Linking Research and Practice: Effective Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in the ESL Classroom

Vocabulary plays a pivotal role in the ESL classroom. Whereas a considerable amount of research has examined effective ESL vocabulary teaching and learning, missing are studies that provide examples of how to put various research findings into practice: that is, apply them to real texts including target vocabulary items. In order to close the gap between research and practice, I reviewed a broad range of relevant literature addressing vocabulary learning. Drawing on an authentic Web reading text, in which I selected five vocabulary items as target words on the basis of my experience as a secondary English teacher in Korea, I applied vocabulary teaching strategies drawn from research findings reported in the literature to provide a model for ESL teachers when putting theory into practice.