Last week we wrote about some of our students who recently completed our intensive English Programme (EAL). In case you missed out on it, you can read the story here. However, expanding our English vocabulary is a more general focus when studying at AMADEUS.

In our language acquisition classes, we teach our students that good writers have a large repertoire of words they can use in many different ways. Our Grade 8/9 English B students looked at me with big eyes when I told them they could expand their vocabulary without actually learning any new words. For the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about English collocations, words that co-occur. Students have been risk-takers by experimenting with different word combinations to create new meaningful phrases they can use in their texts. Through these word matching activities, our inquirers can learn how to use the vocabulary they already have in new and creative ways.