Vocab retention techniques?

[inutil]

Im trying to help my 1-on-1 students with vocab drilling. They age from 9-14. The pace is, i feel, a bit hefty (15-20 words per day). Students have between 4- 6 hours of class and the absolute last thing they want is homework. But we have to give them it (and i dont mind to be honest, since it has proven results). But i dearly would love some new strategies. Im not exactly a brilliant language learner myself and lack genuine creativity. I write and repeat. Thats it. Drill drill. But i would love to offer more techniques to try and help my students keep up with the pace a little and possibly help motivate them or give them a sense of accomplishment. Ive done bribery (10x tests with 80% and above = present - each test above 80% = sticker). It works of course, but it still doesnt get to the meat and potatoes. Ive tried thematising the vocab, but we're kinda talking near fluent or semi-fluent kids here and the work theyre dealing with doesnt lend itself to generic concepts like 'animals', 'things around the house' and the like. Its more comprehension passages and essays. Ive tried organising their work by spending time in class with synonyms, translations and a sentences for illustration. It looks nice, and it helps, but its still not getting to the heart of it (its also a massive time sink).

That heart is really what they do to learn and retain the word (and then not forget it a week later).

For most of these tykes, they either simply write it out over and over until it sticks, or they say it over and over until it sticks and then go to the next word. Some will argue that writing a sentence works, or that writing a story using 8 or 9 words from the list is a brilliant way to remember. But the test next day often shows them up a bit.

Ive tried pushing them onto flashcards, in particular ive tried the whole three box technique. Wait, ill explain it:

Have the kids make their flashcards, put them all in the one box, they shake the box up and pull a card out at random, if they get it right, it goes in the left box, if they get it wrong, it goes in the right box. They do the right box every time until its at or near zero. They do the left box every 5 or 6 times they do the right box just to make sure it wasnt a fluke. This way they see the words they dont know more frequently. Basic stuffs. But any time i do it in class it actually SLOWS everything down to a crawl. I can come out of 40 minutes with them learning about 6 or 7 of the words and still being stuck on the same three-five in various order they were at the beginning. If only they had a phone! Id just send them to quizlet! But no no. Pity, they freaking love playing games. Plenty of flashcard programmes that work on the same method.

Doing it their way is of course fine, but theyre soon about to be pushed toward ielts or SSAT and this will mean some serious vocabulary loading (depending in part on parental time frames and expectations). Those techniques will either be costly in terms of time, or absolutely useless in terms of retention (by the time they hit the 9th or tenth word, theyll start to forget that first one if they do it sequentially). So im trying to preempt it all with some new techniques. They dont have to use any of them, but just hoping the more strategies i can offer them, the more techniques they can deploy to alleviate their own boredom of either doing the same thing over again, or mistakenly trying to drill one style when another one would, in this one case, be a better solution.

Just looking to you guys (or to anyone who successfully studied another language) to explain their strategies when the pressure started building a little. Its something i lack a certain degree of personal experience on. I know drilling and repetition are essential, dont get me wrong, im not looking for a shortcut. Im just looking for something that LOOKS like a shortcut if you get me ...Something they might enjoy doing a bit more than copying or mouthing out the words.

[inutil]

TLDR Version:

Are you a second language learner?

Did you attain Fluency?

How did you personally learn and retain vocabulary whilst remaining motivated and interested?

Are you a teacher?

Are you actually good at teaching?

What methods or techniques have you learned to make your students retain vocabulary outside of simply sending them home to write the word out 10 times and then shouting at them or scowly facing them when they dont do it?

Are you someone with a good idea about learning and retaining vocabulary?

Can you tell me it? I promise to not make any money from it. Im just trying to give a few kids around elementary and early middle school some new techniques to remember their vocab when i invariably send them home to drill it.

Edited July 24, 2014 by inutil