How to Teach Vocabulary

I have been a world language teacher of both French and Spanish for years and asked other World language teachers, "How do you teach vocabulary?" I've gotten most of the same responses: We read through the list and I have students repeat the pronunciation after me, I have students write the list into their notebooks, I have students write them 3 times, etc, etc, etc." Well I just knew my vocabulary teaching was not effective and that there had to be a better way. This book has taught me so much about methods to use and why it works to use them that is to get the vocabulary into long-term memory. It has taught me various purposes behind flashcards and how many ways we can use them, the connection between visual input and vocabulary and how the mind makes webs of connections and how it groups vocabulary words together. It is amazing how a vocabulary word can be in various groups and the example of chicken and kitchen really hit me. For ESL students they, at times, mix up these two words because chicken has a connection to the kitchen (it is where you would store it, in the fridge, where you would cook it, on or in the stove and lastly where you would eat it BUT it also has the sound connection as well and so the two could get confused by an ESL learner and they wouldn't even know it! WOW!) It is amazing how our brain stores, sorts and categorizes things and that when we retrieve them we don't think anything is wrong because we assume the connection is correct. Well now I've decided that the better way is to not only teach students methods of learning vocabulary but how their brain/mind learned their first language and how it will learn their second. I have some L2 students who are determined that they can't and won't ever learn L2 vocab and it has been exciting to explain to them how since they already learned a language and are more mature than when they learned their first one (I teach high school) that they have an advantage and can acquire new vocabulary without having to translate everything from English into their L2. I try to stress that it takes work to get the vocabulary into their long-term memory but I also use the illustration about lyrics to songs and how they don't usually know those right off the bat. Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone who teaches a language, any language. I just noticed that he and Jeremy Harmer both have other books that I am going to look into and most likely buy.

Great book with lots of information

Good, good stuff!

Thornbury has proven to be a very good author in the past, and this only served to up the expectations for "How To Teach Vocabulary". Simply put, for an area that I find personally difficult to deal with, this book proved to be a God-send. It combines a good deal of the theory with very practical ideas for utilisation in class. The book provides a consistent grounding in the jargon used for the area, and gives you a good grounding in how information of this type is organised within people's memory. This view of the workings of memory, whether short-term, working or long term, underpins much of what Thornbury goes on to suggest for the class. The book covers a large range of topics, all arranged in chapters, including testing, presenting, getting students to work with new lexis, using texts, dictionaries and copora, and a whole range more. Of particular value in my opinion is the chapter on training students to become good vocabulary learners. Training students to learn for themselves outside the class is of ongoing importance, even long after they have left our lessons long behind them. Throughout the book are example activities, some of which teachers will be familiar with, and others new. These give the reader a good starting point on how to implement some of these ideas and promote a high level of retention among students. It was these that I found very useful, as well. To put it simply, this book is a goldmine of information and ideas, with a large array of exercises and activities that one can immediately use, later adapting as needed. This is a great book, and I thoroughly recommend it to all.

Alright!!!

Arrived on time as indicated upon purchase. Item in top shape.

Scott Thornbury has a wealth of knowledge in TESOL and linguistics. Vocabulary and lexis is a complex area and whilst some linguists can be very academic and difficult to read, Thornbury's style of writing and presentation style makes a complex issue very digestible and easy to understand. His other "How to teach" titles and "An A-Z of ELT" are also very solid books.

Great resource for new teachers. Full of activity ideas! It’s totally worth it!

I've chosen this book, because I would like to follow some rules in how to teach vocabulary for TEFL class. Very intensive material as "How to teach Grammar". I haven't read yet, but I passed through my eyes in few chapters, and I can say,is very rich content. Yes,I would recommend this book.

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LLego muy bien, en excelente estado. Muy satisfecha.