How to Teach Vocabulary Orally
Preparing an Oral Reading Program for the Young ESL/EFL Learner
Activities for teaching and reviewing sound-letter correspondences in the English language as part of a language/phonemic awareness program.
Pre-school aged ESL/EFL learners need a variety of oral activities of the sound-letter correspondence of the English language prior to being able to read them in whole words and sentences. This article will focus on some creative and even dramatic activities and ideas ranging from recognition to production as the basis for teaching reading to young ESL learners.
Objective: To teach the letter "x" as in 'xylophone' and 'x-ray'.
Skills used: listening, speaking and a bit of writing
Learning Experience. The pupils will see the letter X and identify it.
Beginning Activities for Recognition.
- Hang a series of related pictures and number them on the board.Use a few recogntion activities such as saying the word and students say the number corresponding to the picture.
- Students can also place their fingers on the pictures in their textbooks as the words are called.
- Teacher can also do pantomime and whisper the word as pupils place their fingers and/or say the number of the word.
- Odd man out: Teach says a series of words. one word doesn't have the 'x' sound. Teacher can decide to single the "x" sound out at the end or beginning.
Note: Attention should also be given to the fact that the sound and the name of 'x' is identical.
Production Activities with a game like element
- Teacher says the letter, pupils say the word
- Teacher says the number of of the word, pupils say the word
- Teacher acts out the word, pupils produce the word
- Teacher says half a word, pupils complete the word.
- True or False? Teacher holds up a picture and says a correct or incorrect corresponding word.
- Teacher says to the class"when you write a letter, a lot of 'xxxx' at the end mean love and kisses and obviously a lot of x's are a good thing.
Using additional Materials and Resources
- Pupils complete a worksheet which invovles coloring the letter 'x,' completing words they previously learned and writing the capital and lower case 'X'.
- Students match words and pictures.
- Students can do a dictation. Teacher says the word, and the student writes the letter that corresponds to the sound. Teachers should allow for an ample reading drill for sound-letter correspondence before moving on to the dictation.
Some Points to Consider:
- Oral activities including worksheets should be graded from easy to hard.
- Several shorter activities are preferred rather than one long one. The attention spans of young ESL learners are rather short.
- Spend more time introducing new material than on reviewing. Kids will be bored if you are not teaching them anything new.
- Vary the activities. Balance frontal work with pair work using some of the ideas above.
