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Penny Ur - 20 Teaching tips on vocabulary | #CambridgeDay2020 — Transcript

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1:59Hey.
3:54Mhm.
5:19Hello everyone. Welcome to day two of
5:22Cambridge Day 2020. My name is Renata
5:25Simões and I'll be with you there is
5:28during this week when we are going to
5:30learn and share experiences, content,
5:33researchers with the renowned ELT
5:36experts from all over the world.
5:39This is the annual event promoted by
5:41Cambridge University Press focused on
5:44the English
5:45language teaching professionals. this
5:47year connecting Latin American
5:50professionals and fellows from different
5:52countries in this unique online event.
5:56And talking about online, are you guys
5:58already check it our social networks,
6:02Facebook, Instagram? Are you there on
6:05Facebook, Instagram? Please don't forget
6:08to tag us Cambridge University Press and
6:11Cambridge Brazil on your posts and
6:14stories. And now, tada, I know a a lot
6:18of you guys are already talking and chat
6:21about having a pen and a paper for this
6:24our first webinar
6:26of the day.
6:28Our first speak our first speaker is a
6:30well-known author who recently released
6:33a book 100 teaching tips by Cambridge
6:37University Press.
6:39Vocabulary to her is probably the most
6:41important component of prof- proficiency
6:44as I see.
6:45This is a tough one. Proficiency for
6:48students. Talking to us from her home in
6:52Israel West West
6:54Talking to her talking to us from her
6:56home in Israel where she lives. Please
7:00welcome the teacher educator Penny Ur.
7:03Hi Penny, nice to have you here with us.
7:07Did I say properly your surname because
7:09I was very concerned about it.
7:12Yes, that's fine. Can you hear me?
7:15Yeah, yeah, I can hear you.
7:17So
7:19you are in Israel. What time is it now
7:21there? In Israel, it's
7:248:00 in Israel and it's dark
7:27outside. Sun has set and it's about 30°
7:32centigrade.
7:34So thank you very much for receiving us
7:36in your home at this time of the day at
7:39the beginning of the evening and
7:41everything.
7:42Lovely to be with you.
7:44Oh, lovely. Just before you start,
7:47I always think when you talk about
7:49vocabulary, which are everybody's
7:51favorite words in English, because mine
7:53are all I love the all the whole thing
7:56about the memory even that say that the
7:59tricky spots
8:01that they play with the all and the
8:04awesome words. And you do you have a
8:06favorite question favorite word for for
8:10favorite word of vocabulary in English?
8:13Yes, my favorite word is serendipity
8:16because it sounds so nice and it's a
8:18lovely meaning. Means it means
8:21having being lucky doing things by
8:23chance that turn out really well.
8:26And it's a great quality to have and
8:28it's a lovely word, serendipity.
8:31Yeah, serendipity is amazing. I like the
8:33all because more because of the sound. I
8:35didn't get this meaning but we have a
8:37lot of words in English that you have
8:40actually no translation even for
8:42Portuguese because they are so how do I
8:44say they they feel a whole blank of it.
8:47So have a great webinar. Thank you again
8:50for being with us.
8:50very much. Thanks.
8:54Okay, I'd like to start my
8:59presentation then.
9:00I just like to say before I start,
9:02you've been asked of course to have
9:04pencil and paper. I'll tell you it's not
9:07too much to do but I do need you to be
9:10able to jot down things as we go.
9:13I'd also like to mention that
9:16my presentation, although it's very very
9:18practical, does refer occasionally to
9:21research. I haven't during the
9:23presentation, there's no actual research
9:26references on the screen but I have a
9:28full list of all the research that's
9:31relevant to my talk at the end of the
9:33PowerPoint. So if you are interested in
9:36the references in the research
9:37references, you just download the
9:39PowerPoint from the Cambridge site and
9:42you can see all the references you need.
9:43If you're not interested, then you don't
9:45have to. So, it's as simple as that.
9:47Um and uh so, okay, let's start then.
9:52Um so, 20 tips and I'll start with tip
9:55number one.
9:56Tip number one is very simple. Uh spend
9:59a lot of class time vocabulary teaching
10:03um for various reasons because firstly,
10:07there is an enormous amount of
10:08vocabulary that the students need to
10:10know.
10:12Um and secondly, because it's not true
10:17that certain the assumption some
10:18teachers have that they just pick it up.
10:20I remember when I was first starting to
10:22teach, you don't want to know when, most
10:23of you weren't born then, in the late
10:251960s,
10:26um
10:28and that was the heyday of the
10:29audio-lingual approach and I was told, I
10:31remember very clearly being told,
10:34"Oh, you don't need to teach vocabulary.
10:36Just teach them the grammar and they'll
10:37pick up the vocabulary as they go
10:38along."
10:40Well, it just is not true. You do need
10:43to teach it. Um firstly, the amount
10:47um research indicates that you need to
10:49know about 8,000 word families. Now, a
10:52wait a word family
10:55includes all sorts of derivatives like
10:57like if you take the word act, then in
10:59the word family is activity, action,
11:03active, inactive, and so on and so on
11:06and so on. So, every word family has a
11:08lot of words, so it works out as
11:10something like 20,000 words in order to
11:13understand
11:14unsimplified reading texts.
11:17Um and there's been quite a lot of
11:18research on this, which indicates that
11:20this is this is so, which means that
11:23I don't know how your Portuguese system
11:26works or or in other Latin American
11:28countries,
11:30but um
11:32in Israel, we have eight years of
11:34English in schools, about 30-40 weeks in
11:37the school year, which means that if you
11:40do your arithmetic, you've got to teach
11:42over this time about 25 word families a
11:44week, about 60 words a week.
11:47It's It's just mission impossible. It's
11:49an enormous amount.
11:51Um and
11:53because we can't teach that huge amount,
11:56all we can say is, "Please,
11:58you do need to teach as many as
12:01possible." There is an enormous amount
12:02they need to know.
12:05They don't just pick it up. Uh the
12:07research indicates that if you just pick
12:10up like you pick up the words in in
12:12Portuguese or Spanish, your mother
12:14tongues,
12:15um then you learn it mainly from from
12:19interaction with other people and
12:20extensive reading, and you read an
12:22enormous amount in your mother tongue.
12:24But, um if we're talking about our
12:27learners who are learning English when
12:28everywhere around them people are
12:30speaking Portuguese or Spanish, um they
12:33are unlikely to read enough
12:36to learn the new vocabulary. It's very
12:39slow learning for incidentally from new
12:42vocabulary from extensive reading, which
12:44as I say, doesn't matter if it's your
12:45mother tongue cuz you're reading an
12:46enormous amount. But, if you are
12:49learning English,
12:51how much do your students read
12:54in in L1? How much do they read in their
12:56mother tongue? Some students don't read
12:59very much in their mother tongue,
13:00either. And um
13:03and in English, probably even less.
13:06So,
13:09my message is, and this is my end of my
13:11first tip, not all the tips are as long
13:13as this, don't worry. Some of them are
13:14quite short.
13:16Do as much focused vocabulary teaching
13:18as you can in class, actually
13:19deliberately teaching,
13:22reviewing,
13:24and so on,
13:25and encourage students to acquire it
13:28outside through reading.
