vocabulary teaching

What makes words difficult

Pronunciation
Spelling
Length and complexity
Grammar
Meaning
Range, connotation, idiomaticity

Anticipating problems - example

Look at the words, what problems of meaning or 
form might they present to learners?
Stomachache

get on with

chuffed

Lawyer                           actually
Thorough

crisps

Comfortable

remind

Furniture                       invaluable

Mistakes

Form – related  - mis-selection, misformation, 
spelling, pronunciation errors ( e.g. My girlfriend 
was very hungry with me / angry; he persuaded 
me to have a noise operation)
Meaning- related – using words that have 
similar meaning ( looking at TV/watching TV)

Example

I hope after biggening English studing I shell not 
have a free time at all.
I’d like to spend a couple of week somewhere on 
a peopless island.
I’d like watching flowers and inhaling their lovely 
smell.

Stages of learning lexis

Meeting the new lexical items and understanding 
them and their use. - Teaching/pre-teaching

Practising using them

Memorising them

Recalling them and using them

Presenting lexis

• offer cues, pictures or information about the 

target items 

• elicit the words from students
• model them yourself
• drill
• concept check
• write and highlight phonology

Presenting lexis

• words connected with the same location or 

event (shop words, wedding words)

• words that have the same grammar and 

similar use (adjectives to describe people, 
movement verbs)

• words that can be used to achieve success in a 

specific task (persuading a foreign friend to 
visit your town);

Practising words

After students have seen and heard a new 
lexical item for the first time, they will need 
opportunities to become familiar with it; some 
simple practice activities:
Identification
Selecting
Matching –Sorting
Ranking and sequencing

Practising words – controlled practice

• Matching pictures and lexical items
• Matching parts of lexical items to other parts
• Matching collocations
• Using prefixes
• Using given lexical items to complete a specific 

task

• Filling in crosswords
• Filling in gaps in sentences
• Memory games