This video is a webinar by Carl from The TEFL Org titled “Sticky Vocabulary: How to Teach Words They’ll Remember.”
Key Points of the Webinar
- The Importance of Vocabulary: Carl emphasizes that vocabulary is the core of communication and is often overlooked by both teachers and students. He highlights that a strong vocabulary is a better predictor of language success in exams than grammar knowledge.
- The Forgetting Curve: He explains this concept, which states that newly learned information is quickly forgotten if it isn’t reinforced. The main goal of the webinar is to provide methods to combat this by making vocabulary “sticky.”
- Making Vocabulary “Sticky”: To ensure students remember new words, Carl suggests that the vocabulary must be:
- Meaningful: It should be personally relevant to students’ lives.
- Multi-sensory: Lessons should engage the four key skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and involve visuals, gestures, and drawing.
- Repeated: Words should be repeated in different contexts throughout the lesson and over time.
- Connected to Prior Knowledge: Teachers should link new words to what students already know, such as through word families, synonyms, and antonyms.
- Classroom Techniques: He recommends several practical methods for the classroom, including:
- Having students use vocabulary notebooks to record more than just translations.
- Using mind maps and grids to connect related words.
- Encouraging peer teaching.
- An activity called a “story chain,” where students collectively create a story using new vocabulary words.
The webinar concludes with Carl answering questions from the audience.
