Vocabulary Review After Reading

(TESOL ideas --Any Vocabulary Set, Reading)

            This is the idea I referred to in the previous post.

            The basic ideas is after the Japanese game Karuta (W) in which you have a series of cards laid out, and as the teacher reads out the words, the students compete to try and grab the appropriate word before the others in their group.

            To this basic idea, I have added simply the idea of using it after an intensive reading.

            I did this first with the young learners (adolescent classes), but I also found that in some of my adult classes this works quite well, because some of them can get a little tired after an intensive reading and enjoy diverting their brain with something more active.

            First, prepare and cut out 25 cards with words on it from the reading.

            Then, put the students into groups of 3 or 4.  The basic idea is that you call out the words, and whichever student grabs the card first gets one point.

            Using words from an intensive reading, I found I could use this in several stages.

Stage 1: Have the students close their books, while I read through the reading slowly.  After I read one of the words on the cards, I pause, and wait until someone in each group has grabbed a card.  (It helps to use a highlighter in my text to help me remind me where the words are.)

Stage 2: Same idea as stage 1, but I read through the text much more rapidly without stopping. 

Stage 3: Read the same text again, but this time stopping right before any of the key words.  Students have to remember or deduce from context what the word will be, and grab that card.

Stage 4: Don’t read the text.  Instead describe the various words, and students have to grab a word that fits the definition.

Stage 5: Students shuffle the cards and place them face down.  They pick up a card and describe it to the other members of their group.  The first person in their group to guess the card will get one point, and then another student takes a turn to pick up a card and describe it.

            Obviously you wouldn’t want to use all 5 stages in one class.  With the younger students I used stage 1,2, and 3.  With the adults I did stages 2, 4, and 5..