The magic of word cards

Word cards are a very simple device for building up a repertoire of spoken vocabulary. All that is needed is some slips of paper with the words in English to be learnt/reviewed on one side and the equivalent L1 translation written on the other side.

The basic idea is that students use them to learn words in English. They can do this receptively first by looking at the English word, trying to say what it means in Arabic, and then turning it over to check. Then they can do it in a more challenging way by looking at the L1 equivalents and trying to say the English version.

One of the great things about this activity is that, once the children know how it works they can more or less do it on their own without the teacher’s intervention. However at our school in Cairo, we have a box for the younger groups where new word cards are constantly being added, and we do like to use them in class for various games and activities.

In the video below we can see Mariam and Joudie playing a game where they take it in turns to try to retrieve the English versions of the words. They keep each one that they get right and whoever has the most cards at the end is the winner.

To really be able to use the words it’s important that they start putting them into context so that they can get a feel for how they work together with other words. In the picture below you can Afnan, clarifying some sentences which practice three areas of vocabulary that have been focussed on; days of the week, colours and animals.

Then Afnan played a game with them to practice this. Kareen and Ahmed had to take it in turns to choose three word cards (a day of the week, a colour, and an animal) and then say their own sentences using all three of the words chosen. As you'll see, the sentences are a little unusual, but this all adds to the fun!

Afnan followed this up by asking them to create their written examples so that they could practice spelling etc

While I was in Cairo recently I found that these word cards can even be used to help me in my learning of Arabic - my level of which is about the same level as the younger children’s level of English. So with the girls younger group (see below) we decided to play a game where they created sentences in English (practising there is/there are, numbers, jobs, and rooms in a house) and I had to try to translate what they’d said into Arabic.

I think we all really enjoyed this activity and it was a great way to check understanding, and empower the learners by giving them the role of Arabic teachers for me.

What do you think of these activities? Would they work in the context in which you teach? How have you used word cards in your own classes? Please write a comment below so we can share ideas.