When learning new vocabulary, most/some of our students can't memorize all the words at once and when we get back to first words we've practised, it takes time for them to remember them (if they do at all). And of course, there are words that are for some mysterious reasons extra difficult to remember (even for generations of students). In my experience words like eraser, caterpillar, butter, cornflakes, owl, autumn… are some of those words. But don't sweat about it – there's a simple solution to it. Years and years ago I attended a workshop where my colleague offered a simple&effective, yet fun way of dealing with this kind of situation. I've been practising it ever since and it's always a success! In these videos you can see how it's done. My students and I were dealing with Christmas vocabulary and food related words. You can stick to the specific English word, but you can exchange chosen English words with their Croatian equivalent. Here's the example of how it's done! And of course, you'll see that your students will enjoy this activity, they will all want to participate.
Prepared by Irena Baždar