Building vocabulary is one of the most basic forms of learning any language, not just English. Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) requires patience, energy, strategy and creativity. There are several strategies you can use to leverage excitement in learning vocabulary with your students that focus on the three principles of ESL: practice, understanding and inference. Knowing your students' situation and learning environment will aid with their overall academic success.

Working Within a Social Climate
As an ESL teacher, understanding the students you're working with is vitally important. Students who are made fun of for trying to speak English will lack confidence and won't learn as well as one those who are encouraged. You may have students who are fighting mentally with accepting a new language, especially when faced with living in a new country with a new culture. Working with students to learn needed vocabulary to help them in social situations will improve their chance of successfully integrating themselves into their new environment.

Practice
Equip your students with materials to allow them to practice their vocabulary when they can, such as flash cards or journals. Inspiring students with games or songs is another way to get them involved and excited to learn English. Try personalizing questions to students. Asking them questions about their culture or homes may encourage them to speak up more frequently and use their new vocabulary more often.

Understanding
Having your students use recently learned vocabulary words in sentences or in conversations with other students will aid them in absorbing the concept of the words. The more they use new words in the classroom, the more they'll feel confident using them outside the classroom. Encourage peer support. If students can assist one another in learning or understanding words, they'll reinforce their understanding of them. You can do this by utilizing seating arrangements conducive to social interaction, such as round or oval tables.

Inference
Bringing vocabulary words out of the classroom and having students use them in everyday discourse will be a challenge. Encourage them to listen to the things being said around them. Offer prizes for students who remember a sentence from TV that uses one of their vocabulary words. As an alternative, have the class fill up a jar with marbles, placing one into it for each sentence remembered, and once the jar's filled, reward them with a special surprise.

Using Standards
Incorporating ESL standards into your curriculum will assist you in bringing scope to your students' work and provide you with a sequence of targets to work toward. Note that standards vary from state to state. By working with standards, it sets goals for you and your students to attain on the journey to learning and speaking quality English in a contextually appropriate way.