How to Teach ESL Vocabulary
By Lorena SiegelNovember 25, 2020

Vocabulary is crucial to a student’s language development and communication skills. After all, without adequate words, it’s difficult to relate thoughts, ideas, and feelings about who we are and how we interpret the world around us. But how do we achieve this goal without making students memorize lists of ESL vocabulary that will be forgotten after the next pop quiz? Learn teaching strategies (some from Bridge TEFL/TESOL courses) for introducing new vocabulary, making it available for recall in your student’s minds, and practicing it in a relevant and engaging way – whether you’re giving classroom lessons or teaching English online.
What is the best way to teach ESL vocabulary?
Create a context around words you teach
It’s a good idea to think about how students will recall a word when sitting for an exam and use this as your starting point to determine how you want your students to remember what you have taught them. In other words, don’t teach new words in a vacuum. You want to create a contextual experience (an interesting story, a series of images, a dialogue) that leaves a deep impression so when the time comes for your class to recall a particular list of words, they’ll be able to access these words with little trouble.
Teach relevant ESL vocabulary
Be aware that if you focus on vocabulary that can’t be put to immediate and repetitive use in your students’ day-to-day lives, it will be relegated to the quicksand of short-term memory and soon forgotten, thus rendering all your hard word useless. Choose vocabulary that is connected to your students’ lives and can be easily applied to their world outside of the classroom.
Consider your students’ age
If you are teaching English to young learners, remember that they are innately curious and love to learn about the things that surround them.
Learn more about the differences between teaching young learners and adults.
What are the techniques for introducing and teaching new ESL vocabulary?
Show images or drawings
Because drawings and photos are fairly universal and understood by most people, this is perhaps the best way to present new vocabulary. The Internet is chockfull of photos and pictures, and there are a variety of photo-stock websites to choose from.
If you have a knack for drawing, you can make your own pictures or create your own characters, but make sure that these are large enough for everyone to see clearly if you don’t have access to a smartboard. Keep the composition of your photos or drawings simple, as too many things happening at once can confuse students.
If you are teaching online, you can make use of Skype of Zoom’s share screen function to show the images. These platforms also have whiteboard features and annotation tools, which you can use for making simple drawings onscreen.
Present vocabulary with realia
Realia is essential to the learning of ESL vocabulary. For a lesson on how to describe the flavors of different foods, for example, there is nothing better than to have students taste a variety of foods, condiments, herbs, and spices. As you give your class a taste of each ingredient, announce what it is, and give them the accompanying statement that incorporates the vocabulary you are teaching. Example: This is sugar! Sugar is sweet. These are potato chips! Potato chips are salty. This is mustard. Mustard is sour.
Here are 10 fun ways to use realia in your classroom
Introduce new words in the context of a story or article students read
ESL readings are of great value because they expose students to vocabulary they might not encounter in their day-to-day lives, but that is useful, nonetheless. To pre-teach vocabulary from the reading you’ve chosen, follow this structure:
As you continue the lesson:
Use translation from the students’ first language (yes, sometimes it’s okay!)
If you speak the students’ language or you have a teaching assistant who can help you translate, ask students what words they would like to learn. I call this “How do you say?” day.
During these sessions, students are encouraged to ask questions about things that interest them or help them to communicate in school or at work. Be sure to stay away from taboo topics as well as topics that are too personal.
These lessons are usually short and can be complemented with ESL role-playing or ESL games which encourage students to put their new vocabulary to immediate use. And always be sure to ask the appropriate questions that promote verbal repetition.
Use antonyms and synonyms to teach and review ESL vocabulary
In order to build vocabulary, it’s a good idea to not only use the words from your chosen vocabulary list but to also incorporate their synonyms and antonyms. Using opposites to teach new vocabulary gives students the opportunity to learn twice as many words. To make a bigger impact on your students’ learning process, use pictures to illustrate sentences, or put words into short sentences that tell a story.
The following is an example of how to use opposites that can be used with beginner-level students:
Vocabulary: day/night, sun/moon, 0pen/closed, on/off
Put the following sentences on the board. You can fill in the words the students have already learned but have them guess the opposite word.
Then fill the words in as the students say them.
Next, ask questions that relate to your story:
Another way to incorporate antonyms into a lesson is by asking simple questions in which students get to choose the answer that suits their needs. Enchanted Learning at https://www.enchantedlearning.com/ provides an excellent and easy-to-use list for your lessons. Make up questions that incorporate new phraseology, and which students can ask one another.
Example:
Do you like staying at home on your day off, or do you like going out with your friends?
What do you save your money for, and what do you spend your money on?
When do you feel happy, and when do you feel sad?
(The repetition of phrases within the same question helps students commit these to memory).
How can I make vocabulary fun with ESL vocabulary games?
Games are an essential tool in the ESL and TEFL classroom. They allow students to think outside the box, put what they’ve learned to immediate use, create experiences with their classmates, and break away from lessons that could otherwise be tedious. These popular games and activities can be used to teach ESL vocabulary.
The Missing Object Game
This interactive game from the Bridge Micro-credential course: Games and Activities for the Online Classroom (Very Young Learners) is a fun way to teach or review vocabulary with online or in-person students.
Hangman
This game not only allows students to use their new words but forces them to ask each other questions and review the alphabet.
If you are unsure of the rules of the game, you can go to https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Hangman. You can also try Flash Hangman for ESL Students (http://www.manythings.org/hmf/) for different ideas on how to play this game.
TEFL Bingo
Get more ESL classroom games and activities for kids.
ESL Songs
Music is an engaging and fun way to teach new vocabulary as well as proper pronunciation and grammar.
Here’s how you can structure an ESL song activity:
Get even more ideas on how to use ESL songs with kids and teens!
What are other ways ESL students can improve their vocabulary?
If you ask students who are self-taught what methods they used to learn English on their own, they will invariably tell you the following;
Another useful device for improving students’ vocabulary is to have them keep a notebook that is small enough to fit in their pockets. (They can also use their phones for keeping lists). This is a great way for them to have a real-time record of the words and short phrases they use in their daily lives. When students keep a list of the words that are of interest to them, they are effectively writing their own little dictionaries which can be filled with pictures, synonyms, antonyms, and sentences that are useful to them.
Points to remember when teaching ESL vocabulary
Here are some more tips for helping your students learn vocabulary better: