My name is Roxie Daggett and I work at Santa Fe Community College as an ESL/Civics Specialist.

 

I'm catching up on these posts, but wanted to respond to the request for ideas about expanding vocabulary any level of student. I'm teaching a reading and writing class for advanced students right now. Here are a couple of things that have been working to expand vocabulary:

1.	Cognate Wall: We made a simple wall in the classroom with titles of all languages spoken among us. We put up words that are the same in English and the other languages underneath the title of the language. Example: Under English we have reaction, next to that, Spanish: reaccion, next, Russian: реакция, it's similar... Under the wall, I placed a basket with scissors, note cards, markers and tape and the students put up cognates when they notice them or when we have a break. Just working on the term and idea of "cognates" has opened up all sorts of vocabulary as well as a sense of cultural and linguistic connection. 
2.	Vocab Gestures: Before we read an "Even More True Stories" selection, we practice some vocab I anticipate will be tricky to understand or pronounce. You can also have the student select the vocab after a first reading. I write the vocab on the board, we draw pictures or write simple definitions that we come up with together, then the fun part: we stand in a circle and create gestures/charades (I teach them both terms: "gestures" in English is a cognate in Spanish: "gestos," which is a game in Mexico known to us as "charades"). Basically, we read the word and definition together, then I ask for a gesture and they come up with them. Then we practice: I say the word, they do the gesture, I do the gesture they say the word (sometimes I do this first off with only a list of vocab. with no definitions to see what they know- they have to match my gesture to the word on the list), lastly, they practice with partners so I can check understanding individually as one says words and the other gestures. Sometimes I have them create gestures as teams and quiz the other team. This takes a while at first, but once they do it, they come up with gestures quickly. It is also helps them delve into definitions so as not to do the same gestures for words that may be similar. I learned much of this from a colleague who believes in engaging the whole body, including the sense of humor, in language acquisition. Yesterday, during team charades a whole team fainted on desks to model the term "unconscious" while the others had to yell out terms we chose like "stroke!" and "concussion!" It's great practice and gives us whole sets of gestures to conjure up complex words and phrases when we need them. Also, they are excited and ready to concentrate on what would be a complicated story after this activity.

 

Roxie Daggett

ESL/Civics Specialist

Santa Fe Community College

Santa Fe, New Mexico

rdaggett at sfccnm.edu

 

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