Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
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Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
Hi Mystery,
Some good techniques suggested here. Like everything you'll have to find what works for your daughter. My son is using duolingo and I make him input the words in the app Squeebles. He can then practise the words and earn points to play their game. He has also used Freerice.com for vocabulary building. As with English, you could use the websites around to create your own crosswords.
You could have fun with Scrabble and allow your daughter to use her words or a dictionary. Make it fun! It doesn't need to be boring.
Once my son practices independently I test his recall. Good luck.
Some good techniques suggested here. Like everything you'll have to find what works for your daughter. My son is using duolingo and I make him input the words in the app Squeebles. He can then practise the words and earn points to play their game. He has also used Freerice.com for vocabulary building. As with English, you could use the websites around to create your own crosswords.
You could have fun with Scrabble and allow your daughter to use her words or a dictionary. Make it fun! It doesn't need to be boring.
Once my son practices independently I test his recall. Good luck.
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
I agree with Amber. The best thing is to start a vocabulary book in Year 7 and keep it throughout the year with all vocab. My vocab book used to just be a lined notebook with an additional line down the middle and I would have English one side and the target language on the other.. Cover it up and learn by rote. Not fun but the only sure fire way. And it keeps all their vocab in one easily accessible place.
I don't really understand why not all MFL teachers encourage their pupils to have these (and check that there are no mistakes in the notebooks as well!).
It is often very difficult for gifted learners to learn how best to learn a foreign language as, until then, they have been able to pick subjects up very quickly. They then get very disheartened when for the first time in their school careers it doesn't come easy!
Perseverance is very important. And practice. Everyone will get there eventually - it just takes some people longer than others sometimes..
I don't really understand why not all MFL teachers encourage their pupils to have these (and check that there are no mistakes in the notebooks as well!).
It is often very difficult for gifted learners to learn how best to learn a foreign language as, until then, they have been able to pick subjects up very quickly. They then get very disheartened when for the first time in their school careers it doesn't come easy!
Perseverance is very important. And practice. Everyone will get there eventually - it just takes some people longer than others sometimes..
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Bumblebeez
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Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
There's a brilliant book by Daniel Willingham called "Why don't students like school?", subtitle, "A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom". I used to teach study skills decades ago and it is good to see what the scientific explanations are for things that people found helpful. To get to the point: in his chapter on memory, there is a pithy, unforgettable phrase:
MEMORY IS THE RESIDUE OF THOUGHT.
I can't forget the phrase because I haven't stopped thinking about how profound the insight is.
All the techniques that involve actively thinking about the word will work, the more passively you sit there, the less it will stick. So things that I personally would like to do would be
1. write a sentence using the word in a vivid way, relating it to personal experience or making it funny
2. draw an image on a flash card with the word and gender article, maybe a gendered adjective as well, much more fun than a list and can be shuffled and edited as learning progresses
3. decide which colour to write or draw in to indicate the gender
4. think about related words in other languages - my DD loves doing this, and of course it enriches English vocabulary as well. Use a dictionary or search online.
MEMORY IS THE RESIDUE OF THOUGHT.
I can't forget the phrase because I haven't stopped thinking about how profound the insight is.
All the techniques that involve actively thinking about the word will work, the more passively you sit there, the less it will stick. So things that I personally would like to do would be
1. write a sentence using the word in a vivid way, relating it to personal experience or making it funny
2. draw an image on a flash card with the word and gender article, maybe a gendered adjective as well, much more fun than a list and can be shuffled and edited as learning progresses
3. decide which colour to write or draw in to indicate the gender
4. think about related words in other languages - my DD loves doing this, and of course it enriches English vocabulary as well. Use a dictionary or search online.
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
Brilliant ideas. I'd be interested in reading the book too. Just to add that in language teaching, the use of "realia" involves real life objects. So, if you get a real object when you are learning the word, there would be other associations in the brain.
Salsa
Salsa
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BucksBornNBred
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Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
Is English really the only (ex)European language that doesn't use genders? I remember learning French and always wondered why a table would be female
I try and help my DS with his revision by saying the word in either language and asking for the translation (once he has supposedly learnt them) but unfortunately (for me) he has chosen German. So can one of you linguists help with a question, if you don't mind, as I don't find his text books that helpful in explaining things? In German, are a lot of words written with a capital letter? As in pizza, lemonade, chicken?
I try and help my DS with his revision by saying the word in either language and asking for the translation (once he has supposedly learnt them) but unfortunately (for me) he has chosen German. So can one of you linguists help with a question, if you don't mind, as I don't find his text books that helpful in explaining things? In German, are a lot of words written with a capital letter? As in pizza, lemonade, chicken?
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
In German, all nouns start with a capital letter.
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
DS2's school encourage the use of Quizlet. Initially the teacher wrote some of the sets that they could all access and later the pupils would each add some of the sets they were learning and they could all access them. The programme can be used to learn or test and creates flash cards if needed too.
His classmates used them a lot earlier, although DS now prefers the old fashioned way.
Btw, I used Quizlet for DS3 to help him learn vocabulary sets for the CEM exam and he found it helpful - word documents can just be imported.
His classmates used them a lot earlier, although DS now prefers the old fashioned way.
Btw, I used Quizlet for DS3 to help him learn vocabulary sets for the CEM exam and he found it helpful - word documents can just be imported.
UmSusu
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
For words in certain languages, I like to write them down a number of times... so I end up with pages covered with words repeated ten times! For me, wondering around the room is for learning whole sentences or chunk of texts.
It is up for each child to find what works the best for them 'and as some have said, some children are slow to learn foreign vocabulary whilst some others pick up the vocabulary very quickly.
My son has already used quizlet in the past, creating his own games. When they are young, it is quite a fun way to learn vocab.
For me, wondering around the room is for learning whole sentences or chunk of texts.It is up for each child to find what works the best for them 'and as some have said, some children are slow to learn foreign vocabulary whilst some others pick up the vocabulary very quickly.
My son has already used quizlet in the past, creating his own games. When they are young, it is quite a fun way to learn vocab.
Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
Yes, Quizlet is also recommended at my son's school.
By the way, some words are classified as masculine or feminine according to who would use them! For example, in Spanish a table is feminine as all other cooking utensils: la olla, la sartén, la tabla de picar, etc. Notice that el cuchillo (the knife) is masculine! The one I found confusing was that they not always corresponded in French, Italian or Portuguese. For example, la voiture is el auto/automóvil/carro/coche in Spanish.
As for English, some machines are also addressed in the feminine, for example we say "she's a beauty" when talking about a ship.
Salsa
By the way, some words are classified as masculine or feminine according to who would use them! For example, in Spanish a table is feminine as all other cooking utensils: la olla, la sartén, la tabla de picar, etc. Notice that el cuchillo (the knife) is masculine! The one I found confusing was that they not always corresponded in French, Italian or Portuguese. For example, la voiture is el auto/automóvil/carro/coche in Spanish.
As for English, some machines are also addressed in the feminine, for example we say "she's a beauty" when talking about a ship.
Salsa
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BucksBornNBred
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Re: Learning foreign language vocabulary in year 7
Thank you Tinkers... I couldn't tell from the text book if they were just using a capital letter because it was the beginning of a sentence/description. I didn't take German so I have no idea and the text books are obviously designed to be used in class with a tape/teacher so it is difficult for me to provide any help when it is needed. I am sure in my day our language books were less "immersive" (is that the right word?) as I think they had as much English in them as French, and we always had our trusty Collins dictionaryTinkers wrote:In German, all nouns start with a capital letter.
