VOCABULARY BUILDING STRATEGY

                                             Teacher’s way
     Learning new English words, the students seem to find a certain amount of difficulty or if not, they just hear the new words and forget them in a short time. Many strategies can be used to increase the amount of words and to retain them easily. Some of these strategies could be through definition with multiple synonyms, using those newly encountered words in context, and structural analysis of the word. Whatever strategy used by a teacher may or may not work well. It will still be leaving a great weight on the learning skill level of the students.
     To introduce a new word or new words to my students, I had my own way how to deal with it so that my students had put less effort on learning yet retention is proven. I used this strategy most often especially when I was teaching poetry or prose to my students. Normally, they came across with more than ten words at one setting and to handle such a time of vocabulary building was not easy at all. I wanted that they would find fun at the same time and they could easily remember the words when they would meet them again.
In one of my English classes, the first strategy I employed was “STICKY NOTE-WORD”. I distributed colorful sticky notes to my boys and girls. At first they wondered on what they would do until finally I explained to them the whole process.
    The first thing to be done, when using this strategy, is to write the words on the white board. The question, “What do you associate with the word on the board? Write your idea on the sticky note and post it on the board after writing.” As a result the students would do as fast as they could and as many as they could. Through this strategy, the students don’t just depend on the teacher himself/herself. They learn new ideas from one another, which is the best way of learning. It is not a one-man show in that case. The use of sticky notes is also good when you are introducing a short story or when you have a brainstorming session. To motivate the learners more, spend time to read and check their sticky notes to affirm their ideas. At the end of your session, make a summary of all the notes posted on the board.