HOW STUDENTS ACQUIRE LANGUAGE AND HOW TEACHERS AID IN THEIR AQUISITION

English language learners acquire language in various ways:

• Incidental Acquisition: Learning of new vocabulary through indirect exposure to language and new vocabulary during a lesson
• Intentional, Pre-Selected Vocabulary: Vocabulary of a particular topic or a set of related words chosen by the teacher and directly taught and discussed in class

When presenting these new vocabulary words here's an idea for some of the steps involved:

1. Generate interest in the topic before delving into the vocabulary.
2. Activate the students' current knowledge of the topic.
3. Explain, illustrate, act out, or show the meaning of the word (There are many ways of teaching or introducing vocabulary as I've discussed already here.).
4. Provide example situations and several written or oral examples using the targeted language.
5. Use oral repetition to improve memory and retention of words as well as to enforce proper pronunciation and stress
6. Use controlled activities such as matching, fill-in-the-blanks, etc, to help learners integrate the targeted language into their mental lexicon
7. Include open speaking and writing activities so learners can integrate the newly-acquired words into and their writing and conversation