Classroom strategies for developing autonomous vocabulary learners

Learning a new language has been likened to building a new home from scratch, with the bricks needed to build it representing the vocabulary we need to express ourselves through language, and the process of building from one level to the next comparable to the process of building up a vocabulary bank. However, the process of acquiring vocabulary, like that of building a home, is a long and time-consuming one, and to do it more efficiently, learners must be given with the tools necessary to develop their vocabulary banks autonomously so as to be better equipped to continue acquiring vocabulary beyond the classroom environment. Based around Nation’s (2001) discussion of the knowledge and skills needed to be an autonomous vocabulary learner and the eight principles of autonomous vocabulary learning on which that discussion is based, this presentation develops practical classroom strategies for creating autonomous vocabulary learners.