ELT365 · Day 158 — Pre-teaching vocabulary: the decision rule

Idea — Pre-teach vocabulary only if it blocks meaning and cannot be inferred. Pre-teaching too much removes the challenge; too little leaves learners stranded mid-text.

Example — For a B2 reading text, you pre-teach ‘austerity’ but not ‘budget.’ The second is guessable from context; the first is opaque and central to the argument.

Try — Before your next reading lesson, identify every potential unknown word. Apply the test: block + uninferrable? Pre-teach. Everything else? Let it go.

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