Improving Your Class's Vocabulary Skills | Open Poet

Everybody knows how important it is to be proficient in a language and preferably more than one. Vocabulary forms the basic building blocks of a language and it is important to start developing a child?s vocabulary as soon as possible.

Talk to Them

Children learn first from what they hear. Parents need to be encouraged to speak to their children and to use proper words to improve their vocabulary. Teachers should use the correct terminology when speaking to their class, taking into consideration the level of the children?s development. Children should be given ample opportunity to speak in class, both formally and informally.

Play to Learn

Many children do not like anything to do with learning or studying. So if you make use of games, learning is much more palatable to them. For pre-school children who cannot read yet, you can play verbal games such as looking for rhyming words or words that start with the same sounds. Older children can play ?I spy? or Hangman, which will teach them to spell properly as well. You can make use of word-search exercises and, for older children, crossword puzzles of various levels and Scrabble or Scrabble Junior. Online word games are fun too, as most children really enjoy working on a personal computer.

Everybody knows how important it is to be proficient in a language and preferably more than one. Vocabulary forms the basic building blocks of a language and it is important to start developing a child?s vocabulary as soon as possible.
CC image courtesy of Pratham Books

If your computer rooms are designed by www.innova-solutions.co.uk, children will love making use of the computers. Word quizzes are enjoyable for children as well, especially if you get them to compile their own tests with which to test the class.

Reading

Reading is probably the best way to improve a child?s vocabulary. They pick up new words without realising it and in the process learn how the words fit into a sentence. Small children could be read to, while older ones must be encouraged to read regularly in their own time. Children should compile reading lists with the names of books they have read and this could form part of their oral or reading marks. They could be asked to read one news article per day and report on it in class.

Get Creative

Getting children to do creative writing encourages them to select their words carefully and to express themselves properly. Written tasks should be selected carefully in order to interest and involve all the children. If they write poetry or rhymes such as limericks it will challenge them to find the correct word for the specific situation.

Learning Through Tests

Spelling tests might not seem much fun, but they are an invaluable tool in teaching vocabulary. Children tend to take a test more seriously than just a class exercise. The teacher can use the vocabulary test as a diagnostic tool, gauging the class?s and the individual child?s level of knowledge. The teacher can hand out a little prize to the child who gets the highest marks in the test or a weekly prize for the best achiever.

Older children could be taught how to use Latin and Greek roots. If they know the meaning of the root of a word, they will be able to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar related word and therefore improve their vocabulary by building on previous knowledge.

If your vocabulary is limited you are at a disadvantage not only at school but also in the adult world. It therefore makes sense to improve your vocabulary throughout your life.

About Jamie Knop

This blog post was written by blogger and writer Jamie Knop on behalf of Innova Solutions.

Source: http://openpoetry.com/improving-your-classs-vocabulary-skills/

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