Teaching Vocabulary to Teens and Young Learners
-Mark Cormier, 2026
Introduction: This blog contains the activities, and support material for a two hour interactive workshop given on March 31, 2026 for trainees of Peace Corps Costa Rica.
Session Goals: In today's session we will ...
- Describe relevant theory related to vocabulary acquisition.
- Participate in a variety of vocabulary activity types that are appropriate for teens and young learners.
- Create an original proposal for a vocabulary instructional sequence based on content from a MEP curriculum unit.
- Explore a collection of complementary resources to help you create engaging vocabulary activities.
Guiding Questions: By the end of the session, you should be able to answer ...
- How do new vocabulary items get storied in long-term memory?
- Why do we forget words we learned?
- What vocabulary activity types are appropriate for teens and young learners?
- How can I organize an instructional sequence for teaching vocabulary?
Table of Contents
Click the links below to access the section of the blog you would like to see.
- What strategies can I use to clarify new words?
- What are some basic considerations when working with teens and young learners?
- Kinesthetic Activities: Vocab activities that involve movement and touch
- Creative Activities: Vocab activities that involve artistic expression
- Storytelling Activities: Vocab activities that involve narratives
- Games: Vocab activities that involve competition and play
- Traditional Activities: Well known vocab practice activities
Information: Key Concepts in Vocabulary Acquisition
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What pedagogical principles can guide my approach to vocabulary teaching?
Instructions: Thornbury's (2013) five principles provide us with a useful set of guidelines for designing meaningful vocabulary teaching activities. Read the list of principles and match them with their names.
MULTIPLE ENCOUNTERS - COGNITIVE DEPTH - RETRIEVAL - ASSOCIATIONS - RECONTEXTUALIZATION
- Principle of _____: Meaningful mental processing of a word aids memory..
- Principle of _____: Successfully remembering a word strengthens neural pathways for future use.
- Principle of _____: The human lexicon is an interconnected network. When students make explicit connections between new words and other words or concepts they know, these associations are strengthened.
- Principle of _____: Finding words in new contexts and using them to say new things helps learning.
- Principle of _____: Spaced repetition of vocabulary over time is necessary for consolidation.
What strategies can I use to clarify new words?
Instructions: There are many ways to help students understand unfamiliar words. Skim through the examples below from Scrivener (2005). Then look at the list of words at the bottom and tell your partner different ways you might explain them.
Vocabulary Clarifying Strategies- Gloves: Mime putting them on.
- Disgusting: Mime smelling old food.
- Swimming: Translate it to Spanish.
- Café: Show a picture.
- Often: Draw a horizontal line and write "always" and "never" at either end. Mark points on it to indicate "often", "rarely", etc.
- Chase: Get two students to act it out.
- Reduction: Draw a diagram or graph.
- Crossroads: Pretend the floor tiles are roads and act out a car stopping at the intersection.
- Frightented: Tell a personal anecdote.
- Window sill: Point to one in the classroom.
- Exploitation: Explain the meaning with examples.
- Hope: Read out the dictionary definition.
- Put up with: Tell a short story that includes it.
- Stapler: Hold one up for students to see.
- Put your foot down: Act out a short conversation.
- Contact Lens: Ask a student who knows to explain it or act it out.
- Gallon: Point out that it is a cognate of the Spanish word "galón"
- How would you explain?: AWKWARD, OVERWHELMING, SHELF, DRAWER, PEBBLE
Instructions: There are many ways to help students understand unfamiliar words. Skim through the examples below from Scrivener (2005). Then look at the list of words at the bottom and tell your partner different ways you might explain them.
Vocabulary Clarifying Strategies
- Gloves: Mime putting them on.
- Disgusting: Mime smelling old food.
- Swimming: Translate it to Spanish.
- Café: Show a picture.
- Often: Draw a horizontal line and write "always" and "never" at either end. Mark points on it to indicate "often", "rarely", etc.
