Dorine S. Houston
Director
Institute for Global Communication
Philadelphia

Making and using

a Vocabulary Database

GED or intermediate or above ESL

Objectives:

• increase knowledge of database creation and use
• learn new lexical items in context and with their families

Background knowledge assumed:

• learners have mastered introduction to database lesson.
• learners have mastered parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb.

Each day’s lesson takes 45 minutes to one hour

• Day One

1. For homework preparatory to this class, learners should have done a reading assignment and underlined new lexical items to learn in this class.
2. Learners should be seated at computers in lab and open to a database program such as Microsoft Works.
3. Have learners brainstorm what fields should be included in database (elicit noun, verb, adjective, adverb, definition, sentence).
4. Learners create database; may be done individually or as pair work.
5. Learners add new vocabulary selected as homework, at least three items.

• Day Two

1. Learners look at one another’s databases and talk about new vocabulary.
2. Discuss effectiveness of database creation.
3. Go over alphabetizing different columns to look at different things.
4. Present use of find and replace functions.
5. Use find and replace to make corrections as needed or to find specific items to share with the whole class.

• Day Three

1. Discuss adding new fields.
2. Add new fields for verbs: simple past, past participle, present participle.
3. In pairs, have learners add fields.
4. Then add actual data to each lexical item previously entered.
5. Homework: assign new reading and have learners select vocabulary to add to personal database.

• Day Four

1. Evaluation of database activity: have learners work individually if possible, or in pairs, to enter new lexical items into database.
2. Evaluation: Teacher walks around the lab to see how learners are doing and notes who works confidently and who seems to need more help.
3. Students copy database to blank disk for teacher.
4. Homework: study material in individual database.
5. Teacher prep: delete selected number of selected items from copies of databases; re-entering the data from memory is the test for tomorrow.

• Day Five

1. Before class, teacher inserts previously prepared disks into computers and notes where each learner is to sit. Computers are left on but with screens darkened when learners enter the class. Learners are asked not to touch computers until so instructed.
2. Learners are asked to put away all materials, then look at their screens.
3. Learners are instructed to replace deleted material to database.
4. Learners are to print database and highlight the replaced cells. This is to be handed in to the teacher as the test.
5. Teacher scores highlighted cells to evaluate vocabulary learning.
6. Teacher confers with individual students to talk about success in managing the vocabulary database, and in using it to actually learn the self-selected lexical items.
7. Idea for future lesson: Add synonyms and antonyms to database.