Tools and activities
Within the many possibilities to increase vocabulary autonomously, a distinction can be made between activities and tools.
Activities are a planned way to acquire or practise words, for instance watch the news with subtitles, look up the unknown words and then listen to the news again without subtitles: the learner is consciously adopting a strategy to look for new words and to consolidate them.
Tools could be either digital (eg the vocabulary tools wrts or quizlet) or non-digital (eg fash cards, post-it notes). Some are self-regulating, others need accompanying activities or strategies on the part of the learner. So, which activities and tools are appropriate for which learner? If we want to coach our students to learn autonomously, we should be able to suggest tools and activities that match their requirements.
In order to help teachers do that, we designed two screening instruments. Each partner country in this project used the instruments to screen a number of tools and activities.
First screening: learner specific requirements
A first screening considers the more practical characteristics of a tool or activity. It provides information on the learner specific requirements, eg whether the tool is free or not, is restricted to a specific level, is designed to meet new words or rather to consolidate words… Below you find examples of activities and tools with their labels for learner specific requirements. At the top are the activities and tools which are suitable for the vocabulary of any language. The language specific activities and tools are clustered according to the language they are designed for.
Second screening: quality labels
After deciding which tools are appropriate in a practical sense, it is also worth while considering the quality of these activities and tools: is it easy to use, does it have support or feedback, can a learner add his own words...? The result of this second screening is a number of quality labels per tool or activity. They can be found in a separate document, attached as a link to the name of the activity or tool.
What's in a label?
The screenings and resulting labels wil provide you with useful information regarding the tools and actvities, but they are only part of a process that a teacher can undertake to guide his students in autonomous vocabulary learning. Before suggesting tools or activities, it is useful to screen your student, do a needs analysis and think about feedback and motivation. If you're interested in how to incorporate these labels into a coaching process, go to the section Get Started first.
The labels
So, here they are: our labels.
If you want to screen a tool or activity yourself, or you want to use the labels as a basis for a needs analysis with your students, click on the following links to go to the templates:
- Template screening instrument 1 with learner variables
- Template screening instrument 2 with quality labels
If you want to browse through the tools and instruments we screened, click on either of the following links:
- Survey of the labeled tools organised per country
- Survey of the labeled tools, organised per target language
template_learner_variables.docx | |
File Size: | 205 kb |
File Type: | docx |
template_quality_labels.docx | |
File Size: | 326 kb |
File Type: | docx |
survey_of_labeled_tools_per_country.docx | |
File Size: | 214 kb |
File Type: | docx |
survey_of_labeled_tools_per_language.docx | |
File Size: | 214 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Download screening folders (backup)
Our screenings are uploaded into a google folder. This enables us to link each tool directly to its screening details. However, you will need to log in to your google account in order to read the detailed screening of a particular tools or activities. If you don't have a google acount, you can download the folders with the screenings here.
austria.zip | |
File Size: | 699 kb |
File Type: | zip |
belgium.zip | |
File Size: | 3786 kb |
File Type: | zip |
iceland.zip | |
File Size: | 908 kb |
File Type: | zip |
poland.zip | |
File Size: | 1915 kb |
File Type: | zip |
sweden.zip | |
File Size: | 47 kb |
File Type: | zip |
the_netherlands_1.zip | |
File Size: | 8180 kb |
File Type: | zip |
the_netherlands_2.zip | |
File Size: | 5453 kb |
File Type: | zip |