- Chase: Get two students to act it out.
- Reduction: Draw a diagram or graph.
- Crossroads: Pretend the floor tiles are roads and act out a car stopping at the intersection.
- Frightented: Tell a personal anecdote.
- Window sill: Point to one in the classroom.
- Exploitation: Explain the meaning with examples.
- Hope: Read out the dictionary definition.
- Put up with: Tell a short story that includes it.
- Stapler: Hold one up for students to see.
- Put your foot down: Act out a short conversation.
- Contact Lens: Ask a student who knows to explain it or act it out.
- Gallon: Point out that it is a cognate of the Spanish word "galón"
- How would you explain?: AWKWARD, OVERWHELMING, SHELF, DRAWER, PEBBLE
Practice: Strategies to Plan a Vocabulary Lesson
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What are some basic considerations when working with teens and young learners?
Instructions: Read the following description of young learners adapted from Kang Shin and Crandall's (2014) book Teaching Young Learners English: From Theory to Practice. For each characteristic, decide if it also applies to teenage learners, and, if not, what is different.
Children are ...
- Energetic and physically active.
- Spontaneous and not afraid to participate.
- Curious and receptive to new ideas.
- Imaginative and enjoy make-believe.
- Easily distracted and have short attention spans.
- Egocentric and relate new ideas to themselves.
- Social and are learning to relate to others.
Children ...
- Learn by doing and interacting with the environment.
- Need support and scaffolding by the teacher.
- Need a learning environment similar to first language acquisition.
- Learn language through lots of meaningful exposure and practice.
- Do not learn language through explicit grammar explanations.
Recommendations for Teachers:
- Use fun and engaging activities.
- Engage students in a variety of interactions.
- Cater to different learning styles and intelligences.
- Make language learning meaningful and relevant.
- Introduce learners to different cultures.
- Use various teaching strategies that set up learners for success.
ECRIF: Instructional Sequence Applied to Teaching Vocabulary
Scholl and Kurzweil's ECRIF Framework provides a five step model to explain how new language is learned. It has been adapted here to highlight how it could be used to structure a vocabulary lesson.
Click image to view full screen or click here to view in another tab.
Kinesthetic Activities: Vocab Activities that Involve Movement and Touch
All of these activities involve gesture and movement. Teens and young learners have lots of energy and they love to move!
- TPR Variations: Total Physical Response (TPR) is a teaching method that involves giving commands that the students need to follow. You can project a collection of images or display several flashcards representing the target vocabulary and students have to touch the ones you say. You can also have students classify vocab by responding in a particular way to the words you say. For example, if I say a vegetable you clap your hands. If I say a fruit, you snap your fingers. If I say something that’s not a fruit or vegetable, you stomp your feet.
- Charades: This is an old favorite that is great to review words students have previously learned. Show a student a word. They act it out while the others guess. A variation you can do is have two or three students act out the word (or different words) at the same time. This helps reduce performance anxiety and also ensures that all students can participate, even with a large group.
- Gestures: Some words, especially actions can be paired with a simple gesture. You introduce the words and gestures at the same time and clarify the meaning. Then you can have students repeat after you. Go through each of the words slowly. Saying the word and doing the gesture at the same time. Have student ssay the word and follow along with the gesture. After a few rounds, change the order of the words and gestures. Then simply do the gesture but do not say the words and instead have students say the words. Then you don't do the gesture but say the word and students have to do the corresponding gesture. After you have played a few more rounds as the leader, you can choose a student to be the leader or have students continue playing on their own in small groups.
- Demonstration - Prepositions Game
Creative Activities: Vocab Activities that Involve Artistic Expression
Learners enjoy expressing their creativity through art. There are many simple and fun activities that you can do that enjoy drawing.
- Pictionary: Of course! In this classic game a student is shown a vocabulary word and must draw it on the board while others try to guess. For more student participation, divide the board in half, make two teams, and have representatives from each team come up to the board to draw and compete to see which group guesses first.
