Using Flashcards to Teach Vocabulary

[Music] [Applause] [Music] when we're teaching vocabulary to our students we want to provide them with as much information as possible about the words that we're studying so we want to give them how the word sounds how the word is written give them a verbal definition give them a written definition and if possible actually show them what this word looks like we also want to appeal to all of the learning styles if possible so we want to appeal to visual learners auditory learners tactile learners and kinesthetic learners flashcards are a great tool that allow us to accomplish both of these things and they're particularly useful with beginner and low intermediate students flashcards allow us both to give extra visual information to our students and they also allow us to build really interesting activities that appeal to all learning styles we'll start the session by taking a look at general guidelines to use with any activity that uses flashcards we'll also take a look at where you can get flashcards so sources but the bulk of the session will be spent on looking at activities to use that incorporate flashcards and these are great activities for beginner and low intermediate students a few of them can also be adapted for the higher levels so let's get started [Music] flashcards are an engaging and motivating tool to really help our vocabulary teaching be more effective there are some general guidelines to follow when using flashcards to teach vocabulary here are those guidelines first flashcards should be bright colorful and visually appealing there's no point in using flashcards if they're all in a single color or they're not a clear picture or they're just not interesting to look at so that's rule number one or guideline number one second the flashcard should be big enough so that all of the students in the class regardless of where they're sitting can see them the exception to this is if you're using sets of flashcards for each student in this case the flashcards can be a lot smaller obviously alternatively you can actually project your flashcards up on a screen using PowerPoint then you'll know that everyone can see them third flashcards can be used in conjunction with word cards so you can have a card with the picture on it and a card with the word on it alternatively you can have the picture on one side of the flashcard turn it over and you've got the word spelled out on the other side this helps reinforce how the word is spelled with what the word actually is fourth flashcards can be used at any stage in a vocabulary lesson they can be used to present new words that students have never seen before they can be used in controlled practice activities where students are trying to be accurate in how they say and use the words and they can be used in free or real situations in which students are integrating the words into other things that they say so don't just restrict your flashcard use to the presentation piece of your lesson use them throughout your whole lesson finally any activity that you do with flashcards should involve a lot of repetition so you want students to automatically associate this picture with this word so repeat repeat repeat repeat [Music] before you use flashcards in a vocabulary activity you obviously need to get some flashcards in the first place there are a few different sources for flashcards to look at and the source you use will depend upon your budget and your internet access the first source is simply to buy them a lot of different educational publishers will create flashcards that go along with different textbooks and education supply stores also have independent sets of flashcards the challenge with these published flashcards is that they might not always have the exact set of words that you want to work with your second option is to make the flashcards yourself you can take pictures from magazines and stick them on to hard card paper you can draw the flashcards yourself if you're artistic and then color them in you can use clip art from the internet or finally you can go to one of the many sources online of free flashcard outlines your final source for flashcards is to have students actually make them this is a good option particularly when you want students to each have their own individual set of flashcards so students can cut them out and color them in and really personalize their flashcards if you've chosen option number two to make your flashcards or option number three to have students make them make sure you use the internet as your starting point there are a lot of great websites out there with free flashcards available for download we've given you some examples under activity two on your handout [Music] there are many and I do mean many activities that use flashcards that you can use to teach your students vocabulary here's a very small sample out of this wide selection the most obvious way to use flashcards to teach vocabulary is to incorporate them into a drill so if I've got a flashcard here I'll see the word on the flashcard students repeat it I'll say the next word on a flashcard students repeat it I'll say the next word and so on and now I'll take the flashcards and put them on the board and I'll write the word that goes with the flashcard underneath and once again I'll drill students on the words using both the flashcard in the written word finally I'll take the word out so I'll erase the word from under the card and then I'll once again just drill the students using the pictures so any type of drill activity is a great way to use flashcards a variation on a standard drill is a running drill so I take my flashcards and I place them all over the room so they're accessible to all the students then I'll see a vocabulary item associated with a flashcard students have to run over to where that flashcard is and stand in front of it and obviously if they stand in front of the rank card you know that they know the word then students say the word out loud all together then you say the next word and students run and so on this may sound like it's a game just for kids but it's also a good game for adults it just really quickly gets them out of their seats moving around for a bit the next activity is slightly less energy demanding it's called point two so the teacher places the flashcards either on the board or anywhere around the room that students can see them the teacher then says one of the words represented by a flashcard and students have to point to that particular flashcard you have students point to the correct card they obviously know the word yeah and vice versa if they point to the incorrect card that lets you know that they don't know the word the next activity is a guessing game so the teacher shows only part of a flashcard the rest of the flashcard is covered by either a white piece of paper or another flashcard so the teacher just feels a tiny tiny part of the overall picture students then have to guess which word is represented by that flashcard if students can't guess the teacher gradually reveals more and more of the flashcard until students guess an alternative to this is just to show the flashcard really quickly and see if students can capture what's on the card and then guess the word the next activity is a variation on whispering telephone so put the students into two teams and have them line up one behind each other with the two people at the head of the lines right at the front of the room the teacher tells the two people at the head of the line one of the words from one of the flashcards the students then turn around and whisper that word to the students behind them one at a time until the very last student has been given the word that student then has to run all the way up to the front of a class and grab the right flashcard of course that student will only be able to grab the right flashcard if the whispering telephone worked the team that grabs the flashcard first gets the point the first students then go to the back of the line and you tell the next word to the next students in the next activity students have to practice their drawing skills how students work in pairs one of the partners in the pair gets a flashcard the other partner gets a blank piece of paper the student with the flashcard has to describe for his or her partner what's on that flash card the student then has to draw what they've been told and at the end they can compare and see if the student's drawn the right word alternatively every student in the class can have a blank piece of paper and you the teacher has the