Vocabulary review tasks Penny Ur

Principles Principle of multiple encounters for item to enter long-term memory Principle of active, successful retrieval practice (as distinct from simple re-exposure) Principle of expanding rehearsal 2

Problems Lack of review activities overall in most materials Lack of cumulative review Lack of interesting and varied activities Lack of activities that deepen as well as consolidating knowledge of lexical items 3

What makes for a good review activity? validity quantity success-orientation heterogeneity interest 4

1. Validity and quantity For example: 1. ‘Hangman’ 2. Word jumbles   4. ‘Wordsearch’   5. ‘Recall and share‘ 5

bicycle becausepeople independentembarrassed friendencourage privilegebuilding enough

2. Success-orientation and heterogeneity Elementary vocabulary review 7

Sort these items into the appropriate columns a clock, a dog, a dress, a mother, black, a pen, bread, pants, a bag, a husband, red, boots, a cat, rice, a frog, a baby, pink, a teenager, a hat, a banana, a book, a sheep, meat, kids, a desk, green, an elephant, salt, a t-shirt, white peopleclothesfoodthingscoloursanimals

Find at least three things to put in each column; more if you can a clock, a dog, a dress, a mother, black, a pen, bread, pants,a bag, a husband, red, boots, a cat, rice, a frog, a baby, pink,a teenager, a hat, a banana, a book, a sheep, meat, kids,a desk, green, an elephant, salt, a t-shirt, white peopleclothesfoodthingscoloursanimals

3. Interest Personalization Higher-order thinking skills Visual focus Game-like activity 10

11 Complete any three 1.I felt angry because… 2.I felt sad although… 3.I felt jealous when … 4.I felt confident so … 5.I felt tense although … 6.I felt doubtful because … 7.I felt apathetic so … 8.I felt happy when …

Which is the odd one out? All the others are… It’s the only one which … 1.house, tree, stone, dog, pencil 2.flute, accordion, violin, guitar, drums 3.door, window, gate, entrance, 4.seat, chair, stool, sofa, bench 5.earthquake, fire, storm, flood, drought 12

Some types of review exercises: 1.Quick reminders (usually recently-learnt) 2.Longer review (usually cumulative) 3.Review and expansion 15

1. Quick reminders Five minutes at the beginning of a lesson 1.How many can you remember? 2.How many of these do you remember? 3.Round the class: each person recalls one 4.Take five minutes to review 5.Dictations 16

Dictations: various possibilities words phrases sentences Translation-dictation One word missing in a sentence Dictate beginning, they supply the end

2: Longer review of form and meaning What might you do with a set of items like the following? 18

waitressmodelinterview differentcompetitionmy favorite theorypay attentionoriginal in my opinionrespectresponsible specialimportantlaugh confused in the middle lose 19

Ideas Recall and share Yes/no Quick Bingo Sentences that are false Sentences that combine two or more Sentences that are true for me A story that combines all of them 20

3. Vocabulary expansion It is most important to review (written and spoken) form and (most common) meaning But also: 21

Further aspects of meaning and use of an item: What other items does it collocate with? How does it work grammatically, in a sentence? What other words are there from the same ‘family’? What contexts is it appropriate / inappropriate for? How common is it? How does it compare with L1 equivalents? What synonyms does it have (and what are the differences)? What items are opposite in meaning? 22

For example: Look up a word you already know in a dictionary: what other meanings can it have? What other words does it go with in idioms, collocations etc.? Identify the difference in connotation / meaning between synonyms.   Discuss translations (to / from L1)   Discuss appropriateness of items in a text  

FAQs How often should I be doing vocabulary review? How do I select the items to review from all the new items in a text? How useful is the dictionary for review? What are some useful strategies I can teach my students? 24

How often should I be doing vocabulary review Probably every lesson 25

How do I select which items to review? Review the most common / useful / relevant items The others: teach ‘temporarily’ for the purposes of the text, but don’t review and test 26

How useful is dictionary use? Of limited usefulness in finding out new words Very useful in reminding of a word that is ‘almost’ remembered! But in class: I am the best dictionary 27

What are some useful strategies I might teach my students? Vocabulary notebooks (paper? electronic?) Five minutes a day Word-cards ‘keywords’ 28

More questions or additional ideas? 29

Other ideas Write their own dictionary Team competitions A class vocabulary notebook on the wall Word of the day on the wall Groups have to do things with 5 words in five minutes, then check Guessing games ‘teapot’ 30

Synonyms children / kids lamp / light macho / masculine seat / chair orchestra / band policeman / police officer pal / mate apartment / flat donate / give 

Translate? The phrase ‘a born teacher’ is not usually meant to be taken literally. People who use it do not seriously mean that someone is born with a certain teaching DNA configuration in their genes. They are, rather, referring to stable personality characteristics, resulting from a combination of innate and environmental influences, that the teacher brings to their professional practice and that produce something that looks like a natural bent for teaching. 

Teenage blog … Anyways, I went to my grandparents’ house yesterday. They just came home last month… During the winter, they make like birds and fly to Texas. Anyways, when I was younger (11 and 12), I used to treat them really rotten. Mostly because they treat me like I was around the age of seven, and maybe I thought that actually being nice to your grandparents wasn’t cool. But yesterday I made more of an effort to actually be sweet. After all…the amount of stuff they’ve bought me is insane, and they love toting me around and hanging out with me. After all, I am the only young girl they have to do things for! So, from now on, I think I’ll try and be a little bit nicer to them, which may not come easy, but I’ll try my hardest! 

Making a wordsearch 1 picture 2 computer 3 dog 4 clothes 5 house 6 sun 7 moon 8 bag 9 bottle 10 foot 11 tree 12 flower 13 cup 14 key 15 cat 16 present (n) 17 eyes 18 ball 19 telephone 20 fi sh

Computer-generated wordsearch IYHSHONYTFPMDMJ DXZOCRCEERTREXE RVUFOFLTEKMUFFY ESRIMEZSILKNGJU EYESPIENZBIIKNA FVWHUNUSCXWCWBD KGODTOOFUALJOYG HNLWEOLEBBQVGHV EVFXRMLUGFDGNRE EARXUTACWPFWURN IEMRTSBTMQHZGFY ENYOCIAIHILSMEZ BPBKINGYXAKFLGH AVATPUCSTPEFFRW QQLMDMFQWZVUMBY 1 picture 2 computer 3 dog 4 clothes 5 house 6 sun 7 moon 8 bag 9 bottle 10 foot 11 tree 12 flower 13 cup 14 key 15 cat 16 present (n) 17 eyes 18 ball 19 telephone 20 fish

Home-made TCUPHEKPEN 0LFL0WERAT POOCUFYESE ITOASITSTY CHTTESOERE TELEPHONES USCOMPUTER RUHBOTTLEF ENADOGBALL CATINOBODY 1 picture 2 computer 3 dog 4 clothes 5 house 6 sun 7 moon 8 bag 9 bottle 10 foot 11 tree 12 flower 13 cup 14 key 15 cat 16 present (n) 17 eyes 18 ball 19 telephone 20 fish 

Jumbled words: professions ringserosdlieagraenm hurtoatlipovridre ccahmenireegnien

Jumbled words - answers singer, soldier, manager, author, pilot, driver, mechanic, engineer 