Two ways of second language vocabulary acquisition

Abstract

The study covers two modes of teaching foreign language vocabulary. The traditional way – translation pairs- is drafted in the introductory paragraphs; the approach of studying new words in context of a sentence is dealt with in detail. The author,backed up by her long-time experience as a teacher of German, compares the advantages and disadvantages of both teaching techniques. She appreciates the new method in dependence on the type of the relevant foreign language, of German in that concrete case, and on overall language knowledge of students. She warmly recommends the usage of the new method in teaching reading skill. The present study is discussing the using two ways of teaching and learning new words in German as a foreign language. The suggestions given here are reflecting long-term teaching experience of the author looking back on her student childhood in secondary school many years ago. This happens especially in the introductory section of the study to reveal one way mentioned above.