Teaching Vocabulary in Colour
A
teacher of English,
Master
of Humanitarian
MukanovaB.T.
Pavlodar
pedagogical college named after B. Ahmetov
Summary
This
article is devoted to some effective ways of teaching vocabulary which
make classes more lively and help students to enlarge English vocabulary in
an unusual way
Key words : tool , influence, maps, cluster maps,
system , produce, synonyms,
information, colourful charts, items of vocabulary, introduce, experiment,
represent.
Many students
consider learning vocabulary a tedious job. They try studying lists of words –
spelling, pronunciation, meaning, synonyms – only to realize a few hours later that
their results are hardly satisfactory. They start blaming their poor memory.
They say they are discouraged by the number of words in English and the complex
usage. They come to rely on incidental learning, finding intentional studying
boring and inefficient. Some authors writing about human motivation seem to
support such students` opinions (Spaulding 1992). They say that learning words
is a task which cannot possibly be intrinsically motivating. Teachers, however,
keep looking for ways to substitute rote repetition with more effective
techniques and to make learning vocabulary easier and more pleasant. They
develop various mnemonic strategies employing action, music, drawing, and
fantasy. With this idea in mind, also set out to conduct classroom research,
looking not so much for scientifically significant data but for practical ways
to make classes more lively and help students acquire English vocabulary.
Colours have a
tremendous influence on human health and the psyche. A lack or overabundance of
certain colours can cause physical or emotional disorders. Exposure to colour
vibrations is used in the treatment of a number of diseases and mental
problems. The colour of the classroom walls, curtains, or even the teacher is
clothes can either soothe or irritate students.
Colour is also an important
tool in visual thinking. It separates ideas so they can be seen more clearly;
it stimulates creativity and aids the memory. Colour captures and directs
attention. Even conventionally outlined notes can benefit from colour coding;
maps, cluster maps, mandalas, and most expressive drawings are considerably
more effective in colour.
It is not unimportant,
however, which colours we use to stimulate students. To benefit from using
them, we should know what possible power they have over our students. Then we
will not expose learners to calming vibrations if we expect them to be active,
or to intellectuai vibrations if we expect them to use their imagination.
According to Muths (1994) and Mertz (1995), the most commonly used colours have
the following properties.
Green symbolizes balance and
agreement with nature and other people. It soothes the nervous system. It gives
hope and peace of mind. It is said to be favoured by quiet, patient, open-minded
traditionalists.
Too
much green, however, evokes sadness and hidden fears.
Blue is a calming and cooling
colour. It is relaxing for the eyes and cheering for the mind. It promotes
intellectual processes; that is why people who favour it are clever and
industrious but not always creative. They are expectionally just, dutiful, and
loyal.
Yellow, when bright and sunny,
reinforces the nervous system and helps in analytical studies. It symbolizes
wisdom, shrewdness, ambition, and intellectualism of the left brain. People who
like yellow are happy optimists, but, also critical thinkers who will eagerly
defend their views. They often lack creativity and imagination. Pale shades of
yellow, on the other hand, mean unfavourable emotions like envy or a tendency
toward plotting and intrigue.
Black represents mystery and
the unknown. It protects people`s individualism and makes them seem more
unusual and interesting. People who like black are profound explorers and
original thinkers.
Orange symbolizes vitality,
good humour, and creative fantasy. It inspires and invigorates people who
otherwise are apathetic, uninterested, or depressed. It is favoured by sociable
extroverts and those who need cheering up.
Red is the most exhilarating colour
and stimulates vivid emotions of the right brain. It promotes health, energy,
and interest. In some people, however, it may evoke aggression.
White stands for youth,
cleanliness, and naivete. People who like white strive for perfection. They are
submissive idealists whose dreams are difficult to fulfill.
Pink, if not overused, has a
calming effect. It is a symbol of daydreaming and optimism. It is favoured by
delicate people longing for a feeling of security.
Experimenting with
ways to make my classes more interesting and lively, I tried using coloured
paper for handouts. For the whole year students received handouts in six
different colours and could choose the colour they preferred. From the very
beginning the reaction was enthusiastic. Some students knew at once which
colour they wanted, and they were ready to fight tooth and nail with their
colleagues to get their favourite colour as soon as possible. Other students
held a handful of pages for some time, trying to decide what mood they were in and
what colour would suit them best that very day. Usually, lively students chose
lively handouts, and quiet ones prefered pale, mild shades. If they happened to receive the colour
they did not desire, they worked slower and concentrated less than when working
with their favourite shades.
In order to see if colours could enhance
students’ memory power, I conducted a short experiment. I asked 58 students to
learn 20 English words and their meaning within five minutes. The words were
written individually on cards in five colours: blue, green, orange, red, and
yellow. All words were connected with business and were most probably new to
the students. Subsequently, students were tested on all the words.