flashcard and all students draw at the same time and then hold their pictures up to see if they've drawn the right thing the next activity is called odd one out put the flashcards in two sets of four three of the words represented by those flashcards belong in the same group or category and one of the words does not belong put each set of four up front of the room one at a time and have students tell you or point to the flashcard that does not belong with the others you can also use your flashcards for a game of charades students come up to the front of the class one at a time show each student individually one of the flashcards that student then has to perform or act out something to get students to guess what's on that flash card you can make it into a team competition if you want have two teams and then one student from each team comes to the front and you show those two students the same flashcard the two students then compete to get their teams to guess the vocabulary word first the next activity called the flashcard grid use a fun memorization activity take nine flashcards and put them on the board in three rows of three then take your marker or chalk and draw a grid at the edges of those flashcards next drill the class as a whole so everyone's saying these words at the same time starting with each flash starting at the top and then moving across each row so they say this word then this one then this one and then all the way and all the way to the end once you've done that a few times take one of the flashcards away so now you've got a blank space on your grid you're still going to drill the students and they have to remember which word went in that blank space and you're going to keep doing this until you have no flashcards left on the grid and students still have to remember which words were in which squares there are a couple of other memory games that you can play with flashcards for the first one you can put the cards up on the board and students have to look at them and remember what's there then students close their eyes and you take one or two of the cards away students open their eyes and they have to tell you which card is missing obviously to make it more difficult take more and more cards away another variation on a memory game is to once again put the cards up at the front of the room and give students a few minutes to memorize them then you're going to take all the cards away students have a piece of paper and they have to write down all of the words that they remember that we're up there and then of course you can check this as a class the next activity is called guess what you are have all of the students stand up and put a flashcard a different flashcard on each student's back students then have to meander and mingle around the class asking yes/no questions in order to figure out which vocabulary flashcard they have on their back as an alternative you can have pairs of flashcards so two students in the group get the same flashcard on their backs then they have to do the same thing as yes yes or no questions and mingle in order to find their partner the next activity is a speed competition so students work in small groups of maybe four or five students and each small group gets a set of flashcards and students put those flash cards face up on a desk and all of the students stand around the desk the teacher says one of the words that's represented by a flashcard students compete against the other members in their group to be the first person to grab the right flashcard make sure you do this with laminated flash cards not just paper flash cards because if students get very competitive they could end up fighting over a flash card and ripping so make sure a lamination protects the cards from being ripped the next activity is slightly less competitive actually it's not competitive at all this one is called story writing students select five or six flash cards from the whole group of flash cards that you've got displayed at the front of the room neighthan have to write a very short story maybe one paragraph or two paragraphs that incorporate the words on the flash cards that they've chosen you can do a similarities and differences activity with your flash cards show the whole class - flash cards students then individually have to write two sentences to say how the things represented on those flash cards are the same then they write two sentences to say how those items are different and you can just repeat this many many times with different pairs of flashcards to get students practicing similarities and differences you can also use your flashcards as the basis of impromptu speeches so take the flashcards put them face down in a pile students then just blindly pick one flashcard they turn it over and they take turns doing either a 30 second or a one-minute impromptu speech based on what's on their flashcard they can either simply describe the flashcard or they can somehow incorporate the word on the flashcard into their speech there's a little bit of pressure involved in this one but it's actually really fun and students will be surprisingly creative for the next activity concentration you'll need quite a few sets of flashcards each small group gets two complete sets they take the sex and first of all just mix them all together then they turn each card face down and put them on the desk or on the floor students take turns in their group turning over to flashcards so one and then two if they turn over to flashcards that are the same they get to keep that pair of cards if the two cards are different they have to turn both of them back over at the end of the game the student with the most pairs of flashcards in the small group is the winner the next activity is a high-energy activity four-corners involves taking four flashcards and putting one flashcard in each of the four corners of the room you then really quickly say the words represented by the flashcards and students have to move as fast as they can to the corner where that flashcard is so a speed is what makes this fun so say your word students get their say in other words students have to move and so on the activity correct or incorrect also involves a little bit of energy tell the students that one side of the room is the correct side and the other side of the room is the incorrect side you'll show a flashcard and say a word if that word matches what's on the flashcard students have to move to the correct side of the room if it doesn't match what's on the flashcard students move to the incorrect side of the room flashcards can also be used for a variation on the game pictionary divide the class into two teams and have one member from each team come up to the board show those two students one of the flashcards those students have to draw as quickly as possible what was on the flashcard their team members have to guess what they're dry and the first team that guesses correctly gets the point at the end of the game the team with the most points wins the final activity is called speed lines divide your class into two teams and half students make lines one behind each other you're going to show a flashcard to the first student of each line so one student from this team on one student from this team those students are going to compete to say the word associated with the flashcard as quickly as possible and obviously the student who says the word fastest gets the point for his or her team those two students then move to the end of the line and you do the same thing with the next two first students these are just some of the many activities that use flashcards flashcards are just a great great tool to use when you're teaching your students vocabulary and remember flashcards can be used at all language proficiency levels all ages and at all stages of your lesson have fun trying out these activities [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Advance Consulting for Education

Views: 1,346

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: Advance Consulting for Education, ACE, Teaching English, English as a Second Language, Teaching ESL, ESL, EFL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, Teaching Tips, Teaching Techniques, Teaching Strategies, Teacher Professional Development, Teacher PD, Professional Development, The PD Exchange, The Professional Development Exchange, www.thepdexchange.ca, flashcards, teaching vocabulary, how to teach vocabulary, www.aceducation.ca, Dianne Tyers, using flashcards

Id: t42YDhpph0k

Length: 18min 51sec (1131 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 01 2019