- Comic Strip: Give students a paper with three or four blank squares representing the empty panels of a comic strip. Students have to draw a mini story incorporating some of the vocabulary words they studied. Depending on their level, they can write sentences telling the story below or simply label the vocabulary words they included.
- Tell Me What to Draw: The teacher draws a picture on the board incorporating vocabulary students have seen. The teacher uses leading cues to elicit meaningful use of the vocab. For example, “What kind of animal should we put in the tree? A bird? Great! What other animals can we draw in the tree? Can we draw a cow in the tree? Etc.” A variation of this activity is to tell students what to draw. You can have them draw in their notebook or give them a handout with some kind of scene that they need to fill in. For example, give them a simple line drawing of a refrigerator and you tell them the food items that are inside.
- Let Me Tell You about My Drawing: A logical extension activity after any task where students draw something is to have them share their drawing and describe it. You can teach students simple sentence frames to help them express their ideas more clearly.
- Demonstration - Mi Personaje Nuevo!: Draw a new character for a cartoon TV show. Make sure it's really strange and interesting looking! Then share your image with your partner and describe your character using the body parts vocabulary, adjectives, and sentence frames.
If you don't have a paper, CLICK HERE to access an online sketchpad.
Learners enjoy expressing their creativity through art. There are many simple and fun activities that you can do that enjoy drawing.
- Pictionary: Of course! In this classic game a student is shown a vocabulary word and must draw it on the board while others try to guess. For more student participation, divide the board in half, make two teams, and have representatives from each team come up to the board to draw and compete to see which group guesses first.
- Comic Strip: Give students a paper with three or four blank squares representing the empty panels of a comic strip. Students have to draw a mini story incorporating some of the vocabulary words they studied. Depending on their level, they can write sentences telling the story below or simply label the vocabulary words they included.
- Tell Me What to Draw: The teacher draws a picture on the board incorporating vocabulary students have seen. The teacher uses leading cues to elicit meaningful use of the vocab. For example, “What kind of animal should we put in the tree? A bird? Great! What other animals can we draw in the tree? Can we draw a cow in the tree? Etc.” A variation of this activity is to tell students what to draw. You can have them draw in their notebook or give them a handout with some kind of scene that they need to fill in. For example, give them a simple line drawing of a refrigerator and you tell them the food items that are inside.
- Let Me Tell You about My Drawing: A logical extension activity after any task where students draw something is to have them share their drawing and describe it. You can teach students simple sentence frames to help them express their ideas more clearly.
- Demonstration - Mi Personaje Nuevo!: Draw a new character for a cartoon TV show. Make sure it's really strange and interesting looking! Then share your image with your partner and describe your character using the body parts vocabulary, adjectives, and sentence frames.
If you don't have a paper, CLICK HERE to access an online sketchpad.
Storytelling Activities: Vocab Activities that Narratives
Students love stories! Stories are a great vehicle for introducing new vocabulary and recycling words students have seen before. All these strategies involve listening to, reading, or telling stories.
- Presenting Vocab in Storytelling: The teacher tells a short story in order to introduce new vocabulary words in context. If the story is illustrated, the new words can be clarified by pointing to the images. If it’s not illustrated, the teacher can prepare a set of images representing the keywords and display them physically or digitally and key moments in the story.
- Collaborative Storytelling: The teacher retells a story students are familiar with or a new story that incorporates vocab students are studying. At key moments in the story the teacher pauses to elicit a keyword or phrase. Students shout out the word that is needed.
- Storytelling with Act Outs: The teacher tells a story and when specific words are mentioned, students need to act out a gesture. Alternatively, key vocabulary can be written on cards and handed out to students. When students hear their word they wave their card in the air. Ideally, stories should repeat each of the words several times to keep the kids busy.
