http://www.lextutor.ca/
In this post, I will show you an easy way of checking students's vocabulary level and anlyzing and reducing the vocabulary load of any text you want to use with your class. And if you want to bring English sentence examples relevant to target words, you can find appropriate example with using Corpus Grammar.
In this post, I will show you an easy way of checking students's vocabulary level and anlyzing and reducing the vocabulary load of any text you want to use with your class. And if you want to bring English sentence examples relevant to target words, you can find appropriate example with using Corpus Grammar.
#1 Test your lexis
You or your students can check their word levels. One of tests is Recognition test and and another test is Productive test. The test is introduced in a step-by-step procedure. If you use this test, please don't only use this one way of measuring vocabulary development. You should provide students enough time to study single-handed.
#2 Web VPs v.3
It can be an especially useful way for students to find out what level and kinds of vocabulary they need to focus on for English language exams. If your students submit digital versions of first or final drafts of their written work, you or they can copy and paste these into Web VPs v.3 to see the level of their written production. Also it can be very practical to modify the text according to level of students.
Here are the steps to simplify a text for general English classes.
1) Highlight and copy the text, and paste it into the Web VP v.3 vocabulary range finder, then press
"submit"
2) Check the percentage of "K1 Words" in my text, as per the image below (K1 Words are the fisrt 1,000 words on the General Service List). If this is less than about 85%, I'll probably try to find different aritcles, else there will be too many low-frequency words for my class to focus on.
3) Assuming all is well with the number of K1 words, open up a word processing program and copy my text into it, then go back to Web VP and scroll down until I see the color-coded text. (see the image below, light blue=K1 words, green=K2 words, yellow=words from the academic word list, red=lower-frequency words). Then amend, delete or leave in place the lower-frequency words, as appropriate for your class.
#3 Corpus Grammar
When you want to plan inductive approach grammar lesson, you will design to present learners with pre-selected language data and encourages learners to work the rules out for themselves. At that time, it might be very demanding for teachers to make proper examples to focus on target words or grammar. But if you know Corpus Grammar, you can seacrch a number of usage that can guide the students towards discovering the target rules.
▲ You can click this button to access this program
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And you should put a key word to this part and choose a corpus in accordance with level of your students. Next, you can control where you want to put the key word in sentences, select other options and press the yellow button “Get concordance”. Finally you can collect the concordance information. If you let learners know how to use that program, they can search authentic data themselves.
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The advantage of using Corpus Grammar is that it allows access to a greater number of concordance examples, and the examples themselves can be instantly resorted according to a variety of criteria.
※ Reference: vocabulary part in http://efl-resource.com/