13:31Um some some students do still read, so
13:34read read stories, read read
13:38children's books, read whatever you
13:39like. Uh YouTube.
13:43Uh I have a a grandson who spends a lot
13:44of time reading, watching YouTube. And I
13:48asked him if he was watching it with um
13:50with translations into Hebrew and not
13:52and he said, "Oh, no, I manage with the
13:54English." So, that's great. That's
13:56probably where he's learning most of his
13:57English.
13:58Um TV series of various kinds. Um
14:01gaming, all sorts of uh
14:04computer games where
14:06um the English of interaction is uh the
14:10language of interaction, sorry, is
14:12English.
14:15Um tip number two, review again and
14:18again. A lot of reviewing. Teaching a
14:21word or an expression once is not
14:23enough. They will not remember it.
14:27Research indicates we need to encounter
14:29words something like between 6 and 16
14:32times in order to remember it. It's a
14:34lot of times. We just don't have time to
14:38teach all this
14:39enormous amount of vocabulary
14:41and to do six to 16 times review of
14:44every one. And the answer is
14:47tentative answer from my own experience
14:49is simply uh to recycle as many times as
14:53you can. So, at least twice, three
14:55times. If you can do more, great. But,
14:58do recycle.
15:02Some useful routines to help this
15:03incidentally, and I'm going to very very
15:05practical tips, classroom tips. Um
15:08if you've taught vocabulary at the
15:10beginning of the lesson,
15:11remind them at the end of the lesson.
15:13Remember what we learned at the
15:14beginning? Let's just go through um
15:17uh
15:19through it again.
15:20Um start the next lesson by asking them
15:23to recall.
15:25And
15:26then uh later on, yes no pages an idea
15:30you might not be familiar with, giving
15:32students a page with 20 30 of the the
15:36items you've taught them in the last
15:38week or two and simply asking them to
15:40tick off
15:41all the ones they remember the meanings
15:43of.
15:44And then ask them to tell you what ones
15:46they didn't remember and review them.
15:48Very very quick and easy way of um of
15:51reviewing
15:52um new vocabulary and focusing in on the
15:55ones which perhaps they need reminding
15:57of.
15:59Um
16:00someone said I I missed it but now I'm
16:03I'm just relating to it. No, someone
16:04said in the chat box about personal
16:06relating personally to the vocabulary.
16:10Yes, very very important as as I'll come
16:12into that later. The things which you
16:14can relate to yourself or or in some way
16:16process in a personal way, you're going
16:19to remember better.
16:21Tip three,
16:23teach multi-word items, not just single
16:26words. There's a sort of um mistake that
16:29some beginner teachers think that
16:31vocabulary is words. It isn't words,
16:33it's it is words actually. It's words
16:35but it's also multi-word
16:38items which are referred to in the
16:41literature in all sorts of ways.
16:43Um
16:44phrases, um
16:48uh lexical phrases, chunks,
16:51lexical chunks,
16:54expressions,
16:56um
16:57etc. etc. There's all sorts of uh of
17:00phraseology there. Someone asked about
17:02reading aloud in the classroom. I'm sort
17:03of looking occasionally at the at the
17:05chat screen. Um I don't like reading
17:08aloud students having reading aloud in
17:10the classroom unless it's rehearsed
17:11reading. Um but I can do a whole new
17:14talk about that. Next Cambridge Day I'll
17:16do a talk about about reading text, but
17:18let's leave that aside at the moment. Um
17:23uh
17:24these are about 10% of the vocabulary
17:27students need to know. So, in your
17:28vocabulary lists
17:31you should have about 1/10 of the
17:33vocabulary. One in 10 items should be a
17:35multi-word item.
17:38For example,
17:40uh most of which could not be guessed by
17:41knowing component words. So, if you get
17:43prepositional phrases like of course,
17:46you know of and of and you know course,
17:48that doesn't help you know the meaning
17:49of of course. Similarly, by the way.
17:53Um
17:54what's called binomials, two words
17:57joined by and or are or or
18:01um by and large, you know by, you know
18:03large, you don't know what that doesn't
18:04tell you what by and large means. Same
18:07thing with fair and square.
18:10And of course all the phrasal verbs.
18:15Um
18:16look after, get on with, willy and and
18:20uh
18:21and so on. And finally,
18:23uh odd expressions like willy-nilly. Um
18:26neither of which words really occurs on
18:29their own, only in this joint hyphenated
18:31phrase. So, these are the sorts of
18:33things that we need to be teaching them.
18:35Of course,
18:36uh an expression like by and large is
18:38actually relatively rare, surprisingly
18:40rare, as is fair and square, but of
18:43course is very common. By the way is
18:45very common. You need I'll be talking in
18:46a moment about frequency and choosing
18:49the most useful items.
18:52Linked to the idea of multi-word items
18:55is the idea of collocation. In other
18:58words, when you teach a new word,
19:01it's a good idea to teach it with other
19:04words that it goes goes with. So, for
19:07example, it's called collocation. So,
19:10for example, these are often
19:11prepositions. Prepositions are a real
19:13headache for a lot of students. I'm sure
19:16you've found this with your students.
19:17Knowing which word which preposition
19:21goes after a particular verb or which
19:23preposition goes after a particular
19:24adjective. Um
19:27For example, angry.
19:29For some reason in English we say angry
19:31with.
19:32I don't know what um what your students
19:35tend to say after angry. Uh my students,
19:38uh Hebrew speakers, tend to say angry on
19:41instead but so it's it I need to teach
19:43them
19:44angry goes with with. Same with afraid,
19:47afraid with of. Um other kinds um
19:54For example, difference between tall and
19:56high, which in Spanish it's only one
19:59word, alta. I should imagine in
20:01Portuguese it's probably the same.
20:03Um and which which would go with either
20:05a person or a mountain, but in English
20:07you make a distinction between tall and
20:10high.
20:11Angry at, yes. Yes.
20:14Thank you.
20:15Um
20:17and the difference between fast and
20:19quick. So, fast goes with food or a
20:22runner, but quick goes with a quick
20:23review, a quick question, a quick visit.
20:27Um
20:29sleep. When you sleep, you sleep
20:31soundly, but soundly doesn't really go
20:33with anything else, only with sleep. Or
20:35very I can't nothing I can think of at
20:37the moment, though I may
20:40be able to think of it later. Um and
20:43dead meaning very or completely goes
20:45with right, but it doesn't go with
20:46correct. So, you need to know what it
20:48goes with, and it's useful when you're
20:50teaching these the word a word like dead
20:53meaning absolutely to
20:56make your students aware what
20:59uh these go with.
21:01Okay, I'm just um
21:05yes, looking at the uh chat box. corpus
21:08linguistic is I'll be talking about that
21:10in a moment. You're quite right. Very
21:11relevant.
21:13Um, let's move on. Tip number five.
21:17Um, we're always taught all a lot of
21:19student teachers are taught you should
21:21pre-teach vocabulary before reading text
21:23and my message here is it ain't
21:26necessarily so.
