First, a definition: Since many beginning teachers of RFL (Russian as a foreign language) read my blog, I will explain to them that all words of the language can be called by one word — vocabulary. Therefore, sometimes I will write “working with words,” and sometimes “working with vocabulary.” Beginners, get used to the terms, because they will come in handy.
We have two parts. In the first part, I will tell you about the procedure for working with vocabulary in practice.
In the second part, we will get acquainted a little with the theory of the methods of teaching RFL.
Part 1
Stage one:
Getting acquainted with words. This is a very short stage.
The teacher says the word and shows a picture; the student then listens, understands and reacts. As an example, I take numerals. I show a card with a number and say out loud what is written. It is better to take a set of three cards (objects). The student is only listening and does not repeat anything! When we have shown all the new words and heard how they sound, we proceed to the second stage.
The second stage of acquaintance:
We learn to recognize the word. I show the student three cards with different numerals. I say one number. For example, 21. The student shows me the said number. Then I say another number and the student shows it. Here you can repeat after the teacher a little. The duration of the stage is determined by the teacher. If the student says everything correctly, you can move on to the next stage.
The third stage:
Oral drill. The student learns to pronounce new words correctly. In the case of numerals, we take a card, say a number and the student repeats it several times. Just like that: “Nineteen, nineteen, nineteen.” Yes, each word needs to be practiced like this. Yes, the student repeats it several times. Your students will not do this at home, that’s for sure. Therefore, everything needs to be done in class. To avoid boredom, you can come up with some tricks. But drilling is necessary if you want the student to speak later. This stage can be combined with reading. In our case, it is reading from cards. I write a lot about reading from cards, as you will know from reading this blog.
The fourth stage:
It comes when everyone has worked. The student operates with a new word. The teacher and student change roles: The student says the word (numeral), and the teacher shows the number on the card. If you have a group, then everything is much more fun — one of the group members says a word (for example, a numeral), and the other group members show it.
You can finish such a fun lesson with a game. The group lines up. The first student whispers one of the studied words into the ear of his neighbor, and so on down the chain. The last in the row says the word out loud.
Note 1.
Can I use other words: clothes, food, toys? Yes, of course you can! Remember that we take the words that can be simply shown in a picture or by pointing to an object (a table, book, telephone, room, and so on).
Note 2.
I work with Americans. They often confuse numerals that end in 2 and 9. They practically do not distinguish them by ear, and it is difficult for them to pronounce such numerals correctly. So, pay attention to this: Americans need more time to learn the difference. I offer them dictations: 2, 9, 12, 19, 20, 29, 19, 12, 20, 9.
Note 3.
We are talking about beginners, about those who have just started learning Russian as a foreign language. At higher levels, working with vocabulary may be different.
Note 4.
For those interested in how we work with numerals in the RFL “Soroka” textbook, I have a video on this topic. Here is the link .
Part 2
Let’s see what A.A. Akishina and O.E. Kagan write about working with vocabulary. As you know, Akishina and Kagan are very authoritative authors of RFL (Russian as a foreign language) books. Their book “Learning to Teach” is simply a treasure trove of wisdom for teachers. But since not all teachers are familiar with this book, or have not quite mastered the terms, I want to help them and retell what was written with examples from the RFL textbook “Soroka.” Let me remind you that Akishina and Kagan write about vocabulary on Pages 147 to 163 of their book.
Very important! Quote: “At the initial stage, speech occurs primarily due to lexical accumulation.” This means that the more words you have learned at the initial stage, the faster you will speak.
What shortcomings in working with vocabulary do Akishina and Kagan note?
• Too much vocabulary that students do not have time to learn in the allotted time. The optimal number of words that can be worked on during a lesson depends on the age of the students and the duration of the lesson. For example, my students age 7 to 9 study for one hour (60 minutes), and we manage to learn seven to eight words per lesson. Older students can learn more. In the book “Learning to Teach,” the authors write about 20 words per lesson of one and a half hours. These are adults (teenagers are also adults in my eyes).
• Insufficient vocabulary training in class. Students are asked to learn words at home, and in the classroom the words are already monitored. Insufficient training leads to the fact that words are quickly forgotten. Today we already talked about training during the lesson. If you forgot, then read the first, practical part of this article again.
• Presenting words out of context, in the form of lists. This is especially unacceptable with children. All lists, even with pictures, do not help.
• Insufficient work on word formation, which helps students both remember words and expand their passive vocabulary. Word formation is great, especially with adult students. We do not work on word formation with young students yet.
• Insufficient repetition of words in the learning process. Definitely this is not about “Soroka.” In the RFL “Soroka” textbook, all words are repeated in different forms and situations — they are constantly spinning in exercises, words are strung together in different situations. Teachers constantly write about this in their reviews. Therefore, if you study with “Soroka,” words will be constantly repeated.
• Words are not always brought out into independent speech by students. Yes, this is a common mistake in RFL lessons. I constantly write about bringing words out into speech. In “Soroka” we do exercises on bringing words out into speech.
• Akishina and Kagan write about working with a dictionary. This really helps to see a word in all of its ambiguity. But now we need to write a separate article about dictionaries, because there are a lot of them now and they have changed.
• When encountering a new word, the teacher rushes to translate it, without offering the students (where possible) to try to determine the meaning of the word themselves, based on the context, based on the composition of the word, etc. It is important to remember two words here: “Where possible!” That is, sometimes the translation justifies itself. The second point: Yes, the teacher is in a hurry to translate. I learned to restrain myself only recently. I rushed to translate everything. Stop! Let the students think for themselves, they will succeed! Here is the link to my video about the intermediary language in RFL lessons https://youtu.be/vdFIwZcd8WQ
I have shared a lot of information with you today. If you have questions, write them in the comments.
