The ESL Tickle Trunk

Idea from: TESL-L -
Maria Spelleri


The past two semesters I have made vocabulary flashcards a graded
requirement of a reading class rather
than just a suggestion. I have been pleased with the results. Students
seem to have more control and organization in their vocabulary learning-
and they seem to learn more long term- not just for a test. For each
reading unit, I provide a list of words that they need to know, and at
the beginning of the semester, I show them how I want the flashcards set
up. On one side is the word to be learned, centered, in large letters,
with its part of speech abbreviated next to it; in the bottom left
corner, students write 1 or 2 other grammatical forms of the word. On
the back, students write the sample sentence from their dictionary at
the top (underlining the new word), a definition in the center, an L1
translation bottom left, and keep space to write an original sentence on
the bottom center and right. Students write an original sentence as they
learn the word better.
I had one student who just absolutely refused to do flashcards
because he said he didn't like to learn that way. He just wanted to make
a list of words with a definition. Even though he is one of the most
orally fluent students, he consistently scored lowest in vocabulary.
Another student in another class wouldn't follow any format on his
cards. On many he didn't write sample sentences, on others he had other
missing elements and inconsistent layout. Despite his belief that he
knew the vocabulary, he was usually the lowest scorer in that class.
Maybe it was the flashcards, or maybe their refusal to go along with
their classes was an indication of other learning issues.
Nonetheless, most students carried around their flashcards and used
them. I gave them little bits of time to quiz each other in class; I
created "quizzes" that allowed students to refer to flashcards. I
sometimes would ask students to pull out a specific card and notice what
preposition came after the word in their sample sentences. They got very
comfortable with the cards and nearly all said they believed the cards
were a great help. I'll definitely require them again. By the way, the
students are a low and a high intermediate level, and we use The
American Heritage English as a Second Language Dictionary by Houghton
Mifflin.