Developing Oral Vocabulary
Video
Developing vocabulary is one of the most important tasks in a Foundation Phase class. My learners have almost no oral English so much of the class is devoted to oral development. Right now I am doing a unit on keeping warm in winter. Recycling new words is always a challenge so here are a few ideas I use.
Sometimes I make up a simple chant. Here is part of the one I made them:
(Tomorrow I am going to introduce: skirt, skirt, pink skirt, skirt...)
Another thing I do is put pictures on the board and the learners have a fly swatter to hit the word I say. We always get a good laugh out of that one.
I have created worksheets with different pictures. After we have gone over all the vocabluary on the sheet, I say one word and they have to circle it. Using a feature within tables in MS Word, I am able to create alternate lines being shaded. This helps with eye tracking. Here is a sample of a worksheet we used today:
Another activity we do to recycle clothing words is we stand in a circle, clap three times and each learners must say a clothing word. They only have to say one word, then we clap three more times and it is the next person's turn. It is fun!
Comments
Chants
Thanks for this Val. When you make up a simple chant, like the "Jacket, Jacket, Red Jacket, Jacket", do you give the learners the chart? And if so, do you change the color of the jacket to match the color in the chant?
Jacket chant
Good question. We first learned the chant orally with me introducing it with a photo of a brown jacket. I tape this on the board and we clap out the chant. Then I introduce another, say a red jacket and post it under the first jacket. Then we do that chant. After I have introduced a few colours and we have done it orally with coloured pictures taped to the board, I hand out a one page handout like the one in the post above. We read it, finding the words jacket and brown together. Then I let them colour the jacket brown. Most of what we do, though, is oral. The handout is more for them to develop an awareness that print represents oral language. Also, sometimes they might show their family the handout at home and then perhaps be able to say the chant at home.
Recycling Vocabulary
Thanks for providing the details Val. These details help to get a deeper understanding of the pace of your Foundation Phase class. I am assuming that you do this unit after you have introduced colors in a previous unit, so as not to overwhelm the learners.
Yes, we have been practicing
Yes, we have been practicing with the colours for awhile. This is a good reinforcer. They like it.