21:29Don't always if you teach
21:3110 to 12 new words immediately before
21:33reading a new text, what happens is that
21:35they probably won't remember what they
21:37mean when they encounter them because as
21:40I said before, just encountering them
21:42once isn't enough. You're not going to
21:43remember
21:44um, them immediately.
21:46So, um, and there's some evidence also
21:49that pre-teaching vocabulary doesn't
21:51help comprehension very much.
21:53So, if you pre-teach,
21:57choose a few key items, not not too many
22:00um,
22:01key items.
22:03The ones which are really important for
22:04comprehension which you know they don't
22:06didn't know yet or which they need
22:08refreshing.
22:10And teach them the lesson before, even
22:13two lessons before, so you leave
22:15yourself time to review them
22:18so that when they come across them in
22:19the reading, they're more likely to
22:21remember them.
22:23But, it's fine to teach the new items as
22:25they come up. There's nothing wrong with
22:27learning the items as you go rather than
22:30pre-teaching them
22:32um, because then you're learning them in
22:33a meaningful context. They immediately
22:36contribute to understanding the text
22:39and of course, you need to review later
22:42as I said before.
22:44Okay.
22:46Um,
22:48don't usually this is where you're going
22:49to need your pencil and paper, so get
22:51your pen ready.
22:53And the tip number six is don't usually
22:57ask students to guess words from
22:59context. It's a very popular strategy
23:02with a lot of teachers.
23:04It doesn't usually work.
23:07In most cases, they get it wrong.
23:10Not because they don't know how to
23:12guess, not because they're learners and
23:14don't have enough vocabulary, but simply
23:16because in most cases
23:19um a word
23:21eliminated at random or not known a
23:24random word from a text is its meaning
23:27is not revealed by the surrounding text,
23:31even to someone who is a native speaker
23:33or a very very proficient speaker.
23:36They get it wrong. They get frustrated.
23:38They have a feeling of failure.
23:41They are not learning anything because
23:42they've guessed it wrong or haven't
23:43guessed it.
23:45And it's a waste of time.
23:47So, here I know that I'm
23:49uh combating a myth here, but let's
23:52let's just try it out.
23:56Here's uh I'd like this on full screen.
23:59Now, I'd like the slide on full screen,
24:01please.
24:03Or you can put it on full screen. That's
24:05to say to take up the entire space on
24:08the screen or put it on full screen with
24:11your you can click on the bottom
24:13right-hand corner of the
24:16uh screen here. You can put it on the
24:18full screen. Okay. Can you write down
24:22what you would guess
24:24on your paper, not in the chat box, on
24:26your on a piece of paper.
24:28Um
24:29what you think might be the five missing
24:31words here. And I'm going to leave it up
24:33for a couple of minutes to give you time
24:36to try it. Okay?
24:59Can you leave it on full screen, please,
25:01for the moment?
25:18Okay, the next screen also you're going
25:20to need full screen because I'm going to
25:22show you
25:23the answers. Are you ready? Can you tell
25:26me if you're ready?
25:28Write in the in the chat box if you are
25:31ready for me to move on.
25:33Just say yes
25:34if you are or no if you're not.
25:45Yes, no, no, no, yes.
25:47Okay, I'll give another few seconds.
26:09Okay, I'm going to show you the answers
26:13and what I would like you to note on on
26:15the
26:16in the chat box this time is how many of
26:19the five you got right or pretty well
26:23right. In other words, you got something
26:25which is very, very close.
26:26Okay?
26:28Okay, here we go.
26:42Okay, write in the chat box how many
26:46you got right out of the five.
26:53I think I would got two or three, maybe.
27:11Okay, what we are seeing is none 1 2 3.
27:16Which is fairly typical. As I said
27:19before, it's not
27:21that you don't know English, and it's
27:23not that you're not intelligent, and not
27:24that you don't have the right
27:26strategies. It is simply the fault of
27:28the text. That the text does not give
27:31away
27:32what the word could be. There's no way,
27:34for example, you could have known that
27:35the last word was bottles.
27:38Um
27:39and there's no and the word globally,
27:42five lines up, is very, very difficult
27:45to guess.
27:46Um and the others are also difficult.
27:48So, the answer is it's really, really
27:50difficult to guess.
27:54And why should we
27:56ask our students to guess when they're
27:59not going to probably not going to be
28:00able to.
28:02It's probably better include my
28:04conclusion is guessing from context is
28:06not usually very useful.
28:10Um ask students to guess only if you're
28:13fairly sure they can do so successfully.
28:14In other words, if you are very sure
28:17that the the missing word's meaning is
28:20clear from the context, ask them to
28:21guess. Otherwise, just tell them.
28:24That's what you're there for. You're a
28:25teacher. Tell them.
28:29Let's move on.
28:31Okay, number seven.
28:33Um vocabulary from text, and this is
28:35someone asked about um corpora, and this
28:38is where the corpora come in. Um
28:40we don't to teach all the vocabulary
28:42from text, for some of it is not
28:43terribly useful. What we want to do is
28:46teach the most
28:49frequent useful vocabulary and that's
28:51very useful to know
28:54um
28:55what words or expressions from the text
28:59are most important for our students to
29:00know, right?
29:02So, how do you know which are the most
29:03common? Well, partly it's your own
29:06professional judgement, which is which
29:07is a very good start, but uh we also
29:10have the useful tool of corpora
29:14um and there are what what's called
29:16vocabulary profiles on profiles
29:19profilers online where you feed in you
29:22copy paste in your own
29:26um
29:27uh text and the program tells you how
29:32frequent, how common, how important the
29:34different words in it are. Um so, there
29:39are three which I like. I'm going to
29:41show you one of them, but let me just
29:42tell you which they are so you can
29:44choose for yourself. Um one is LexTutor,
29:47which is one I'm going to show you um
29:50which divides words into the first
29:53thousand, second thousand, third
29:54thousand, fourth thousand, and so on.
29:58Where
29:59um
30:01A1 A2 students, sort of beginner or
30:03early learners would be the K1, the
30:06first thousand, or K2, second thousand.
30:09When you when you get up to K3, you're
30:11already B1 um and so on. That's the sort
30:14of level we're talking about. So, if
30:16you're teaching an elementary class,
30:18you'd want to make sure that the K1 K2
30:21stu um
30:23um
30:25ones uh would uh
30:28would be useful to teach. The next one
30:31is Text Inspector, which is a Cambridge
30:33publication um and which is useful
30:36because it it defines the words
30:38according to the CEFR level. So, instead
30:40of saying first thousand, second
30:42thousand, most first most thousand most
30:45common, second thousand most common, it
30:48says this is an A1 word, this is an A2
30:51word, this is a B2 word, which
30:54is useful if you're working according to
30:56the CEFR.
30:58And then there's word and phrase, which
31:01is based on the American Corpus,
31:04Corpus of Contemporary American English,
31:06COCA, and which simply gives
31:11a rougher distinction between the most
31:15common words and more advanced words.
31:18So, let's look at Lex Tutor, the first
31:21one,
31:23and see what it looks like. Can you put
31:25this on the Thank you. Put it on the
31:26full screen. If you want to see this
31:28more clearly, then click on your full
31:30screen
31:31icon at the bottom right-hand corner of
31:33this
31:35black rectangle here.
