Teaching Vocabulary. Lexical subsystem

Teaching vocabulary

First of all in order to establish a background and relationship with the topic of Teaching vocabulary, I have to talk about my work and experience as a teacher who applies ESL and EFL techniques in the classroom, I can say that my native language is English since I grew up with it before English even though I’m Mexican. I grew up in the United states and the I learned Spanish when we came to Mexico. So I know how people teach in the states and the necessities of my students learning English here as a second language, I have taught for more than 15 years and i work with Cambridge so I know how to apply and teach the English international frame. What we do at school is construct the knowledge from the bases, I teach in a bicultural school where kids have English classes since PRE-K. The difference between ESL and EFL is that the first is for countries where English is their native language and the other one isn’t.  we have to adapt and teach both at the same time without the kids knowing about it.

We teach the four skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, and in upper levels like KEY, PET AND FCE the usage of English. All this very well monitored by me as a sixth grade teacher and coordinator in the English area of the school. I have to make sure the teachers in the different levels are achieving the aims for the different Certifications applied: Starters, Movers, Flyers, KEY, PET, and FCE.

Teaching the vocabulary is very important because it is the unit of the language and from there we can continue teaching the different parts of speech: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections.

This can help our kids construct a complete vision of the language and how to use it.

As an example of how I teach using ESL and EFL techniques I prepared a program for one day of how I teach my sixth grade students, keeping in mind that they have already been taught English for 6 or more years before getting to my class so the class is in English and I have them a complete day to develop their abilities.

Class: Students’ age: 11 AND 12 Grade level: Sixth Grade

Previous English experience: The students have had a positive development with their reading and writing skills, continue doing activities that develop these skills. An advantage is 90% of the students already manage the language.

LESSON BACKGROUND: During the fifth bi monthly period, in the Month of May, the topics of Reading and Writing, Spelling, Listening, Social Studies and Science will be related to GREECE. This lesson plan will be for a day from 8: 00 am. - 3: 00 pm. We will work on different skills such as: READING, WRITING, SOCIAL STUDIES, SPELLING, LISTENING AND SPEAKING. MATERIALS and SOURCES: Teacher´s ipad,  Students´ ipads, Textbook, Projector, Apple tv, Internet, Papers, Binder, Pencil case, Topics and didactical material downloaded on the ipad, Tracks from the material to teach, The classroom to do all the activities this week. All provided by the school except the personal material.

•              To start our day as an opening activity we will star with a spelling bee. This will be to review the previous taught vocabulary lists, sometimes we can only do spelling four words for each student, or a contest.

•              Read the myth Daedalus and Icarus, this can be individually, in pairs, in teams or the whole class, it can also be done by a listening activity so they can follow the reading at the time that the Myth is being projected on the whiteboard

•          After the reading, we will analyze the words that are in bold, by asking the students in a brainstorm activity. finally get a meaning that all of them understand with an example of how to use them in context so they can have it on their binder.
•                 
             15 min investigation and 45 min for presentations.

•                 After having the key words written down we will analyze the context of the story, the time, the story based on fantasy and how real things can actually be, and also why they made this story, and why has it been told for so long, what does it want us to learn from it. This will be done as an investigation essay, on which the students will each have an ipad provided by the school in order to investigate from internet and write an essay with their opinions, so after they do this we can take time and listen to what they did, at the time each finishes, his or her classmates will have the opportunity to ask questions and also to give a positive opinion about the presentation.

•                  Recess

•                 Peer comparison
•                 SPELLING, SPEAKING, VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR, LANGUAGE

•              In this section of the week students will analyze the meaning of the 15 important key words selected for the week by the program. Using the app of the Merriam – Webster Dictionary

•              The kids will work in pairs that will be assigned using the app of the name selector; they will find the meaning of those 15 words and will comment about the meaning writing a common and simple meaning that they can understand. So they can save the list on the binder.
Now they have to do certain activities on the textbook.

1.                Repeat the word

2.            Listen to a dictation and write the words they listen to. On the designated page of the book. 10 min.

3.            Next they have to write a sentence with each of the words written on the list on the next page of the book. 10 min.

4.            Finally they will have sentences using the meaning of the word and they will have to write down the key word that best fits. 10 min.

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

•              While the students are working, I try to use this time to talk to the kids individually by asking them about the topic or by telling them to tell me things about something that has already been taught to check the archived knowledge.
•              Group presentations.
•              Individual presentations.
•              Debates.

My students have been taught in English since they were in Pre – K, so their knowledge of the language is more than someone who is being taught to learn English, because my students learn in English different topics, trying to achieve the goal of learning like a Native Speaker. This week the main goal is to use the different skills that my students have in a constructive interaction and assessing them in new ways to develop their learning capacities.

The job of being a Sixth grade teacher is a task that can be done with patience and understanding, by listening to my students´ needs I have been able to gain their trust and this has helped me to create a learning bond between students and teacher.

The strategy to teach that I use is: “If I listen to my students, they will listen to me”

Teaching in a bicultural school is daring because you have to achieve goals and aims for like an advance class and you have to integrate the students that are in different level of advancement in the same class, because even though they are all in the same class you have to be aware you have kids more advanced than others.

But it is also satisfying at the end of the school year where you can see all they learned and to be able to see their faces when I give them their Certificate from Cambridge in Key is awesome.

I prepare my sixth grades for Key, but also for all the other certifications I’m responsible of monitoring that they are being prepared in the correct way. All this is a vision of how important is to start from the simple task of teaching vocabulary all the way to be able to certify a kid with Cambridge. I love what I do and specially having all the support from the authorities of the school who trust my judgment and experience make everything easier.

References

Butte Collage. (2019). The eight parts of speech. 10 de mayo 2020, de buttecollage.com Sitio web: http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/parts_of_speech.html

Education USA. (2020). What Are English Language Programs?. 10 de Mayo 2020, de Education USA Sitio web: https://educationusa.state.gov/your-5-steps-us-study/research-your-options/english-language/what-are-english-language-programs

Texas Education Agency. (2018). English as a Second Language (ESL) Program. 10 de mayo 2020, de Texas Education Agency Sitio web: http://www.elltx.org/parents.html

Core LAnguages. (2020). The Difference Between ESL and EFL. 10 de mayo 2020, de Corelanguages.com Sitio web: https://corelanguages.com/difference-between-esl-and-efl/