[pjdoxopoulos]

During my CELTA (three months ago) I learnt that new vocabulary should be tackled in a certain order - meaning, pronunciation, form. We were shown some ways of introducing new vocabulary using this e.g. eliciting the meaning through pictures/actions, modelling the pronunciation and then showing the form by writing it on the board. This makes sense to me and I like it.

My problem is that this is not the way that my students come across most unknown words. Normally it happens when we are reading texts or listening to audio. Therefore they are aware of either pronunciation or even form before the meaning. Is this a bad thing? It seems unavoidable to me - especially if you want to handle vocabulary in a more student-centred way.

How do you handle vocab? Do you have any interesting, student-centred ways to introduce new words?

Thanks for your feedback. PJD.