After I searched some vocabulary website, I concluded that vocabulary.com will be the most effective website for students' indivisual vocabulary leaning.
This website has mainly four parts for vocabulary enrichment: Root Word lesson part, Thematic puzzles part, Word list, and Test part. The part I like the most is the Root Word lesson part where students can get ideas of meanings of many affixes and roots. Using affixes and roots as a clue is an efficient way to learn vocabulary. Since other websites I searched do not have categories for roots or affix, I like this website the best.
In the thematic puzzles part, students can learn words which are categorized based on their theme, so if students want to learn many words in a specific topic, it will be useful. The problem this part has is that they do not have level category, so it may be inconvenient for students who want to build up certain level of vocabulary, not theme-categorized vocabulary.
The word list part does not have any quiz, so it may be very boring if students want to learn vocabulary form this list, but it'll be a good review list for learnt vocabulary. And in the test part, students can have various kinds of tests that will help them check the vocabulary they've learned.
Although this website does not have passages to see in which context each word is used, it will be an effective source to build vocabulary, especially for students' own independent study.
http://www.vocabulary.com/
My post this week was also about vocabulary.com
ReplyDeleteI think students who are motivated to expand their vocabulary knowledge can find many interesting activities which foster vocabulary acquisition. It is not specified which activity corresponds to a certain level of proficiency but the instructor could direct the students and help them chose the right exercise.
What I like about this website is that it seemed more interactive in the sense that it makes the student responsible for learning the definitions of unknown words. It specifically says to write down the words from the list that the student doesn't know and then to look them up and write down the definitions. I think this is one good step towards deep processing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Miglena and Jessina.
ReplyDelete>Miglena
To help students choosing appropriate exercise will also enhance students motivation! Thank you.
>Jessina
Yeah, to make students responsible for their learning will work very efficiently especially for motivated students.
Deep processing. How important it is!
Thank you.