When doing these readings, I found that the article summed up the text of the two chapters in a very coherent and understandable way. It was interesting to read that paraphrasing takes such a large vocabulary. I was surprised when I saw that there are resources online to teach students academic vocabulary that they will need if they are going to be in an academic setting in English.
Most of the vocabulary teaching, however does not depend on teachers alone. When I studied French in school, we had vocabulary lessons every week. Each week, I would learn the material, understand it, and do well on the quizzes. However, if I didn't regularly use it, it was gone. Sometimes I still can't remember words that I need to say, and my language capabilities are much higher than they were in high school. Half of learning vocabulary is dependent on the autonomy of the learner. If the learner does not consistently work at learning and memorizing the vocabulary, they will lose it quickly as well as their ability to paraphrase, summarize and synthesize the information. Students aren't able to use the material to learn if they are constantly misunderstanding the language used in it. Learning English, and more specifically vocabulary, is very much dependent on the learner's autonomy.
The article also mentioned the importance of explicit teaching of vocabulary. However, I want the students to be engaged in their lessons and it is difficult for me to think of a way to teach vocabulary without it seeming to be out of a textbook. Any ideas on task-based lessons for vocabulary? I was thinking something along the lines of charades, or writing stories that include words from a list, or learning songs that include new vocabulary. Besides this though, I want my students to gain autonomy by feeling engaged when learning new material.
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