31:37Um
31:38You you click on Lex Tutor, the
31:42the link which I showed on the previous
31:44screen, and it shows you something like
31:47this. And what you do is you copy-paste
31:50your
31:52text into the white
31:56oblong in the middle, and then you click
31:58on submit window,
32:01and you like what what I've done now,
32:04I've put in the
32:06the recycling text in there, and then it
32:10will give you something like this. You
32:11need to scroll down, but you find it,
32:13and it's a really useful analysis.
32:17So, if you look at this, you'll see that
32:19all the blue words are fairly low-level
32:22K1, that the most
32:25common thousand, within the most common
32:27thousand words.
32:30And
32:31then the green ones are the second
32:34thousand, so they're slightly less
32:36common, but
32:38um
32:39a but also not difficult. And then with
32:43the warmer colors, the the yellow and
32:46the
32:47orange, you get up to sort of B1 B2
32:50level.
32:52Um
32:53the
32:55if you look at the there's two beige
32:57words there, which um
33:00which might you might want to eliminate
33:04um
33:05the word tall here,
33:08which I would probably take out and and
33:10replace with an easier word cuz I don't
33:12think it's a very useful word to teach.
33:14Um and lag behind. Lag on its own is not
33:18very useful. If I'm going to teach it,
33:20I'm going to teach it as a full um
33:23expression to lag behind.
33:26But otherwise, as I say, the um
33:31uh the overall It's an overall guide.
33:34It's a useful guide. It does need to be
33:37tempered by your own
33:39um
33:41common sense, your own teaching
33:42judgment. Um and also another problem
33:46with these programs is they don't
33:47usually pick up the multi-word items.
33:49They don't pick up the
33:52um
33:52the chunks like, for example, lag
33:55behind.
33:56Um
33:57so you would need to check out those on
34:00your own. So they're not a total
34:03answer, but they do help uh help us
34:06select.
34:08Tip eight.
34:10Moving completely different. It's okay
34:12to practice words out of context. Uh
34:14we're always told you ought to practice
34:16words in context within a sentence or
34:18within a
34:19uh a text, but actually it's okay. Uh
34:23you don't always have to use sentences.
34:25Perfectly okay to practice separate
34:28items, words, or expressions.
34:30Um particularly as if you always use
34:33sentences, it takes a lot longer and we
34:35just don't have time
34:37to do all that. Um, if we if I have the
34:40choice between
34:42uh, recycling reviewing 20 words just on
34:45their own and five words within
34:47sentences, I'm going to I very often
34:49will choose to use do the 20 words
34:51simply because I need
34:54to give students opportunities to
34:56re-encounter these words and their
34:59meanings.
35:00Um, single word review is useful or
35:02brief phrases. So, for example, things
35:05like
35:06recalling.
35:08We've learned 20 words over the last
35:10week. How many can you remember? And you
35:12write them up on the board as quickly as
35:15they can say them.
35:16Um, the recalling in itself
35:20is a review
35:21because it's uh, an interesting
35:23psychological fact that you don't
35:24usually recall you don't usually recall
35:26things you don't understand.
35:28So,
35:30you tend to recall the words that you
35:32know the meaning of.
35:33And recalling by one student, if you
35:35write it up on the board and remind them
35:37what it means, um,
35:39it'll help the others who didn't
35:40remember it to,
35:42uh, remind themselves of it. Recalling
35:45translations, here's a whole lot of set
35:47of words, quickly let's translate them
35:49or the other way around, write them up
35:50in Portuguese and Spanish. I hope I'm
35:53not shocking anyone here and ask them
35:55to,
35:56uh, translate into English. I'll be
35:58talking about the use of L1 in a moment.
36:01Um, dictations, I'm going to read out
36:04words, you write them down. Also,
36:06dictation I'll be talking a bit more
36:08about, um, odd one out. Can you identify
36:11the odd one out?
36:13And the yes/no,
36:15um, technique which I spoke about a bit
36:18earlier.
36:21Um,
36:24I'm sorry I'm missing a lot of your
36:25questions here because I can't look at
36:27the um chat box at the same time as I'm
36:30looking at I'm thinking about what I'm
36:32going to say next and looking at the
36:33screen. So, um I hope that uh Renata
36:36will pick these up and and ask at the
36:38end of the session.
36:40Um words in phrases
36:43as opposed to complete sentences, for
36:44example, what adjectives could you apply
36:46to the word question?
36:48How many phrases can you think of using
36:50the word under? And again, it's a
36:52brainstorming activity which um gets
36:56them to review separate words.
36:59Tip number nine, this is where you're
37:01going to need your pencil and paper
37:02again. It's the last time, I promise.
37:04Make exercises interesting. Someone
37:07asked about uh games. Um
37:10I'm not exactly talking about games, but
37:11I'm talking about making exercises
37:14fun, motivating, stimulating,
37:17challenging. Let's look at Seal the
37:19Dolphin. Strategies that can make
37:21vocabulary tasks more
37:23interesting.
37:25Okay.
37:28For example,
37:30Okay, have a look at this um
37:33let's let's say, you don't have to write
37:34these down, okay? Don't write them down,
37:36just look at them. Um
37:38here's a whole lot of um
37:41words
37:43uh from or expressions as well, there's
37:46a couple of uh
37:47expressions as well.
37:49Um
37:50from a
37:52reading text.
37:53What the reading text was doesn't
37:55matter. These are the words which I've
37:56decided, whatever reason, to teach. And
37:59I want to know how to do it in an
38:01interesting way. And what I want you to
38:02do with your pencil and paper now
38:05is just jot down this table.
38:09All you need to re- write really is
38:12activity and then 1 2 3 4 5 under it.
38:18Okay?
38:21The reason is that I'm going to do
38:24five different activities
38:26and I'm going to
38:28um
38:31ask you to give each a score
38:35on interest.
38:37On a scale of 1 to 5. So,
38:41if the activity is really, really
38:43boring, you give it a one. If it is
38:46absolutely marvelously interesting, you
38:48give it a two. Uh uh five, sorry. So,
38:51five is maximum, really, really
38:53interesting, and one is really boring.
38:57Okay. Let's go back to our words.
39:00Activity one, then. Are you ready?
39:03It's a gap fill.
39:04Okay?
39:06So,
39:08number one.
39:11If you do something two times, we call
39:14it
39:17Okay? Answer that.
39:23And question two, we're still on
39:24activity one.
39:27Gap fill.
39:28Um we move our arms and legs with the
39:31help of our mm
39:43And the answer is
39:45muscles.
39:47Uh in the winter,
39:49rain doesn't fall, but mm does fall.
39:55And the answer is
40:00snow.
40:02Okay. That was activity one. How
40:05interesting was that? What score would
40:08you give it? Write one if you think it
40:09was really boring, five if you think it
40:11was really interesting, and anything in
40:13between. On your paper, not
40:16on the chat.
40:18Okay?
40:19So, within here
40:22opposite activity one, you write your
40:24score. If you five, you thought it was
40:26really interesting. One if you thought
40:27it was really boring. Number two.
40:32Can you give me a sentence? And here you
40:34can write it in on the on the um
40:38um on the
40:41uh chat box if you like.
