[Mr. E English]

Hi Williejean,

I guess that if you're presenting basic food items your students must be at a lower level.

Eliciting vocabulary meaning is an acceptable way of presenting vocab. but at a lower level students often don't have the English to give details explanations. Translation is one way around this, but then your knowledge of the students L1 needs to be absolute (at least for the vocabulary set you're presenting) and this can be umpopular if you're supposed to be following the direct approach.

I would definintely suggest flashcards to input basic language like food items. The meaning is immediately clear, it saves a lot of time and you can model correct pronunciation and do a class drill with each card.

[Pix]

Dear Williejean

I remember a spanish class like that. We sat for what seemed like hours, but was probably an hour, while the teacher wrote a ton of words on the board. Boy was it dull, and guess what, I didn't remember any of the Spanish for asparagus, radish or whatever it was.
At least on this site you'll get loads of ideas on how to do things.

To introduce the vocab you could put pictures up either side of the board, or around the room and call out the word. The students must point at the correct picture. Do this with a fast pace, say one word every second or two, that way you will cover the same words over and over until the students learn them by heart.

If you have children then draw a line down the board and put pics to the left and the right. Call out one of the words, the children, standing in the ailes between their desks, jump to the left or to the right to indicate which side of the board the picture is.

If you don't have room for the jumping then have the kids stick out their left or right arm.

Here's a great game for teaching vocabulary fast.

[williejean]

Thanks Shelly:

Yes, this site is great, people are really helpful and you get great ideas.

Thanks for your suggestion, it is one of many ideas I will use.