- Read - Listen - Write - Speak: For older students you can integrate stories in a lesson sequence that covers the four skills. They read a short story containing the words, then listen to an audio describing the next scene in the story also containing many of the vocab words. Finally, they write an ending to the story incorporating some of the words and then share it orally and discuss questions provided by the teacher.
Students love stories! Stories are a great vehicle for introducing new vocabulary and recycling words students have seen before. All these strategies involve listening to, reading, or telling stories.
- Presenting Vocab in Storytelling: The teacher tells a short story in order to introduce new vocabulary words in context. If the story is illustrated, the new words can be clarified by pointing to the images. If it’s not illustrated, the teacher can prepare a set of images representing the keywords and display them physically or digitally and key moments in the story.
- Collaborative Storytelling: The teacher retells a story students are familiar with or a new story that incorporates vocab students are studying. At key moments in the story the teacher pauses to elicit a keyword or phrase. Students shout out the word that is needed.
- Storytelling with Act Outs: The teacher tells a story and when specific words are mentioned, students need to act out a gesture. Alternatively, key vocabulary can be written on cards and handed out to students. When students hear their word they wave their card in the air. Ideally, stories should repeat each of the words several times to keep the kids busy.
- Read - Listen - Write - Speak: For older students you can integrate stories in a lesson sequence that covers the four skills. They read a short story containing the words, then listen to an audio describing the next scene in the story also containing many of the vocab words. Finally, they write an ending to the story incorporating some of the words and then share it orally and discuss questions provided by the teacher.
Games: Vocab Activities that Involve Play and Competition
Students love to play! Learning should be fun and there are many simple games you can use to recycle vocabulary.
- Concentration: Students flip over two cards in an attempt to match a vocab word and its definition, an illustrative image, or its Spanish translation. If they make a match, they get a point and can try again. If they fail to match, they flip the cards back over and it’s the next person’s turn.
- Bananagrams: This works for older learners. Make stations around the room with a desk or table in each corner. On each desk put several pictures representing vocabulary words. Also, put a stack of sticky notes or small squares of paper with a single letter written on each one. There are just enough letters to form all of the words from the pictures. However, the letters need to be arranged in the form of crossword puzzles with words that intersect vertically/horizontally in order to share a letter.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Never Ending Board Game: Create a simple board game worksheet by drawing a loop of connected squares. In each square leave a mix of items to respond to such as a question using one of the vocabulary words, an image representing the word, a sentence with a missing word, the word in Spanish, a picture of the word that they must spell, or some other variation. Students can either role dice to move around the board or flip a coin with heads moving two spaces, tails moving three, and if they accidentally drop the coin, they move one space. It’s called the never ending board game because they continue to go around the board in a loop until the teacher says stop.
- Create an Online Game: Sites like Wordwall, Learn Hip, and Educaplay allow you to create your own online games. Even though they are mostly variations of unscrambling or matching tasks, students love the videogame element of them. They can be done collaboratively with the whole group acting together or you can split the group into teams for a more competitive experience.
- Dictation Rallies: There are many variations on this but in its most basic form students need to work in teams. A text is taped outside the classroom with sentences or a short story containing the target vocabulary. One student from the group goes outside to read it and runs back in to dictate from memory what he/she can remember for his/her group members to write down. Students are allowed to return to the original text outside but only one at a time and it has to be a different group member each time they want to check. In the end, the group who is able to transcribe the text the fastest and most accurately wins.
- Marshmallow Rally!: Students form two or three lines facing the board. The person at the front of each line is given a marker. The person at the back of each line puts a marshmallow in their mouth and takes a word card from a pile at the back of the room. Then they whisper their word to the person in front of them. That student whispers that word to the next person and so on until it reaches the person at the front of the line. This student runs to the board and either writes the word, draws a representation of it, or writes its Spanish translation before handing the marker to the next person in line and running to the back of the line to put a marshmallow in their mouth and whisper the next word. When all groups finish, the teacher checks the answers and the "winner" is the one who completed the task the fastest and with the fewest mistakes.
