What to do with words that elude you

This may sound flimsy to a native speaker but there are words in English which do not stick around no matter how hard you try memorizing them.

Let me give you an example. Here are a couple of words which took years to settle down in my memory - procrastinate and serendipity.
Procrastinate has always sounded ominous and evil to me and for a long while my brain could not accept its simple and mundane meaning. I could not believe it is such an insipid word.

Serendipity is a word which up to now has not found a verbal equivalent in my native language. Well, even the English cannot define it properly, they need to use a sentence to reveal the essence of this cunning word. Serendipity, for me, is a whole paragraph, not a word.
There are words which sound plain ludicrous like pundit, and again I took pains to learn its meaning but I still find it funny, probably because it reminds a Latvian word pundurītis which means a dwarf, gnome.
Guru is not much better though.

Students encounter the same problems. Difficult words (gosh, most of them are difficult!) are a challenge to everyone and a perpetual cause of failed tests and bad marks.

Here is a method I used with my 16 year old students last year. They approved of it and we decided to use it next year again.
We picked the most difficult words that we came across at the lessons and placed them in certain spots around the classroom. Thus we placed according to on the green plant that grows in the front right corner of the classroom. We put the word diligent on the window-sill. We sat the word consequently on the OHP and every time I asked them the word (or they chose to use it) they would look up at the ceiling and remember it. Surprisingly, it was great fun and it helped too.
One guy was especially good at this game. He proved to me and his classmates that he could recall most of the complicated words correctly because he had placed them all around the room and he just had to take a look at the spot and the word would come to him.
This should work perfectly for visual learners but I am not so sure about the others.

How do you deal with difficult words?

Save the Words

I came across a truly fascinating site called Save The Words supported by Oxford Dictionaries (which is not new at all, as I found out later). You need Flash Player to view the site.

Its design is colourful and eye-catching, the background is a patchwork of English words which are no longer in active use and may soon be extinct. If you click the word, the site provides its meaning and gives an example of its usage.

The funniest part is you can adopt a word and get the certificate of adoption! You are asked to use the word as frequently as possible thus helping it return into active vocabulary.

The cause of the site is noble but dubious regarding its impact on saving the dying words. Yet it is a real gem for advanced students who are interested in lexicology. Might be used in classes as a fun activity.

http://www.savethewords.org

Lingro - the coolest dictionary

Recently I discovered this amazing translation technology Lingro which the creators call a dictionary.

At first glance it does not look like a dictionary because it is more than a dictionary! You can paste the URL of a website and then click on any word - Lingo will give you the translation. It translates words from / into 11 languages! And what's more - it will save the words that were translated for you in your history (to save the list you have to register). You can go back later to review the words and learn them. What an easy way to get the meaning of an unknown word instantly!
Lingro does it with a simple text file too! Just upload the file and start translating!

If you think you'd like to use Lingro services constantly, you can download the browser plugin (it offers Firefox extension) and you will be able to translate ANY word on ANY page you are viewing.

Great tool for learners of languages!

Worksheet - Englishman in Japan

Reading task about an Englishman in Japan. Students have to put the events in order. It is good for teaching cultural differences and the topic of culture shock.
There is KEY at the bottom of the page, so if you give this task to your students, don't forget to remove the answers.

European Day of Languages

A nice activity initiated by Lithuanian teacher Silvana ended with us having 9 postcards from 9 European countries.

As a result we could try reading messages in 9 languages, some of which were like an alien language to us, especially Greek. What a surprise! Serbian was soooooo easy, much alike Russian. It was a discovery to me!

I did this reading-of-postcards activity with my 11.c. I only hope they enjoyed it as much as I did myself.

A few days after the Day of Languages I received one more postard - from Turkey. That is why there is another picture with Turkish postcard added.