Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Topic: Vocabulary for Second-Language Learners

Title: “Sketching to Create Meaning: The Story of a Second-Language Learner.” Chris Altman. English Journal (May 2008), 64-68. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The audience for the journal is secondary schools.

Summary: Help English as a second language students visualize the meanings of words. The student—a second-language learner—in this article actually sketched the meanings of the words.

Comment: For the “art-challenged,” how could students learn to visualize the meanings of words? I decided to try it with the word “denigrate,” belittle another’s achievement, which I usually cannot remember the meaning of. I visualized a person waving his hand derisively at another person, conveying to that person, “that’s not very good.” I think the strategy might work. RayS.

The purpose of this blog is to share interesting ideas I have found in recent American professional publications dealing with the teaching of English at all levels, elementary, secondary and college.

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