Students love to play! Learning should be fun and there are many simple games you can use to recycle vocabulary.
- Concentration: Students flip over two cards in an attempt to match a vocab word and its definition, an illustrative image, or its Spanish translation. If they make a match, they get a point and can try again. If they fail to match, they flip the cards back over and it’s the next person’s turn.
- Bananagrams: This works for older learners. Make stations around the room with a desk or table in each corner. On each desk put several pictures representing vocabulary words. Also, put a stack of sticky notes or small squares of paper with a single letter written on each one. There are just enough letters to form all of the words from the pictures. However, the letters need to be arranged in the form of crossword puzzles with words that intersect vertically/horizontally in order to share a letter.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Never Ending Board Game: Create a simple board game worksheet by drawing a loop of connected squares. In each square leave a mix of items to respond to such as a question using one of the vocabulary words, an image representing the word, a sentence with a missing word, the word in Spanish, a picture of the word that they must spell, or some other variation. Students can either role dice to move around the board or flip a coin with heads moving two spaces, tails moving three, and if they accidentally drop the coin, they move one space. It’s called the never ending board game because they continue to go around the board in a loop until the teacher says stop.
- Create an Online Game: Sites like Wordwall, Learn Hip, and Educaplay allow you to create your own online games. Even though they are mostly variations of unscrambling or matching tasks, students love the videogame element of them. They can be done collaboratively with the whole group acting together or you can split the group into teams for a more competitive experience.
- Dictation Rallies: There are many variations on this but in its most basic form students need to work in teams. A text is taped outside the classroom with sentences or a short story containing the target vocabulary. One student from the group goes outside to read it and runs back in to dictate from memory what he/she can remember for his/her group members to write down. Students are allowed to return to the original text outside but only one at a time and it has to be a different group member each time they want to check. In the end, the group who is able to transcribe the text the fastest and most accurately wins.
- Marshmallow Rally!: Students form two or three lines facing the board. The person at the front of each line is given a marker. The person at the back of each line puts a marshmallow in their mouth and takes a word card from a pile at the back of the room. Then they whisper their word to the person in front of them. That student whispers that word to the next person and so on until it reaches the person at the front of the line. This student runs to the board and either writes the word, draws a representation of it, or writes its Spanish translation before handing the marker to the next person in line and running to the back of the line to put a marshmallow in their mouth and whisper the next word. When all groups finish, the teacher checks the answers and the "winner" is the one who completed the task the fastest and with the fewest mistakes.
Traditional Activities: Well Known Vocab Practice Activities
This category is by definition the least innovative way to teach and practice vocabulary. However, these activities should still form an important part of any teacher's repertoire.
- Matching: Simply have students match words and images, definitions, or Spanish translations.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Unscramble: Jumble up the letters of words and have students put them in the right order. Alternatively, you can write sentences containing the words and jumble the word order so students have to unscramble them to form the correct senences.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Crossword: Crossword puzzles are a variation of the matching activity because students have to come up with the word based on the clues. Clues can be definitions, pictures, Spanish words, or sentences with a missing word. There are many websites that let you create your own crosswords.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Wordsearch: Although this may appear to have little educational value, students are still learning how to spell in English and this kind of activity can be helpful. Also, you can make small variations to traditional wordsearch activities where instead of giving them a word list to search for, you give them clues or images and students have to remember the words and find them.
- Personalizing: Have students write sentences containing the words. Ideally, thave them write sentences that express some aspects of their lives or reality using the new words. Narrative frames can help with this.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Ranking: Give students a word list and have them rank or categorize them according to their personal preferences. For example, which of these do you like? Which do you not like? Which of these actions do you do everyday, just some days, or never?
- Fill-in-the-Blanks: Give students a list of sentences each with a missing word. Include a word list for students to match.
This category is by definition the least innovative way to teach and practice vocabulary. However, these activities should still form an important part of any teacher's repertoire.