40:43What um
40:45score would you give it?
40:47Uh
40:49just write giving a sentence using any
40:51one of these items.
40:54A sentence using any one of these items.
40:57Okay? Someone like to
40:59give me an example?
41:06Okay, people who gave the previous one a
41:08five,
41:09you really thought that was really
41:11really really interesting doing a a gap
41:12fill?
41:14I think you might have got your numbers
41:16wrong.
41:18Okay.
41:19Think about it. Let's go back to this
41:21one. This one is give me a sentence. I
41:24study in an international school. I'm
41:25afraid of spiders.
41:27Afraid of not being sick in in the Let's
41:30keep in touch. Okay. Thank you. How
41:34interesting was that? And opposite
41:38activity two, please tell me how
41:40interesting it was. One,
41:43boring. Two, fairly boring. Three,
41:46medium. Four, interesting. Five, very
41:48interesting.
41:50Okay, give it a score and we'll move on
41:52to number
41:54three. Activity three is give me a
41:57sentence with any two
42:00of the items.
42:02Two of the items.
42:05Okay?
42:08Give me an
42:10something with two of the items.
42:12A sentence with any two.
42:23Okay.
42:25Let's see what you've got here.
42:28I am afraid of Corona. Now, I need two
42:31words from the from the screen.
42:34The wind is freezing. That's okay. It
42:37winds and snows here. Yes, okay.
42:40The national competition starts now.
42:43Nice.
42:45I'm afraid of dolphins.
42:48Nice. Okay. Can you give that a score,
42:50please? With two items. How interesting
42:53was that? Number three. How interesting
42:55was that?
42:59And number four.
43:02There's only two more to go. Number four
43:04is
43:05write in the chat box a statement using
43:09any of the items here. You don't need to
43:10use two. You can use just but a false
43:13statement. For example, snow is hot,
43:16okay? Anything which is rubbish, which
43:18is clearly untrue. It has to be a false
43:21statement.
43:33Okay, let me see any false statement.
43:35Dolphins are mammals. That's actually
43:37true.
43:38I want a false statement.
43:41Okay.
43:43You could say dolphins are fish, which
43:44which should be untrue.
43:46Dolphins can fly. Very nice. Wind is
43:49something we can see. The dolphin cannot
43:51swim. Dolphins are insects. I sink if I
43:54swim.
43:55Dolphins are aggressive. Okay, elephants
43:58can swim. I don't know if they can,
43:59actually. Maybe they can. Um okay, very
44:02nice. Can you give that a score, please,
44:04between one and five?
44:09A the last one?
44:13The last task is
44:17um can you write in the chat box a
44:19sentence using any of the words,
44:22but it has to include
44:24I or my or me. In other words, it has to
44:26be about yourself and it has to be true.
44:29It has to be true.
44:31Okay, so I can swim, for example, very
44:34simple one but it has to be true of you.
44:38Okay?
44:43I'm afraid of touching dolphins. Are
44:45you, Betsy? Why?
44:48They're nice things, no, to touch.
44:51Okay, more things which you can do.
44:56I eat chocolate twice a week.
44:59I can touch my dog.
45:01Maybe that's very
45:03modest of you.
45:04My son can swim. I should do therapy,
45:07says Joel. Okay.
45:09My internet connection is horrible
45:11today. Oh, that's bad. I'm sorry about
45:12that.
45:13Okay, right. Um and can you give that a
45:16score, please, on one to five. Now,
45:22some
45:23um
45:24uh
45:26platforms of uh interaction give you the
45:29possibility of doing polls which, for
45:31example, like um
45:33Zoom does, but but the one we're using
45:35today doesn't. So, I can't count up your
45:38answers, which is a pity.
45:40Um what I can do is show you the answers
45:42I got
45:44um when I did this with another group um
45:47uh uh Russian teachers, actually, but uh
45:50I've done it several times and this is
45:52just a typical answer. And their scores
45:54look something like this.
46:00The gap fill they found pretty boring,
46:02on the whole.
46:03Sentence was a bit better.
46:06Um two words was immediately more
46:08interesting than doing one word.
46:11The false one was even more interesting,
46:13and the most interesting was the one
46:15where they actually had to
46:17um say things about themselves. There
46:19was another one which I did which I
46:21can't do in this platform, which was
46:23make up a story with your friends.
46:26Um
46:26I put them into um breakout rooms and
46:29make up a story with your friend um
46:31using all the words, but we can't do
46:33that. We couldn't do that in this
46:34platform. So, I just limited to these
46:37five.
46:38Um and the
46:41it's very clear that the interest was
46:43going up each time. And the question is,
46:47why?
46:52Um and
46:56I'm going to suggest what the answer is
46:58because we we have
47:00not enough time, unfortunately, to have
47:01a discussion about it. Um but
47:04mainly um
47:07one important one is open-ended
47:09responses. In other words, not there's
47:11one right answer, like snow falls in
47:13winter, okay?
47:15Or two times is the same as twice.
47:18So, you can say anything you like. So,
47:20any of the um
47:23any of the tasks after the first had
47:26open-ended responses, they were
47:28immediately more interesting than the
47:30one right answer type.
47:32Secondly
47:34a bit of a challenge. Have to think
47:36about is this true or it isn't, the true
47:38false one.
47:39Um
47:40uh or what connection can I find and put
47:43in the same sentence? And it's a
47:44question of finding links, finding
47:46connections, which is higher-order
47:48thinking rather than just recalling and
47:51filling in a
47:53um
47:55um a um
47:58a gap and finally personalization.
48:02Saying things which are linked to which
48:03links to one what one of you said
48:05earlier on, I noticed in the chat box,
48:07the personalization relating the word to
48:10myself in some way to immediately helps
48:12me to remember it.
48:14Um so
48:17these sorts of things immediately make
48:19uh make a a a simple word recall
48:24activity much much more interesting than
48:28the conventional gap fills, matching,
48:30multiple choice, the other stuff which
48:31is in the in um the um textbooks.
48:37Okay.
48:38Tip 10, and I only have 10 minutes left,
48:41I know. Um
48:42but the rest of my tips are rather
48:45shorter. So, tip 10, avoid word games
48:47like Hangman and word search. Very
48:49popular, but you actually spend most of
48:52your time puzzling, not finding. If you
48:56do Hangman you're going to spend most of
48:58your time just throwing out letters and
49:00only in the last couple of
49:02guesses are you going to see the word?
49:04Um they're mainly a waste of time. The
49:06same thing with um
49:08computer-generated uh word searches.
49:12The word picture here at the top left,
49:14can you find the word picture? How long
49:16will it take you to find it?
49:20Computer
49:22dog, clothes
49:31Yeah, my favorite game, but I'm sorry
49:32I'm I'm
49:34I'm uh
49:35ruining things for you. Okay, could you
49:38find it?
49:39Find these words, anybody?
49:42Well, here they are.
49:44Very very difficult to find. Some of
49:46them are going backwards, some of them
49:47are going slanting, some of them are
49:48going up and down. Very very difficult.
