Immersive Vocab Quizzes for Teaching a Language to Novice Students

Immersive vocab assessments are the perfect way to begin teaching a language to novice students. They learn how to listen, speak, read, and then finally write-the skill we master last.

Select six to eight words from the group of words you’d like to teach. Get the visuals for each. 

Start with a listening activity. Say the word as you point to the picture. Use some adhesive and put that visual on the board. 

Now, take out another word, doing the same thing, eventually putting the visual on the board. 

Teach the difference between these two words. Students might identify and point, showing that they understand the word. Perhaps walking up to the board or giving some kind of symbol will work better for you. Keep adding words like this one at a time and have them show you in an active way that they understand.

Next, students take out paper. You will write letters, one underneath each visual you have put on the board. You will write one letter and a number in a space for the words you’ve done. If you have six words, it will be one through six. If you have eight words it will be one through eight, etc.. 

The students write these down on their paper as well. Now is the listening quiz, and they will show you that they understand the new words. You will say a word and they will write the letter next to the number. For example if your second picture is la maleta you have the letter B under it. And you say for number one, la maleta they will write down B in the space. Go through until you’ve done all the words. You write down the key as they go through the quiz. You then grade it together.

The second quiz is reading. Erase the letters that you wrote. You will now write down the words next to the spaces. The answer would be when you actually say that word, they’ll write down the corresponding letter. Again, you’re going to go through and grade it.

The last step is writing down the words. You’re going to erase the words from the last part, after you’ve corrected the reading quiz. Write down the letters and the students should do their best to write the word. 

Again, you’re going to go through and correct it together. In the end they will learn the words solidly. It only takes a few minutes a day.

Looking for some more activities for your language classes? Click here.

Here is a site for royalty-free images to use for your assessments.