- Matching: Simply have students match words and images, definitions, or Spanish translations.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Unscramble: Jumble up the letters of words and have students put them in the right order. Alternatively, you can write sentences containing the words and jumble the word order so students have to unscramble them to form the correct senences.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Crossword: Crossword puzzles are a variation of the matching activity because students have to come up with the word based on the clues. Clues can be definitions, pictures, Spanish words, or sentences with a missing word. There are many websites that let you create your own crosswords.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Wordsearch: Although this may appear to have little educational value, students are still learning how to spell in English and this kind of activity can be helpful. Also, you can make small variations to traditional wordsearch activities where instead of giving them a word list to search for, you give them clues or images and students have to remember the words and find them.
- Personalizing: Have students write sentences containing the words. Ideally, thave them write sentences that express some aspects of their lives or reality using the new words. Narrative frames can help with this.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Ranking: Give students a word list and have them rank or categorize them according to their personal preferences. For example, which of these do you like? Which do you not like? Which of these actions do you do everyday, just some days, or never?
- Fill-in-the-Blanks: Give students a list of sentences each with a missing word. Include a word list for students to match.
AI-Supported Materials Development: Create Vocab Teaching Materials with AI
Free artificial intelligence tools can make the process of developing materials for your classes much faster. Here are a few ideas specifically related to vocabulary teaching. - Storytelling Activities: Use a free AI tool ChatGPT or Gemini to create personalized stories for your classes. The great thing about this tool is you can tell it what kind of story you want, the length you want, ask it to simplify its language, and also incorporate specific vocabulary items. Since students benefit from multiple exposures of vocabulary in different contexts, you can prompt AI to create multiple texts all using the same vocab and about a similar context: stories, dialogues between characters, etc. You can use other free AI softwar to generate audio or simply record the dialogues with a colleague on your phone and turn the text into a listening activity. You can also ChatGPT to create discussion questions and gap fill activities using the vocab.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Spot the Differences: Use AI to create two images that are identical except for a specific number of differences. For examples, some items are contained in both pictures but some are not or the items are in a different configuration.
- Student 1: CLICK HERE
- Student 2: CLICK HERE
- I Spy: Show students an AI created image with lots of items in it that are connected to the vocabulary they are studying. Then choose one item from the photo and use a phrase like, "I spy somthing blue" and students have to guess which specific item you are thinking of. After you have modeled the activity, have students work in pairs or groups of three to continue playing.
- Example 1: CLICK HERE
- Example 2: CLICK HERE
- Traditional Practice Exercises:
- Example: CLICK HERE
Free artificial intelligence tools can make the process of developing materials for your classes much faster. Here are a few ideas specifically related to vocabulary teaching.
- Storytelling Activities: Use a free AI tool ChatGPT or Gemini to create personalized stories for your classes. The great thing about this tool is you can tell it what kind of story you want, the length you want, ask it to simplify its language, and also incorporate specific vocabulary items. Since students benefit from multiple exposures of vocabulary in different contexts, you can prompt AI to create multiple texts all using the same vocab and about a similar context: stories, dialogues between characters, etc. You can use other free AI softwar to generate audio or simply record the dialogues with a colleague on your phone and turn the text into a listening activity. You can also ChatGPT to create discussion questions and gap fill activities using the vocab.
- Example: CLICK HERE
- Spot the Differences: Use AI to create two images that are identical except for a specific number of differences. For examples, some items are contained in both pictures but some are not or the items are in a different configuration.
- Student 1: CLICK HERE
- Student 2: CLICK HERE
- I Spy: Show students an AI created image with lots of items in it that are connected to the vocabulary they are studying. Then choose one item from the photo and use a phrase like, "I spy somthing blue" and students have to guess which specific item you are thinking of. After you have modeled the activity, have students work in pairs or groups of three to continue playing.
