Talking to Teachers in Taiwan about Vocabulary Teaching and What ETM3 Students Learned

Last week, the learners in ETM3 started corresponding with learners in Alice Chui's English Teaching Methodologies class at Tamkang University in Taipei. Last March, Ms. Chui asked her class to think about how they were taught vocabulary when they were in junior and senior high school and also to write about what they think it the best way to teach vocabulary. In ETM3 we have also recently reviewed and experienced various ways of teaching vocabulary.
I asked learners in ETM3 to visit some students' blogs in Ms. Chiu's class (see the list below) to try to get some new perspectives on vocabulary teaching.

Nineteen of twenty-four students in ETM3 visited the blogs below and wrote a total of 24 comments. Tomorrow (May 18) in ETM3, I will ask students what they learned from reading the blogs from Tamkang University and post what they had to say below.

Posts from students at Tamkang University about Vocabulary Teaching
Cathy
Estela
Gillian
Iris
Miranda
Nancy
Shirley
Wings of Angel
Posts Related to Vocabulary Teaching from Students at Tamkang University
Gabriel (Explains the origin of the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs")
Olivia (Presents vocabulary and grammar learning websites)
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In ETM 3, students made the following comments concerning what they learned from their colleagues at Tamkang University:
Teaching Vocabulary:

• Motivation to learn language is very important. English teachers should not force students to study English because students will start learning English when they’re interested.
• Happy Days said "it is better to teach vocabulary because we can save time but I think that by learning in class and reviewing at home it connects to true acquisition. It is not important for teachers to teach the important thing is to show how to study."
• John, representing his group, said that one problems was revealed about teaching vocabulary: It is hard to help students remember words. He also said that there were two approaches to teaching vocabulary: 1, a technical approach (present and learn) and 2, an approach where teachers try to make the experience interesting. He added that his groups realized that it is important for a teacher to be very devoted to his/his students and Vocabulary learning should have a touch of interest.
• Elle, representing his group, said that his group members realized th following:
• To know syllable and pronunciation helps to memorize vocabulary and effective dictionary using helps vocabulary learning.

Other Observations:

• Heabanger, speaking for his group, made the observation that Alice is a very eager teacher; "she has a passion for her students and she devised her lesson very much."
• Headbanger also was impressed with how well trained the teachers at Tamkang University were and Elle noted that Taiwan teachers study very hard.

I would like to conclude this post by thanking everyone at Tamkang University for their participation and I look forwatd to reading more of your blogs and having more discussions with you in the future.