vocabulary teaching

• Teaching should direct attention to the sound 

of new words, especially the way they are 
stressed

• Ls need to be actively involved in learning new 

words

• Ls need multiple exposures to words and they 

need to retrieve  words from their memory 
repeatedly

• Ls need to take decisions about  words

• Memory of new words can be reinforced if 

they are used to  express personally relevant 
meaning.

• Not all the vocabulary that Ls need to be 

taught. Ls will be exposed to them while 
reading, listening, watching films, during self-
directed studies.

Learner training

Train learners to learn effectively
Pay attention to form – spelling, pronunciation, 
stress
Pay attention to meaning – similar/different 
meaning, connotation, style, associations
Be a good guesser  - work out meaning of 
unfamiliar words from their form and contextual 
clues

Take risks, do not be afraid to make mistakes 

Organise your own learning – keep systematic 
record of new words, use dictionaries and other 
aids resourcefully, use memorising techniques

= a good language learner can be autonomous 
and has developed his own techniques

• Resources: 
• Scrivener, J. Learning Teaching, Macmillan, 

2011.

• Thornbury, S. How to Teach Vocabulary. 

Harlow: PEL, 2002.

• Ur, P. A Course in English Learning Teaching, 

Cambridge: CUP, 2012.