- Example 1: CLICK HERE
- Example 2: CLICK HERE
- Traditional Practice Exercises:
- Example: CLICK HERE
Self-Assessment Checklist for Speaking & Listening Tasks
This checklist adapted from Peck (2001) provides seven criteria to consider when designing your own speaking and listening tasks.
Speaking and listening tasks for kids and teens should:
- ☑️ Focus primariliy on the expression and understanding of meaning, not just correctness.
- ☑️ Focus on the value of the activity, not just the language.
- ☑️ Focus on collaboration and social development.
- ☑️ Provide a rich context, include movment, the senses, pictures, and a variety of activities.
- ☑️ Teach English holistically, integrating other macro skills.
- ☑️ Treat learners appropriately in light of their age and interests.
- ☑️ Use language for authentic communication, not just as an object of analysis.
Application: Propose an Instructional Sequence
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Plan your Vocabulary Lesson:
Instructions: Now it's time to plan a vocabulary lesson based on content from the MEP curriculum following ECRIF framework.
- Access the Curriculum: Choose a vocabulary set from one of the units.
- Student Profile: Consider the age and maturity level of your students.
- Develop your Lesson: Follow the ECRIF framework to organize your lesson into three broad stages. The Remember / Internalize stage should contain multiple activities in order to help students retain the new language.
- Encounter and Clarify: How will you present the new words to students (in a text, a list, a story, an image, etc.)? How will you help them understand the meaning, pronunciation, and spelling of the new words?
- Remember / Internalize: How will you provide opportunities for repeated exposure to the words and help students strengthen the mental connections between the words and their meanings? How will you help students make associations between the words and other concepts they know or connect it to their personal lives, local / national / school context, etc.?
- Fluently Use: How will you provide opportunities for students to use the words to express their own ideas through writing, speaking, or a combination of the two?
- Peer Feedback: After your partner shares their instructional sequence, provide some feedbac.
- One thing I like about your lesson plan is ... because ...
- A possible variation or extension you can add to the activity is ...
- This also makes me think ...
- Access the Curriculum: Choose a vocabulary set from one of the units.
- Student Profile: Consider the age and maturity level of your students.
- Develop your Lesson: Follow the ECRIF framework to organize your lesson into three broad stages. The Remember / Internalize stage should contain multiple activities in order to help students retain the new language.
- Encounter and Clarify: How will you present the new words to students (in a text, a list, a story, an image, etc.)? How will you help them understand the meaning, pronunciation, and spelling of the new words?
- Remember / Internalize: How will you provide opportunities for repeated exposure to the words and help students strengthen the mental connections between the words and their meanings? How will you help students make associations between the words and other concepts they know or connect it to their personal lives, local / national / school context, etc.?
- Fluently Use: How will you provide opportunities for students to use the words to express their own ideas through writing, speaking, or a combination of the two?
- Peer Feedback: After your partner shares their instructional sequence, provide some feedbac.
- One thing I like about your lesson plan is ... because ...
- A possible variation or extension you can add to the activity is ...
- This also makes me think ...
Wrap Up: Exit Ticket and Reflection
Instructions: Look at the wordcloud below containing keywords from today's worskhop and respond to the following prompts: - This word/phrase makes me think ...
- Something I'm taking away from today's session is ...
- Something I want to think more about is ...
- A word or phrase I would add to this wordcloud is ...
- This word/phrase makes me think ...
- Something I'm taking away from today's session is ...
- Something I want to think more about is ...
- A word or phrase I would add to this wordcloud is ...
Click to view full sized image.
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Resources: Materials for Further Study
- Presentation Slides: Here are the slides from today's session.
- Webinar and Blog: Practical Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in Virtual and F2F Contexts (Cormier, 2020)
- Blog: V is for Vocabulary Teaching (Thornbury, 2013)
- Conference Presentation: Vocabulary Responsibilities in Learning a Second Language (Folse, 2022)
- Conference Presentation: 7 Practical Vocabulary Activities (Folse, 2022)
- Book: Word by Word Picture Dictionary - Second Edition (Molinsky & Bliss, 2005)
- Book: Word by Word Picture Dictionary - First Edition (Molinsky & Bliss, 1994)
- Book: Handbook of Vocabulary Teaching Strategies (Molinsky & Bliss, 1994)
- Presentation Slides: Here are the slides from today's session.
