We know that teaching foreign languages is a creative process. Teachers are constantly tapping into new ideas. Remembering new words is hard. Words are very slippery things. Before you know it, they’ve wriggled away and are gone. It takes a lot of effort to keep them where you want them. According to Jill Hadfield, in order to retain the word students have to go through three distinct processes. They have to fix the meaning of the word in their minds. They have to somehow make the word their own - to personalise it so that it takes on a colour and a character for them and becomes part of their individual word store - and they have to use the word creatively in context for themselves.
30–31 March, 2015