ESL Vocabulary Quizzes Help Build Your Language Skills

May 26, 2008 - PRLog -- American Fork, Utah - Over the past 10 years, Randall Davis has developed listening activities to help ESL/EFL students improve their language skills. Since the fall of 2007, Randall has been creating new vocabulary activities to reinforce the language skills found in each listening conversation. All of these materials are completely free to use at his Website. (See http://www.esl-lab.com/quizzes.htm for a list of quizzes.)

From his teaching experience and talking with other teachers, Randall has long noticed that English learners often make quick progress at beginning levels of student, but these same students often slow down and level off at the intermediate level. Some students soon become frustrated because they don't seem to be making progress while other students do.

So what is the difference?

At the beginning levels, students are talking about very basic topics such as greetings, family, hobbies, and shopping. However, as students progress, the topic can become more abstract or challenging (freedom, integrity, environmental protection, etc.) requiring a much broader range of vocabulary and even critical thinking skills. Thus, unless students find opportunities to discuss these topics, they won't progress beyond ordering a cheeseburger at a restaurant. Learning at a higher level takes effort and time.

Many students who have used Randall's Website quickly do the listening activity (a more passive skill) without doing the other discussion topics there. Thus, in order to maximize learning, Randall has created vocabulary quizzes, linked directly on each page, so that students can practice and recycle the words so they can learn to use them in conversation. You can see some of these quizzes on this page:

DVD Movie Rentals
http://www.esl-lab.com/like1/like1.htm

Vocabulary quizzes include multiple-choice, matching, and mixed-up sentences. By seeing vocabulary in different sentences, students can see many possibilities in which the words can be used. Learning a language without much vocabulary can limit students' possibilities. Now, Randall is trying to narrow that gap. Visit his site and give these activities a try.

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About ESL-LAB.COM: Since 1998, Randall Davis has been developing free multimedia Websites for ESL/EFL students. Randall has also traveled around the world giving presentations of educational technology, specifically helping teachers learn how to use technology in pedagogically-sound ways.