TESOL Essay NINE

Essay Nine

High Frequency Words

By Syrbastyian Vzampfyier

It is common knowledge amongst EFL/ESL teachers the students of all abilities tend to make the same errors in using the most common words i.e. the high frequency words. Errors with these high frequency words will make the students language seem worse than it really is, plus errors with these high frequency words can and do cause miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Many EFL/ESL instructors try to reinforce the grammatical rules and, or points of the words. Instructors try to teach the students to remember the patterns and rules of the word’s use.

I believe that the grammatical and rule approach may not be the best and only way to assist the students to learn how to use these high frequency words correctly. What I suggest is that EFL/ESL instructors teach the physical attributes and image of the high frequency words.

Let us look at a few of the top 10 high frequency words and bring out their physical characteristics and, or image which will, I believe, help the students not only to use the words correctly but also use them correct in abstract situations or expressing abstract ideas.

“THE, A and TO”

“THE and A”. What is the meaning of these two words, what is their image? “THE” when to think about the word means a thing or an action we know. The speakers and the listen must understand that “THE” refers to something they both know or that the speaker believes the listener knows for example, when someone says “I will meet you at the cafe”, there is an inference that both the speaker and listener understand that “the cafe” is a specific thing in which both parties know and understand. “A” on the other hand is something that the speaker knows but the speaker believes that the listener does not know.

“TO” is like an action and it show movement in a forwards direction and “TO” is aggressive in its forward movement. If you compare these two sentences (“Give Saya the present.” versus “Give the present to Saya.”) and think about the image of both you will realise that “TO” does indeed express forward movement and an aggressive fashion.

These are just a couple of examples of how an EFL/ESL instructor could teach these high frequency words in a way that will help the students to learn and remember how to use these high frequency words.