Building Vocabulary through Fun and Games

Itsquiz
Student Voices
Published in
4 min readNov 15, 2016

Are you ready for this secret about the games that help to remember new words?

Encourage students to play with language to create their understanding of new words. This playing demands least preparation and easy rules so that you may quickly pick one game and check the knowledge and repeat new words. Use it for review in summer-school and after-school sessions. Change the games for increased interest and explain clearly the rules.

Show words

Use your imagination to explain new words to the audience. Show it and let your students guess what it means. When you explore new word, add some examples from the previous learning and create connections between other words with the common prefix, suffix or meaning. It helps to structure knowledge, better remember and visualize new words for long-term acquisition.

Ask learners to explain new vocabulary through the actions as well to launch other students’ attention and spend time fun. Develop a creative mindset and readiness to discovering, and then we may find ways to teach and expand students’ understanding with games. It will help encourage learners to realize that education may be enjoyable.

Vary the games

Use conversation competition, circle rotation with vocabulary question about pronunciation, spelling, and definition, lists of new words. Try different board games such as Alias that allows learning and keeping new difficult words through the fun explanation with time limits without the words.

Include games that help to learn words by categories. For instance, the educator declares a category and learners choose the words, then they interpret why they put these words in each category.

Add “non-examples” game when students answer the questions about what this word doesn’t look like. They may describe what functions it doesn’t have and so on. It helps to observe the items from different perspectives for deeper knowledge to gain a higher level.

Let the students draw what they represent when they hear these new words. For more advanced learners, use abstract words and processes.

Use online vocabulary tools

Apply online education tools that are very helpful for those people who prefer e-learning. For example, Wordle allows users to develop word clouds to notice related and unrelated words to start playing. It presents a word in the context and may be reading comprehension instrument to start discussing the vocabulary. Visual Thesaurus shows learners connections between different words, emphasizes antonyms and synonyms. This approach helps to understand the word meaning and implement it appropriately.

Vocabulary.com helps to learn words that required for the academic success. While you play, the website determines which words you understand and which ones you need to remember to prioritize it.

ConfusingWords.com includes difficult vocabulary with words that are most often misused. Also, use online free tests to check and learn new words in foreign languages about different topics. For example, https://wall.itsquiz.com/activations/57c96afdf9500844019b54a9/polish-test-tourism

Make the most of the learning games

Use flashcards to retain words you already know. To remember new words, apply them to practice in your daily speech, or in the context. When you connect the word with other collocations, it keeps better in your mind.

If the unknown word is in a sentence, apply context hints. It requires understanding the meaning from the other words. Include games that help to develop these skills and try to use real-world context in playing.

Place new words on your refrigerator or cupboard to see them and repeat every day when you prepare to pass the exam or plan to visit some country. Also, you can make a sentence with new words or create the entire text and share it with your friends.

Use your imagination to explain new words to the audience. Show it and let your students guess what it means. When you explore new word, add some examples from the previous learning and create connections between other words with the common prefix, suffix or meaning. It helps to structure knowledge, better remember and visualize new words for long-term acquisition.

Apply conversation competition, circle rotation with vocabulary question about pronunciation, spelling, and definition, lists of new words. Try different board games such as Alias that allows learning and keeping new difficult words through the fun explanation with time limits without the words. Include online education tools that are very helpful for those people who prefer e-learning. Websites help to learn words that required for the academic success. While you play, the website determines which words you understand and which ones you need to remember to prioritize it.

Involve flashcards to retain words you already know. To remember new words, apply them to practice in your daily speech, or in the context. When you connect the word with other collocations, it keeps better in your mind.

©ItsquizBe competent!

--

--