A Narrative Structure of The Vocabulary Lesson
The Benefits
High student talking time. No prepping. Active and fun interaction. Popular vocabulary word building. Simple format board work. Student to student course lesson manipulation. Story telling. Board game.
Preliminary Information
Level: Advanced (High red onwards)
Class focus: Materials/Resources – Board game
Aims: to raise further awareness of the listener’s active role in story telling
to develop question making skills
to widen the students’ range of vocabulary and expressions
to provide an opportunity for students to prepare, practice, create questions and example sentences for group or one on one discussion.
Anticipated problems and solutions:
Pay detail to memorizing new words. Remember to emphasize pronunciation on each word as this maybe their first attempt. Explain and define each word in English as some words can not be literally translated in full. Make aware which words are either nouns, verbs and so on, this will help them to determine on how to create questions. Also how these kinds of words are applied appropriately.
The Narrative
Number of students: 1
Kind of student: Housewife
I introduced to the student that today’s Item we will be learning new vocabulary and that I will show her 12 new words.
We then moved onto the start up section of the lesson. I went ahead and wrote each word on the board and at the same time she copied them into her notebook.
1. Moan (v)
2. Banish (v)
3. Clumsy (a)
4. Decrease (v)
5. Orphan (n)
6. Negative (a,n)
7. Fancy (v)
8. Bankrupt (a)
9. Fatal (a)
10. Addict (n,v)
11. Hesitate (v)
12. Deep (a)
*(a) adjective (n) noun (v) verb
Next I would pronounce each word with her repeating, I would repeat the word again if I felt her pronunciation wasn’t clear, I would do this until all 12 words had been sufficiently pronounced.
I then asked her which word she thought she may know. She knew Bankrupt and Deep only. I made sure that she new the words by asking me for an example sentence using the words she knew. She first said “My friend’s cake shop had lost too much money and went bankrupt”. I said that’s a very good example. I said how about the other word, she replied “The Pacific Ocean is very deep”. I said well done, but there is also another meaning. I asked her if she knew. She said she didn’t. I said it also means, when a person is having very distant, unique thoughts. She said she understood and double checked her electronic dictionary for confirmation.
I went ahead and explained each other word in English in turn and gave her the Japanese translation which she wrote in her notebook.
I made sure she felt comfortable with the new words and proceeded with putting the board game on the desk. I took out two dice, one 6 sided dice and one 12 sided dice. I presented her with 4 different colored counters and asked her to choose a color, after I chose a counter for myself seeing as there weren’t any other students I would be playing in the game. I didn’t need to explain the game’s rules as she had played it a few times before.
Before starting the game I told her to close her notebook for memory practice.
We put our counters on the start box and began to play. I said ladies first.
She began by throwing the 6 sided dice, first to move her counter around the board. She landed on the number 3 box. She then rolled the 12 sided dice to choose a vocabulary word. She rolled the number 8. She went ahead and asked me a question. “Do you know anyone who has become bankrupt?” I said yes. She said who? I said a student at my university. She said why? I said he was in bad credit with so many card companies and he couldn’t pay them back.
I rolled the dice and moved the counter to the 1 box. I rolled the 12 sided dice to the number 11. I went ahead and told a story about when I was a young teenager that I would always hesitate to ask girls on a date. She asked why, I said I was afraid of them declining my request. She said it was the same for her when she was a schoolgirl, and we talked about the topic of hesitation.
She rolled the dice and landed on box 2. She then rolled the 12 sided dice to the number 3. I asked her what is the translation into Japanese for “Clumsy”. She had trouble at first so I did a few gestures and body language for hints, she then remembered and said it’s “Bukiyou-na“. I said that’s right by referring to my teachers’ manual for confirmation.
We continued to play the game until the end of this section of the Loop. She had the opportunity to tell many stories, ask questions and practice and pronounce many new words.
For homework I asked her to make an example sentence and a question for each word for me or another student to answer at the next lesson. I told her not to worry if she doesn’t have the time then maybe just to try a few.
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