The Right Amount

10/13/2014

I was in a casual conversation with a fellow Spanish teacher last week when I mentioned that my Spanish 2 students learn between 20-24 words per two week period. The first week they learn them for recognition, and the second week we focus on the production of these same words. I was not prepared for the response I received...

"That's IT?!?! 24 words? That is just not enough! The textbook gives them at least 50 words in that time. There is no way they will be ready for Spanish 4 or 5 with only that amount of words."

Never have we actually sat down in our department and talked about how many words students can reasonably learn in a given period of time. I was completely unaware that some of the other members of my department thought that 50 was a reasonable number...because the book said so.

So, fellow foreign language teachers, how many words do your students learn in a two-week period for mastery (being able to both recognize and produce the words accurately)? Take this quick survey and leave a comment below. I think it's an interesting discussion.

3 Comments

Krissy

10/13/2014 10:30:29 pm

As a new tescher, this has stumped me! Following the textbook, my students have to learn 30+ words every two weeks and it's a lot for them. However, if I lessen the list, will they know what other teachers expect them to know in the coming years? Would love your insight!

Throw Away Your Textbook!

10/14/2014 10:50:20 am

In real life, most of our vocabulary is learned incidentally rather than taught to us directly. If we are truly exposing our students to a variety of authentic (not vocabulary controlled) listening and reading materials, they will each latch on to additional words that resonate with them. The idea of students continuing on to other teachers with an identical vocabulary, while convenient for that other teacher, in no way mirrors real life language acquisition. I would rather teach 20 words well, meaning that my students will be able to recognize them, say them, spell them, and REMEMBER them for more than a week! The rest of the words they take in, should be up to them and their personal needs or interests - NOT dictated by a textbook. That is what differentiated instruction is all about.

Annie

10/16/2014 12:34:39 am

While I assign about 40-50 words per 2-3 week period, I only actually expect students to learn and master between 20-30. I want my students to be exposed to the whole bank of words, but we highlight which ones are essential for them to be able to produce and which ones they only need to be able to recognize in context.

The Right Amount

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