- Webinar and Blog: Practical Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in Virtual and F2F Contexts (Cormier, 2020)
- Blog: V is for Vocabulary Teaching (Thornbury, 2013)
- Conference Presentation: Vocabulary Responsibilities in Learning a Second Language (Folse, 2022)
- Conference Presentation: 7 Practical Vocabulary Activities (Folse, 2022)
- Book: Word by Word Picture Dictionary - Second Edition (Molinsky & Bliss, 2005)
- Book: Word by Word Picture Dictionary - First Edition (Molinsky & Bliss, 1994)
- Book: Handbook of Vocabulary Teaching Strategies (Molinsky & Bliss, 1994)
References:
Cormier, M. (2020, July 29). Practical Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in Virtual and F2F Contexts [Presentation]. English Week Webinar Series at Universidad Americana, San José, Costa Rica.
Folse, K. (2022, May 25). Vocabulary Responsibilities in Learning a Language. [Presentation]. NCTE 2022, San José, Costa Rica
Folse, K. (2022, May 27). 7 Practical Vocabulary Activities. [Presentation]. NCTE 2022, San José, Costa Rica.
Kang Shin, J. & Crandall, J. (2014). Teaching Young Learners English. National Geographic Learning.
Krashen, S., & Mason, B. (2015). Can Second Language Acquirers Reach High Levels of Proficiency Through Self-Selected Reading? An Attempt to Confirm Nation´s (2014) Results. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 10 (2), 10-19
Kurzweil, J. & Scholl, M. (2005). Understanding Teaching through Learning. McGraw Hill.
Kurzweil, J. & Scholl, M. (2005). Understanding Teaching through Learning. McGraw Hill.
Molinsky, S. J. & Bliss, B. (1994). Handbook of Vocabulary Teaching Strategies. Longman.
Molinsky, S. J. & Bliss, B. (1994). Word by Word Picture Dictionary. Longman.
Molinsky, S. J. & Bliss, B. (2005). Word by Word Picture Dictionary (2nd. ed.). Longman.
Nation, P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press.
Peck, S. (2001). Develoing Children's Listening and Speaking in ESL. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed pp. 139-149). Heinle & Heinle.
Read, J. (2000). Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. Macmillan.
Thornbury, S. (2013, February 6) V for Vocabulary. An A to Z of ELT. Wordpress.
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/v-is-for-vocabulary-teaching/
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/v-is-for-vocabulary-teaching/
Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Session Details and Author Information
Session Title: Teaching Vocabulary to Teens and Young Learners
Session Abstract: The macro skills of listening and speaking should form the core of any communicative second language curriculum, but they present real challenges for early career teachers especially when working with teenagers and young learners. Through completion of a series of collaborative tasks, participants in this workshop will discover 10 key concepts in the teaching of second language listening and speaking, as well as practical ideas for communicative listening and speaking tasks, frameworks for planning listening and writing instruction, a self-assessment checklist, and a collection of resources for further study.
Author: Mark Foster Cormier
Author Bio: Mark Foster Cormier is an English teacher and teacher educator who is passionate about materials development, reflective practice, and professional development in ELT. He earned a master of arts in TESOL from Marlboro College and bachelor’s degrees in English teaching and Latin American studies from Universidad Americana and Appalachian State University. Mark has been an EFL teacher in Costa Rica for 17 years and has specialized in teacher development for over a decade. He currently works as Head of Training and Educational Quality at Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano where he is in charge of new teacher recruiting and training, planning ongoing professional development initiatives, and hosting the monthly webinar series for language teachers called PD Talks: Professional Development Sessions. Click here to connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-cormier-elt/
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