Some Techniques for Vocabulary Development:

1. Total Physical Response: Learning with Movement

2. Context Clues: Encouraging learners to develop strategies for inferring the meaning of new
words from the contexts in which they occur and teaching them to use cues. Example:

 Signal words like such as, for instance, and for example. Synonyms and antonyms,
appositival clause constructions set off by commas.
Elena is effervescent, as excited as a cheerleader, when she meets
someone for the first time.
I saw the entomologist, a scientist who studies insects, cradle the giant dung
beetle in her palm.

 Inference clues from discourse as well as word elements such as prefixes, suffixes,
and roots.

3. Paired Associates: In this technique, words in the first and second language which have some
similarity of sound and meaning are associated.

 Telebisyon | Television ; Letra | Letter ; Pulis | Police ; Kendi | Candy

4. Collocation: Collocations are words which are commonly associated. Nattinger suggests that
exercises to develop and strengthen these associations can greatly facilitate learning.
Example:
 To appeal-----------------against the judge’s decision
to my fiend for help
to the concerned authorities
 To forget-------------------the past
everything that we’ve ever had
the bittersweet memories

5. Word Associations: Mixing and Matching Words that are associated to a given example.

 Politics: President, Constitution, EJK, Political Parties, Election

 Freedom: Rights, Women, Liberation, Suffrage, LGBT, Equality

6. Formal Groupings: Certain vocabulary items can be memorized by teaching students to

recognize basic forms of words and how they combine with certain affixes. Example:

 Tele (far, distant) + Phone (sound) = Telephone (a combination of the two)

 Photo (Light) + Graph (write, mark) = Photograph (capturing a photo using light)

7. Translation: Transferring the L1 linguistic resource to the L2

Note: Be aware of the cultural differences among languages.
 Baso = Drinking Glass; Upuan = Chair
 Pasma, Lihi, Pagpag, Basta (Culturally specific terms)