Match the Definitions to the Words in the Text (Clarifying the meaning Stage of a Vocabulary Lesson)

(TESOL Ideas--Stages of a Vocabulary Lesson, Any Vocabulary Set)

This is an addendum to the previous post about clarifying meaning in a vocabulary lesson.

I mentioned in that previous post that a popular way to clarify vocabulary was to match the words to the definitions.  This activity typically works by having a set of vocabulary words at the top of the sheet, and the definitions further down the worksheet.

I used to do this a lot.  But then I realized that by putting the vocabulary words at the top of the sheet, I was removing the need to look at the model text.  And if you're doing a "language from a text" lesson, then you don't want to be taking the students out of the text.  You want them to be seeing the vocabulary in the text. That is, after all, the whole point of a language from a text lesson.

Let me use the Impact textbooks as an example.  I've been teaching out of the Impact series for  the past several years (Impact 2, Impact 3, Impact 4).  The Impact textbooks always begin the new unit with about 20 new vocabulary words which are embedded in a text.  There is, however, no clarification activity, so the teacher has to design that themselves.

In the past, I used to design a worksheet where all the vocabulary was put at the top of the sheet, and the definitions below (for an example of this, see page 5 of this worksheet from Unit 1 of Impact 3).

Or, to make things more fun and kinesthetic, I would put the definitions on one set of cards, and the vocabulary words on another.  As I described in this post here.  But as fun and kinesthetic as this was, I eventually realized this also took the students out of the text.  And I wanted them to use the text when they were trying to figure out the meaning of the word.

So eventually I started designing worksheets that didn't include the vocabulary at the top.  This meant that the students had to search for the vocabulary in the text.

And, if I do a noticing activity, that involves matching vocabulary to blanks in the text, then I make sure to take that worksheet back from the students before I give them the list of definitions.  Again, the reason is I don't want them looking at the bank of vocabulary words at the top of the sheet.  I want them to go back to the sentences in the text, and use the context of those sentences.

One way to make this slightly more engaging is to use quizziz.  So instead of putting the definitions on a boring white paper, I put the definitions into a quizziz quiz.  Because quizziz lets the students work through the questions individually and at their own pace, it's essentially the same thing as if they were working off of a worksheet, it's just a bit more gamified.

For an example of this, see this quizziz for Unit 7 of Impact 3.