Mistakes when teaching vocabulary and how to avoid them

When we talk about teaching the language, a great part is dedicated to mastering vocabulary which is a major tool for learners to express their ideas. 

However, it is quite challenging because the number of words has no limits, and new words appear every day! So teachers need to find an approach to teach effective and memorable vocabulary lessons.

In this article, we will talk about common mistakes teachers tend to make, and we will offer practical solutions to deal with these problems.

Teachers may present the target vocabulary as isolated words or lists of words. 

As a result, the learners may have difficulty remembering the words, understanding how to use them and grasping  differences in the meaning.

Solution

Make sure you present the vocabulary in the context — it can be a reading or listening text. 

Alternatively, you can tell a story with the target words included. It is important to show how the words are used and in what collocations. 

Once the learners see the word used in the context, they can remember the word more easily. 

Another mistake connected with the vocabulary presentation is when teachers clarify 20 or 30 words in one lesson. 

Our short term-memory has limits and is not able to fully process and keep 20 or 30 items at a time. 

The volume of short-term memory can be extended with special exercises and training; however, you should avoid overloading the learners’ memory if you want to make the learning effective.

Solution

Make sure you select a reasonable number of new words for a lesson, and it should not exceed 10 items. 

You can include more words the learned might know and revise them and check them selectively.

This is the situation when the teacher lectures and provides the explanation or just definitions and translation of the new words. 

This approach lacks interaction, the learners are usually not involved and take a passive role. 

As learners do not take an active part in the clarification, they may get distracted and skip some important parts of the teacher’s explanation. 

What is more, they become less involved and motivated in learning.

Solution

See if you can make the stage of vocabulary clarification more engaging and interactive.

Besides, the learners can discuss some questions related to the new vocabulary in pairs, e.g., after reading the text, you can ask them to match the highlighted words in the text with their meaning. 

Alternatively, learners can focus on the form features — find what prepositions of verb forms follow the target words.

While presenting new vocabulary, teachers may explain only the meaning; however, teachers may forget to clarify the specific features of form and pronunciation.

The words are not used in isolation, they form phrases and are used in sentences. 

Furthermore, we can also extend the meaning and present some synonyms or antonyms, possible collocations, connotations, e.g. diminutive or pejorative meaning, and even mention the register — formal or informal style. 

Solution

Aim to start the vocabulary clarification with meaning and include where applicable some connotative meaning, meaning extension — synonyms, collocations. 

Then proceed to the focus on form — part of speech, prepositions, modifiers and focus on pronunciation — word stress, some phonological features like the use of schwa sound, reduction, assimilation, elision.

When clarifying the pronunciation, teachers may skip an important stage — drilling, repetition of the word after the teacher. 

There is a misconception that drilling is applicable only to A1-B1 levels, and that adult learners are not likely to take drilling seriously.

What is more, it maximises the learners’ exposure to the new word so it contributes to more effective learning. 

Apart from that, while drilling, learners will learn how to pronounce and use the word correctly.

Solution

After highlighting the essential phonological features of the words — stress or some individual sounds — make sure you drill the new words. 

In order to avoid boring repetition, you can vary the drilling and use choral and group, backchaining, emotional and substitution drills. 

Quite often teachers present some vocabulary, clarify the meaning, form and pronunciation, do some activities and never get back to the vocabulary from this lesson.

If learners do not review new words within a week, they are likely to forget most of them. 

Solution

Aim to review the vocabulary during the next lesson and then do regular quizzes to review the words. For this, you can use such tools as Quizlet. 

You can also offer the learners the following activities: grouping the words by their meaning, word association or word games.

We hope that the suggested solutions can help you deal with the challenges of teaching vocabulary and make your vocabulary lessons more engaging, interactive and effective.