Namangan davlat universiteti ingliz filologiyasi fakulteti amaliy ingliz tili kafedrasi

Activity 3 Designing vocabulary tasks
Objective: to enable participants to have practice in developing vocabulary tasks
Time: 40 min
Materials: handout 2, board/flipchart, short newspaper clips for each group. If possible: photocopier
►Procedure:
- ☺ (3 min) Ask participants to list questions they have to answer before and during designing a vocabulary task (e.g. about materials, focus or level of difficulty). Give your own examples and refer to the guidelines in handout 2 if necessary. Distribute handout 2.
- ☺☺☺(5 min) Elicit random responses and write the checklist on the board. Say that you would like participants in each group of four to develop one vocabulary task.
- ☺☺☺ (5 min) Ask participants in their groups to answer these questions first and write the answers down.
- ☺ (4 min) Ask spokespersons from each group to read out their answers to check what kind of task they are going to develop. Comment on the answers where necessary.
- ☺☺☺ (15 min) Ask participants to design the task in their groups using cuttings from newspapers. Distribute the cuttings. Monitor their work and offer assistance where necessary.
- ☺ (8 min) Ask spokespersons from each group to present their tasks to others. If possible, make photocopies of the developed tasks and distribute them to participants from other groups at the end of the day.
- Conclude by asking the following question:
∼ What do you need to keep in mind when developing vocabulary activities for your classes?
Suggested answers:
• vocabulary should be taught in context, not as isolated words;
• vocabulary should be taught through English, avoiding word-for-word translation into mother tongue;
• learners should be encouraged to work out the meaning of the unknown words;
• there is a difference between active and passive vocabulary;
• learners should be encouraged to analyze words and word combinations in a text. Elicit a few random answers.
Summary
Teaching vocabulary should be based on context and teachers should focus on exploring the relationship between words, phrases and the meanings they convey in different contexts. It is possible to design simple vocabulary tasks using authentic texts accompanied with thinking questions or other task types.