Ah, the vocab quiz, I remember them well. I used to have all my students do what I had to do in college- put all the new vocab on spiral-bound 3×5 cards, English on front, Spanish on back. I would drill myself and drill myself for that dreaded weekly (or whenever) vocab quiz, the one where you had to match the right words, or fill in the translation.
Why? Because I’m motivated (read: driven) by grades.
I remember the first time I had a B on my midterm report in college. I cried. (Here you go, more insight into me.) Intro to Spanish Literature. I was so annoyed at it that I worked hard enough to get a 100 on the final and bring the grade to a solid A. I never saw the letter B again.
My point is that vocab quizzes are a colossal failure. They are based on several false assumptions:
1) Quizzes produce long-term memory.
2) Short-term memory is desirable in any way in the language class.
3) Motivation by grades will draw the language learners to acquire more words.
When you give a vocab quiz, you’re asking students to cram discrete words into their short-term memory for a grade. Think: what could be more useless? What about the students who aren’t motivated by grades? I’ve heard this rant so many times by vocab-quizzing teachers. “So-and-so just won’t study the vocab and fails every quiz! Doesn’t he care?” No, no he doesn’t. Because grades aren’t motivating to him and so you have to find something that is.
And short-term memory? Why not reach for ways that actually create long-term memory of vocab–motivating popular music? reading for pleasure? Articles that use recent vocab? Finding them just takes a quick search on Google News. I just came across an article through a Tweet from a Mexican news source that uses a rich variety of vocab from Spanish 3–you can bet we will be looking at it soon.
Need more reasoning? Here is a list of words and phrases my fourth-year students identified yesterday as we previewed their next chapter in Ciudad de las Bestias:
ardiendo de fiebre
vena
veneno
se arrodilló
se despidieron
al amanecer
apenas
cansancio
tejer
fogata
asar
cueva/gruta
la suya
lanzarse
no quedaba más remedio que
zorros
angosto
fósforos
navaja
chillidos
hermosura
mezcla
tamaño
alcanzó
cascadas
ardillas
They haven’t had a vocab quiz or test in two years.
I feel like I can't do this with Spanish I, and it's hard with Spanish II. Also, what are students graded on instead?
Be looking tomorrow for an answer to your question. 🙂
Hola, I am new to your blog, and I must say that I’m hooked, as everything that I’m reading is pretty much true, and sadly, I’m guilty of many things that you’ve described, such as the vocab quizzes. I don’t really use them much in my Spanish 3, but for my Spanish 1 and 2 students, like Sra. Spanglish, I too feel like it would be difficult to not do this. Just wondering, if you have advice or resources that you can send or suggest to replace them? The text books and their materials are a joke!
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[…] 2103′s seventh most popular post is about one of my soapboxes, my “hills to die on.” I’m convinced that the way most of us approach vocabulary in the world language classroom is almost completely contradictory to brain research. Read on for four classroom habits that enrich student vocabulary where it counts – in their long-term memory. A while ago this comment was left on the old Musicuentos site, on the post “Do something drastic – kick the vocab quiz“: […]
OK I basically agree with you. However, I do think they are a great formative assessment to know what I need to practice more before a summative. The difference is I do not announce the quiz. They are random. Not a quiz in every class on the same day. Keeps them in their toes. Let’s me know what they have acquired and what they haven’t. Just 10 structures. Not spelling… They write the English. Either they see the word or they hear it… Or a combo of the two. It works for my class and might be a good alternative for those who don’t want to ditch the vocab quiz.
Thanks for sharing with everyone what works for your students – that is always a worthy contribution to the discussion!
[…] is everything. My current AP students have not had a vocab quiz in four years and their vocabulary is incredible. Yesterday in our novel they were accurately […]
[…] Kicking the vocab quiz was one of the most controversial? and important things I ever did. […]