Word building

Repeating methods is fine with primary learners as they need routine and approaches they are familiar with. However, this shouldn’t lead to monotonous teaching and pre-teaching with picture flashcards each lesson. 

What should children know about a word?

• Sound: First and foremost how the word sounds. For children who can read let them hear the word before they see it as much as possible.
• Spelling: Remember that the way the word sounds and how it is spelled is not always coherent. It is useful for children to have a few spelling rules to help them such as ‘i before e except after c’.
• Context: There are very few words that work on their own without being in a sentence or expression. It is also easier to remember the meaning of a word that is associated with other words and not seen in isolation.
• Opposites: Putting ‘not’ in front of a word to express the opposite is valid in English but it’s also important to expand learners' vocabulary as much as possible. Giving a word and its antonym at the same time is a quick way towards developing their knowledge.
• Grades: In the same way as opposites you can introduce a word as part of a continuum. So when introducing ‘big’ why not teach them ‘huge’ as well? You don’t want to give them word overload but if you feel they can handle a bit more precision, then go beyond ‘big’ and ‘small’.
• Word type: Without going into too much detail they should know if it’s a verb, adjective or noun. Even younger learners can understand the difference between a doing word and an object.

Activities

• Picture and word pairs
  Use pictures and words on cards with two of each word. Put them all face down and then get the children to take it in turns to find the pairs. Each time they turn over a card they have to say the word on the card. That way they will say and hear the words over and over again.
• Taboo
  This is the game where one person has a word on card and has to describe it without saying what’s on the card. Use this as a recycling activity for vocabulary your learners have already seen. If you play it in teams, learners can help each other.
• Cascading teachers
  Another version of the shared knowledge taboo is simply giving each person a new word on a piece of paper. Give it to them in the form of a picture. They should take it in turns to come to you to find the English word and to hear how it is pronounced. Then once everyone has their word and picture they have ten minutes to ‘swap’ their word with the other people in the class. They mingle, tell people their word showing them the picture and in turn the person shows them their picture and tells them the English word. At the end of the set time display all the pictures around the room. Point to them in turn and see how many they can remember.
• Letter gap fill
  Seat the class in groups. Choose your new words to introduce and make sure the number corresponds to the number of groups. Also make sure that the number of letters in the words corresponds to the number of people in any given group. Before the class comes into the room stick cards with letters from a word onto the bottom of the chairs. Tell the children to get the letter from under their chair and together with their group they must put their letters together to try and find a new word.
• Post-reading word building
  Instead of pre-teaching vocabulary all the time why not read the story to them first and deal with vocabulary afterwards. Tell them before you read a paragraph or short story to listen for any new words. Read again and tell them to knock on the table when they hear a word they don’t understand. Every time they hear a knock they have to shout out the word they have just heard. If anyone knows the meaning of the word they can share their knowledge.
• Word search
  You could place the new words into a puzzle where they have to find them. Write the list of words to be found down the side of the word search, or write definitions on the side and underline the first letters of each word in the puzzle. This is also great for spelling. Go to http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/ where you can type in the words you want to use and then create your own puzzle.
• Recording
  If you don’t have the flashcards you need and you’re not so great at drawing you can record the word. Leave a gap after the word and then say it a second time. Play the recording in class and let the children repeat the word they hear and then they can hear it a second time. This stops you from having to rewind to check the pronunciation.

Different ways of using flashcards

• Show a small section of it and see if they can guess what the picture is. Or slowly reveal the picture until they can guess.
• Stick them to the children’s backs. They have to mingle and find two other people who have the same picture as them. They can do this by saying for example: 'Your animal is big. It is grey.' Once they are in their threes they can ask you for the word if none of them know it already.
• Hide the flashcards under tables. The children have to guess from your clues what is hiding under their table.
• Stick them on the board and hand out cards with the corresponding words on them. Let the children see if they can guess which words go with which pictures.
• Tell a story and hold up the flashcards as you say the word.