49:51It's much better to make your own uh
49:54homemade word search if you're going to
49:55use them at all and as I say I'm not in
49:57favor of using them, but if you're going
49:59to use them, make your own and uh make
50:02them only go from left to right and
50:05downwards.
50:07Tip 11, I said I was going to talk about
50:09L1.
50:11When introducing the meaning of a new
50:12item,
50:14uh you've got various options when you
50:17when you uh introduce a new item. All of
50:19these are here to drop on your screen.
50:23Picture, realia, real things, mime,
50:25synonym, explanation, examples, context,
50:28and translation.
50:30Picture is nice for the impact, but
50:34maybe ambiguous.
50:36Um how about this one? If I want to
50:38teach happy,
50:39okay?
50:41Yes, okay. It looks like happy, but it
50:43also could mean smile, it could mean
50:45smiley, it could mean
50:48um
50:49a
50:50face.
50:52I don't know why this is like that, but
50:54if you add the translation,
50:57then it's immediately clear. You've got
50:59the impact of the picture, but you also
51:01made sure that your students know what
51:02it means.
51:04Realia and mime, realia have more impact
51:07than a picture, but maybe ambiguous
51:10and not all items can be represented.
51:14Synonym, quick, but
51:18only at higher levels because you can't
51:20have synonyms for new words which they
51:22don't know the synonyms of and maybe
51:24inaccurate.
51:26Explanation, again for higher levels and
51:29added exposure to English, but takes
51:31ages. Uh for example, here's an
51:33explanation of disappointed.
51:36Ages to explain,
51:38much much quicker just to give them the
51:40translation and get on with it.
51:44Examples can explain some general terms.
51:46For example, you want to explain sweet
51:48or sports, you give examples.
51:52But, not everything is easily explained
51:55by
51:56examples. Context, yes, but
52:00as I've shown before, the context
52:03we looked at that uh text before, the
52:06context does not reveal the meaning. And
52:09in fact, if you give them all these
52:11examples, it doesn't necessarily reveal
52:13the meaning of discuss.
52:15Translation, on the other hand, is
52:17usually accurate, not entirely, but
52:21usually pretty accurate.
52:23Very quick and very natural, because we
52:25naturally, when we're learning a new
52:27word, we want to know what it um
52:31um what it means in our mother tongue.
52:33It really helps.
52:34But, of course, not much impact, it's
52:37fairly boring. It's quick. It doesn't
52:39doesn't make the impact we want it like
52:41a picture does.
52:42And the danger of assuming that it may
52:45be a one-to-one translation, which it
52:47isn't.
52:48However, my answer is probably best to
52:51use pictures, explanations, realia,
52:55mime, and so on, plus
52:58a quick translation as backup. I think
53:00that's that's the function of
53:02translation, to be a backup to the other
53:04means, just to make sure they know what
53:06it means.
53:09Tip 12, teach prefixes and suffixes only
53:12at advanced levels.
53:15Within the most frequent 5,000 words,
53:18prefix and suffixes don't help very much
53:20for various reasons. Firstly,
53:23um
53:24the prefix, they may know what the
53:26prefix means. Very often, they're
53:27attached to a root which is
53:29incomprehensible.
53:31So, they may know that auto means self,
53:33but the fact that they don't know non
53:35nomi, or they know id ible means able
53:39to,
53:40but they don't know what ed means. And
53:42so, it won't help in those cases.
53:45Um
53:46it may even be be misleading. For
53:48example, this
53:50solve does not mean
53:53not to solve. Recall does not mean to
53:55call again.
53:56Improved does not mean not proved.
54:00Or the affix doesn't doesn't mean what
54:02you think it means.
54:04Re means again or back, but research has
54:08nothing to do with that. Reside has
54:09nothing to do with that.
54:11Or they knew the word anyway, and the
54:13affix doesn't help. For example, they
54:15knew the word beautiful. Knowing that
54:17full means full of doesn't help very
54:19much cuz cuz they didn't know beauty
54:21before they know beautiful.
54:25Or the affix is ambiguous. Remember
54:27something like in sometimes means not
54:30and sometimes means inside, as in the
54:32examples I'm showing here.
54:37Um learners may misuse the affix in
54:40their own production, and these are
54:42authentic examples. Unbusy
54:45improvisation. So, they need to be
54:48taught only, I think, when studying
54:51advanced modern vocabulary. Like
54:54auto is useful is useful for
54:56understanding terms like autopilot,
54:59sub subcommittee,
55:02prewar. But these are all academic
55:04advanced words. Or remember yesterday?
55:08Unboxing. Okay, you know un, then you'll
55:11know what unboxing means.
55:14Tip 13, don't teach lexical sets
55:17together for altogether for the same
55:20time.
55:22Um for example, don't teach all the
55:23colors together. All the parts of the
55:25body together.
55:27Um
55:29some evidence they aren't very learned
55:31very well. So, it's a better to teach
55:33items that will naturally co-occur in a
55:36given context. So, better to teach um
55:39for example,
55:41blue with sky rather than blue with red,
55:45yellow, green.
55:47Okay?
55:48So, words that occur, as it were,
55:49horizontally linked rather than
55:51vertically linked.
55:53Or if you have a unit on family, don't
55:54just teach mother, father, son,
55:56daughter, sister, brother, and so on.
55:58But, all the words that have to do with
56:01family and home.
56:03Uh different parts of speech, different
56:05words that might go together.
56:10Tip 14, use dictations. There's all
56:13sorts of different kinds of dictations
56:15you can use.
56:16Um
56:18translation dictation, in other words,
56:20giving them the word in Portuguese, they
56:22translate into English or vice versa.
56:24Fill-in dictation, where you give them
56:27they have the whole sentence, all they
56:29have to do is fill in the word.
56:30Dictation, completion dictation, where
56:33you dictate the beginning of a sentence
56:36and they finish it up.
56:38Adapt textbook exercises to make
56:40open-ended.
56:42Okay, I'm going to run a bit over time.
56:44I apologize, but I really need to show
56:46you this one. I talked earlier about
56:49closed-ended exercises
56:51where each item has one right answer,
56:53and that's what you get mostly in your
56:55textbooks, as opposed to open-ended
56:58questions, which have many right
57:00answers.
57:01Um
57:02and
57:03open-ended exercises are more learning
57:06rich cuz you get more responses. They
57:08are more interesting,
57:10and they afford opportunities for
57:12response at different levels.
57:15So, for example, here's
57:17vocabulary in the sense of irregular
57:19past tenses.
57:20This is a closed-ended typical
57:24gap fill.
57:27And how do we make it open-ended? We
57:29delete something. So,
57:32we delete, for example, the
57:34um
57:36uh
57:37the root form and we say, "Okay, write
57:39whatever you like." She left early. She
57:42went early. She came early. She spoke
57:44early. She got up early. And they are
57:47reviewing all sorts of different um
57:51past tenses. Or,
57:53you leave the past leave the um
57:56uh
57:57the root form. So, you want to say she
57:59left,
58:00but you delete early and they answer all
58:03sorts of things which they want. She
58:05left
58:07the room. She left me. She left her
58:10husband. And so on and so on.
58:12And lots and lots of review,
58:14lots of different answers, much more
58:16interesting.
