore, inquire or just acquire research skills? All these variables should be worked on first. Besides, technology is supposed to be integrated into the teaching/learning process smoothly.

As for the way I teach vocabulary, I depend on the idea of exposure so I assign a lot of readings as I believe that exposure and repeated exposure not only support students and prepare them for summative assessment but also enhance students guessing skills, and makes vocabulary stick in their minds. I send students links to articles from Wikipedia, WikiHOW, and English Test Store, a website that includes a lot of vocabulary exercises and hundreds of comprehension exercises.

Lots of resources and apps might be listed here but I really advocate for the teaching/learning purpose or goal. I guess our choice in technology should be principled as well or we are to combine incidental and intentional teaching aspects. I consider using learning apps or websites as a great motivator for 21st-century students. Technology must be used wisely and not as a teacher’ substitute or replacement but as a learning tool which expands and develops our competencies.

Lingro.com

Lingro.com is a website that give meaning to words just by clinking on the words. You only have to connect the article to the website by pasting the link.  Explore Lingro.com and use it twice or trice to make students familiar with the use of the website. I teach my students to connect the articles I send the link to with Lingro. This like the site as it provides different possible meaning for the same word.

Vocabulary Logs via keep notes on google application

I let students choose the book they like to read themselves and they need to send the vocabulary log weekly. They share the note (vocabulary log) with me via the share option

Voice of America

In VOA, the vocabulary is related to current events. For example, I browsed the website yesterday and I found audios with vocabulary for events that took place yesterday an aspect that students will definitely like. Another aspect is the idea of the integration of the skills and this is really effective as they will listen to and see vocabulary in a context which will be really helpful as it will increase students’ vocabulary range and make them use the new vocabulary range. In addition, there are related news for those who want to listen to more material related to the topic. There is  the News Words at VOA which is an interesting way of teaching vocabulary in context. 

Corpus of Contemporary America English 

COCA

Corpus is also a rich and great resource for words and how every word can be used in different context. I believe it is an important aspect of vocabulary learning for teachers and students as well. Both parties should be aware that every word can have a different meaning depending on the context where it has been used. Too, collocation are another challenging aspect of the teaching of vocabulary. Not all languages have the same collocations. 

Google search

 Use google search for word definitions and recommend i++ t for your students. It is handy and easy to use.

Oxford online dictionary https://www.oed.com/

 Oxford online dictionary is a source of vocabulary I refer as an authentic and explanatory resource. It is easy to use but students have to be oriented on using it.

The Internet includes a substantial compilation of information and vocabulary teaching materials and tools, which raises the issue of quality and appropriateness and calls for the use of adequate and appropriate methodologies. Teachers should always adapt the use of these tools to meet the objectives of their teaching as well as the needs and expectations of their learners. Technology is not here to substitute teachers. It should be used as an effective teaching tool. The use of technology without appropriate planning does not bring much to the language classroom. “The key to successful use of technology in language teaching lies not in hardware or software, but in ‘humanware’” (Warschauer & Meskill, 2000: 316). The way teachers use technology is what makes a difference in the language classroom.

Finally, Lingro.com, vocabulary logs, Voice of America, and Corpus of Contemporary American, Google Search, and Oxford online dictionary, can broaden vocabulary-learning opportunities in the language classroom and improve students’ learning experience. I am sure they can allow teachers to optimize class time, ensure an active participation of students and enable them to take charge of their own learning.