Teaching English vocabulary through ICT’s

Abstract

1 IntroductionVocabulary is the first and foremost important step in language acquisition. This paper is an attempt to study and explore the various methodologies that can be incorporated in the teaching of vocabulary items in a language classroom.Teaching English vocabulary by means of the new technologies and the modern learning methods seems to be a most challenging undertaking, mostly because of the variety of vocabulary types to be learned, including single words, phrases, collocations, and strategic vocabulary, as well as grammatical patterning, idioms and fixed phrases.Vocabulary is a necessary ingredient for all communication. Language learners encounter vocabulary on a daily basis, and must be able to acquire and retain it. As a language teacher, one of my main tasks is to help students develop a rich vocabulary inventory.Learning a new language is a great opportunity for a student because it is required in an international world. Learning English has many advantages that help in the economic, cultural, political, and social aspects of life. A larger vocabulary allows you to speak with greater precision with other people. Words are the currency of communication. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication- listening, speaking, reading and writing. When students improve their vocabulary, their academic and social confidence and competence improve, too. In my opinion, the greatest tools I can give my students for succeeding, not only in their education, but more generally in life, are a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words.The learner, while learning the vocabulary of a second language can overpass several challenges: making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words; when producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended. To face these challenges the learners need to acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the new language, remember the words overtime, being able to recall them readily, develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with unknown words or unfamiliar uses of known words, and have to take responsibilities themselves for vocabulary expansion.With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. We have to remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover, students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of your particular students is therefore essential. Once you have chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what students need to know about the items, and how you can teach them. Efficiency is achieved only when teachers use the best teaching learning methods.Methods make the material easier to comprehend and assimilate. A teacher would only pay attention towards his methods only when he is completely dedicated his profession and if his profession is his passion.Using modern methods, the students learn the foreign language in the same way as they learn their mother tongue, while in traditional methods they learn English word by word in their mother tongue. But, if the teacher finds the best teaching method for a particular group of students, they are likely to learn more quickly. Furthermore, using a variety of teaching methods will help students from being bored and learn in a new and exciting way.Nowadays, we have great possibilities in terms of teaching methods, visual and listening aids, seating arrangements, etc. With this freedom in teaching, we can use an enormous number of ideas during our classes and we can put into practice a lot of new ideas and activities. One of the teacher's crucial tasks is to compare, analyze and evaluate the methods they use in order to motivate the students and to make the learning process as effective as possible. …