58:18The principle is delete the end of the
58:20sentence or the proposed option or the
58:23bank of items.
58:27Tip 16, don't spend ages checking
58:29homework exercises in the class. If
58:31they've done a vocabulary exercise at
58:33home,
58:35it's much better
58:37either to provide the answers and they
58:38self-check,
58:39or check each other in pairs. Ask you
58:42only if they're not sure.
58:45Or, best of all, if you have time, take
58:47home their notebooks and check at home.
58:49Uh if you check through
58:51an exercise one by one in class using
58:54class ping-pong, um
58:56it can take up half your lesson and you
58:59really need your time.
59:03Uh
59:04tip 17, get students to present new
59:06vocabulary. You don't have to do it all
59:07yourself. Ask them for homework
59:11to look for a new item to present and
59:14tell you about it.
59:15Word of the day.
59:17Who's going to present the word of the
59:18day today? Something you came across in
59:20a movie, something you came across on
59:22the internet, something that you saw in
59:23the street, or phrase of the day. Make
59:26sure you have a reserve in case they
59:28haven't done their homework, but it's a
59:30useful
59:31variation.
59:33Tip 18, get students to design test
59:36items. If you want to test all the
59:38vocabulary,
59:39get students to design the questions
59:42in pairs or for homework or both.
59:45Take them in and then design the test
59:47based on their ideas.
59:54The advantages of the test design is
59:56itself review. When they're creating the
59:58items, they are reviewing the the
1:00:00vocabulary as they go.
1:00:02It lowers test anxiety because they at
1:00:04least some of the items they know
1:00:06because they've designed them. And the
1:00:08students have feel ownership of the
1:00:11test.
1:00:13And 19, use interactive tools in online
1:00:18lessons. Well, um Herbert talked about
1:00:20this today. He talked about
1:00:21collaboration, but what I'm interested
1:00:23more is activating
1:00:26students. Internal face-to-face is
1:00:28better. I don't know when we're going to
1:00:29be able to get back to face-to-face
1:00:30teaching. I'd love to do it tomorrow,
1:00:32but it's not going to happen whenever it
1:00:34happens. But at the moment we're stuck
1:00:36with online tools. And if it's online,
1:00:40make it as interactive as you can
1:00:44using If you've got a small class up to
1:00:4620, I'd tell them to turn on their
1:00:48microphones and cameras. And yes, I know
1:00:51teenagers don't like turning on their
1:00:52cameras, but as much as possible.
1:00:54But turning on microphones and allowing
1:00:56them to say their answers rather than
1:00:59write them.
1:01:00Um
1:01:01even if it means interrupting.
1:01:04Using the chat box as you're doing now.
1:01:07Using breakout rooms. Surprisingly easy
1:01:11tool to use I found with Zoom and it
1:01:13enables you to do pair work and group
1:01:15work while you're
1:01:16uh within your lesson.
1:01:18Um and using polls, which is another
1:01:20tool which I've used in Zoom, which is
1:01:22really useful and gets them active.
1:01:26And tip 20,
1:01:28never say never.
1:01:31And this what this means is that all my
1:01:33tips, they've worked for me, they're
1:01:35useful. I hope you're finding them um
1:01:38useful as well.
1:01:41And they can also often help, but there
1:01:44may be situations where they don't, and
1:01:45you are the best judge
1:01:47as whether to use them or not to use
1:01:49them, where to use them, if to use them,
1:01:50how to use them.
1:01:53Use selectively or adapt. Bottom line,
1:01:57never say never.
1:02:00And thank you very much, and I'm sorry I
1:02:02ran over time.
1:02:03Thank you.
1:02:08Then then don't be sorry for running out
1:02:10of the time because the chat here was
1:02:12like
1:02:14joyful and thanking for your
1:02:17for your ideas and thoughts. And we're
1:02:20going to start now the Q&A moment. There
1:02:23were a lot of questions for you. I can
1:02:27see what's going on here.
1:02:28What's going on, yeah. I know. I
1:02:31understand that this You were talking
1:02:32about the word of the day, and even I
1:02:34that do not study as I used to, I have
1:02:37this word of the day that comes every
1:02:39day to my email. And today is that
1:02:41vocabulary
1:02:43horizon. And Fabio Garcia from Ribeirão
1:02:46Preto, São Paulo asks,
1:02:48do students improve their vocabulary
1:02:51better when they contextualize,
1:02:53personalize these vocabulary items?
1:02:56Yes, definitely. Um I think that the the
1:03:00basis is they learn them better when
1:03:01they actually do something with them.
1:03:03And contextualizing and making them
1:03:05personal to them, as I showed in the
1:03:07exercise we did, um is is one very
1:03:10effective way
1:03:12of doing it. Um there is actually
1:03:13research to show that if you
1:03:15simply just encounter it in the new word
1:03:18in reading, it doesn't uh work nearly so
1:03:22well as
1:03:23if you actually do something with it.
1:03:26You can contextualize it as you suggest
1:03:27or or make it relevant to yourself. Yes,
1:03:29I agree.
1:03:31Yeah.
1:03:32Well, people from Mexico, from
1:03:33Argentina, San Bernardo, Chile, there
1:03:36are a lot of people. Our next question
1:03:39is from Limeira, São Paulo, Leonardo
1:03:41Tonasso. What could you say about
1:03:43reading as a teaching strategy to
1:03:46improve students' pronunciation and
1:03:48fluency when proper when properly
1:03:50prepared and applied?
1:03:53Um
1:03:55Okay, I think you're talking about
1:03:56reading aloud. Um
1:03:58it it seems from from the question I'm
1:03:59assuming you're talking about reading
1:04:01aloud.
1:04:02Um I think uh
1:04:04two answers here. I think sight-reading,
1:04:06in other words, reading a text you've
1:04:08never seen before and you're asked to
1:04:11read read aloud in the classroom does
1:04:13not improve anything. It's it's it's
1:04:16it's very very difficult for students to
1:04:18do, although some of them like to do it
1:04:20and it's in some
1:04:21um
1:04:22learning cultures it's very very common.
1:04:25Um but it does not really improve
1:04:28um
1:04:29pronunciation very much and it's it's in
1:04:33some ways it stops them understanding
1:04:35cuz they're focusing so hard on how to
1:04:37pronounce the different words that they
1:04:38don't actually um think about what it
1:04:42means and if they don't know what it
1:04:43means, it's obviously not going to
1:04:45contribute to fluency.
1:04:46However, having said that, um if
1:04:50they're reading aloud something that
1:04:52they already understood, in other words,
1:04:54you've been through it in the classroom,
1:04:56and um they're familiar with the
1:04:58meanings and and uh what the text
1:05:01actually means,
1:05:03reading aloud then
1:05:05is a good uh way of improving
1:05:08pronunciation and fluency. Rehearsed
1:05:10reading is even better. Something called
1:05:13reader's theater, which some of you may
1:05:15be familiar with. I can't I haven't got
1:05:16time to go into it now, but those of you
1:05:17are familiar with it, that's a really
1:05:19good way of improving students'
1:05:21pronunciation and fluency. And reader's
1:05:24theater, which is reading aloud
1:05:26rehearsed text, can actually be used
1:05:28with um
1:05:29a
1:05:31uh a very um
1:05:34conventional text as a a paragraph from
1:05:36a reading text. Read aloud this text
1:05:38with your friends in a way that makes
1:05:40maximum impact. And then, yes, I agree
1:05:44it improves both pronunciation and
1:05:46fluency.
