Teaching in China

Teaching vocabulary traditionally was not a focus when teaching a second language. It has now become one of the staple categories of any language curriculum. With so many methods of teaching vocabulary available it may sometimes be hard to choose the one that best fits your needs. Of course it depends on what stage your learners are when you start teaching them. They might already be advanced speakers in which case you’ll need different tactics that if they are beginners.

For beginners, or even intermediate students, I believe it is very helpful to teach them word roots and prefixes. Chinese lean their language in the same way (i.e. by first learning the radicals – or parts or Chinese characters – and what they mean). This not only helps students remember words better because they are broken down into parts, but also helps them feel the words. Once they start automatically identifying the prefix “com” with “together”, words like community, communicate, commiserate, and compassion will come easier for them. So if you get the students early enough then teach them roots and prefixes.

If the students are advanced don’t throw out teaching roots entirely. When you teach new vocabulary, never forget to mention the word roots. In addition, when you first teach the word it helps to associate the word with either a positive, negative, or neutral feeling. The Interchange ESL books by Cambridge University Press do this with many of their vocabulary sets as well. Literally have students go through and put a “P” or “N” or “Nu” beside each new word. These acronyms represent Positive, Negative, and Neutral, respectively. This will give them an immediate feeling towards the word and help them recognize it faster when they see it in the future.