Words: 373
Learning new words and collocations is a stumbling stone for the learners of any language. Vocabulary acquisition is definitely one of the key points of the foreign language class. A good vocabulary is a vital part of effective communication, thus students have to memorize a great number of new words regularly. Although the success is not easily achieved. Having learnt lists of words, synonyms and antonyms, they have a problem, which is connected with usage rather than word meaning.
Learning words by rote and trying to keep them in memory leads to a pessimistic attitude and the students’ lack of confidence. That is why it is so important to motivate students in vocabulary learning and evoke interest towards the words. Teachers of English have a variety of books, different methods and approaches to take up for their classes. The approaches in vocabulary can be used as follows: -collocations and lexical sets -word clusters -use of context -teaching vocabulary through reading -conveying meaning using visual aid -word roots and affixes -consolidation.
If we apply versatile methods on working with the students’ vocabulary, we can use the advantages of every kind of motivation: educational, professional and cognitive. Variety serves as an incentive here. It is very useful for a teacher to be creative for the students to derive pleasure from the material learnt. One of the ways to do it is to have the students devise activities, training active vocabulary for their group mates. The fact that students can be involved in the process of deciding how the lesson should be organized, creates positive emotional attitude towards what is learnt.
The teacher and his or her students make one team, and it becomes obvious what is the students’ idea of a good lesson. This kind of activity makes the students speak their mind and use imagination. Besides, the students learn more about their group mates’ abilities as future teachers, and their own potential. The questionnaire held at the end of the term, proved that the experience is viewed by the students as the most exciting, productive and challenging activity. There is only one possible inference we can make-the more creativity the teachers have, the better their students are motivated.