applying new words
 

Hey everybody,
I teacha group of adults. We work on 3 new words every session, and every session I ask them and therefore every session they review these new vocabularies. The students know the meaning and there is no problem with the word itself. But my question is this: how can they apply these words in their language? How can I help them or involve them in using them in their speaking? They just know the meaning but they haven’t been able to use them in the sentences which they are making. Can anyone help me with this matter? Any useful idea?
Thank in advance.

Re: applying new words
 

Can these adults make simple sentences independently? Maybe teaching the word along with an example sentence or sentence structure where they can use their new words will help. That's what I do with my adults. I teach a sentence or short conversation and introduce related vocabulary and do substitution exercises with it.

Re: applying new words
 

I agree with eaturcheese. It makes learning new words meaningful and not just a mindless, parrot-fashion memory task which is of no good to anyone!

You can also get them to create a story chain. Choose a tense for them to put it in first. If they know the past tense, for example, you can write up on the board a sentence like, "It was a dark and stormy night..." and get one student to add a sentence to your sentence. Stress that you want them to try and use the 3 words they have learnt every lesson up until now. You may get some weird stories but that's ok.

Once the first student has added a sentence, write it up on the board after your sentence and then proceed on to the next student. This way, they can read through the story from the beginning to the end.

Depending on the tenses they know, other starter sentences could be:
I won the lottery! Tomorrow, I will...
If the school falls down, I will...
Every Thursday, I dress up as wonderwoman and...

Re: applying new words
 

I use dialogs frequently with my adult students. Dialogs show students how words are used in sentences, questions and conversation.

Re: applying new words
 

Hello,

When I present new vocabulary words I sometimes have the students type them into Google to see how native speakers use them. I have them copy down ten examples of the sentences they found online. We go through each sentence and try to pin point the exact meaning of the new word in that specific sentence. You could do this and then have your students write similar sentences using the examples. Good luck!