Adrian Tennant gives us some useful tips and ideas for teaching vocabulary with minimal

resources.

Back to the board

Level: All
Aim: This is a great revision activity.

Procedure:

1. Choose a number of words that you want the class to revise.

2. Place a chair in front of the board facing the class (so that it faces away from the
board).
3. Ask one of the students to sit in the chair (with their back to the board).
Write one of the words on the board.
4. The task is for the other students to explain the word on the board (using English) to
the student sitting in the chair.
5. Their task is to guess the word.
6. Repeat the activity with the other words choosing a different student (to sit in the
chair) each time.

Added value

Level: I & U+
Aim: This activity is good for word building and extending vocabulary.

Procedure:

1. Put the class into two teams (for large classes make more teams).
2. Explain that you will give the students a 3 letter word and the teams will take turns
to add letters creating longer words.
3. They can rearrange the letters, but must use all the letters + 1.
4. You might want to demonstrate the activity e.g. EAR; Team 1 = REAL; Team 2 =
LATER; Team 1 = TALLER etc.
5. Teams continue to take turns until one team can no longer make a word.
6. To keep the game flowing you might want to set a time limit of 1 minute per turn.
7. You may also want to make the game more competitive by scoring. The team that
win each round get the same number of points as letters in their word.
Chain words

Level: All
Aim: Another activity that is useful for revision. This one also has the added bonus of
being good for spelling.

Procedure:

1. Sit your students in a circle (if possible otherwise make sure that everyone knows
who they follow).
2. The first student says a word, the next student must say a word beginning with the
last letter of the previous word etc.
3. You might want to give a visual demonstration on the board
i.e. Class -> School -> Leg -> Girl -> Lion -> Nut -> Teacher -> Route -> End -> D
.
4. Keep it snappy by giving very short time limits to think of a word. If a student cant
think of a word they must move their chair back and are out. Also, words are not
allowed to be repeated. The winner is the last student in (but dont play for too
long).
5. If you want you could say that all the words need to be connected to a topic i.e.
Food.
Apple -> Egg -> Grapes -> Soup -> Peach etc.

Whats the group? (1)

Level: I & U+
Aim: This activity is a good way of practising topics and word families.

Procedure:

Students are used to putting words in groups, but often the groupings or categories are too
obvious. For more advanced students make the activity trickier by having unusual
groupings. e.g. Whats the link (topic) for these words: Chip, Slice, Nutmeg, Chop.
Some students might say Kitchen but it could also be Football (A chip(n) is when the
ball is lifted over someones head using the foot, A slice (n) when the ball is miss kicked,
To nutmeg (v) is when the ball is kicked through a players legs and the player who kicked
the ball runs around the other player and carries on playing with the ball, and, To chop (v)
is when one player kicks another player causing them to fall down. Think of a few
groupings of your own and then ask the students to think of some of their own.
Whats the group? (2)

Level: All
Aim: This activity is a good way of practising topics and word families.

Procedure:

1. Choose a topic and write down around 8 words linked to that topic (starting with the
harder, or more obscure, ones working up to the more obvious).
2. Read the words out one by one and see who can guess the topic first.
3. To make it more competitive put the students into teams and award points
depending on how quickly they guess the topic.
4. An example of this activity might be: Boot, Stick, Lights, Belt, Steer, Wheels,
Petrol, Drive. = Car or Vehicle.

Homograph clues

Level: E, I, U+
Aim: This activity is designed to practise homographs.

Procedure:

1. You need to think of your words and clues before the class but otherwise there are
no materials (either dictate the clues or write them up on the board).
2. Think of words that are homographs and then write (or think of a clue for the
different meanings).
3. The students need to guess the word. e.g. Part of a tree. [Bark] The noise a dog
makes. Where you put your baggage in an American car [Trunk] An elephants
nose.

Words that go together

Level: E, I & U+
Aim: This activity is an excellent way of practising collocation and compound words.

Procedure:

1. Choose some words which either collocate or create compounds.

2. Make sure that each word has three or four collocates or compounds.
3. Put your students into teams (groups).
4. Read out (or write on the board) one of the collocation or compound.
5. Each group now has one turn to guess the key word.
 6. If nobody guesses, give the next word (clue) and guess again.
e.g. Light ____.
____ work.
____ wife.
Detached _____.
Key word = House.
7. Note: some words will collocate with many words, but tell your students you are
looking for one that collocates with all the words on your list).

Who am I?

Level: E, I & U+
Aim: This is a good activity to practise adjectives.

Procedure:

1. Each student needs a blank piece of paper.

2. Ask them to write the following: an adjective they think describes themselves; an
adjective other people might use to describe them; an adjective that is totally
opposite to what they are like.
3. Ask the students NOT to tell anyone what they are writing.
4. Collect in the pieces of paper.
5. Randomly read out the adjectives from the pieces of paper and see if the students
can guess who is being described.

Wrong word

Level: All
Aim: This is a good activity for practising collocations.

Procedure:

1. Choose a number of sentences which contain a word that doesnt really fit (a good
source for these is your students own writing).
2. Write each sentence up on the board.
3. Ask the students to work in pairs or groups. Their task is to discuss each sentence,
find the wrong word and replace it with the correct one, e.g:

He kissed her on her laps. (lips).

They war some nice new clothes. (wore).

You need to take a jump of faith. (leap).

Onomatopoeia

Level: I & U+
Aim: This is a great activity for learners who are auditory learners.

Procedure:

1. Either write up (on the board) or read out a few words that are onomatopoeic e.g.
Buzz, Fizz, Wow! Thud, Grrrr, Psst! etc.
2. Ask the students to think of what is happening for each word i.e. Buzz = a
doorbell ringing.
3. After they have written down their ideas get them to discuss these in groups (or as a
class).
4. As an extension activity you can ask the students to write a short story (or skit)
using the words and connections.

Adrian Tennant, Nottingham. February 2004.