Teacher training courses often encourage teachers to write new words up on the board after students have asked about them and they have been explained. However, this leads to boards covered in random, decontextualised, ungrammaticalised words, which makes vocabulary learning harder for students for a whole host of reasons: denied access to examples of typical usage, they have to rely on intuition – or, more likely, translation! – when they want to use the words themselves; denied exposure to common chunks and colligations, they are forced to construct their each and every utterance using the fall-back plan of words plus grammar; denied information about the way in which words work with other words, they continue to go through life with only a very partial understanding of how language really works!

In this workshop, we will explore what kind of examples work well – and which don’t. We will look at some real questions asked by students at a range of different levels, and then consider how they could best be answered, what boardwork should ensue and what spanners in the works might be lurking unseen.

This workshop aims to give an essential practical classroom skill a theoretical underpinning and to help teachers feel more confident about their ability to teach vocabulary better.

Presented by Hugh Dellar – Teacher Trainer & Author @Lexical Lab & National Geographic Learning.

Our Masterclass workshops are typically delivered in 90 mins.

At Gallery Teachers, we endorse the philosophy of building on your previous knowledge and experience as opposed to just imparting knowledge on you. 

Therefore, in order to prepare you for the webinar and help you activate what you already know about the topic, we will suggest two to four reflective questions for you to consider before you join the event.

You will also be given the opportunity to post your reflections, along with any questions you may already have at the pre-watching stage, to the discussion forum. 

The reflective questions, as well as ideas and shared experiences posted to the forum by attendees, will be used in the real-time Q&A session in order to generate an engaging and meaningful discussion, involving the presenter and teachers from around the world. 

After the event, the forum discussion will take on a life of its own and teachers will be encouraged to continue posting their experiences, reflections and questions related to the topic of the webinar. So, if you feel strongly about the topic, we will make it possible for you to take the discussion beyond the scheduled workshop and continue sharing your ideas with like-minded teachers and teacher trainers from other countries