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The introduction of the new items can be done through the use of visual techniques,

verbal strategies, demonstration through mime and gesture, translation, procedures which

are teacher-centred, and through the use of a dictionary and contextual guesswork, whichare more student-centred.

1 Visual Techniques

Visuals are important in language teaching because they not only convey

meaning but also build interest and reduce teaching time. These include realia, pictures,flash-cards, cue cards, wall charts, photographs, transparencies, slides, magazine cut-outs

and blackboard drawings. They are extensively used for conveying meaning and

particularly useful for teaching concrete items of lexis such as food or furniture and

certain areas of vocabulary, such as professions ,descriptions of people or animals, places,actions and activitiessuch as sports and verbs of movement!. They often lend themselves

easily to practice activities involving student interaction.

2. Verbal Techniques

These include explanation of words through semantic mapping, through the useof descriptions, synonyms, contrasts and opposites, songs. "ince vocabulary is stored as

concepts in scripts that contain semantic networks of interrelated words, and we know

that individuals tend to recall items according to the semantic fields in which they areconceptually mapped, explaining the new item by relating it to other words in the same

lexical field as itself, e.g. #word families$ is a valuable way of teaching lexis and it should

be exploited in classroom activities.

%ne of the most common ways of explaining a new word is by describing ordefining it. %b&ects, people, animals can be easily described. 'efinition alone is often

inadequate as a means of conveying meaning and clearly contextualised examples arerequired to clarify the limits of the item. 'efinition accompanied by pictures couldprovide a better clue to meaning.

Teachers often use synonyms with low level students, where inevitably they

have to compromise and restrict the length and complexity of their explanation. The introduction of new vocabulary through songs proves to be a most vivid

and en&oyable way teaching a foreign language , providing a break from the textbook

routine. The main difficulty in using songs as a teaching procedure lies in choonsing the

most suitable ones from the maze of those available.

3. Demonstration through Mine and Gesture

This is often used to supplement other ways of convening meaning. (ime,

gesture, performing are particularly useful for actions, but they can also involve ob&ects

connected with these verbs.

4. Translation

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Translation can be an effective way of conveying meaning. )t can be a quick

way to dispose of low frequency items that may worry the students. )t is also a valid

approach for highlighting the danger of false cognates. There is less ob&ection totranslating individual words than doing this with idioms or structures. )f you translate

vocabulary, make sure you then exemplify the item in context and co-text, or your

students will forget it easily. * real danger with translation is that if students continue touse the mother tongue as a framework within to attach the target language items, they

will not develop the necessary framework to take account of sense relations between

different items in the new language. ) think that if teachers rely too often on the use oftranslations, their students are likely to miss out the essential spirit and atmosphere of

being in a language learning classroom.

There has been a trend in recent years to shift the focus away from the teacher

and concentrate on more student-centred activities. This not only makes the student moreresponsible for his own learning but also permits greater attention to individual needs. )t

is important to equip students with the necessary strategies for dealing with vocabulary

activities. )n the teaching +learning of lexis this involves using a dictionary and contextual

guesswork.

rofesor *na agy, iceul de *rte lastice Timi/oara