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This unit went over how to select, introduce, and teach new vocabulary words to students, and the factors that a teacher must take into consideration when assessing student learning and when teaching vocabulary. For example, the words that a teacher selects for his or her students should be relevant to the students' lives, meaning the vocabulary items should be practical, applicable, and meaningful. Teachers must also consider the similarity of new vocabulary to the students' native language(s), the frequency the words are used in English, and the teachability of the words (i.e. are all vocabulary items appropriate for the class level - i.e. lower level students require less abstract, more tangible/visual items).When teaching vocabulary, teachers should also follow the ESA structure, making modifications to the straight arrow format through use of patchwork or boomerang style. This will depend on the topic being learned, the mood of the students, the task at hand, and goals for the lesson, but mainly it is a good idea for teachers to switch up their teaching routines to keep engagement high and to accommodate for all learning types and styles. When teaching any new language, along with teaching vocabulary, students must also be introduced to language structures, which involves the meaning, usage, forms and patterns, and written form of any given language. This is best learned, I believe, through consistent, engaging (fun) practice and exposure to to a new language. According to this unit, there are multiple ways to teach and have students practice/student language structures following the ESA format. Some examples of activities for the engage phase are: discussion, scenario building/role playing, prompting, and using props/visual aids. Some examples of activities for the study phase are: looking at language in contexts (i.e. brochures, videos, magazines), gap fills, sentence building, and sentence word order activities. Activities that can be enacted for the activate phase are as follows: communication games, role-play, story telling, and debate/discussion. Activities selected will depend on the class environment and dynamics, the level of the students, the task/learning goals at play, among several others. I believe it is useful for students to learn/recognize vocabulary words first before learning how they are used or placed in language structure. Having been a second language learner myself, I know from experience that i felt more confident or comfortable trying to speak/form sentences if I had a good vocabulary resource to help me do so.
