Vocabulary & Spelling

Helping with vocabulary

• Check if your mentee has a ‘new vocabulary’ notebook from school (Love to Learn can provide one if not).
• Keep vocabulary lists in themes.

• Reading, hearing and using words in context is best.
• Always ask your mentee to explain key words to you in their own words.

• Focus on synonyms: when they use a word like “big”, what other words could they use instead?

• Have a look at the general service word list (of most common English words), and for more advanced students, the academic word list – how many do they know the meaning and spelling of?

• Make sure L2L have provided a thesaurus and a dictionary if they don’t already have one.
• Does your mentee read in their home language? If so check whether they have a dictionary in that language as well.
• Recap on last week’s vocabulary – do mini test, recycle it in a different task.

Helping with spelling

• Your mentee may have regular spelling tests – if they do, try to find out when these are – you could test them on the week’s words in advance, or go over the ones he/she didn’t get right.
• Make sure they know what the words they are learning mean.
• Look at the correct spelling, cover, write and then check.

• Always focus on the letters or group of letters that are not right – most letters in a word are mostly right, they may have one “sound” wrong.
• Use a whiteboard to practise as it is easier to have a go if you can rub it out.
• Do “odd one out” exercises to get them to spot the right one.
• Gapfill sentences where they have to use the right word.
• Always collect words in groups of similar patterns.
• Never try to learn There / Their together!
• Match words to meanings