Saturday, February 20, 2010
A visual approach of teaching/learning vocabulary
The other day when I chatted with Clint, we both shared the same concern that many ESL students need to beef up their vocabulary. One important component of my teaching philosophy is that I would coach students to use the best tools as they can get their hands on. We're fortunate to live in this Internet age when many tools are available online and are priced in a very affordable way. I found this website http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ of Visual Thesaurus and I really like what they have to offer. The related words (beyond thesaurus) get represented in a dynamic tree structure, and the colors and re-balancing behavior and the whole design just make this software a pleasure to use. You may check it out. The only improvement I would like to see at this time is to provide some basic-level of image for words of physical nature -- objects such as apple, horse, etc. However, that will create negative impact on the Java software performance. So, I think I'm happy to live with their current design.
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This is an interesting thesaurus for browsing words. I think there is a level of student who would find this very useful. Although, I think it is particular useful for writing.
ReplyDeleteI also think some students might find something like this interesting to follow a path and see how many words they know if they find that sort of thing fun.
I only worry a student might try to learn the words they come across though and too much dictionary work might not serve their needs.
Having said that, I did find a dictionary useful in Japan that had pictures in it. It allowed me to pull words to then use in conversation later. I was able to get words that were low frequency words, I could use as interesting conversation topics with Japanese friends. For example, Uchuu-sen, Uchuu, Uchuu-jin, Or Space ship, Space, and Space-men. I also use a low frequency Japanese word meaning conspiracy for my email address. Those allow me to start conversations that then contain high frequency words. So there is a place for dictionaries and thesauruses but I would want to guide a student from using these resources too often.
That said, I do see some interesting uses for the site and also I do like the idea of visual organizers. I wonder sometimes looking at the ESL book I am using why put a picture of a computer monitor next to the word monitor. Does it actually help the student? Or would graphic organizers showing relationships be better? I think pictures are good when they add or allow to do an activity but I do worry that sometimes these books do too many pictures that perhaps don't serve a need?
Ok, Wei-Fan. I am now a subscriber to Visual Thesaurus. It is an excellent tool - I put in lemon as an example and got a raft of meanings ... separated out into categories: the fruit and its botanical relations, the slang use to mean something that was shoddily made, and a groups of adjectives describing the sharpness or piquancy of the juice and zest. click on related words and they assume primary position. And click on the megaphone, and the word is pronounced in clear, Midwestern, broadcaster English.
ReplyDeleteThis will be a valuable tool for me with my classes. Everyone, you MUST visit both the word count and this thesaurus site. They are great!