Word Power

Starting next week, students in my beginning-level composition class will take a rigorous, systematic approach to learning vocabulary, memorizing lists of twenty-five words each week, along with any random new words that come up in class. These words will come from a list I've compiled of the 500 most frequent words and the 100 most frequent verbs in English (such lists are easily available on the Internet). For each new word, students will make a flash card that includes the definition, part of speech, an example sentence, and a synonym. Including synonyms doubles the number of new words learned each week – what Colin Powell called a “force multiplier." In addition to writing assignments, each week there will be a quiz, allowing me to find out how much new word learning has occurred to date.  Vocabulary assessments will have these beginners writing complete sentences using target words accurately (verbs can take any tense). Here two assessments can take place -- how well does the student understand senetence structure and how well he or she understand the mneaning and definition of the target word.

I have successfully used this technique with three different intermediate classes, with the difference that they wrote cohesive paragraphs using ten out of fifteen target words. Students embraced these homework assignments with enthusiasm, many coming up with surprising and ingenious content (see one example below). I’ve found that real learning takes place when students are compelled to use target words -- they become more engaged with the language, parsing meaning and discovering relationships; they also (in my experience) find the activity to be both fun and intellectually challenging. As vocabulary expands, so does self-confidence – students are willing to take risks and experiment. In one of my high school English classes, we used a book called “Word Power.” Although the intent was to beef up vocabulary skills for the SATs, there was, of course, a larger outcome – new words opened up new worlds. As ESL students struggle to master a new language, they deserve robust instruction and exposure to new words at every opportunity; a systematic, aggressive approach to introducing new vocabulary should be part of any instructional plan for the four skills. It’ll be fascinating to see what happens with these beginners starting next week – I’ll be reporting on their progress as the session unfolds.

 In the meantime, here’s an example of a homework assignment I gave last year in which intermediate composition students were tasked with writing a coherent narrative using ten out of fifteen target words. The text below the word bank was written by a Korean student. Note how she uncovers logical relationships among the target words to create a coherent paragraph.    

   

Use ten of the fifteen words listed below to write a coherent paragraph. You can use the selected words in any form you choose as long as sentences are grammatically accurate.

Underline the selected words and write your paragraph in the space below.

 

ample                            arid                                avoid                  defy                               enact feign                              fertile                            freshly             function (n)           fundamental       indiscriminate             selective                        spacious            withstand              even (adj.)

 (Here's what the student wrote):

A musical actor who enacts a play for the first time came to a theater which had been built freshly and has a spacious place. When he appeared on the stage, he felt nervous and wished to avoid this moment.  Also, he could not remember ample words. However he did not want to do indiscriminate acting and decided to defy the situation. So, he started to feign that he was confident. As a result, his voice became even.  He could withstand the time well, and he succeeded in the musical field taking this opportunity.