1:05:48Before I let's uh next question, I just
1:05:50come down I I will come down our chat
1:05:52who's asking about Yes, uh Penny's
1:05:55webinar will be available next week on
1:05:58Cambridge University uh Cambridge
1:06:00University Press YouTube, okay? So, you
1:06:03can see the slides again and everything.
1:06:05Now, we have uh
1:06:07a question from Marcelo Vicente from
1:06:09Paraiba. He asks, "Is Is there Is Is
1:06:12there an effective method for you to
1:06:14that helps to fix the meaning of the
1:06:17vocabulary being acquired?"
1:06:20Um
1:06:22not one effective method, but some um
1:06:26strategies are better than others. For
1:06:28example, the use of pictures and realia
1:06:32are really good for fixing the meaning.
1:06:34And and and a very interesting piece of
1:06:37research, which I think is not actually
1:06:38on my list, but if you uh
1:06:42uh
1:06:44uh email me. I'll I'll remind you what
1:06:46my email is in a moment. I'll I'll send
1:06:48it to you. Um
1:06:51the use of pictures, even for teaching
1:06:53abstract nouns and abstract uh ideas, is
1:06:56really effective in helping to fix
1:06:58meaning. So, you might think about that.
1:07:00For example, if you're teaching a word
1:07:02like fear,
1:07:04showing a person who's really scared uh
1:07:07will help fix the meaning in in their
1:07:09mind. So, I think pictures really a
1:07:12mime, these sort of impactful
1:07:15presentations as well as obviously
1:07:17an exciting and interesting context.
1:07:21Well, perfect. We have this next
1:07:23question from Clady Oliveira. Actually,
1:07:26she's saying, "In public school, the
1:07:29focus is on acquisition of vocabulary
1:07:32and for in then, I don't know if you
1:07:34will wear it's our is exam national exam
1:07:37for you to graduate to the college. So,
1:07:39many still know many
1:07:42students know many isolated words, but I
1:07:45don't know how to use them, but they
1:07:48don't know how to use them in real life.
1:07:50How can we help them? How can we help
1:07:53when students are focused on getting a
1:07:55grade or passing in a test
1:07:58to
1:08:00get more deeper and not knowing just
1:08:02isolated words, but also to use them in
1:08:05real life?" Yeah.
1:08:07Um I think two answers to this. One is
1:08:10what I suggested before, using words in
1:08:13phrases, getting them to use words
1:08:15together with
1:08:17other words like for example, you want
1:08:18to practice a word like
1:08:21busy, so you say,
1:08:23"What sort of things can be busy?" And
1:08:25make them combine with other words even
1:08:27without putting them in full sentences.
1:08:29Um or
1:08:32another exercise, all the exercises I
1:08:34suggested for the when we were doing
1:08:36that experiment with interest, they all
1:08:40get the students put in
1:08:42in context.
1:08:44Another a idea which is suggested by one
1:08:48of my students in a in a master's course
1:08:50I was leading recently.
1:08:52And she suggested giving students a list
1:08:55of all the words
1:08:56um
1:08:57uh
1:08:58they've been they've been learning over
1:09:00the last few weeks and asked me to
1:09:03prepare presentations
1:09:05which include all of these. Now, the
1:09:07presentation could be a description or a
1:09:09story or anything, but they have to
1:09:11actually present
1:09:13including as many of the words as they
1:09:15can, which makes them contextualized.
1:09:19Okay.
1:09:20And again, as
1:09:22Penny, your the activity you've just
1:09:24asked us this to fill in the blanks can
1:09:27be considered as a closed test.
1:09:31Um yes, basically, which means that
1:09:33closed tests are
1:09:35very difficult to do sometimes. And when
1:09:38people are choosing
1:09:40which
1:09:41uh word to
1:09:43take out,
1:09:45um they um
1:09:48they should make sure that it's a word
1:09:49which can in fact be guessed. In fact, I
1:09:51mean, all the words which I took out,
1:09:53because it's it's a session on
1:09:54vocabulary, they were all lexical words.
1:09:56If you take out grammatical words like
1:09:58is or the, they're usually easier to
1:10:01guess.
1:10:04Oh, uh I just uh missed that one
1:10:07information from our last question, the
1:10:10question before that. Cleide Oliveira
1:10:13actually is one of the teachers who is
1:10:16in closest contact with Cambridge
1:10:18University Press. She's from Altamira,
1:10:20Pará. Pará. Nice to have you here. Nice
1:10:23to have you all here. I think we are
1:10:24going to our last question. Oh, I have
1:10:28to because people are talking with me to
1:10:31uh Mrs. Penny. I'm sorry. Sometimes I
1:10:33get So or I have to and because we have
1:10:37still a lot Yeah, this is the last
1:10:39question. We need to finish. I'm really
1:10:41sorry.
1:10:42Because your fans are here asking still
1:10:45on our web chat.
1:10:48Thank you very much for being here. Any
1:10:50last words? Can I just say one more
1:10:52thing?
1:10:53Of course, please. I just want to
1:10:56mention that my um um
1:10:59email, which is uh could you just show
1:11:01the slide?
1:11:04The last slide. Uh my email is up there.
1:11:06If any of you want to ask further
1:11:08questions or make further comments,
1:11:09please feel free to email me at this
1:11:11address.
1:11:13And uh just to remind you what I said at
1:11:15the beginning that the
1:11:18um research references and background uh
1:11:21in the later slides on this actually on
1:11:24this uh presentation. Just giving you a
1:11:27glance here.
1:11:28So, if any of you are interested in
1:11:30these,
1:11:31um the
1:11:33slides will be available, won't they,
1:11:34Renata? On the on the Cambridge site.
1:11:37You'll be able to download them. So,
1:11:39that's
1:11:40all I wanted to say. And and thank you
1:11:42very much for listening and
1:11:43participating.
1:11:45Thank you very much for your time with
1:11:47our uh Penny. It was an honor and a
1:11:49pleasure to have you here. And have a
1:11:52good day.
1:11:53for participating. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
1:11:56Good night. And not only a big thank for
1:12:00Penny, but also a big thank you to the
1:12:03ones of you who already donate via the
1:12:06QR code to Ação Pela Cidadania, the NGO
1:12:10benefited by this year's Cambridge Day
1:12:12event. This is a renowned NGO in Brazil
1:12:16that has fought against hunger and
1:12:18poverty since 1993.
1:12:20And I would also extend our thanks to
1:12:22our partners that believe in our
1:12:24projects and initiatives.
1:12:44I will share the link for the
1:12:47certificate on the on the chat. And
1:12:49remember that the certificate is
1:12:52editable, so you can put your name on
1:12:54it. You can add your name on it and then
1:12:56save it as a PDF, okay? Let's make a
1:13:00quick break, a very quick break, and I
1:13:02will see you soon in our next link. Bye.

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