From the article: Quick Lessons - Short Vocabulary Activities
Sooner or later all English teachers need some fun activities to help fill in the gaps in class, or to provide some extra fun for students. Most ESL / EFL teachers have some standard short vocabulary games up their sleeves. Here are activities that teachers from the around the world have chosen to share. Thanks for the tips! Share your quick lessons
almost all
- I would use almost all of these..hope Mr. Beare or a collegue would help to clarify the ones that are not so clear.. and that again can be different from reader to reader..... my current pet peeve is Facebook's "like" am i mistaken as I am not into grammar except in context..that a verb is being used as a noun? we can have many dislikes when allowed to express ourselves.. can we have many 'likes'? have heard and read 'the likes of you' in a negative context...and my likes and dislikes are nouns...anyhoo...the ideas are good and useable and know that teachers need an inventory of good useable items and ideas....
- —Guest Waconda
Word Chain Vocabulary game
- This game can be done orally or written on the the board. The teacher starts it saying (or writing) one word and a student has to say another word that starts with the last letter of the previous one. It can be used at any time or contexts, for any level. Example: (animals) whale – elephant – tiger – rhinoceros - …
- —MarciRej
OUxPzhRoYL
- While I agree with your opinion about pircunniatoon being less important than other aspects of speech, I think you are confusing 'stress' with 'intonation.' Intonation is the change in pitch (up and down) to reveal emotion. 'Stress' is the use of volume and speed to reveal emphasis. Of these two, I would say that stress is the most important to teach and the hardest to learn.Mulit-syllabic words have stress points, which can change according to the form of the word. (i.e. the verb 'produce' is stressed on the second syllable, while the first syllable of the noun 'produce' is stressed. Furthermore, stressing specific words in a sentence is largely a matter of speaker choice and is entirely context dependant. As your red hat exercise shows.Most students beleive stress is acheived mainly through volume, but it is my belief that focusing on speed is the most effective way to help students understand stress and develop natural rhythm.For example, when saying the sentence, "I'm not going to buy those shoes, I just want to try them on." If we ask the student to stretch the words 'buy' and 'on' (i.e. say them very slowly in comparison to the rest of the sentence, they understand the idea of stress very clearly. The other benefit of this method is that while focusing on slowing down the stressed words, they automatically say the rest of the sentence more quickly and fluently. It ends up sounding like this, "I'm nogonna BUY thoshoes, I'm jusgonnatrythem ON." A very natural native sounding rhythm!
- —Guest tdonPHiQMbXs
guest
- A game to increase the vocabs : I will put a word, then another person will change one letter only, and so forth .
- —khalidmfy
freeze frame
- I challenge students to come up with a "snapshot" depicting the essence of a word, and then I take the pic and post it on the wall. For example, the word "consoling" had one student looking very depressed with head leaning on hand. Another had one hand on the depressed student's shoulder, and the other hand stretched out to offer comfort. They may be reticent at first, but they get into it and love the pics. Vocab scores go up, too. I teach hs.
- —Guest Carol
Vocabulary Match-Up
- Write 5 vocabulary words on the board. One by one, have students pick up a definition and place it under the correct word. The student says the word and definition, and the next student continues the activity. Extra challenge: After all definitions are placed, the students will create their own sentences with the words, and share with the class. Great for lower level classes.
- —Guest Linda K
pros and cons activity
- Pair up students. Give students a somewhat controversial statement or concept to discuss. Clap once and tell to discuss "pros". After a minute or two, clap hands twice and ask them to discuss the "cons".
- —Guest Heather
A to Z
- Write the alphabet on the board. Have the students give a food/animal etc. with each letter. Fun!
- —Guest Tzvia
Extraction Question
- If you are using an article with key vocab words, have the students form questions. The catch is, the answer to the question must be one of the keywords in the article. Example: article says "The hungry animal VICIOUSLY attacked the boy." The answer must be "viciously" so the question formed by students could be "How did the hungry animal attack the boy?" If the other students don't answer correctly, ask the pair to reform the question, or if in a game context, they can be "out".
- —Guest SDF
vocabulary activity
- Give students cards with words. Give them some time to prepare. After 1 or 2 Minutes they have to explain their words so that their peers can figure it out. (pre- or intermediate level)Students of lower level can even draw or use mimics or gestures...it could be fun.
- —Guest Anna
Conversation game
- A student starts with "hello" and the student next to him responds. They keep going around the room in the form of a conversation. The class could be divided into two and see which one has the more "sensible" conversation
- —Guest Teresa
Class games
- Divide the class into say, 4 groups. Then each group needs to say eg a piece of furniture, an article of clothing, different parts of the day, different types of tv programs, verbs involving movement, different flowers,
- —Guest Teresa
Class games
- Divide the class into say, 4 groups. Then each group needs to say eg a piece of furniture, an article of clothing, different parts of the day, different types of tv programs, verbs involving movement, different flowers,
- —Guest Teresa
Brainstorm vocabulary
- Take one word e.g. 'travel' 'cinema' 'food' and brainstorm EVERYTHING that goes with that word - verbs, nouns, adjectives. For example, if you choose food, you could discuss types, cooking methods, flavours etc. Fills in that spare time and is useful for students.
- —Guest Christina
Hangman
- Have students pair-up and play Hangman on the vocabulary studied recently. This takes no prep beyond teaching the game.
- —Guest Teacher Jan
Fun Vacabulary Activities
- A group of students gathered together and they start smiling at each other and all the sudden a student starts spelling a word for example, k-n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e
- —Guest John
Vocabulary Activities
- A student starts the word chain game by giving a word for example, yellow, and the next person gives another word that relates to yellow: the next person, banana;food:hungry:dinner, and so on. it gets more interesting to limit a response within5 seconds. The student who breaks the chain starts a new round, or suffer a forfeit,whereby,he may have to answer a question.
- —Guest Geraldine
