Personalizing

[James Trotta]

When I was a teacher trainer at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, we taught our students (who were teachers) to get their learners to personalize new vocabulary items being taught. So let's say you learn the word "train". You might answer questions like "Have you ever ridden on a train?" or for its other meaning, "What was the best training you ever received?"

For me, the answers might be:

I've taken lots of train trips. My parents live in the suburbs so when I visit them I often end up taking the train in to Manhattan. I also remember a train ride in Thailand from Hua Hin to Bangkok. We couldn't understand any of the announcements so at every stop we had to ask someone if it was Bangkok yet. And a few years before that we took a few train rides in Italy. Those were often packed and sometimes we had to stand for the entire trip although we susually were able to get a seat.

As for training, when I started at Sookmyung Women's University, the lead SLA (Second Language Acquisition) teacher trained me to teach SLA according to the establised curriculum. His training style was very clear and he really helped me understand the content, deliver the content to the students, anticipate student questions, and more. In ym first sememster with a brand new system I was the highest rated techer in the program thanks to the training I got.

Now all that personalizing takes a while but it's how you learn vocabulary. Look for chances to personalize new vocabulary words on these and other forums.

[johnrambo]

Good Experience i like this word thanks for sharing.

[danny debose]

HI my name is Danny i never been on a train ride anywhere but it is my new year resolution to take my wife on a trip to Chicago by train this summer . I have known people who have taken trips on trains and they said it was the best traveling experience they ever encountered..