2007年5月17日木曜日

Methods of Teaching Vocabulary

Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the Present and Learn Approach and the Teaching through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.

1. Present and Learn Approach
■Strengths
・It is easy to understand for all students because it has an explanation of a new vocabulary in their own language.
・Students can learn step by step: after they understand the meaning of a new word and repeat it some times, they use the word in sentences.
■Weaknesses
・As the number of the words increase, it may get more difficult for students to memorize them.
・Some students may get bored with the activities because they may be monotonous.

2.Teaching through Input Approach
■Strengths
・Students can learn a lot of new vocabulary and grammar incidentally not with their translations but with their images.
・Students would get better in guessing.
・It may not be boring for students because they have to attend to the message to find out what a teacher means.
■Weaknesses
・Some students who are not good at English would get bored with the activities because they may not understand them at all.

Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would use both of these two methods for teaching vocabulary, having one of them make up for the weaknesses of the other one.

6 件のコメント:

JH さんのコメント...

Keichan,
Very well written, concise, and illuminating!
JH

Misato さんのコメント...

Hi Keichan!
This is Misato!
Your contribution is very easy to read and understand for me!
I agree with your oppinion about weakness of 2nd approach.
I think student who like English try to understand but for who don't like that this approach is very hard.
We should contrive to make them enjoy English!

satomin さんのコメント...

Hi!this is satomi.
Your opinion and mine are almost same. Present and Learn Approach is doring.
Teaching should be interesting★

wakame さんのコメント...

Hi Keichan! I read your opinion and sympathize with. I think that the learning through Input approach is so effective in some respects. I want to use this method someday. See you!

Manning さんのコメント...

Hi! This is Manning.
I agree with your thinking.
For students, memorizing a lot of new words is difficult. Teacher should create many method for this problem, I think.

Jasmine さんのコメント...

Hi! I am Jasmine.
Your contribution is easy to read. And it is understandable for everyone!
I think that using both methods is effective too.
See you tomorrow☆