288 Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?
EFL teachers sometimes refer to inductive and deductive learning. Inductive
learning means that students learn through examples and discovering things
themselves so that they understand the meaning in context. Deductive
learning means that you teach the rules of a subject first so that students
refer back to the rules as a point of reference. Using a story to teach
vocabulary is a deductive approach when you teach the children the words
very directly. But the children also infer the meaning of certain words
because of the context, so they learn inductively as well. So in the Hansel
and Gretel story the children learn the words for ‘woodcutter’ and ‘witch’
inductively; they just pick them up. On the other hand, the food vocabulary
is deductive because you tackle it head on. This means that you don’t need
to worry about students understanding every word before you can use the
story. They can work out some of it for themselves.
Of course children have their own imaginations and they enjoy coming up
with their own stories too. When they create their own tales and pictures,
they’re more likely to remember the vocabulary they’ve used, and they feel
a greater sense of achievement if these efforts become posters for the
classroom.
Children Only ESL-EFL at http://www.childrenonlyesl-efl.com offers free
downloadable flashcards for children’s stories.
TEFL Tiddlywinks: Using Games to Teach
Games that have a clear language focus are a real asset to lessons and here I
show you list of games you can adapt for TEFL.
Whichever game you play, I find it helpful to teach realistic game-playing
vocabulary such as:
It’s my turn.
You’re cheating.
Pass.
Can I have a clue?
I win.
You lose.
