Presenting vocabulary

Frequently the teacher will find it necessary to explain the meaning of the word or a short phrase. The teacher’s aim here will be to explain the new word as quickly and as efficiently as possible and the following aids can help to do this: real objects; pictures; mime, action and gesture; contrast; enumeration; explanation; translation.

a) Real objects. Many words denoting classroom things like ‘pen’, ‘ruler’, ‘ball’, ‘postcard’, etc. can be easily explained by showing students a pen, a ball or a ruler, etc. This is clearly satisfactory for certain separate words, but the use of real objects is limited to things that can easily be taken into the classroom.

b) Pictures are clearly indispensable for the language teacher since they can be used in so many ways. By pictures we mean blackboard drawings, wall pictures and charts, flashcards and any other non-technical visual representation. Pictures can be used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items: the teacher might draw pens, rulers and balls on the blackboard, or have magazine pictures of cars, bicycles and trains stuck onto cardboard. The teacher might bring in a wall picture showing three people in a room, which could be used for introducing the meaning of the sentence ‘There are three people in the room’. The same language could be introduced with a large street map (e.g. ‘There is a church in Green Street’) or a table of statistics (e.g. ‘There are 3,000 women in Lower Archer’). A picture can also be used to create a situation or context.

c) Mime, action and gesture. It is often impossible to explain the meaning of words and grammar either using real objects or in pictures. Actions, in particular, are probably better explained by mime. Thus, concepts like running and smoking are easy concepts to explain if the teacher pretends to run, or takes a drag on an imaginary cigarette. Gesture is useful for explaining words like ‘from’, ‘to’, etc. or indicating that the past is being talked about (the teacher gestures backwards over his shoulder).

d) Contrast. Sometimes a visual element (e.g. real objects, pictures, mime, etc.) may not be sufficient to explain meaning and contrast may be used. Thus, the meaning of ‘ full’ is better understood in the context of ‘empty’, ‘big’ in the context of ‘small’, etc. The meaning of the past continuous is often explained by contrasting it with the past simple, e.g. ‘I was having a bath when the telephone rang’.

e) Enumeration. The word ‘vegetable’ is a difficult word to explain visually. If, however, the teacher rapidly lists (or enumerates) a number of vegetables the meaning will become clear. The same is true of the words like ‘clothes’, ‘furniture’, etc.

f) Explanation. Explaining the meaning of vocabulary can be extremely difficult just as grammatical explanation can be, especially at elementary levels. It will be important, if giving such explanations, to make sure that the explanation includes information about when the item can be used. It would be unsatisfactory just to say that ‘mate’ was a word for ‘friend’ unless you also pointed out that it was colloquial informal English and only used in certain contexts. ‘Do’ means ‘perform’, but information would have to be given about what words it is used with (as opposed to ‘make’).

g) Translation. For many years translation went out of fashion and was considered as something of a sin. Clearly if the teacher is always translating this will impede students’ learning since they want to hear and use the target language, not their own. But it seems silly not to translate if by doing so a lot of time can be saved. If the students don’t understand a word and the teacher can’t think how to explain it, he can quickly translate it. The same is true, in principle, of a piece of grammar. The big danger, though, is that not all words and phrases are easily translated from one language to the other, and it takes a communicatively efficient speaker of both languages to translate well. Translation, then, seems a useful measure if used sparingly, but it should be used with caution.

These aids and measures may be very useful for explaining the meaning of a word or sentence. They may be used singly or in combination, e.g. pictures and mime, translation and enumeration, etc.