Learning vocabulary while thinking critically









Hello everyone,



 welcome back in my blog.



Please take a minute to think about this quote before you read "Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think".

Today I will not talk about vocabulary or critical thinking...but I will talk for them both as one and the question is not "can we use critical thinking to teach vocabulary?" but the real question in this blog is " How can we teach enough vocabulary without it?"

Now you are probably thinking How?? I will give you an example.
Lets suppose that you have to reach your vocabulary with ten new words and you try to memorize them by making two lists of the words that fit together. If you put these words in one list, you have one idea of what bring them together and this helps you to learn vocabulary. It is great, isn't it?

But what you actually did is that you analysed the thing, then you engaged in problem solving, in cooperation and negotiation...


When we use critical thinking vocabulary activities, new words are learned in the way our brains are wired. Students should have the freedom to speak up because if they have the fear of mistakes, they are prevented to use the language they are learning. A very good way to do critical thinking vocabulary activities is to break the class into small groups. These activities are best with small groups.

If you think that critical thinking can only come after all the language-learning basics are mastered, you think wrong.
Unlike babies learning their mother tongue, our learners have complex minds.Critical thinking learning activities engage more of their brain’s interconnections. As a result, new words and grammatical patterns stick  become more available for productive language. 

Next time you teach please let your students speak, think and even make their mistakes, all people are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of languages.


If you have any question feel free to ask on the comments down below.


Wish you a happy week,
I.

Comments

  1. Sidorela27 April 2020 at 14:10

    Hi lva , your blog gave me a really good information and l really found it interesting. Keep going ☺️

    ReplyDelete

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