It is a well known fact that
students recall words better when they read the definitions and draw their own
pictures to represent them than when they read and write the words and the
definitions. Tracing a picture of the definition produces better recall than
writing the definition, and creating one’s own visual image is more effective
than tracing.
Using colour in a number of
ways produces similar results: students concentrate better, spend more time
processing a word, and find learning more interesting and pleasant. Colour is
useful in both learning and revising, as well as making students and teachers
aware of the way they approach certain tasks. Neuropsychologists, for instance,
give students four pens and have them work with each pen in a specific order
for a specified period of time (red pen for three minutes, then blue for three
minutes, and so on). The results reveal a good deal about how the students did
the task, what was done first, second, or third (Williams 1986:107). In
teaching vocabulary to more advanced students of English, this technique might
show what information they seek first when working with a dictionary: whether
they look for definitions, equivalents in their own native tongue, example
sentences, synonyms, or other information.
1. to practice spelling and pronunciation:
underline or colour difficult letter or sound clusters (e.g., double consonants
in accommodation or the sounds in thought); mark stressed syllables in longer
words (luxurious); underline words in a passage that look nice or ugly to you;
draw a picture rep- resenting a word you cannot remember; decorate the initial
or final sounds/letters that cause difficulty;
2. to remember the word’s grammar:
underline concrete nouns in one colour and abstract ones in another; mark
countable and uncountable nouns in a text with different colours; underline
transitive and intransitive verbs; mark words which are masculine, feminine, or
neuter in meaning; mark different parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, prepositions) with colours;
3. to teach semantic categories and word
differences:
underline all words in a text connected with a given topic (e.g., health, food,
travelling, etc.) with a coloured pencil; underline all words in a text
associated with different ways of speaking (looking, walking, or smiling) in
order to notice the differences in their usage; mark adjectives with positive
and negative meanings with different colours; underline synonyms or antonyms of
certain words; make colourful charts, mandalas, semantic maps, or idea sketches
to practise vocabulary;
4. to practise morphology:
colour all prefixes and suffixes in a passage and try to find out what they
usually mean; underline the stem of given words to see that they are related
(e.g., satisfaction, insatiable, unsatisfactory); use different colours to mark
prefixes, stems, and suffixes of words on a list of derivatives (e.g., long,
prolong, prolonged, prolongation, longitude, longish, longing, etc.); and
5. to draw students attention to words and
to stimulate discussion:
let them express their opinions and preferences in a creative way; underline
with different colours words which have happy/sad or nice/ unpleasant
associations for you; mark words which are easy or difficult for you to
remember or words you would like to remember after the class; colour all
attractive/boring or useful/uncommon words in a passage.
Apart from underlining or
colouring words or letters, students can also improve their retention by colour
coding (associating certain lexical or grammatical categories with particular colours);
making coloured drawings or symbols for words or grammatical categories to be
used in the classroom on flash cards, cue cards, posters, and overhead
transparencies; or using coloured discs to mark some features of words
presented in pictures or magazine cut-outs (e.g., gender or countable nouns).
Teachers can help students acquire more difficult items of vocabulary by using
coloured chalk or by placing pictures or writing words on coloured construction
paper. Students, on the other hand, can use colour in their notebooks and for
dittos.
Teachers will have their own
ideas and will use colour to suit their own students’ needs. Whether they
introduce colourful flashcards, posters, or notes on the board, they may find
them all helpful and enjoyable. The main advantages of using colour in the
classroom include the following:
• Colouring words helps to concentrate on
the task and extends the time and attention students give to each word to be
learnt.
• Underlining words or decorating them
with coloured pencils is an activity no student can get wrong, and the feeling
of success is extremely encouraging for all students.
• Texts and exercises coloured with
pencils look more familiar or personal to students and are much easier to work
with than clean texts when revising the material.
Allowing students to make
decisions about what is easy/difficult, interesting/ boring, useful/useless for
them and what they want/don’t want to remember while underlining certain words
with coloured pencils makes students feel responsible for their results. In
most cases, such a feeling of control makes students aware of the good side of
studying and they start working harder.
Finally, using colour in any way makes
students and teachers more creative. Developing new ideas, drawing pictures,
and playing with words make studying a pleasure rather than a cumbersome duty.
References:
Allen, E. and Valette R. 1972. Modern
language classroom techniques. A handbook. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Mertz, B. 1995. Farben Charakter–Schicksal.
Niedernhausen/Ts.: Falken-Verlag GmbH.
Muths, C 1994. Farbtherapie. Munich:
Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co.
Spaulding, C. 1992. Motivation in the
classroom. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Williams, L. 1983. Teaching for the two-sided
mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Wittrock, M., ed. 1977. The human brain. New York:
Prentice-Hall.
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