How Can You Teach English Vocabulary in Kindergarten?

I am a kindergarten English teacher and teach children English every day. I will teach in small groups in the class. Each group will have 5-6 children to attend classes together, so I can better judge the progress and mastery of their English learning. When a child wants to study again, I will instruct separately to protect their enthusiasm for learning.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jìng H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Why can't vocabulary be ignored?

Vocabulary learning is an important component of early childhood English learning, so I will spend a lot of time teaching this part. The visual image of children in the 3-6 age group is dominant. They are very interested in images, vivid and colorful pictures, and they are very active and like to play games. When I teach vocabulary, I will use some learning methods that suit them, so that they can better master the words.

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Teaching approach

According to the characteristics of children's thinking and intuitive image, I mainly use the method of photographic visual identification in teaching words. The method of photographic identification runs through four vocabulary classes. Each lesson is extended based on the preceding lesson. In these four lessons, five words are repeatedly learned and identified to achieve actual consolidation.

Lesson structure

In the first lesson, I will prepare the puzzles in the image of words. First, I will invite the children to make clear the puzzles. When they complete the challenge, I will show them the words embodied in the puzzles for the first time. For example, when the puzzle is a cat, I point to the puzzle and say the word "cat". Then I will invite them to read the words to me.

Finally, I will lead them to do word recognition exercises. For example, I will ask the children questions like "What is this?", "Which one is the dog?" In the second lesson, I will prepare the physical model corresponding to the five words and invite the children to do the game of object and object matching. When the children complete the task, I will show them the words again and let them complete the practice of recognizing the words. In the third lesson, I will prepare the physical model and picture of the word. In the same way, I will let the children complete the game of object to picture matching and finish the word recognition exercises. This allows children to learn words from physical transitions to pictures, which is a process of the concrete transition to abstraction.

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In the last lesson, I will use three kinds of cards for teaching. First of all, I would like the child to display a card with pictures and text, let the children review the five words; secondly, I will let the child pair the picture flashcards with those just displayed and read the words when pairing. Then the child needs to couple the word cards with the picture flashcards. When the above three steps are completed, I will let the children read the words and complete the practice of recognizing the words.

What mentioned above is the whole process of the photographic recognition teaching method. When children are doing vocabulary recognition exercises, if they identify by mistake, I will not immediately point out the mistakes to them while I will ask them again to find their own mistakes. For example, when I ask: "Where is the dog?", the child points out the picture of the cat, and I will ask again: "Where is the cat?". By repeating many times of recognizing the words, the child will have a better understanding of the words.

Also Read: The Principles of Teaching Reading

Course structure

Also, when teaching words, I will use 4 lessons to transition from a tangible object to an abstract word, so that the children can better absorb these words. And the children have great zeal for the matching game, they are tireless about this challenge, I believe that when visual recognition and game are combined once, the children will have continuous enthusiasm for learning words.

In addition to the above methods, sometimes I will show the words to be taught through actions and invite the children to do it with me. For instance, when I teach "jump", I will jump. When I want to teach "monkey", I will imitate the monkey's attitude and invite the children to imitate. Children like to learn in this way, and the classroom atmosphere is very good. Every child is involved. They learn while playing and learn words through a graphical display.

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The above being my method of teaching children's vocabulary. In many practices, children also have a valuable learning experience and learning results. In the teaching process, I also constantly try to use innovative teaching methods, such as learning songs, watching videos, and situational teaching to let children learn vocabulary. As a teacher, I will always reflect on whether my teaching method is appropriate, because only teaching methods are suitable for students, which can arouse children's interest in learning, and children can truly learn knowledge and achieve better learning outcomes.

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