Adding Elements of Fun And Creativity To Spelling And Vocabulary Practice

Nino Kvantaliani, Georgia

Nino Kvantaliani teaches English at the Centre of Teaching English INT, Batumi, Georgia. She is a teacher trainer for the English Teachers’ Association of Georgia. Her primary interests are vocabulary acquisition, student autonomy, TBL, creativity in language classroom. E-mail: nilcho_k@yahoo.co.uk

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Introduction
Spelling activity
Jumbled words dictation
Reacting to words
Words role-play
Conclusion

Introduction

It is a fact that students get more involved, motivated and efficient if the routines used by teachers are ‘spiced up’ with the activities with just a touch of fun and creativity. Those areas, which are traditionally considered to be boring, such as spelling routines, dictations, practicing new vocabulary, could be turned into more stimulating and enjoyable activities with elements of fun and creativity.

Spelling activity

This activity helps revise vocabulary in a fun and competitive way: spell the word fast and allow a few seconds for students to guess the word and call it out (e.g. K-U-D-O-S ). To make it more challenging, spell the word but this time omit one of the letters, indicate the missing letter by knocking on the table (any letter could be omitted: knock – U-D-O-S or K-U-D-knock-S).

Jumbled words dictation

Dictating jumbled words – This is a fun way of drilling learned words and practicing spelling – the words to be checked are say – value, resort, permanent, crisp, bargain. The Teacher jumbles the words beforehand – lueva, troser, pranentem, prics, ganbari – the Teacher dictates the words, students recall and shout out actual words. The teacher reads the list of the words twice at high pace – students remember and write down the words. The teacher check the spelling then. Instead of repetitive and mundane dictation the teacher might add variety to the class using this simple trick.

Reacting to words

I came across the word… and … - This activity helps students develop feeling for language and personalize already learned vocabulary. This activity also encourages students to use their artistry and creativity, plus, adds fun in memorizing, practicing or consolidating learned vocabulary. Students choose the words/or the teacher distributes the words, students have to imagine they came across the word and have to react verbally (might give some reason for feeling in a certain way which also shows how well a student understands the meaning of the word) and also show their emotional attitude to the word. E.g. I came across the word ‘kudos’ and I immediately fell for it – studetns might sound enthusiastic and show it with mimicry and gestures or I came across the word ‘kudos’ which made me feel miserable/jealous as I haven’t made any important achievements so far. This activity can be used at any level to practice, personalize and consolidate any vocabulary unit – a word, a collocation, a multi part verb, an idiom.

Words role-play

Chit-chat about the word – This activity boosts students’ drama skills as well as their creativity and fluency. The teacher assigns roles to pairs (individuals or groups of 3-4 according to the class size and the teacher decision) – pairs might be parents, classmates, neighbours, colleagues etc of a word/phrase. They have to prepare and act out a role-play showing their attitude to the chosen word. Students themselves or the teacher might decide how students sound (e.g. annoyed, bored, disapproving, uncertain, resentful or positive, encouraging, cheerful, sympathetic etc). If the word chosen is ‘a mug’, the role-play might be done in the following ways: parents (worried):

Mum: He’s so naïve! I’m so worried about him.
Dad: Exactly! Even your neighbour’s kid will deceive him with such ease!

Or:

Classmate 1: Let’s play a trick on him.
Classmate 2: What if he finds out we’re fooling him?
Classmate 3: Come on, everybody knows he’s a mug!

Conclusion

In my experience these tips could add an element of excitement and help engage students in the lesson, memorize target areas more easily and make a better use of the learned material.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.