Resources and Strategies for Teaching English Vocabulary in the Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Nigeria

Abstract

In any typical English as a second language (ESL) classroom, teachers are faced with a huge problem of making students use the target language. This is because learning a second language (l2) is a long and complex undertaking. The learner’s whole person is affected as he struggles to read beyond the confines of his first language and integrates himself into a new language, a new culture, a way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Vocabulary is core in language learning. When learners increase their vocabulary size, their use of language skills implicitly increases as their knowledge of the word also becomes broader. Effective vocabulary instruction Involves understanding the new idea in the context of understanding or solving current social problems of the world and learners are given opportunities to use the new words when reading, writing, and speaking.  Students would be able to building relational understandings and purposefully make connections to personal background knowledge and experience. To achieve these, teachers need to employ relevant and effective strategies and resources in the classroom, this paper therefore exposed some of these strategies and instructional materials that could be useful in ESL class.

Keywords: Teaching, Learning, Strategies, Instructional Materials, Vocabulary